The Bois Family's trip to England

We went into a nearby hotel to see if we could buy some stamps to send postcards to friends and family.  They  also had tickets for the Big Bus Company.  It's one of the double-decker buses that go all over London, with a tour guide explaining the sights.  The tickets are good for 24 hours and you can get on and off as often as you like.  Good for tourists, but all those buses driving slow and pulling over to the curb constantly probably annoy the locals.
 

Anyway, one of our first stops was Shakespeare's Globe Theater.  It's a replica of the original, which was destroyed in the 17th century, but it's built using the same plans and techniques.  In other words, no nails, only wooden dowels.  It's also the only building in London that has a thatched roof.  They had to get a special exception to the law that was passed after the Great Fire of 1666.

The tour guide brought us to the second of the three levels of seats.  She explained that the theater wasn't finished, they were rushing to have it ready by opening night.

Back on the bus, we passed one of the dragons guarding the London city limits.  To give you an idea of how big these things are, this picture was taken from the top deck of the bus.

Adam, of course, was a bit bored with being dragged all over the town by his parents, and not thrilled to have his picture taken.  Here's another shot of him pushing up his glasses.

We passed the front of St. Paul's Cathedral.  You can't see the dome from this angle.   From around the corner, we were able to see the dome.  It looks bigger than the U.S. Capitol Building's.

Christopher Wren's monument to the victims of the Great Fire of 1666.  The fire leveled most of the city.

I took this picture of Tower Bridge from the bus as we crossed London Bridge.  London Bridge itself is not attractive it the least.  It's just a flat concrete street crossing the river.  The only thing going for it is the children's song. That's a tour boat in the foreground.  Behind it is HMS Belfast, a battleship that's now a museum.

The bus went through the streets of Southwark and then back across the Thames on Tower Bridge.

We stayed on the bus for most of its run, getting off whenever we saw something interesting.  We bought a few gifts for friends and family, most notably a toothbrush in the shape of a Royal Guardsman.  His big furry hat was the bristles.

Back at the hotel, our friends Al and Sarah arrived.  After hugs all around and a brief catching up, we took the tube to the West End where we were going to have dinner before seeing a show.  Sarah had bought five tickets to a comedy, out of deference to Adam.  However, when we got out of the tube station, the streets were closed off.  We asked a policeman what was going on and he didn't really tell us much.

We had dinner somewhere else and walked around Soho, spending a good deal of time at music stores and Segaworld, an indoor, 5-story arcade.  Eventually, we took a cab back to Euston.  Sarah and Al were staying at her parent's house so they got on a train, agreeing to come pick us up in the morning.

Later we found out that police weren't letting anyone into the West End because a nail bomb had gone off in a pub.  Three people died and dozens were injured.  A suspect was arrested several days later.

Next:  May 1, 1999
 

April 28, 1999		Florida to London
April 29, 1999		London
April 30, 1999		London
May 1, 1999		London to Wisbech
May 2, 1999		Peterborough
May 3, 1999		Cambridge
May 4, 1999		Nottingham
May 5, 1999		Brighton