England, Scotland & Wales # 2 September 2013

Someone asked why I didn't have any overall shots of the Tower Bridge on my first post of the trip. So...

Closed...

Open for traffic. The two towers are very imposing. Apparently they just house the hydraulics and machinery for operating the 'gates', but I prefer the explanation I saw on the net by some joker, who said that "they keep a couple royal cousins that no-one likes to talk about in them".

This one is out of sequence. It was the 'downstairs' piano at St. Pancras station. The idea of the pianos impressed me so much I wanted to include it. This guy just dropped his backpack and started playing.

Now these are dreadlocks.

Another good idea. From the British rules-of-the-road:
"You must not park on a crossing or in the area covered by the zig-zag lines. You must not overtake the moving vehicle nearest the crossing or the vehicle nearest the crossing which has stopped to give way to pedestrians."

Much more effective than a parking ticket.

On the sidewalk outside a small restaurant near our first hotel.

'Jacket Potatoes'... an interesting term for baked potatoes.
















A night wander near Piccadilly Circus.

Another highlight of London for us was Kew Gardens, near Heathrow Airport. We descended into the bowels of the earth to catch the tube for the gardens.

A station along the way where the tube is above ground. There are video security cameras here, and pretty much everywhere else in London, roughly 11,000 in the tube network alone they say. You can see some on the right in this shot.

Some in the UK say they are the "most watched" society in the world.We did see a lot of cameras in our wanderings.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/02/cctv-cameras-watching-surveillance

These ones have the oft-seen 'spikey' wires to discourage pigeons from perching on them. Note the top bar--no wires and sure enough, a pigeon (I'll assume) left his calling card.

Along the walk from the tube station to the gardens... another rich area.

Even in the ritzy areas, most families park one of their cars in their front 'yard'. The yard wouldn't hold much else in most cases.

With most flowers done for the year, they had plots of kale outside the conservatory.

And these strange looking dogs.

Some of the trees were enormous. Not many trees can support a horizontal branch of this size.

I love trees, there's such variety. And when you think that they all start from a seed that easily fits on a finger tip or maybe the palm of your hand for the largest ones, it's incredible what lies inside that tiny seed.

There were lots of Sweet Chestnut trees with their large, fuzzy seed pods and sharp-toothed leaves.

No idea what this one is but it catches the eye.

A canopy walk to get a closer look.

Kids having fun... on one of the bridges in Kew.

Who hasn't done this as a kid? I still do it myself once in a while. :-)

It's hard not to humanize some trees. This one looks like someone wearing pantaloons/plus-4s. For those of you who follow golf, it brought Payne Stewart to mind.

Here's a unique idea. This table was set up with place settings that linked the plant-world with our food preparation.

 

All dishes and cutlery are bolted to the table.

We chatted with these two women. One lives in London, the other outside the city. Each year they get together somewhere in London to share stories and a bottle of wine. This year they chose Kew Gardens for their meeting. A good choice!

This is near the entrance... for administration?

Some Greek god slaying a serpent?

Being near to Heathrow brought a jet overhead every couple minutes. Distracting, but you kind of get used to them. But only kind of.

I find some of the Brits' terms interesting... 'soft ices' (for our soft ice cream). It's good too! We had one of the way back to the tube.

Chimney pots look cool... especially in bunches.

Time to leave London. I always take a map with me to see where we're heading. When I looked at this one it almost looked like we'd see one highway from the other most of the way. That's not the case of course, but they do have a lot more highways & byways criss-crossing their land than we do.

Our first stop was Shakespeare's stomping grounds, Stratford-on-Avon.

Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) cottage. Quite the cottage. More accurately, it's a farmhouse with 12 rooms. She lived here before she married Bill. The thatched roof is something else.

Their home when they were married.

 

No 2x4 studs and drywall then. The cutaway shows what's inside the walls. 

How many tourists eat here because of the name?

Their menu. I wanted to try "Bangers & Mash" while we were in Britain but didn't get around to it.

You never know who you're going to meet as you explore. Where's Captain Kirk & the Enterprise?

He looks like he disapproves of this woman. Be careful lady or he'll vaporize you.

Above the restaurants and shops.

In front of a clothing store.

Selling ice cream on the Avon from a docked barge. You want to have a good back to get your ice cream and to pay the lady. Or have a kid do it for you.

Swans galore.

The guy sure looks comfortable; like he's there for the rest of the day.

There were a dozen or so river barges at the harbour. They're long. They look like they'd be quite roomy.

 

... to be continued.

- fini for now -