Jeremiah Watt

Near to the last of our time to wander the streets of London, still several things to yet see and so little time. So let’s get going, we got the coffee hot2go at ………….yes Burger King. Not a lot of things open real early in England it seems, but these American franchises open early as they do back home.

We heade to the St James Palace, which is where the Palace Horse Guard are stationed. These guys are real sharp looking, and for me have the most charm or character, what, with all the long horse hair on the helmet and the drawn saber………it’s a given.

Being a history buff, the next stop was the Cabinet War Room, where Winston Churchill settled himself under the streets of London so he could more adeptly run the Great War. This is quite a statement of the cramped quarters and difficulties under which Churchill and his crew had to work. It was one of the better stops of the entire trip, but then I do love history and others do not.

West Minister Abbey, is a must stop for all who hit the streets of London, not as impressive as some of the other Abbeys we had seen in other cities of the UK. But still, given the importance of what has taken place at this Abbey over the years, it has a substantial place in English history.

Next stop on this rather whirl wind day tour was the House of Parliament, set on the river bank which I will assume is a real difficult place to protect during times such as we live in. None the less, they are huge and impressive. Nobody in that place rides horses, so need less to say we didn’t know anyone important sitting inside that may invite us in for a look around and visit.

On from there to the Imperial War Museum which was as stated a Museum dedicated to the art and events of War, all of them. It was a 3 or 4 floor Museum, and it has so many very interesting displays. Amongst them was a display on the Spy’s of the world, and that was very cool and had so many very cool items and talk-through audio tours. Then on up to the Holocaust portion of the Museum. We had already done the tours in Germany and Poland, which was and is a highly recommended tour, but this addition to the history of the Jewish Holocaust was incredible.

Now we had need to hit a few streets of Antique dealers, and on that route we once again headed past the St.James Palace………………oh my God, oh……….oh, my God I can’t believe it…………………it’s like so absolutely incredible…………..of my dear God…………I clamped a hand over Darren’s mouth to silence him. There’s no telling what folks walking past may have thought, he was carrying on like a cheerleader, thank goodness he didn’t have any Pom-Poms. So what you ask was the hulla-ballou…………well, the “stiffasapokerredhatfuzzyhattedguards” were on duty. Darren was just over the top aboput it all………..and we had no medication to give him.

We placed the folks beside the very willing Guard, not a motion was made by him……….till we stood Darren next to him. Then the Guard, after seeing Darren’s antics just yards away from him and just moments ago……………the Guard, got that Oh My God look in his face. He took it all in stride and was cool about it………..I did notice he had a pleasant smile on his face when Nevada moved in for her picture………oh, well there are years yet for me to worry about.

With the pictures taken, and still a few hours of light left. We headed for Grey Street and the Mews to take in a couple of Antique Shops and Numismatics Shops. Pine and Darren both collect coins, and have some pretty nice coins gathered already. Each place we go, each country we visit Pine buys some coins for both he and his friend Darren. Pine also still had hopes that he may find a Dirk or something antique and of the edged weapon type. In the end, we found several coins and a few doillies ( how the heck do you spell that), a couple items like Tea Cups etc………etc……….etc……..etc……….and we are done with buying. Its time to head for the Hostel and re-pack to we can fit it all into/onto the plane and get home. Two extra suitcases are needed and have to be bought before the store hours bring the chance for that to an end.

We packed and repacked, we had to get the kids to fold and refold their clothes so that all the items purchased in order to fit into the holds of the plane. Supper was very simple, and a few drinks passed around the room as we packed………..and Mom, she always seems to be able to come up with a few treats like a special Chocolate item, a new piece of sweet fruit etc.

Thanks goodness for a light switch, and the dark so we can go to bed……….
Good Night and God Bless