Definitely a quieter day today. Went for another walk in Hyde Park. First squirrel sighting – this one was obviously very familiar with human contact. It practically begged me to take the photo.
We decided to split up today. Wayne and I caught the iconic red, double-decker bus to Buckingham Palace. Of course, finding the palace wasn’t as easy as it should have been. We found it just in time for the changing of the guard. I thought this was a ‘once in a blue moon’ event that we happened to jag but apparently it happens every day at 11. I was even videoing it to show Donna. No need as she had seen it all before. Note to self: do more research about these things.
We then caught a bus to the Churchill museum. There was so much congestion on the road that we were hardly moving. We followed a local’s example and jumped off the bus between stops. The bus driver called me back and thinking we were in trouble, I started preparing our excuses. He informed me that you don’t have to tap off and that you’re actually paying for another trip. So our two bus rides thus far had cost us double.
Of course, always so much to see as you are navigating the streets using a map that wasn’t to scale (as Wayne who was master of the map kept telling me).
We finally found the museum (turned out that we could have walked through the park) to be met by a huge line-up. Estimated time: 1 hour to get in. Wayne wanted to abort but I convinced him to stay. There was quite a bit of line-rage (from Wayne who was quietly cursing the priority line and the loud Americans in front of us) but it was worth the wait. An amazing display and very interesting.
We then tried to find #10 Downing Street. We think we found the back entrance but by this time we wanted get back to re-join Donna and Mark. Caught the tube back (Wayne refused to negotiate the buses again) and lo and behold as we were exiting the station, Donna and Mark were coming in. How’s that for timing?
This of course, called for a celebration, so we decided to hit Wayne’s local ‘The Swan’ and have a few pints. The good news is the bartenders at this establishment did know what a Pimm’s was and Donna enjoyed two of them.
Another great day on tour.
2019 UK Trip 