United Kingdom Part Four: Traditional London

After  several days on our own, we were old-timers at getting in and out of South Kensington, where our hotel was located (a couple of interesting blocks from the Victoria and Albert Museum). Joe has a terrific sense of direction and always seems to be oriented from the minute we hit a new city; I'm grateful for this: my sister can tell you that this trait is genetically lacking in our family. But even I was able to figure out the London Underground. We'd enjoyed a couple of dinners at our hotel; we'd tested a couple of local places. We agreed that fish and chips in England are far better than fish and chips in the USA. We came to admire mushy peas. We were drinking tea. We were fitting in!

It was time to meet up with the people would would comprise the Road Scholar group for the Quintessential Britain tour. The two dozen of us were six married couples, a single man, and eleven women. A more considerate group could not be found; we were careful not to hog the front seats on the coach, we were prompt about meet-ups, we shared cough-and-cold remedies. All were intelligent, and education-minded, and had good stories to share. We had a detail-oriented group leader who was helpful way beyond his job description. Our education leader was a wealth of knowledge, seemingly on every subject that we encountered. We spent two days seeing the things that one would seem to be required to see in London.

This is the Guild Hall, where the mayor of the City of London is elected. There is an adjacent art gallery where there are  Roman ruins.

St. Paul's.

Tower.

Westminster Abbey where coronation occurs.

The chair for coronation, very old; I took my picture before seeing the "no photographs" sign.

We took a boat ride from the Tower down to the Abbey/Eye area.

Initially I hadn't planned to go up in the London Eye. I don't do ferris wheels. I am so glad that I did ride the Eye;  I felt safe and the views were phenomenal.