Short Trip to London

Friday - 21 February 2014 - Boulder Colorado

Barbara and I just got back from a week long trip to London. We bought rail passes and an unlimited London Transport pass for our personal London Oyster Cards. (We also have smart cards for the NYC subways and buses, Clipper Cards for the Bay Area, and a couple of Melbourne but that's another story.) We really got our money's worth from the passes. We visited the nearby St. Albans, a medieval city just outside of London with its impressive cathedral and Roman Ruins. The Cathedral has one of the first astronomical clock. A day trip to Cambridge was really successful. We toured Kings College's and especially enjoyed the chapel with the Reuban's "Medonna and Child" and other treats, but the best thing in Cambridge was Trinity College's "Wren Library", named for the architect who designed the building. I couldn't take pictures of the very best thing on the trip. There's a small display case in the Wren Library with Newton's own copy of his Principia that has his annotations in it for the changes for the 2nd Edition. The case also has a lock of his (gray) hair and his walking cane.


We spent the only rainy day on the trip not taking trains. We visited Westminster Abbey, my first visit despite all our trips to London since 1968 and finally got to visit the National Gallery. We also took a "London Walks" tour in southeast London that included a quick visit to Marc Brunel's caisson build for the first ever under water tunnel. Marc Brunel was the father of the Isambard Kingdom Berunel who at 18 supervised the building of the tunnel and then designed most every civil engineering project of importance in the mid-1800s in England including the Great Western Railway and the really cool bridge in Bristol. We then took a train through this tunnel as it is still in use. We also went to Stamford, a beautiful sleepy town in the midlands that looks like it hasn't changed in 500 years and even a quick visit by high speed train to Margate, a beach resort town that has seen better days. The English speak of the glories of the "Kentish Countryside." The view from the train was quite lovely as we traveled to Margate, but next time I want to see the real countryside in Kent and not just scenery that is merely only "kentish". At any rate, we ended with a day in Liverpool, only two hours from London by 125 mph train.


Had some spectacular meals in London including a delightful Indian anniversary dinner in Soho. After our first in Namibia, second in Bali, and now third in London, we will have to plan for the fourth.


We had great weather for winter in London, cool but very little rain and even a completely cloudless day. On the last evening in town we took a walk along the Thames under clear skies. I never had seen stars before in London. It was as clear as in Boulder. There's awful flooding in SW England. We just didn't go that way. I guess the visit to Windsor and Eton will have to wait until the next trip.

The next trip will be the aforementioned cruise with its crossing by ship to Europe. That's one way to avoid the jet lag.