Friday and Saturday – May 4&5, 2012

One of the things on Maxine’s must do agenda for this trip was a visit to Lyme Regis.  She had read a novel that took place there and dealt with the finding and explanation of the extensive fossil beds in the coastal chalk cliffs.  Our original plan was to go there on Wednesday, but in looking at the driving directions on Google I found that the annual Fossil Fest was being held this weekend starting on Friday, so that made Friday our day to go. Of course, Sue came along as well.

Lyme Regis is a charming English seaside town built on a hillside with steep, narrow streets going down to the small harbor.  There is still a bit of fishing, but most of the economy is based on tourism with a focus on the fossils.  In fact, this part of the southern English coast is known as the Jurassic coast and many important fossils continue to be found here.

For Fossil Fest, the Natural History Museum and other similar organizations had set up a huge tent at the harbor.  Inside were many interactive displays about fossils, and lots of kids on field trips enjoying and learning from the hands-on activities.  There were also tables set up for vendors of fossils, many of which are very intriguing.  We bought a few local ones to add to our collection. We also picked up information about guided fossil walks, and Maxine wants to come back to Lyme Regis for a few days with the hope of finding a fossil or two.

While inside the tent, we saw a few people eating large roast pork sandwiches.  They told us that these yummy looking concoctions came from a shop just around the corner, called “The Whole Hog”. Since we were very hungry, we quickly found it by following our noses.  Inside the very small shop were two people behind a counter making the sandwiches. The man was cutting slices from a large hunk of roast pork, and the woman was cutting and buttering the giant square rolls used to contain the filling.  The man proceeded to pile on the meat, and the woman added homemade stuffing and homemade applesauce.  Gravy made from the drippings was ladled on top, the lid was put on, and the woman cut the sandwich in half before wrapping it in white paper. We bought some drinks, the only other thing they sell, and ate these delicacies on the spot!  Good thing we got there when we did, because shortly after being handed our sandwiches, they ran out of rolls and closed for the day.

We then walked around the town of Lyme Regis, did a little shopping at a great used book store, and found the museum which chronicles the history of the city and the fossils and fossil hunters that made it famous.  One of them is Mary Anning.  We walked up a hill to a small church where she is buried.  A poor, uneducated woman, she was an excellent fossil hunter. She found many important fossils in the 1830’s and 40’s.  Mary was ignored by the all-male Royal Geological Society, but eventually found some sponsors and is now honored for her discoveries in the Natural History Museum in London.  She couldn’t even get top billing on her grave, she is an “oh by the way” on her brother’s headstone. The Lyme Regis museum is located on the spot where Mary grew up.  For those interested in finding out more about the life of this amazing woman, her sponsors and her discoveries, read “Remarkable Creatures” by Tracy Chevalier.

We left Lyme Regis in the late afternoon, drove back to Emsworth, and stopped at a supermarket to get some items for dinner.  We had already bought some nice English lamb chops at Costco, which later became  the star of our delicious meal, accompanied by a starter of smoked mackerel, beautiful jacket potatoes, steamed broccoli, and strawberries (also from Costco-the same California strawberries we buy from them in San Jose!) with cream, piled on slices of pound cake.  Yum, yum!  Our friend Brian Smith joined us for dinner and it was great fun.

After dinner, we went upstairs to pack for our return trip to San Francisco.  We got up Saturday morning at 5:00 AM and left Sue’s house at 6;00 AM, headed for Heathrow airport.  Our uneventful but very long flights took us to New York and then to San Francisco, where we arrived at about 7:00 PM Pacific time. We went through passport control, got our bags, went through Customs and took the shuttle to our car.  We arrived home at about 8:30 PM, very tired and happy to be back. That translates into nearly 24 hours of travel!  All in all, it was quite a trip.

Thursday – May 3, 2012

In browsing through the National Trust guide book I came across a property called Scotney Castle.  It was a lovely looking picture with a round turret on a moat.  It caught my eye since I like the old castles that were built as true defensive structures, not the ones that were built as fancy houses to look like old castles.

Scotney is a compromise.  Yes, there is an old defensive castle built to protect against the French in the 100 Years War, but that castle had fallen into ruin in the 1400s.  In the 1830s a modern home (of that vintage) was built and the old castle became a feature in the garden.

We started out on a gray but not rainy morning to drive the two hours to Scotney.  Maxine did a great job of navigating until I took a wrong turn as we were getting quite close.  This led us down tiny lanes and was great fun and allowed us to remember our days out when we would travel down lanes that were barely wide enough for a small car, bordered by high hedges on both sides so you couldn’t see beyond the next wiggle in the road and then, of course, you would come head to head with a large truck.  One had to back to the nearest wide space and somehow allow the two vehicles to pass.

We managed to find our way back on to a main road.  In England you are never lost, just occasionally misplaced.  By this time it was approaching lunch and there were serious requests to find a toilet, so we turned in to the next village, hoping to find something.  What a great find.  The village of Mayfield was billed as an “historic village” and deserved the title.  We stopped at the Middle House, which is right in the middle of the village.  It is a hotel, restaurant and pub all in one, and yes, it had a toilet!

The building was probably 16th century and had been a coaching inn, so it was probably the middle of some longer journey.  Inside was a low ceilinged, half timbered pub with a very extensive menu. The food was all excellent.

After lunch, it was a very short ride to Scotney Castle.  It was built in 1837 in the most modern style while still attempting to look a bit like a castle.  The owner hired an architect to design the house, and then to also design all the furniture to go in it.  In those days you didn’t go to the furniture store, you had it all custom made to fit your house. 

After touring the  house we went into the gardens where the original Scotney Castle, at least the ruins, were located.  By the 1800s neither the 11th century castle nor the 14th century house that had been built over it were worth saving so the stones were used in the construction of the new house and the remains were taken down to the point where they formed a romantic center point for the new gardens.

After the castle, we took Sue on a cultural adventure to a place where she had never been before.  It is a place that is sacred to many Americans and is perhaps indicative of the American life style.  It has been migrated to the UK, modified slightly to meet local requirements but still retains it uniquely American feel.  I speak, of course, of a Costco.  Sue was quite amazed at the size of the building, the range of products and the size of the packaging.  We found that the multi-packs were about half the size of the ones here in California, 8 bars of soap rather than 16 and much smaller packs than the 36 rolls of toilet tissue we find here.

By the time we were back to Emsworth, we found we had visited all five counties in south-east England.  We had been to Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Greater London.  

Wednesday – May 2, 2012

Happy Birthday, Maxine!!

After a week of running around and with Maxine slowly getting better, it was decided to have a quiet day at home at Sue’s.  Brian came over for lunch and we all just sat around and caught up on our lives for the afternoon.

In the evening, we went out to a celebratory dinner at a local restaurant.  Who would have expected to find a Michelin starred restaurant in a small village like Emsworth?  The lobby was decorated with various awards from several sources for both their food, wine and for the small hotel they run.

The food measured up to their awards and we all had a great time.

Tuesday – May 1, 2012

Tuesday was our day to return to England on Eurostar.  We had driven into Brussels enough times to have a pretty good idea how long it would take, and since May 1 is a holiday, we didn’t expect too much traffic so we decided on a leisurely morning.  We had a late wake up alarm, did some packing and a breakfast without rushing.  After breakfast, we finished packing, brought the bags down stairs and paid the bill.  We left the bags in the hotel lounge to do some final touring of Brugge.

The weather had warmed and cleared – of course, we were leaving.  Our prime objective was the Church of Our Lady where there is a Michelangelo sculpture of Mary and Child.  According to the history, it was commissioned for the church in Sienna, but purchased by the Count of Flanders before it made it to Sienna. We learned that the church is an interesting mix of church and state.  One side is open without charge to the public, supposedly so that the faithful can pray.  The other side is run by the Brugge City Museum and there is a charge for entry.  The only thing that separates the two sides is a simple rope hung from the pillars, but people seem very good about respecting the boundary.

It was worth the 3 Euro charge as there are some very interesting paintings and old sarcophaguses both in a side chapel and under the main altar floor.  It wasn’t clear where the remains that had previously occupied the chambers have gone, but the display was interesting.  Beautiful paintings on 12th century tombs.

There is so much art in the church, that in one chapel I noticed a sign for a Van Dyck but there was no painting.  When I inquired, the guide pointed to it rather carelessly leaning against a back wall.  I guess when you have so many masters, who cares about one.

After going back and picking up our bags we got the car out of the underground car park and drove to Brussels.  The trip was fast as expected and it only took a little while to find the correct train station.  Hertz was closed so we just dropped the car key in a slot in a door and found some sandwiches and got on the train.

The trip was smooth and quick.  Brussels to London in two hours is really amazing.  We knew that there wasn’t going to be a car rental office at St. Pancras and we had been told to take a cab to Euston Station and that Avis would pay the fare,  The cabbie didn’t know exactly where the office was and so dropped us at the station taxi rank.  It turned out that the Avis office was a couple of blocks away so I left the ladies at the station and got the car.  Once I had the car, to took almost 40 minutes to get back the two blocks between one way streets and avoiding the London Congestion Charging System.  The trip down to Emsworth wasn’t too bad, considering we were travelling in rush hour.

Monday – April 30, 2012

Today we decided to go out of Brugge and see some of the surrounding towns.  First stop was Zeebrugge, literally the sea of Brugge, since at one time Brugge had direct access to the ocean.  Today Zeebrugge is a beach resort and a small commercial harbor.  Even though to us it was quite cold and windy, I guess if you are Flemish and it isn’t raining, it’s a day for the beach.  It wasn’t very crowded, but there were plenty of people out.  We didn’t bother to stop or get out since for us it was too cold, and just continued on to Antwerp.  While on the way there, Maxine started to study the guide book and found several museums and historic buildings that sounded very interesting.  It was only by reading further that she discovered most to the really good ones were closed on Mondays.  Oh well. 

She did locate a small church that was reported to have been designed by Reubens and to contain several of his paintings.  It took a while to find it but once we were in the area, we stumbled on a perfect parking place.  A short walk got us to a lovely square with the trees just starting to bud and what must have been the neighborhood parish church.  Yes, it was open and inside there were lovely paintings and particularly a especially nice carved choir (or perhaps a confessional).  After asking the building guide to point out the Ruebens paintings, we found that they didn’t really have any, just several in that style.

From Antwerp, the next stop was Gent (or Ghent).  We didn’t do enough serious study in advance and expected Gent to be about the size of Brugge.  In reality it is about 20 times larger and is a major business center with high rise offices and major hotel chains (Brugge seems to have only small private hotels like where we stayed).  The center of the city has been pedestrianized with trams and large walking plazas.  There are three main churches in a row with shops and cafes all around.  It was lunch time and in going through the guide book Maxine came across a place called “Max” which featured waffles.  Since waffles had been on her agenda since we got to Belgium, this was a must.  Fortunately, they are located right by the churches and would have been easy to reach if they weren’t on the opposite side of a major construction area.  We managed to negotiate the poorly marked detour (on foot, car had been parking in another very fortunate spot, the parking fairy was clearly on our side today).  We arrived and went to place our order at about three minutes past two, to be told that the kitchen was closed and that no more savory was available, only pancakes and waffles.  That wasn’t an issue for either Sue or Maxine, but I passed on dessert without lunch first.

After lunch, Maxine decided to sit in the sun in the square while Sue and I went to the castle.  It is a genuine 8th century castle that was the home to the Dukes of Flanders while Flanders was French territory.  I’m sure the castle has been significantly restored, but the self guided tour is excellent.  In the early 1900s, when the main prison in town was closed, the ancient artifacts were given to the castle to be used a a basis for a museum.  Today, there is a nice display of old weapons and from the prison, tools of torture (if a torture exhibit can be called “nice”).

Since Flanders  was French, the guillotine made it was there not long after its implementation in Paris.  In fact, about 30 years after the French Revolution, the Flemish had their fight for independence from France and the guillotine was used in Gent.  The timbers  are reconstructed from original plans but the blade is the one actually used in that period.  In the castle crown room Sue got to experience the power of the Duke (Duchess?) by spending time in the throne.

As an aside, the chocolate in Belgium clearly lives up to it’s reputation!  It doesn’t seem to matter which shop, and there are hundreds, they are all good.

From Gent, a short ride back to Brugge for another nice dinner.  The restaurant suggestions from Laurence, our hotel owner have all been excellent and this time we went back to a restaurant just a few yards from the hotel that was the favorite of the women.  My favorite was different, but I was out voted two to one.

Sunday – April 29, 2012

Today was our day for Brussels.  We agreed to start out a little later and so were able to sleep in a bit.  Breakfast at the hotel is the same every day, cold cuts, cheeses, an assortment of rolls,  cereals, yogurt, fruit, juice and coffee with a boiled egg, boring, but I like it.  The hotel has even supplied us with our own pets.  There are two infant doves nesting in a flower box just outside our bedroom window.  Mother comes to visit frequently.  After bundling up we went to the parking garage under the city square where I had left the car two days ago.  I had to go down to the car, get the parking ticket and then come back up and pay since the pay machines are only on the surface level.  I keep running into automated machines that will only take credit/debit cards that have the  chip/pin system.  It is standard in Europe, but none of the US banks even will issue them on request.  One more way the European systems are more advanced than those in the US and we keep thinking we are the “Best in the World” when we are behind in so many ways.  Cash worked and we were on our way.  Not much traffic on Sunday and the GPS took us right to the museum, except it was totally the wrong location.  We got out the guide book, entered the street address and this time it did work.  Wonder of wonders, we found a free parking space within a block of the place we wanted to be.

Everyone was hungry so we stopped at the Music Museum, not to see the exhibits but to eat in their restaurant.  Food was amazingly good.  I ordered a dish called “Filet Americain”.  Much to my amazement it turned out to be beef tartare.  I don’t think I would have ordered raw hamburger if I had known, but it was quite good.

We went to the central art museum primarily to see the Brueghels.  They have a pretty good collection of both the Elder and Younger.  What was particularly interesting was the pair of paintings done first by the father and 40 years later by the son.  They are almost identical with just  a few color and subject differences.  The painting is supposed to represent the time of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  But somehow the Judean desert comes out looking just like winter in Belgium, brick buildings and snow.  I guess you paint what you know. .Our art critics spent considerable time comparing the two pieces.

After walking the entire old masters collection with a few Rembrandts and Van Dycks thrown in for good measure, we left and went to find the famous statue of the “mannekin pis”, a little boy peeing.  Considering its fame, I had forgotten how small it is, only about a foot tall.  He’s usually not wearing any clothes, but for special occasions, he is dressed up. We have no idea what the occasion was, but there he was in a tuxedo, pissing away. What was more interesting (and I should have taken a picture but I was driving) were the large crowds taking pictures of the bronze.  There must have been several hundred people, including large tour groups jostling for position to take pictures of the little guy. 

If you remember the old adage about it not raining if you take your umbrella, the reverse works too.  Since I hadn’t taken my sunglasses, it cleared and I had sun in my eyes the whole way home.

For dinner, Laurence recommended another restaurant, this one very close to the hotel.  It was equally as good as her other recommendations.  We have asked for a fifth suggestion for our last night, but if she can’t come up with something interesting, any of our previous four would be a good repeat.

Saturday – April 28, 2012

 

We got up this morning to find that the beautiful weather of yesterday had been replaced by dark clouds and rain.  We went to breakfast, which was very similar to yesterday’s, and then donned our cold, wet weather gear.  Not only was it raining, it was also very cold and windy.  We made our way to the very large market square that dominates the city in it’s size and scope.  We had wanted to see the Saturday market, and perhaps the fish market, but very little was in evidence due to the weather.  There were horse carriages for hire, and many were clopping around the square and throughout the city.  The passengers were warmly dressed and covered with blankets provided by the drivers, who acted also as tour guides. 

We decided to leave the square and head for the Diamond Museum, which promised a history of diamonds and a diamond polishing demonstration.  On the way we crossed one of the canals that used to carry goods into and around the city.  Now tourists may  take guided tours aboard a canal boat, but we decided to wait for another day and better weather.  We continued our walk, and noticed that we were on a street devoted to museums on one side, and also that there were a few brave souls who had set up their market goods on the other side.  We opted to continue to the Diamond Museum, which is located in another part of the city.  This area also has loads of shops, many of them chocolatiers.  It all looked very yummy, so we decided that after the museum, we would have lunch and then buy a few goodies at one of these shops.

We were grateful to finally see the museum and enter into its lovely warmth, for by that time Maxine felt like an ice cube.  The displays were very well done and tell the story of diamond mining and processing that goes back to the 1400’s.  Bruges used to be a center for diamond cutting and polishing, but now Antwerp is where most of the world’s diamonds are finished. We very much enjoyed the diamond polishing demonstration given by a young man who did an excellent job of explaining everything in both English and French.

We went briefly into the diamond shop that is on premises, but decided not to buy anything.  Instead we went to lunch at a salad and sandwich place called Manna and Co.  The sandwiches were made to order with loads of choices of fillings and garnishes, and the baguettes were freshly baked on premises.  After lunch we bought some chocolates at one of the many shops nearby.  There are 50 chocolate shops in Bruges, a true paradise for a chocoholic like Maxine!  We walked  back to the hotel, where Maxine decided to take a break from touring and the weather, while Bob and Sue ventured onward to see more of Bruges.

(Bob now writing)  We headed back towards the older part of town to take a look at the museums and older areas.  The churches are quite magnificent, with high vaulted roofs and beautiful stained glass.  As we were nearing one, I remembered that we had earlier seen a sign for a “free” harp concert.  Had to check it out.  I seems a very nice retired man has rented a store slot in a building and puts on harp concerts for the donations and to sell his CDs.  He played concert hart, Celtic harp and a Chinese harp in a variety of his own compositions for about 40 minutes.  At the end, a few coins in the box was all he asked.  I guess enough people pay enough and he sells enough CDs to make it work for him.  After that browsed quickly though a small antique street market that was in the process of closing, nothing worth buying, before Bob returned to the while Sue continued to the art museum.

For dinner, the proprietor of the hotel had suggested a sea food restaurant where she had worked before buying the hotel.  She made a reservation and we wandered through the rain and found it with only a little difficulty.  Bob should have followed Maxine’s directions and it would have been easier.  The dinner special of the day was lobster, the Maine kind even though it was from Canada, served with a starter of smoked salmon and white asparagus.  Dessert was chocolate mousse. All were very good.

Friday – April 27,2012

We awoke, amazingly, to a beautiful blue sky, not a cloud to be seen.  Clearly a day for sightseeing.  After a very nice breakfast (included with the hotel room) we headed off to the city of Ypres (also spelled Ieper) to look for Flanders Field, a famous battlefield in World War I.  It is the center of the horrible trench warfare that kept the Allies and the Germans locked up for years with dreadful loss of life.  At the entrance to the city, there is a memorial called the Menen Gate that has inscribed over 50,000 names  of men who died in the battles.  There are military grave yards all over the area.  The city itself feature a beautiful town hall and impressive cathedral. It was hard to believe that these ancient buildings had survived both World Wars because World War II was fought right there too.  In fact, they hadn’t.  Following WWI, the local citizens, with significant financial aid from outside had rebuilt the town, not modern like many places in England were rebuilt after WWII, but rather they were rebuilt in their original style. 

After Ypres, we decided to go to France for lunch.  Yes, we were so close to the border that if was only about a 30 minute drive to Lille.  We basically just wandered around looking for a place to eat.  Having the GPS made it easy since I knew we could just let Maggy get us out and to our next destination.  We ended up stumbling on the town square and were able to park in an underground lot right under the square.  We came up to a beautiful area with shops and restaurants all around us.  Maxine picked a small cafe that served us a nice lasagna lunch including salad and dessert at a very reasonable price.  The GPS quickly got us out of town and on our way to Waterloo.  If you’ve seen one historic battlefield, you might as well see two.

We are approaching the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 2015.  Much of what they have was built for the 100th.  There is now a proper visitor center showing two excellent films, one purely historical going over the actions of Wellington and Napoleon and one extracted from a feature film that attempts to provide an insight into what the heat of battle must have been like.  After that, we went outside to see the Lion Mound Monument.  It was built in the early 1800s to commemorate not only the battle itself but the thousands who died in the battle.  For the centennial they build a diorama that is still a powerful vision of what happened 200 years ago.

The traffic back to Brugge wasn’t too bad and we went to an early dinner at a close by place.  Again, an excellent dinner in the Flemish style.  I had a very nice chicken stew, while Maxine had very traditional steak frites.

Thursday - April 26, 2012

Today was travel day, from London to Brugge.  We started with a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel then checked out and got a cab in front of the hotel.  The concierge had told us it would take 12 to 15 minutes to get from the hotel to St. Pancras station to meet Sue and catch the Eurostar.  Trying to be safe, we allowed a full half hour even though that was twice the suggestion.  It ended up taking almost an hour because or road works.  We did make it in time and Sue was there waiting for us.  It was very helpful that Sue had traveled on Eurostar previously as she know the procedure and was able to help us find out way.

The ride itself was quick and smooth.  Barely two hours from London to Brussels including short stops in Ashford, Calais and Lille.  When we got there we spent a few minutes hunting for the Hertz office, until it appeared right in front of us.  The car was waiting for us downstairs and was much nicer than expected.  It is an almost new Renault with a six speed diesel and built in GPS.  The new diesel is very environmental friendly.  It was a bit surprising when I came to the first traffic light and the engine stopped. As soon as I put it in gear, the engine started right up on its own.

The GPS was very helpful in getting out of Brussels and finding the motorway to Brugge.  At first, it was a bit of a challenge following directions in Flemish, but we soon figured out Right and Left and the arrows on the screen helped a lot.;  We did figure out how to switch the voice to English, but it now speaks yards and miles while the speedometer reads in kilometers.  A bit confusing.

We missed the hotel the first time  around since I couldn’t believe that the small alley was really the street so passed it by and had to go around a short loop to get back.  The hotel is quite nice, run by a woman who really seems to enjoy running a small hotel.  She is a wealth of knowledge about the local area and her restaurant recommendations have proved to be excellent.  It is quite small, only about 15 rooms on four floors, but no elevator.  We have tried to minimize the number of trips up and down to save our knees.  The rooms are very nice and the beds are good.  What more could you want?

Wednesday – April 25, 2012

Our last day in London (we will be back in England after Belgium) and Maxine is still suffering from her cold and decided to stay in and keep warm.  It is quite cold with on and off rain outside, not a pleasant place to be if you are not feeling well.  We took advantage of the day and slept in.  I’m not sure if that is good or bad when trying to get over jet lag, but it sure felt nice.  Breakfast was tea in the room, orange juice and egg sandwiches from M&S with some fresh fruit to finish it off. 

After breakfast (it was already about noon), Maxine sent me off to do a little museum touring.  I started out at the Science museum to look for Babbage’s Analytical Engine.  It is a very large (8x10 feet or so) machine using brass cams, gear, etc to perform mathematical calculations.  Babbage never got it working but last time we were here, they were close to having built one from his plans and getting it operational.  It is gone!  And no one I talked to even recalled it being here.

They have an interesting collection of early steam engines, both stationary for working mines and mills and the very earliest ones that ran on rails.  The first one from about 1815 was so early that they  weren’t sure the friction between steel rails and steel wheels would be enough to move he machines.  Turns out that it does work.  They also have a nice exhibit of early space flight artifacts, even if most of them have been donated from NASA since the British didn’t do much in space travel.

They have added a lovely kids section to the Museum.  Avi would have had a great time with the hands on experiments.  One of the attendants admitted that many if not most of the displays come from the Exploratorium in San Francisco, but they are re-done and appear much more professional. They also do live science experiment shows for the kids every hours.  The one I attended was focused on explosions.  They made it interesting for the children with lots of flashes of light and loud bangs.  At one point they brought out a small cannon and asked for volunteers to be shot  from the cannon.  There were several volunteers.  He called up a couple, carefully examined them and decided they were too large to fit.  In the end, Barbie was inserted into the barrel and was shot across the room to great delight of the audience.

As I  was leaving, I wandered through the Energy Hall.  There was this large metal pole in the center of the room surrounded by floor printing that said “Do Not Touch” but no barriers or railing.  Not surprisingly, the kids approach it gingerly and then touch it.  There is a loud noise and the kids get a mild shock, and then the next kid has to try it too.

I then went next door to the Natural History Museum and spent a few minutes looking at the Hall of Minerals, focusing on the interesting displays of precious and semi-precious gems.  They have some beautiful diamonds, but some truly amazing stones of the other varieties.  I was particularly taken by a perfect 1200 carat clear topaz.  It looks just like a giant diamond.

Rather than spending more time underground, I took the bus back to the hotel.  Knightsbridge is still crowded and if you were basing your observations on the people going in and out of Harrods you would be sure that any recession is certainly over.

Another indication of the state of the economy was dinner.  Since Maxine isn’t up to a long walk or a long dinner (we had originally considered some Michelin starred places) we ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe which is only a few blocks away.  We learned that the one in London is the first one which opened forty-one years ago, and is still in the original location.  We got there around 6, pretty early for London dinner time and still had a short wait.  By the time we were leaving they were quoting 90 minutes to two hours and the place is so small there is no inside waiting area.  People were bundled up sitting in the cold wind and rain.  I guess you must really want a good burger to suffer that much and that long.  We had BBQ sandwiches which were fast and good.  A cold walk back to the hotel and we are now in for the night.  Tomorrow the Eurostar to Brussels.

Tuesday – April 24, 2012

Maxine is still not 100% and after breakfast decided to stay in the hotel and read while I went to Kew to visit the Steam Museum.  The Underground worked incredibly well.  The ticket seller recommended a station for the necessary change of lines and I took his advice.  The train departing the local stating, Green Park, was pulling in just as I got to the platform, so zero wait time.  At the change point, Hammersmith, the train to Kew pulled in parallel to us on the other side of the platform, so again, zero wait time.

At Kew, I was studying the local area map to figure out how to get to the Steam Museum, at the same time some people were trying to figure out the route to the National Archives. Since they were pretty close to each other, I decided to go the Archives first.   It is relatively new building right on the banks of the Thames.  It is open to the public for research and if you want it, they will let you have access to just about anything they have.  I didn’t have any particular research in mind, so just went to the small museum where they have some key items from their collections.  Since this is April, 2012, they of course have a few items about the Titanic.  I was particularly amused by the certificate of seaworthiness filed before she sailed and the death filings for Astor and Ismay.  They also have a few items from the American Revolution including one of the rare July 5th printings of the Declaration of Independence and the British copy of the treaty ending the war.  Not surprisingly, they have copies of several versions of the Domesday Book.  I wasn’t aware that there were several versions. I had only heard of the version of 1067.  There was also one done in about 1300 and then a similar inventory done in the middle 1500s by Henry VIII to  catalog all the property he had seized from the Catholic Church.  I then took a walk along the Thames to get to the Steam Museum.  The river was amazing, I have never seen it this low.  It is impacted by the tidal forces all the way to Kew and apparently beyond.  Most of the boats were lying on their bottoms in the mud and the passenger ferry that runs from Greenwich to Richmond had been cancelled because there wasn’t enough water.  The Steam Museum was very quiet, in fact, I was the only person there.  They don’t fire up the steam except on weekends so there isn’t much to see except for the  innate beauty of the machinery.  I was pleased to see that since I had last been there they have gotten two more of the large beam engines back into working order.  The 90 inch engine is the largest steam engine operational in the world.  Just think about how big that is….a piston over seven feet in diameter.  I hope that they will soon have the funding to rebuild and operate the 100 inch engine.

Maxine was up for a short walk and we went to Prezzo for dinner.  It is a sort of higher end pizza and pasta restaurant.  Excellent salads and pasta, and for London, pretty good value.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is horrible.  Hopefully, the forecasted will be wrong again.