January 4 -- 7 1999 we spent in London, doing the whole tourist bit, and wasn't that fantastic! I've never been so footsore. Using the Tube was a treat: we got 3-day central zone bus/Underground passes with our accommodation package, and it didn't take long at all to figure out how the system worked. Too easy Campesi! We stayed in a tourist hotel near Russell Square, just a block or so from the British Museum, which was a perfect base to explore all the sights.
I'm ashamed to say we didn't go shopping once, or to the theatre. We did see the British Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Tower of London, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, St Martin's-in-the-Field, the Mall, Buck House, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. We met up one night with two couples I knew from Usenet newsgroups (a.f.u. and u.r.s.), and had a wonderfully convivial meal in a quaint basement restaurant called "Grumbles" in Pimlico.
After London, (and after calling in on a young Australian friend of Tony's who was living in Isleworth and playing rugby league for London Broncos), we headed for Canterbury and began a 10-day clockwise route that took us to Cornwall and across country to Norfolk before we returned to base with Eddie and Jean in Rochdale.
Despite spending his first 28 years in England, Tony saw more of the country in those 10 days than he had ever seen before. |
