Sept 29 2016

Today was a totally free day except for the reservation to tour Buckingham Palace and dinner. Most of us hit the breakfast buffet at around the same time and went out in small groups of folks with interest in seeing the same or similar sites and at dinner exchanged photos and experiences. All that is except Jerry who was REALLY off doing his own thing. He had left early to catch a flight to Scotland where he could explore some spots of particular interest to him, that were not on the general itinerary. He said battlefields, but I suspect he's chasing Nessie from the pic he sent.

Taking Debbie under our wing, Ev and I left to find the Imperial War Museum. What an adventure! After making several changes of trains on the Underground we finally arrived at Waterloo. Noticing that making one more change of trains and departing on the Bakerloo line we could get within a few blocks of the museum by getting off at Lambeth North. Great! We would finally get there. The train was unusually sparse of other riders, hmmm. Then the train whizzed right past Lambeth North as the automated announcer told us that station was closed. The next stop was the end of the line, Elephant and Castle. Back on the train and back to Waterloo, which we discovered is a major train station not just a subway stop. Finally after walking through the rain (fortunately light) we found the museum.

Pretty cool, with a diversity of exhibits on war from WWI through present conflicts. Loads of school kids. I learned some interesting facts, i.e. "The Full Monty" has nothing to do with what the Broadway show depicted! It originated with Field Marshall Montgomery's insistence that his troops start the day with a full English breakfast (the full Monty). Unfortunately all of that fiddling about on the Underground left us with not as much time at the museum as we would have liked, as we were to meet the rest of the group at the Phoenix Pub near Buckingham Palace at 2 and wanted to have lunch there first. This time we took the public bus using our Oyster Cards. #148 took us, in about 20 minutes, to within a few blocks of the pub. Some folks were already there having lunch and the others arrived in time to go in for the Palace tour. While the rest of the group did that I visited the Royal Mews, which has nothing to do with kittens! It is the Royal Stables. Apparently photography was not allowed on the palace tour but no such restriction at the Mews, so here are a few pictures of the ornate carriages and some horses (most were on holiday, we were told).

Catching up with some of the group as they exited the palace tour, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before dinner. Dinner was at The Duke of Clarence, another pub just 15 minutes on foot from the hotel.  OK, OK, everyone, maybe it was more like 20 minutes!




During and after dinner we swapped stories and pictures of the day's adventures.

Many had really enjoyed the Churchill War Room tour and found much more of interest to see and read about than they had expected.





Most everyone escaped the day without injury except for Tina who destroyed her footwear ala Jimmy Buffett. Well, she didn't exactly blow out a flip flop but did shoot  heels in all directions!