October 11, 2022 A day for something old and something new.

Linda does not wait until the last minute to pack, doing the first thing this morning. I on the other hand do things like man has since the beginning of time, at the last minute.

Sometimes it is quite a distance in a station from one underground line to another.

Yes, we are back on the London Bridge once again.

Just confirming for the nonbelievers that this really is the London Bridge.

Back to the Brough market to eat the best sausage rolls ever. I had just but ours an this was line behind me.

We bought the traditional rolls which are in the middle section. I have no clue how many hundreds of them they sell in a day, but there were pans of them going into the ovens as I stood here.

This is real honest to goodness street food, and street food is something we always enjoy eating during our travels.

Perfection.

If you like sausage and flaky pastry, this is a must try.

At the Brough Market just look for the Ginger pig on Stoney Street. Don’t visit London without stopping here.

Not far away is a Museum we have never visited.

And yes, it where “thrown into the clink”, meaning going to jail, comes from.

The original prison is long gone, but the museum as very interesting as it told not only what once was here, but also what happened inside what once here, and it really wasn’t very nice. In fact it was horrible. I’d say the lucky ones got sent off to Australia which wasn’t any picnic either.

Back then prison was truly punishment.

This small section of wall was all that was left of the original prison.

Strapped upright so you could not lay down, the belt went around your neck holding the points of this torture device in place against the bottom of your chin and your chest. Sleep was not an option until you told the authorities everything they wanted to know.

Bloody Marry was Mary I, the catholic Queen of England. She didn’t just want those protestants burned at the stake, she wanted them to really suffer before they died.

Nothing like putting a little fear into the general populace.

For some crimes public humiliation was enough.

The old chopping block.

Using Green Eggs to cook/smoke the pork at another pig place in the market.

The sign says it all.

Dessert time means buying some very special doughnuts.

The Shard looms over all.

Linda had to have that last ice cream cone before leaving.

Crossing London Bridge for the last time this trip to our favorite city, London.

For once the Piccadilly line wasn’t busy. No matinees at the theaters today.

What the tracks look like.

Slow time of the day and the trains are further apart than normal.

That is not good.

My last Doom Bar, but I will be back. And I am really not a beer drinker, preferring wine, but exceptions must be made for what is special.

It really is a photo our doughnuts. Inside is filled with at chocolate filling. Heck, there is more filling on the outside than is typically inside the doughnuts we get in the States. Or maybe it is just that we know places in London better than we do where we live in the States.

October 9, 2022 Another after hours museum tour followed later by a a walk across the Tower Bridge, then along the Queens Walk .Still not succeeding at making these posts shorter.

More security personnel than people this early in the morning.

Just before our group entered the museum, the first group of people got in line where the two white signs on the post are. They would be the first to enter where the gates were opened an hour later, Normally we wait until 11 to go in as there is virtually no line then and it is a five minute walk from where we stay.

The line outside the museum when left about 10:30.

No lines inside the gates at 9 am when we had our before hours tour.

The line when we left.

13 in our group this morning. The small size of the tour group makes it easy to see and hear what the guide is showing and talking about.

Today’s tour was called Life and Death in Ancient Egypt. Before the Unification of Egypt under the Pharaohs the dead were simply buried in shallow graves.

Inner coffin with mummy.

A higher status mummy. The head mask and objects on the mummy indicate this.

Outer coffin, mummy cover and inner coffin of a high status burial of a man.

Paintings from the wall of a tomb.

What makes the tour better than walking through the galleries during normal hours. These rooms are very crowed them and it virtually impossible to read the plaques describing the various objects. The small coffin is one that contained a female, but it is repurposed from one that was constructed for a male. The feet are too big and the fact the bottom of the head dress was rounded off , note how the squared off area removed was painted black are two indications. The mummy to the left is of a male and note the squared of base of the head dress.

What in the world id Linda looking at.?

It is on the main floor in room 1 and is the famous Feejee Mermaid. The reflection on glass is bad, there is a floor grill reflected on the body, for example. So are mermaids real or not? Unfortunately modern scientific examination has show it to be a fake. Oh well, some day some one will capture a real mermaid.

The museum is not the only place there are lines. This place is near our apartment and is also packed whenever we walk this way.

I always enjoy the names of some of the underground stations.

The iconic building called The Shard is no the south bank of the Thames making it easy to determine which direction you are going.

The moat of the Tower of London.

It is our tradition to walk across the Tower Bridge on a Sunday morning when in London.

Easy to tell the bridge is up.

Detail of the ironwork.

We and thousands of others take a selfie with the bridge in the background.

A few years ago we walked across the top of the bridge which has a glass floor. Once was enough for Linda.

Looking at the London Bridge.

See, it really is the London Bridge.

Interesting Architecture.

Not your typical top to a building.

This one is called the Walkie Talkie building.

One of favorite places is down there.

The sign says it all.

We’ve never bought any, but maybe someday.

Pies are meat eat pies.

The tower bridge viewed from the London bridge.

The monument to the Great Fire of London that started a short distance from here back in 1666.

We just follow the signs and go through the tunnels to find the underground line we need to begin our journey back to the apartment. We have to change lines at two other stations on the way.

October 8, 2022 It is called an after hours tour even though it was before hours this morning.

No crowds this morning.

There were four different tours being given this morning.

The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and also was a great presenter who kept the various ages of the 16 people on the tour interested in what she was saying.

The tour was titled ‘Introduction to Ancient Egypt” and was perfect for our time in Egypt next month. In the hour before the museum opened to the public we were treated to the wonders of the first floor Egyptian exhibit in ways that a normal visit would never afford. For example we learned how every item that adorned the pharaoh as well as the idealized body parts spoke of the power of the pharaoh in the statues dating from the time of the Old Kingdom.

Inscriptions on the tomb of an important person.

Hieroglyphics indicating that unlike all other person who had to kiss the ground in front of the Pharaoh, this person was allowed to kiss the Pharaoh’s foot.

The statutes of Gods were full of symbolism.

A portion of a huge statue of Ramses II.

Cats were important.

Scarab Beetles were very symbolic.

Cartouches meant it was the name of a Pharaoh. By the end of the hour we had a good foundation of the three Kingdoms of ancient Egypt and how the differed.

When the tour was over we headed over to Room 1 where there were several things we wanted to see.

Butterflies collected during Captain Cook’s round the world voyage in the 1700’s.

The actual Rosetta stone was not on display, but this room had an exact copy.

The top two sections are different types of Hieroglyphics while the bottom is in Greek.

She found some fossils.

She’s big on feet.

Especially great big feet.

Back up the second floor for another look at the Lewis Chessmen.

Better photos of the Sutton Hoo Helment.

Off to see another play, this far enough away that we opted to take the underground.

This one should be different.

Selfie as always.

The set.

Linda’s G&T and a scotch and water for me.

It being 5 o’clock when the play ended and knowing what the underground trains were going to be like, we opted to walk back to the apartment. Passing by a certain restaurant and noting it was very busy we stopped for a taste of our former life in California.

The sign says it all, and it was really good food too.

Our travels took down Demark Street once again.

What can i say, I like taking photos of the guitars in the windows.