We’re all a bit exhausted: since Arthur arrived, we’ve had our debit card suspended, called the U.S. to clear it up, been to the British equivalent of Walmart to stock up on food for the flat, been to Windsor, toured the castle, walked to the Shepperton Lock, took a small ferry across the Thames, been to Salisbury and Stonehenge, celebrated Arthur’s birthday at a curry house down the road, and collapsed from exhaustion.
We’re taking a small break from intense sightseeing, but still, I want to go to the evening races tonight at Kempton Park — it’s just a few train stops away from us, horse races and live music!
The weather reports keep threatening rain, but instead, we have had nothing but sunshine — in fact, it’s been a bit too hot! Even the locals aren’t sure what to do with this weather. One even suggested that we brought it with us from California. Needless to say, London does not have air conditioning. But what we can’t understand is why they don’t have screens on the windows. We kept every window in the flat open last night, and now there are spiders and dead flies around. Time to vacuum (whoops, I mean Hoover).
Here are some more photos — can you tell that a far superior photographer has arrived? Some are his, some are mine (and some are Anna’s):
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| Day before Arthur arrived: a visit to the Tower of London |
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| Lots of hands-on exhibits |
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| An exhibit of the royal animals that the kings kept as pets over the centuries |
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| The guards in front of the home of the Crown Jewels. The jewels and coronation accoutrement were pretty cool — no cameras allowed, though. |
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| Turned around to find these guys marching right toward me. |
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| It turned out to be a mini-changing of the guard. |
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| One marched up to the guy already there…. |
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| …and then started grooming the other — picking stuff out of the other’s hat. |
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| Tower Bridge. |
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| Crossing Tower Bridge with an ice cream. |
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| Day after Arthur arrived: Windsor Castle, while trying to learn how to operate the audio guides. |
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| The Crooked House, in Windsor |
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| Next day: Walking down Ferry Lane to the Thames, in Shepperton. |
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| The Shepperton Lock. This was actually quite mesmerizing: small craft going up or down the Thames go through the lock, where one side is higher than the other. |
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| Boats pulling in to be raised up. |
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| Boats filling up the lock, waiting for the water to be pumped in. |
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| Lock filled up and boats moving out. |
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| Crossing the Thames by ferry — a very short crossing, from the Shepperton side to the Weybridge side. We walked a bit and ate at a lovely pub on the Weybridge side, then crossed back again. A ferry crossing has operated at this part of the Thames for 500 years. |
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| Feeding the ducks on the Weybridge side of the river. |
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| What got Anna laughing so hard… |
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| …almost uncontrollably? It was seeing mom, moments before, fall over backward out of a plastic chair, with my feet flying up in the air, at the “Riverside Refreshment” cafe. |
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| Still laughing. I didn’t think it was that funny. (She’s still laughing about it, two days later.) |
