Three Cats' World Tour: London

Sidewalk artist in Trafalgar Square

Traveling with your own 13 year-old is stressful. Traveling with someone else’s is especially so. Our train from Ipswich into Liverpool Street station dropped us into huge crowds. We all tried to stay together as I got Underground tickets and we headed on to Piccadilly.

Our organizational skills are improving. Our central rule is that when we get separated, we return to the place where we were last together. We haven’t had a serious test of this procedure, but it will probably come in handy.

Vegetative interpretation of Van Gogh outside the National Gallery

In London we came face-to-face with the tourist monster. It was like nothing we have ever seen. When it is present, the crush is intense. Walking on the street is reduced to a shuffle. People clutch their bags, maps and guide books, looking around at everything while moving forward. They congregate at famous places and look. Let’s face it: Piccadilly Circus has been a gathering place since Roman times, but good grief! At times when we were in London there must have been 2,000 people standing or sitting there, looking around, wondering what to take a picture of. The little statue of Eros in the middle of the maelstrom must be flattered by all the attention.

In the museums the monster is even tougher because you simply need some room in order to see whatever items brought you there. We had the very strong feeling that a lot of the people who were passing through were checking items off a list. It was exhausting and disappointing in its way, but we had been warned that August is not a great month to travel in Europe if you can help it. We really couldn’t help it this time but will remember next time.

So to avoid the jammed Underground and the jammed buses we walked and walked, on various days going up the Strand and the Embankment to St. Paul’s and the Tower, over to Waterloo Station for the train to Hampton Court, out along the Mall to see Buckingham Palace, the parks, and up to the British Museum.

A painting in our apartment that reminded us of Michele

It was glorious weather, if a bit hot, for hoofing it around the city. On our one rainy afternoon we took a double decker to the Science Museum next to the Victoria and Albert.

Our little apartment just down Haymarket from Piccadilly Circus was right in the middle of everything. Wow was it noisy. Jenny and I slept in the front room which had big single-paned windows that let in the sound of bus brakes screeching as they made their way down Haymarket, the irrational exuberance of theater-goers making their merry way home from Leicester Square a few blocks away, and people honking their horns in the apparent belief that the traffic jam at the end of the street would part like the Red Sea for their passage. We had ear plugs but sometimes laughed at how incredible the din was. Having the apartment was nice, however, because we could make some meals in and had more room than we would have had in a hotel.

Graffiti by prisoners in the Tower

Kate and Verity had a good time together. We were glad Kate could have some peer time. Verity has traveled to the US several times but still hadn’t seen some of the places we went. The highlight of our time together was meeting Wendy and Tony at the Tower for a tour and then dinner after they went to get Miriam at Paddington Station.

Henry VIII's Great Hall. Last one built for an English King

Another highlight was our visit to Hampton Court Palace, about 30 minutes' train ride up the Thames. It’s fascinating because it represents, in stone, in one building, the change from Henry the Eighth’s Tudor concept of the palace as the monarch’s personal house to the Baroque concept of the palace as representation of the power of the State under William of Orange. As you can imagine, William’s addition is much less interesting than Henry’s original structure. Thank goodness William lost interest in tearing down the Tudor portion of the palace when Mary died.

William III's addition to HCP. Boring!

Detail of the wooden ceiling in the Great Hall

Hampton Court must be one of the only palaces built from the ground up for entertaining. The enormous kitchens were positioned so that food could be brought fresh and hot to the huge dining hall above. One of the six huge hearths in each of which several whole carcasses could be roasted had a fire in it. We couldn’t imagine what a furnace it must have been when all of them were running. The poor lads who had to turn several spits simultaneously must have had a hard time of it.

Jenny with G.G. and Slip at W. Abbey

Elgin Marbles, a.k.a. "Loot"

Elgin Marbles, part 2

When Tony and Wendy headed back to Felixstowe with Verity and Miriam we were all set to move on to the Continent. First, however, we had a visit from two of my fellow thru-hikers on the AT in '05, Olive "G.G." McGloin and Darryl "Slip" Johnson.

Part of the Sutton Hoo hoard, British Museum

Egyptian kitties, British Museum

They're air traffic controllers in Britain with very serious cases of wanderlust. They came up to London for a visit and accompanied us to Westminster Abbey and the British Museum. We were honored that they made the trip. They're plotting to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013 and I may join them, at least for the start. They're fast hikers.

On Sunday, August 28 we gathered our gear and walked from the apartment down to the Mall, out past the Palace to Victoria bus station for our ride to Dover.

For 2000 years, everyone entering Dover has been in a hurry to get somewhere else. The town doesn’t have a lot to recommend it. Our first impression wasn’t helped by getting off the bus and immediately seeing a vagabond being arrested for stealing a necklace. Police: Did you steal a necklace this past hour? Thief: Eh, I do not understand English. Police: (rolling eyes, cuffing him) Then what’s this? (pulls a necklace with price tag still on it out of the thief’s front pocket) Thief: I dunno. Off they went. Charming! Most of the downtown looks like it got wrecked during the War. Some postwar monstrosities have been built that block the view of the water, backed by parking lots.

Dover from the castle

We did have a very nice B&B in town, right near the hill up to the castle. We dropped our backpacks and headed up. Our main goal was to see the tunnels that had been dug into the chalk under the cliffs. The first set was dug in the middle ages. The second was dug in WWII to hide a hospital and living quarters for over 2000 soldiers. The castle itself was magnificent. We went through the battlements and up the keep, in which the great hall had been decorated as it may have looked at the time it was built by Henry II. We were amazed when we looked down the well. When the castle was under siege, those taking refuge in the upper stories of the keep had a long haul to bring water up.

The castle walls also enclose a chapel where Richard the Lionheart’s soldiers spent the night waiting for passage to France and the Crusades. They wiled away the dark hours by carving graffiti into the arch of the nave. A Roman lighthouse stands just outside, its several openings facing France as they have for 2000 years. A twin lighthouse on the other side of Dover gave those crossing the Channel after 50 BCE the ability to triangulate on their landing in Dover.

Next day, we walked down to the ferry and left England. We didn’t plan on being in another English-speaking country until Australia.