PHOTOGRAPHS, PUBS AND MR. BEAN

There will be many photographs in my blog today since this is more of a visual journey than it is a written one. We spent most of yesterday preparing to leave this wonderful ship and spent the last few days of our journey in England, the homeland of Mr. Bean.




We attended a disembarkation talk in the morning and then went to an invitation only farewell brunch which was given by the Captain.
After the brunch was over we returned to our stateroom to pack. We played paper, rock and scissors to see who would pack first. We always take turns packing so we won't get in each other's way and this time I packed first since I won the game. Frank went to the ship's casino and won over $100 playing poker. That is a happy note to end the trip on!


We spent the rest of the day saying our goodbyes to people that we had met on this voyage and after dinner we went to the early show which included a salute to the staff and crew. There was a special word of thanks for all the chef's aboard and there were certainly a LOT of them!

We were in bed by 10:30.

Today was a long travel day as we docked at 7:00 a.m. and left the ship at 8:30. When we looked off of our balcony for the last time, we saw many different groups of buses waiting for us to get through the disembarkation process and get on board for the last leg of our trip.

We took the bus from the ship into London which was a trip that was over 3 hours long. It was what seemed to be an extremely long trip as our particular bus didn't have a toilet on board and there was no place to stop. They neglected to tell us that little fact. Neither of us would have had that last cup of coffee had we known this!
After going through all the proper channels at Harwich,

they dropped us off at the airport (Heathrow again), collected our baggage,

and took the hotel shuttle to the Raddison Edwardian where we were staying.

It was a lovely hotel and they had provided us with a very spacious suite.

A bottle of wine, fruit basket and marvelous little cake greeted us as we entered our rooms. This was an unexpected surprise.

There was even a second cake waiting for us on our bed. What a treat ... much tastier than the lovely little chocolates that our Steward left for us each night on the ship. (Of course, I quickly moved this little cake to MY side of the bed so there would be no mistake about who it was meant for :-)

Since we will only be in London for 3 days, we packed very carefully so we wouldn't have to take everything out of our suitcases. We ended up having a very late lunch of fish and chips at the hotel,

went up to our suite to rest a bit and Papa promptly fell asleep in his chair while reading the paper. It was the first paper we had seen since we started on this trip over 2 weeks ago.

If anything important happened during this time, we missed it!
Since we were all pretty tired, we decided to call it a night, stay at the hotel and have room service, and be nice and fresh in the morning.
We were up bright and early the next day and decided to take the tube in to London and visit Covent Garden and take a city tour. We had understood the Lasley's to say that they had not been to London before, so we thought we'd do lots of the "tourist" things. We've been there 6 or 7 times, and as it worked out, they had been there before as well so we didn't feel compelled to do a lot.
I don't think they had ever taken the tube before and that's always fun, so we went to the tube station, got our tickets and headed for Central London.

There are many publications in London and I think they bring out new editions every hour or so. Consequently the tube is a great place to catch up on the local gossip.

When we finally reached our destination, we found a bus tour that sounded interesting, so we climbed a board,

and took a 2 hour tour. We sat on the upper deck outside so I could photograph but it was not the viewpoint that I had hoped for. The stairs were very steep but I made it with Frank behind me and Jack leading the way. Thank goodness for strong men!

The tour was good, but the bus went very fast (they had to move with the flow of the traffic), so I didn't get a lot of shots that I would have hoped to get.

We drove by many familiar sights such as the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Big Ben and even a cafe that was named for Frank!

If you remember, somewhere in Scandinavia there was a restaurant named Patricia's, so I guess you can say the in culinary circles, we're world famous ;-)

A fact of life is things change, and even though the Tower of London itself still looks the same,

but the skyline has certainly changed since I was there the first time back in 1976 ( and so have I!)

At least the bridge is still the same and the guards are always standing at attention.

And as in all cities, large and small, there are groups of young women on break, exchanging thoughts and ideas and enjoying a glass of wine at a sidewalk cafe.

I still love all the pomp and circumstance that this wonderful city has to offer such as tea at the Dorchester with all the Rolls Royce and Daimler's parked outside as you arrive,

The wonderful old buildings that contain so much history,

all of the glorious archways in the middle of the streets when you least expect them,

and also the clock they call Little Ben,

which is a take off on the "Big One" which stands near the House of Parliament,

and of course the famous red telephone booths standing at attention on most every street corner.

When we were there in 1985, I decided that we should have our Christmas Card photograph taken in front of a phone booth. Just as we got ready to take the picture, a woman appeared from out of nowhere and went inside the booth to make a call. I couldn't resist myself, so I tapped on the door of the booth and asked her if she was going to be on the live very long. She asked why, and I explained that I wanted to take this photograph for our card, and I also promised her that if she was quick about the call, I would give her a glass of wine. She smiled, hung up the phone and let us take the photo. Of course, I shared our wine with her for being such a good sport.

The next stop on our tour was Buckingham Palace.

We didn't get off as we had all been there before and the line was dreadfully long to get in.

The Horse Guard is always there and the young men in their uniforms are so handsome.

When we stayed at the Hyde Park Hotel one time, we were right across the street from where the Royal Horses were stabled, and we would watch the Guard as they would take them across the street to Hyde Park and exercise them on Rotten Row. It was a wonderful sight to behold.

As we crossed back over the Thames, we had a wonderful view of Parliament

and also of the large Ferris wheel that was built for the Millennium. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that it's the tallest in the world at the present time.

Other favorite sights of mine in London are the souvenir shops,

the pubs with their wonderful signs outside that invite you in and the fragrant flowers in window boxes that are everywhere.

Pubs are wonderful places to have a light lunch and a pint or half pint for much less than you would pay in a restaurant, and now some of the pubs even serve breakfast.

The hand painted signs outside these pubs are works of art in and of themselves.

There was even a Texas Embassy! (of course, it was a bar, but it made you feel right at home to see the Texas flag flying outside)It made this old Fort Worth girl feel very welcome.

As we passed Trafalgar Square, there was a Festival of some sort going on and there were people everywhere and lots of activity.

Once we finished our bus tour, we walked to Covent Garden. Frank and Jack were our trustworthy guides so we left finding the way there up to them. (Could this possibly have been a mistake?)

As we strolled along on our way to Covent Garden, we passed a theatre where the musical, "Buddy" was still playing. We saw if there many years ago and it was such fun. At intermission, the British ladies and gentlemen in their 60's and 70's went up on the stage adn danced to the old Buddy Holly tunes. It was a hoot to watch them all in their Sunday best, be-bopping around on the stage. They were having the time of their lives and so were we by just being able to watch them enjoy themselves so much. This certainly brought back a flood of memories of times long ago.

Frank saw this wonderful whiskey shoppe but fortunately it was closed. If we had bought anything there it would have been a real chore to carry it the rest of the day.

At the end of this post, there is a slide show with several photos that I took at Covent Garden where we had lunch. We watched the street performers for a while as Helen did some last minute shopping and then we headed for the hotel on the tube. I saw this wonderful out of the way door and couldn't resist stepping inside.

There I found a church and a secluded courtyard. It was very serene and a perfect spot to get away from the crowds and noise and give thanks for all of life's many blessings.

It was an ideal place to end a perfect last day of this amazing trip.

I took 2,647 photographs on this trip, so you have only seen a small tip of the iceberg. Thank you so much for traveling with us on this unusual journey. Even though you were not physically with us, each of you was with us in spirit. We want to thank you for your prayers for our safe travel and want you to know how special you and your friendship is to us.

Until the next trip,

XOXO, Pcasso