Next Stop — Dover Priory

I woke up with a cold this morning. Luckily I had packed up most of my stuff last night because I wasn’t moving around with my usual efficiency.  I had brought along some daytime cold and flu meds and I quickly swallowed the correct dosage.  Gayle and I had planned to have breakfast in the Royal Horseguards’ restaurant before making the journey to the St. Pancras rail station.  They had an incredible breakfast buffet and we filled up our plates because we knew it would be a while before we had lunch. 

We finished packing, checked out of our room and headed for Westminister station.  Before Gayle landed in London she had done research on how to use the underground to get from our hotel to St. Pancras rail station without having to use stairs.  First you take the Jubilee line from Westminster Station and go one stop, then transfer to the Victoria Line and get off at Kings Cross.  We headed out promising we would do the whole thing without rushing.  On the walk to Westminster we needed to make our way through dozens and dozens of men dressed in high visibility clothing who seemed to be arriving from every direction.  We had just noticed that barricades were being put up around statues along the same road.  We were just steps from Downing Street.  We wondered if there was about to be a strike/protest along our path. We hurried on and found the lift down to Westminster Station.

I learned some things about lifts in underground stations.  There are multiple lifts that go down to different levels.  You might have to transfer between several lifts to get where you are going.  The Jubilee line is the lowest….deepest….furthest down underground station at Westminster.  By the time we had taken a couple lifts and a couple escalators it felt like it was 90 degrees down there.  I am assuming it is because we had gotten closer to the center of the Earth.  We stripped off our jackets and waited for our first train.  Transferring to the Victoria Line not only took several lifts but so many steps.  When we got off at Kings Cross it took a couple more lifts and a set of escalators.  When the TFLgo app tells you it is a step-free route, Americans should read “stair-free with many, many added steps!”  But we made it and found a spot near the open doors of the train station to sit down, cool off and get something to drink.

St. Pancras rail station is where you catch the EuroStar to go through the Chunnel to Paris.  The place was hopping.  We were on the Southeastern Rail and we eventually headed up to find the correct platform.  We waited along the train tracks in the cold.

I learned from the train rides I took with Wales 6 that if you want to stow your bags on the luggage rack in your train car you better be one of the first people on the train.  We made it on first and sat down for an hour ride to Dover Priory.  We were on a high speed train.  It was lovely to see the green countryside as we sped by it.

The four top table in front of our seats was occupied by grandparents and their two elementary-aged grandchildren.  The grandparents had obviously taken their grandsons to London for a few days and were now returning them to their parents and none too soon.  Grandpa was done with them.  He lectured them repeatedly about how much money he had spent taking them to London and how he was providing them with no more food.  “Your parents can feed you when you get home,” he barked.

We got into Dover Priory just after 2 pm and got a taxi to our Best Western hotel right on the waterfront.  It is a cold, rainy and very windy day. We had imagined a stroll along the water.  Instead, we quickly checked in and went to the hotel restaurant for lunch.  

I wanted to enjoy a sparkling water with my lunch but the only one they had available was the dandelion and burdock flavored sparkling water.  The drink listed the ingredients as dandelion and burdock thistly roots. So I drank weeds for lunch.  Burdock root is used to increase lactation.  Oh great!  I wasn’t looking for lactation….just something to cure my cold!

We had a nice leisurely lunch of fish and chips and marveled at the street lamps across the road.  Every one had a different shape.  

We finished lunch around 4 p.m.  Gayle headed up to the room and I opted for a quick walk next to the oceanfront.  

It is biting cold along the ocean on such a windy day.  Even with multiple layers the wind whipped through my clothing.  I was wondering how Gayle and I are going to manage being on a ferry crossing the English Channel tomorrow in this weather.  Then I noticed three people going for a swim in the ocean.

What would entice them to get into the ocean right now?  Then I saw this sculpture, which was my first clue.  The shortest distance between England and France is from the beach in Dover to Cap Gris Nez, near Calais France.  It is about 21 land miles.  I wonder if these swimmers are preparing to swim to France.

There is also this sculpture near the water.  There was no explanation next to the three people depicted.  I did research when I returned to the room.  Ian Fleming, the British author best known for his James Bond spy novels, is depicted on the right.  The woman in the middle is Vera Lynn, a British singer and entertainer whose music was popular during WWII.  She is known as the “forces sweetheart” because she gave many outdoor concerts for the troops.  The man on the left is Jamie Clark, an English cricket player.  

The White Cliffs of Dover surround us on both sides.  Gayle and I chose to take the ferry to France and return on the Chunnel.  We wanted to see the White Cliffs of Dover.  We did imagine a beautiful, sunny day in June with glimmering cliffs for this crossing.  It will probably turn out to be a foggy, rainy, windy experience with Susan puking over the side of the boat.  

Just that quick walk and I was freezing.  I hurried inside and rested for the remainder of the day.  

Much Ado About Nothing

I got up early and headed out for a walk. First I walked past the Royal Horseguards building.  They were having a recruiting event for the Army and there were a dozen little boys dressed in army fatigues waiting outside.

I felt like every direction I turned on this walk there was another statue.  Most of them were in memory/celebration of war.  As I headed to 10 Downing Street,  I found this one in memory of the Women of World War II.

10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister, is heavily guarded.  

This statue has the words “The Glorious Dead” on it.  Why do we glorify war?  I will never understand.  

I loved this statue of Churchill….very foreboding.

I finally came to some statues that did not celebrate war.  Millicent Garrett Fawcett was a suffrage activist.

Gandhi…

…and Nelson Mandela.

I had hoped I might get tickets for a Westminister Abbey tour but I waited too late.  I walked by as the tour guides lined up.

Over one door of Westminster Abbey ten 20th century martyrs are depicted.  I knew of only three of the ten:  Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King.  I read about the other seven when I got back to my hotel room.  

There is a smaller church next to Westminster Abbey called St. Margaret’s Church.  It is the church of the House of Commons.  It has a sundial on its spire but I couldn’t figure out how to read it.  It was 9:30 a.m. when I took this photo.

I walked past the Palace of Westminster where Parliament meets. 

I loved the unicorn next to the St. Stephen’s entrance.

I walked back along the Thames.

This is the garden next to our hotel.  The hotel is visible in the background.  The statue in the foreground is of William Tyndale, the first person to translate the New Testament from Greek to English.  He was later strangled and burned at the stake for heresy.  His sin seems to be that he translated the New Testament into English, which the Catholic Church said was designed to promote Protestant doctrine and sedition.

I returned to our hotel room.  Then Gayle and I headed out for the day.  We took the Uber boat across the Thames to the Bankside Pier near the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe.  

We were on a mission to go to Borough Market in search of the grilled cheese sandwich I couldn’t get the last time I was in London.   I had to choose between the Raclette and the “toastie”.  I went for the toastie.  

Gayle waited for me on a concrete barrier next to edible insects and freshly pressed sugarcane.

The grilled cheese sandwich was worth the wait and the hype.

But half a sandwich wasn’t going to be enough.  So we found a tapas bar and ordered some hot chocolate and dessert.   The hot chocolate was delicious but the desserts were not great, as you can tell by Gayle’s face.

Borough Market is a fun place to explore but it is very crowded at lunch time.  People were waiting in very long lines for a sausage roll or a bowl of mussels.  We headed out enjoying the street art.

We had tickets to the Globe to see a matinee of “Much Ado About Nothing”.  The Globe is an open-air theater.  There is no roof over the central yard.  Audiences are warned to dress for the weather because performances go on even in rain or snow.  It was threatening rain and so we were glad we had gotten tickets on the back row so we would have a wall to lean against and be out of the rain.  More than a hundred people stood on the floor right in front of the stage.  It did rain during the performance.

The production was amazing.  We were both so uncomfortable in our seats but it was worth the back ache.  I find Shakespeare dialogue difficult to understand, then add a British accent to it and no one being miked and I didn’t always understand what was said.  But the acting was so outstanding and their physical comedy was so perfect that I always knew what was happening.  I loved it!

It was raining a bit when we left and we were ready for something more than a half a grilled cheese sandwich and a few bites of bad desserts. We ate dinner at a pizza joint that looked out over the Thames.

After dinner, I really wanted to walk out on the Millennium Footbridge and Gayle accommodated my wish.  It just looks so different from all the other bridges over the Thames, and you don’t have to deal with any vehicles.

Plus, it allows you a lovely view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower Bridge and the Shard.

We hopped back on a Uber boat and returned to our hotel.  

We need to organize ourselves because we leave London tomorrow and head to Dover.

Two Strangers

I threw on some clothes this morning and walked to Embankment Place in search of some Monmouth Coffee.  I was successful.  Gayle and I headed out at 10 a.m. to go to the Wolseley.  It is a restaurant in Mayfair that serves very British fare in an art deco restaurant.  Gayle brought a cane with a fold down seat on it, which was a great buy.  She did overdo it yesterday so we decided not to walk or do all the stairs in the tube to get to the Wolseley. Just once on this trip we should take a Black Taxi.  So we grabbed one outside the hotel.  Unfortunately it is Wednesday, one of the days of the week when the Royal Horseguard parade takes place.  So many streets were blocked off and traffic rerouted that it was a bit of nightmare and it cost us quite a bit to take the taxi during that time.  But the taxi driver was good and pointed out interesting sites for us.  We did drive by the Royal Horseguards building and got a preview.

When we arrived at our destination, I made Gayle pose by the Black Taxi.  Can you tell she didn’t love doing it?

The Wolseley was amazing.  Gayle especially loved the tea strainer that hooked on the side of the cup and when you took it off your cup it formed its own catch basin.  Brilliant.  Every item had its own special utensil.  I ordered fresh mint tea and I got a glass tea cup.  The waiter told me that fresh mint tea is served in glass.  

I ordered soft boiled eggs with “soldiers”.  We conjectured what the soldiers would be.  They were thin strips of buttered toast to dip in my egg yolk.  I loved my dual egg cup and made sure I took a strategically-placed photo of it.  

When we were done with breakfast we had some time to kill.  We were close to Green Park so we headed over there just as everyone who had been at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace started making their way to Piccadilly Circus.  

Gayle whipped out her “cane chair” and we people watched for a bit.  I wanted to sit in the chairs behind her on the grass but I read that it cost 4 pounds per hour.     I will drop some pounds on an elegant British breakfast but I’m too cheap to spend 4 pounds to sit in a chair.

We walked down past the armed guards in front of Clarence House where Charles and Camilla live.  Then we went to St. James’ Palace to watch the guards there.  

All the buildings in this area are so well-maintained and unique.  I especially loved the columns on this building.

We decided we needed to find a place to sit. We headed into St. James’ Square.  It was beautiful and filled with people on their lunch break.  Some were sitting on a park bench or on the grass picnicking.  Others were simply using their lunch hour to get in their steps.  We sat for quite a bit just enjoying the day, the beauty and the people passing us by.  

Eventually we walked up to Piccadilly Circus to the statue of Eros.  The place has the feel of a mini Times Square with street performers and too many people in a limited space.  

We had tickets for “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)”. The Criterion Theatre, where this musical is playing, is located right next to the statue.  The musical only has two characters and the set is a stack of luggage that becomes a bed, a subway, a taxi, a bar, a closet and coffee shop.  It was simple and ingenious.  We were on the front row of the first balcony in a very small theater.  The seats were good and the musical was excellent. 

When the musical was over we took an Uber (half the cost of the taxi) to Dishoom for an early dinner.  It is a well-known restaurant fashioned after the old Irani (an ethno-religious community in India who descended from Zoroastrians who emigrated from Iran to British India) cafes in Bombay.  It is owned and operated by two cousins of Irani descent.  When I was researching where to eat this place was high on the list.  We had been warned that it is popular and we should get there early.  There was a line when we arrived.  We were brought warm chai while we waited.  Within 10 minutes we were inside and seated.  Our food was served promptly after we ordered.  It was delicious….the best Indian food of my life.  I can’t say enough about the okra fries dipped in tamarind sauce.  The place was bustling and loud.  You don’t have to worry that the people seated near you will overhear your conversation.  I asked the waitress how many staff work there.  She said around 200.  When we were done and came out inside the line was down the block, further than I could see.  I am glad we got there early!

We took an Uber back to our hotel.  I had a lovely FaceTime conversation with Brett.  He is in La Havre, France.  We filled each other in on our current adventures.  It was so good to see his face and laugh with him.  By then my eyes were drooping and I headed to bed. Tomorrow we go to see “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Old Globe.