Well, I guess it was bound to happen. Mary and I went on a London Walks tour that was terrible. I'm sure the area we walked in, Marylebone, which is near Regency Park and Paddington Railway Station, is very nice, but our guide was weird, skeletal and oblivious about what we wanted to hear about.
Here she is, Helena, though you can't really see her face very well. Take my word for it, she is as thin in the face as she is in the body.
We did get to see a few interesting things, like the house where Marin Van Buren lived while ambassador to Britain.
We also found out the name Marylebone come from St. Mary's by the Tiburn. St. Mary's is the local church and Tiburn is a tributary of the Thames that used to run through the area and now is mostly underground. London used to get a good deal of its clean water from the Tiburn and some of the buildings still indicate that Lonbon owns that water.
There were some other lovely buildings on the walk,
and some interesting shops....
but Helena really lost us when she spent 20 minutes talking about the pictures in this gallery---outside of the gallery before we went in.
There were so many paintings inside, we could have used the 20 minutes to see the pictures, rather than the 15 minutes we had. We left the tour soon after and went to the pub for an early dinner and some wine.
Today we had better luck. We started at Westminster Abbey at the Easter services, which were very nice. Here's the bells ringing after the service.
There are lots of preparations for the wedding on Friday apparent at the Abbey. The Methodist Center across the square is covered with camera stands
And there is a big reviewing stand just below it.
We had lunch along the Thames after the service and then went back to Westminster for another London Walks tour, this one guided by jovial Scotsman Graham.
That's him in front of the statue of Oliver Cromwell, who led the revolution that eventually resulted in the execution of King Charles I. But the monarchy was back in about 20 years, after he died. He was buried at St. Margaret's next to Westminster Abbey. When the king was reestablished, Cromwell's body was exhumed and he was beheaded and his head was displayed for 25 years, after which it was buried with the rest of his body. (The English love the bloody and macabre!)
Westminster is the area behind Parliment and Westminster Abbey. There were great views of Parliament and the river.
And some walking down really lovely streets.
Yet another neighborhood I would be happy to live in.
Then it was off to the pub again. And home to soothe our aching feet.
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