April 2, 2010 (Friday)

Up at 7:00 am for breakfast at the hotel, which was pretty good for British food. With instructions from the proprietor to get to the “tube” (London’s subway), we headed off to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the Guard.

It’s a cold, windy, rainy, blustery morning. Seems a typically British day. While waiting next to the iron fence at the palace, we met a nice family from Boca Raton, Florida (he’s an ophthomologist) with two children. When the guards started the changing processional, we let the kids stand in front of us so they could see. The ceremony was very intricate. I need to do some research to find out what all those maneuvers mean. After the changing of the guard, we took a few pictures of the palace and the Victory Monument.

After the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, we tried to find lunch, but it’s Good Friday of Easter weekend, so lots of places are closed. Since the day was rainy and cold, we thought to do the Big Red Bus Tour of the city. We tried to find the Big Red Bus Co. on foot but gave up and took a taxi. The taxi dropped us off at the Big Red Bus Co. office, where inside a manager, Peter,  was very helpful with information on options for the tour and how to maximize our time.

After getting our tickets, we ate lunch at a little place recommended by Peter, the City Harvest. We had a delicious sandwich and some beans.

After lunch we got on the Big Red Bus and stayed on for the whole tour. The bus had a ½ cover so we were able to stay dry. Our guide was very funny and found out where everybody was from “in the world.” When we said New Orleans, he started talking about the Saints and said he stayed up to watch the Superbowl game, which for him was at 3:00 AM, and he took the next day off from work. There were people from Eygpt, Mexico, Sylvania, Belgium, Norway, America. What an interesting mix of people. What an international city!

After the tour, we attempted to eat at the Hard Rock Café but the line was too long so we ate at a “Pret-A-Manger” sandwich/coffee shop. Jerry had a Swedish meatball sandwich and I had chicken salad. Then we took the tube back to the hotel. Jerry was able to use the computer for a while in our hotel’s tiny, little lobby, while I searched the TV channels for news about the potential train strike. I learn to my relief that the train strike has been averted, so we’ll have no trouble getting the Chunnel to Paris.

Here is a video of the London action.

April 1, 2010 (Thursday)

After an all night flight, we have arrived at Gatwick airport in London at 7:00 am. We will have to push through the time change fog our brains are in and pretend we are at the beginning of a new day after a good night’s sleep. (Not!)  Because of construction at the airport, we have to take a shuttle bus to the Gatwick Express train. Caught the train to Victoria Station, then a cab to our hotel by around 9 am, so about two hours to get from airport to hotel.

Jean had found a nice little boutique hotel named Morgan Hotel on Bloomsbury Street right around the corner from the British Museum. We were rushing to try to get on to the British Library, which required taking a bus. The proprietor was very nice and offered us a cup of tea, which was exactly what we needed after the long transatlantic flight.

After tea, we stowed away our luggage with the hotel proprietor and headed a few blocks away to catch the No. 73 bus, which would take us to the British Library. Unfortunately, the “73” was not running its normal route because of road construction, so we couldn’t catch it. A bus driver told us we should take the “29” bus instead, which turned out to be a major misdirection. We ended up at a public library (not the British Library), so we asked the lady at the desk how to get to the British Library. This lady was so kind! She literally walked us to the correct bus stop.

Finally, we arrived at the British Library! Jerry was so excited to see the Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus Greek manuscripts, the original Beatles lyrics, etc. The only negative at the Library was that NO photos are allowed, not even without flash, which was very disappointing and tough for the camera bug!

After finishing our quick but fun tour of the Library, we got a quick lunch at the museum and then caught the bus back to the hotel. That journey was also a little difficult since we have to determine which side of the street to catch the bus going the right direction and then have to know exactly where to get off. Fortunately, the bus went right down our hotel’s street of Bloomsbury, and we just happened to see our little hotel entrance and got off just in time! Whew!

We retrieved our luggage and finally checked into our room. After getting arranged, we then headed off to the British Museum, which was just two blocks down the street! (Jerry says way to go Jean. You are a great travel agent!)

The British Museum was wonderful and full of such amazing things. Unlike the British Library, pictures were allowed, so that was a huge relief to Jerry, because one of his main academic objectives for the trip is accumulating an archive of museum pictures for use in his classroom presentations.

Jerry gets pictures of Assyrian reliefs documenting the story of the capture of the Jewish city of Lachish:

The famous Rosetta Stone allowing archeologists to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time:

After finishing at the British Museum, we went to the TAS Restaurant (a Turkish restaurant) right next door to our hotel to end our long day (really two days straight since leaving New Orleans). It was very good!

March 31, 2010 (Wednesday)

We got up early and had breakfast with Angela, who will be house sitting for us while we’re gone. After loading the car with our two carry on bags and two back packs, we’re off to the New Orleans airport. We got to the airport around 9:00 am, giving Angela enough time to go on to the seminary for her class. Since we were early to the airport (on purpose), we had a little time for “blogging,” emailing, etc.

Boarded the plane for the quick hop over to the Atlanta airport where we will catch our flight overseas. We went ahead and got an early lunch at the Atlanta airport.

We finally boarded our transatlantic flight for London. The flight was uneventful except for the people behind us who talked all night and kept us awake. I used my new footstool, and we think it worked for solving my swelling ankles problem on overseas flights. I arrived in London without swollen ankles and no discoloration around my ankles. Yeah! What a relief – the real test will be to see if the footstool works again on the way home.