Tracks of the StoneBear Odyssey ROF ~ Ring of fire
Mid 90s
Great Brittain, United Kingdom
London
It's mid 90s and there's a travel promotion on. The Brittish tourist board has worked up a deal to get tourists / visitors to London, England and other points in Great Brittain. Ordinarily the Tracks of the Stonebear covers the 4 corners of the North American continent, but they've worked up a deal that I can't pass up. And eight day trip to London,... round trip air fare on British Airways from Atlanta, a week in a 3 star hotel ; $850... Not bad ! Now I've already checked on airfares to many places over the years, .... ie Aer Lingus to Shannon or Dublin,... Ryan Air inter Europe.... ... a regular British Air ticket going through the airline is like $1,200 .... for the airfare alone.... This is a good deal; jump on it.
So get the shuttle to ATL, board British Airways - BA- Boeing 777... a remarkable plane... and head for London. The flight route went up the eastern seaboard / coast of America,... northeast over the canadian maritimes / Newfoundland -- also see the www.MARSBT.blogspot.com -- for the recent journey to Newfoundland. This flight got my curiosity up about Newfoundland and later read and studied some about the Canadian Maritimes. This would be another journey in time ~ and 15 years later ...Newfoundland is something else ; the edge of the North American continent ... the jumping off spot to cross the North Atlantic to Brittain / Europe. In Gros Morne National Park one night I was out stargazing and watched the European shuttle flights up at 36,000' heading northeast across the sky.... a journey come full circle.
Gatwick airport was huge.... the overflow from heavy traffic at the main Heathrow airport. All the connecting European airlines ... the flag carriers coming and going from the edge... the jumping off point of Europe. A lot of energy; I'm excited to see this. .... let's go.
Got to the hotel... the Forte Posthouse - Bloomsbury -... very good. dropped my shoulder bag... and hit the streets of London. Bloomsbury is the district that Charles Dickens, one of the greatest English writers lived and wrote his classics. .... among them David Copperfield... about the english debtor systems/ prisons / debtors prison. (There is a reason the American Constitution had bankrupty laws that did NOT allow indentured servants). I walked about 10 + miles a day seeing everything there. Next morning after the huge breakfast buffet,... got a daily Tube pass for 2 L~ pounds... about $3.20 ... could ride the subway and buses / mass transit all day ; a really good deal.
First day was the tourist thing... the Hip -Hop bus... the red double decker bus that did the loops around London. I stayed on and made notes of what was interesting and what was worth coming back to see. The stops were usually touristy places and you could spend a few hours at places that were geared to shopping. I noted to avoid those places... but remembered the places that looked interesting. The next week would be going back to the interesting places and walking it... walking through to see and get the feel of what was there.
The next week was going back to the places I wanted to see. The night before I'd view the map to see what was most promising / interesting. So with map and compass in hand headed out each morning from the Russell Square tube station a block away from the hotel. The London tube / subway is underground London... so I'd get to a destination station.... surface - come up topside,... and walk about a half mile counter clockwise circle to see everything there. Everything ! Not tourist sites... there would be some of those.... but I wanted to see how the locals lived. and ate on the street where the locals ate. Sometimes fish and chips in a hand held greasy newspaper wrapper from a street vendor cart ... some days a mid morning / mid afternoon snack of an apple / boiled egg from the breakfast buffet. Or stop at a local supermarket , a Safeway... locals shop for food somewhere... I went where the locals shop. Some days get a baguet and some cheese... nibbled while walking through all the burroughs. I went to see ; not to eat. Sitting at a resturaunt for lunch would take 30 - 45 minutes... I chose to walk and see.
Evenings find a pub to eat supper.... there are pubs everywhere and they all serve food. Fish and chips several days... NO kidney pie. The beef is smaller and not like american steaks.. but beef and good with a side dish of veggies / potatos / peas... After eating I'd talk with the local Londoners in the pubs... really interesting people. Pubs are gathering places of the locals to get a pint of ale... the way bars are supposed to be... some had juke box local music that the locals would sing along to.... It was a fun place to be on an evening in London. They'd sing to local artists... some folk music... some contemporary European music... different, but ok. I remember Cher had a hit song they would sing along to. And on the other side of the pubs would be all the TV screens with a soccer match on. You havent lived 'til you've been in a London pub and watched Man- U... Manchester United soccer club play. The crowd would cheer and wail at the game. Watching Man - U play.... puts Alabama / Auburn to shame. These guys love their soccer !
Around 9 to 10pm,... walk back to the nearest tube station and work my way back to Russell Square station. The tube was not crowded at this time. A block back to the hotel.... soak my feet in the tub.... 10 -12 miles a day... foot soak was good. And I did this for the next week. I saw EVERYTHING in London.... everything in a week. Like most places... could have stayed a month and not seen everything... but this was a good journey. ... A graduate level 600 course in English history crammed into a week. Walking it / hiking... is the real way to do it.
I saw everything from the gold and silver coin collection of the Bank of England, to the crown jewels at the Tower of London,... and the chopping blocks, to straddleing the Greenwich Prime Meridian -- the line where East meets West-- , to St Pauls Cathedral,... to Westminster Abbey, to Buckingham Palace, to Victoria Station, Tower bridge-- which is NOT London bridge-- to Liecster Square... the theater district, Trafalgar Square ... with the huge lion sculptures and statue of Lord Nelson, the Brittish museum of history, to stone brickwork walls built by the Romans during their occupation,... to Parlament... and overheard the MP's talking in pubs late afternoon,... stood on the deck of the Cutty Sark, and a park near Bloomsbury... that had a sculpture of Ghandi... in honor of his visit... where I brought him a glass of water... laid at his feet and said a prayer for a dear friend, to royal Albert Hall, to Elephant and Castle row houses -- the bohemian village south of the Thames.... visualised where The Beatles grew up... to the HMS Belfast anchored on the Thames... to Cheapside.... too many places to mention,.... I saw it all... and it was not enough.
Of the many bouroughs / districts / neighborhoods walked were :
Euston
Marleybone
Knightsbridge Royal Albert Hall
Hyde Park
Paddington
Embankment
Kensington
Piccadilly / circus
Leicster square
Covent Garden
Trafalgar Square
Victoria Station
Waterloo
Elephant and Castle
Westminster
Buckingham Palace
Tower Hill / Tower of London
Fleet Street / financial dist
and so much more....
A week is NOT enough.... but walk it and see a lot ! Take comfortable shoes. You never drink twice from the same stream.
This was before digital cameras... so I did not take film and borrowed a couple of pix from the internet - thank you. the maps of the StoneBear are original.
Tracks of the StoneBear Odyssey ROF ~ Ring of fire
Mid 90s
Great Brittain, United Kingdom
London
It's mid 90s and there's a travel promotion on. The Brittish tourist board has worked up a deal to get tourists / visitors to London, England and other points in Great Brittain. Ordinarily the Tracks of the Stonebear covers the 4 corners of the North American continent, but they've worked up a deal that I can't pass up. And eight day trip to London,... round trip air fare on British Airways from Atlanta, a week in a 3 star hotel ; $850... Not bad ! Now I've already checked on airfares to many places over the years, .... ie Aer Lingus to Shannon or Dublin,... Ryan Air inter Europe.... ... a regular British Air ticket going through the airline is like $1,200 .... for the airfare alone.... This is a good deal; jump on it.
So get the shuttle to ATL, board British Airways - BA- Boeing 777... a remarkable plane... and head for London. The flight route went up the eastern seaboard / coast of America,... northeast over the canadian maritimes / Newfoundland -- also see the www.MARSBT.blogspot.com -- for the recent journey to Newfoundland. This flight got my curiosity up about Newfoundland and later read and studied some about the Canadian Maritimes. This would be another journey in time ~ and 15 years later ...Newfoundland is something else ; the edge of the North American continent ... the jumping off spot to cross the North Atlantic to Brittain / Europe. In Gros Morne National Park one night I was out stargazing and watched the European shuttle flights up at 36,000' heading northeast across the sky.... a journey come full circle.
Gatwick airport was huge.... the overflow from heavy traffic at the main Heathrow airport. All the connecting European airlines ... the flag carriers coming and going from the edge... the jumping off point of Europe. A lot of energy; I'm excited to see this. .... let's go.
Got to the hotel... the Forte Posthouse - Bloomsbury -... very good. dropped my shoulder bag... and hit the streets of London. Bloomsbury is the district that Charles Dickens, one of the greatest English writers lived and wrote his classics. .... among them David Copperfield... about the english debtor systems/ prisons / debtors prison. (There is a reason the American Constitution had bankrupty laws that did NOT allow indentured servants). I walked about 10 + miles a day seeing everything there. Next morning after the huge breakfast buffet,... got a daily Tube pass for 2 L~ pounds... about $3.20 ... could ride the subway and buses / mass transit all day ; a really good deal.
First day was the tourist thing... the Hip -Hop bus... the red double decker bus that did the loops around London. I stayed on and made notes of what was interesting and what was worth coming back to see. The stops were usually touristy places and you could spend a few hours at places that were geared to shopping. I noted to avoid those places... but remembered the places that looked interesting. The next week would be going back to the interesting places and walking it... walking through to see and get the feel of what was there.
The next week was going back to the places I wanted to see. The night before I'd view the map to see what was most promising / interesting. So with map and compass in hand headed out each morning from the Russell Square tube station a block away from the hotel. The London tube / subway is underground London... so I'd get to a destination station.... surface - come up topside,... and walk about a half mile counter clockwise circle to see everything there. Everything ! Not tourist sites... there would be some of those.... but I wanted to see how the locals lived. and ate on the street where the locals ate. Sometimes fish and chips in a hand held greasy newspaper wrapper from a street vendor cart ... some days a mid morning / mid afternoon snack of an apple / boiled egg from the breakfast buffet. Or stop at a local supermarket , a Safeway... locals shop for food somewhere... I went where the locals shop. Some days get a baguet and some cheese... nibbled while walking through all the burroughs. I went to see ; not to eat. Sitting at a resturaunt for lunch would take 30 - 45 minutes... I chose to walk and see.
Evenings find a pub to eat supper.... there are pubs everywhere and they all serve food. Fish and chips several days... NO kidney pie. The beef is smaller and not like american steaks.. but beef and good with a side dish of veggies / potatos / peas... After eating I'd talk with the local Londoners in the pubs... really interesting people. Pubs are gathering places of the locals to get a pint of ale... the way bars are supposed to be... some had juke box local music that the locals would sing along to.... It was a fun place to be on an evening in London. They'd sing to local artists... some folk music... some contemporary European music... different, but ok. I remember Cher had a hit song they would sing along to. And on the other side of the pubs would be all the TV screens with a soccer match on. You havent lived 'til you've been in a London pub and watched Man- U... Manchester United soccer club play. The crowd would cheer and wail at the game. Watching Man - U play.... puts Alabama / Auburn to shame. These guys love their soccer !
Around 9 to 10pm,... walk back to the nearest tube station and work my way back to Russell Square station. The tube was not crowded at this time. A block back to the hotel.... soak my feet in the tub.... 10 -12 miles a day... foot soak was good. And I did this for the next week. I saw EVERYTHING in London.... everything in a week. Like most places... could have stayed a month and not seen everything... but this was a good journey. ... A graduate level 600 course in English history crammed into a week. Walking it / hiking... is the real way to do it.
I saw everything from the gold and silver coin collection of the Bank of England, to the crown jewels at the Tower of London,... and the chopping blocks, to straddleing the Greenwich Prime Meridian -- the line where East meets West-- , to St Pauls Cathedral,... to Westminster Abbey, to Buckingham Palace, to Victoria Station, Tower bridge-- which is NOT London bridge-- to Liecster Square... the theater district, Trafalgar Square ... with the huge lion sculptures and statue of Lord Nelson, the Brittish museum of history, to stone brickwork walls built by the Romans during their occupation,... to Parlament... and overheard the MP's talking in pubs late afternoon,... stood on the deck of the Cutty Sark and a park near Bloomsbury... that had a sculpture of Ghandi... in honor of his visit... where I brought him a glass of water... laid at his feet and said a prayer for a dear friend, to royal Albert Hall, to Elephant and Castle row houses -- the bohemian village south of the Thames.... visualised where The Beatles grew up... to the HMS Belfast anchored on the Thames... to Cheapside.... too many places to mention,.... I saw it all... and it was not enough.
Of the many bouroughs / districts / neighborhoods walked were :
Euston
Marleybone
Knightsbridge Royal Albert Hall
Hyde Park
Paddington
Embankment
Kensington
Piccadilly / circus
Leicster square
Covent Garden
Trafalgar Square
Victoria Station
Waterloo
Elephant and Castle
Westminster
Buckingham Palace
Tower Hill / Tower of London
Fleet Street / financial dist
and so much more....
A week is NOT enough.... but walk it and see a lot ! Take comfortable shoes. You never drink twice from the same stream.
This was before digital cameras... so I did not take film and borrowed a couple of pix from the internet - thank you. the maps of the StoneBear are original.
