Day 39 July 22, 2024 London, England, to Los Angeles, California to Oceanside, California-home

We woke up before the alarm went off at 5:45. We were basically all packed and just needed to put our final things in our suitcases, have a little breakfast and we were off.

One last subway train into London, and then one more train out to Gatwick Airport. All went smoothly. We got through check in well. Security stopped us briefly to check in Dick’s beards trimming scissors. This always happens and it is always fine. And Patti’s cough syrup also caused a ruckus even though we had flown on 3 other flight without a problem. So Patti just finished the final third of the bottle so it could be thrown out.

Then we had another two hours before we were loaded on the plane. Dick used the time well to work on some photos. We got in some conversations with a couple of young women who had been greatly impacted by the Microsoft technology problem several days ago. They were scheduled to fly on the 19th and today, the 22nd was the earliest they could get on a flight. They were headed to America on holiday and were having to quickly rebook and regroup. We felt very grateful that our flight was not impacted.

The flight took off a little late, but went very smoothly. We had loaded up on lots of food to bring with us, because on these budget airlines food is not included or even beverages. Luckily we had a good bag full of sandwiches, salads, crackers and cheese and cookies. Dick got quite a few more work done on photos,  while Patti watched four different movies.

Once we knew our flight was going for sure, we booked a shuttle from LAX taking us to Oceanside. That just felt a little more doable rather than having to catch a bus, then a train. So happy to get through things at LAX without a problem and then work our way to the terminal where we caught that shuttle van headed home. It was on time and a pleasant ride to Oceanside.

We got dropped off in Oceanside right by the transit station and quickly called an Uber, which took us home. It was a long nearly 24 hours of traveling, but sure felt good to be home. We always think of the phrase the horse can smell the barn on the way home. yes, it is good to be back home again.

We realized we traveled for 39 days, stayed at 11 different AirBnB's, and with 5 Servas homes.  And all in all, there is no place that we would prefer to be living than right where we are.  What a blessing to have this confirmed.  So now, we are home for a while.  Soon, time to start dreaming of our next trip. 

Day 38 July 21, 2024: London, England

 

Awake and ready for one last day of sightseeing. We’re in a pretty good groove now with having some breakfast, grabbing some sandwiches at the local grocery and hopping on the tube subway. We had to make one quick shift to a second train and then we were off. This morning would be spent in a very special place. These are the Churchill War Rooms. This was a special place built under governmental buildings during World War II where Churchill and hundreds of leaders and workers battling World War II did their work.

It was used  until March 28, 1945. And as soon as Japan had officially conceded the war and things were over, they locked the door, and especially that command map room was kept exactly the same really to this day. The war rooms opened somewhat in the 1980s for people to tour, and then it was redone in a very fine way in 2005. We spent several hours going through the various rooms and seeing, the places where the planning and implementation of this war on so many battlefields was centered.

There were videos as well as an audio guide that allow us to hear firsthand accounts of elderly people who were young workers during World War II in these buildings. It was amazing, as well as sobering, as we got to learn how eminent the people felt that Germany would be invading London. And to see the state of the art communication devices, such as the first telephone scrambling devices were implemented.

The workers talked about how they worked 12 to 18 hour shifts in the darkness and eventually they brought in  sunlight tanning devices trying to help them stay healthy without basically ever getting a chance to see the daylight. This work was all done in secret and their family and friends couldn't know about it.

The map rooms especially were very powerful and we were so glad that someone had the first sight to save it.

There was also a part of the museum that was focused especially on Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He was the leader for the during the entire war and he had a really challenging job. There was a lot of very interesting things that we learned about Churchill. He became Prime Minister the first time when he was 64 years old. And eventually died when he was 90. Powerfully done museum.

We then walked over to St. James Park and had lunch as we had done a couple of days ago. Still fun watching the crowds of people go by.

Then, we went and walked across Westminster Bridge to get some additional lovely views. It is crowded today and a little overwhelming. As we crossed over to the opposite side, we ran across the surprise of a national memorial that was dedicated to people who had died in the UK of Covid. As far as we could see there was an overwhelming amount of hearts with the names of peoples who had died thoughts from their loved ones. Lots of them dedicated to parents and grandparents.

The remainder of the afternoon included a World War II and London small group tour. We were pleased to join our guide Alex, who took us through a deeper understanding of what was going on in London during World War II. He especially shared more about Churchill, as well as talked about some family connections to WWII. He was funny and gave us some really good information. He had a difficult job because it was Sunday afternoon and it was very crowded and the area around Parliament and Westminster Bridge. And there was also a variety of different backgrounds and needs people on tour. And we went by a film crew that was shooting some type of secret service or Men in Black type film,  as well as a protest in support of the Ukraine. Not exactly the quiet atmosphere that one would hope to have for a speaking tour. But we enjoyed it nonetheless. We walked around the Westminster area, which includes Parliament and then ended up at the Churchill War Rooms where we had visited earlier.

Then we realized it was nearing 4 o’clock and we were tired. We decided we were  ready to head back to our flat to cook some dinner and start packing up for our trip home the next day. Time to stop.

 

Day 37 July 20, 2024 London, England

Up early today because we had tickets to go to the British Museum. Not only generally to see the British Museum, but also to go to a special exhibit about the latter years of Michelangelo. We were getting better at getting on the subway and managed to find our way and get off and walk over to the British Museum.

When we got there, we had a big surprise. The line to get in was a couple blocks long. However, we have been given the tip to go to the front of the line with our tickets the exhibit. The general admission to the museum is free. . We paid for exhibit and save the time for us to get into the museum. We were feeling very pleased with ourselves. We were able to go up the stairs and see the amazing exhibit about the last few years of Michelangelo‘s life. There weren’t any of his biggest sculptures and paintings. But there were lots of sketches of his work and then sometimes the full execution from the sketch done by one of his followers. Even in his latter days, he did a lot of really creative work and continued to be called upon two design and paint many exquisite things. We really enjoyed this exhibit following Michelangelo/

Then, we went on guided tour to one of the rooms that had Japanese art. We saw both some modern and ancient art and heard some really interesting things shared by the knowledgeable. It was nice to be a quieter place to enjoy these beautiful Japanese pieces

Following that we went on another docent-lead tour of African art. They were both traditional  and modern pieces. We saw some amazing masks and masquerade costumes. We also were really touched by a large piece called The Tree of Life, which was done in Mozambique which had been in a war for 15 years. Through a commission form the British Museum, the call went out for people to bring their hidden caches of guns and weapons and trade them in for things like shovels, sewing machines and plows. The remnants of the weapons were cut down so they couldn’t be used again and made into  a really amazing piece affirming life.

Then we did a quick tour of some of the "greatest hits" of the museum: the Rosetta Stone, which was such an important piece of being able to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics was there. Also, some of the statues taken from Greece from the Parthenon. We had seen the original place that these should be when we were in Athens a couple years ago. it was striking to see the things that had been taken and put on display in the British Museum. In a lot of ways, this really is a archeological museum that was created out of the colonial Empire and we got some small pieces of dialogue about some of the items being returned where they came from. We saw one of the large heads from Easter Island that has been requested to be returned. I hasn’t been returned yet.

You could clearly spend hours and weeks going through all the different rooms, looking and learning about the different pieces. There were many many school and travel groups that were obviously having this as part of their tour of London. But it was a little overwhelming after a while and at some point, we had to say that was enough, and we were ready to stop.

We walked over to Saint Paul Cathedral and sat outside for a while, enjoying the nice weather. On the plaza, there was a set up of a large screen so people could watch horse racing. There was quite a bit of steeplechase racing going on. It was an interesting area for people watching, and there was also some large animal statues that kids were climbing on.

We then went into Saint Paul for the evensong service. Today it featured  a visiting choir from Georgia. It was beautiful in Saint Pauls. Later, we found that part of the cathedral had been bombed during World War II, as well as many of the buildings around it had really been decimated. It had been repaired and it was quite beautiful inside. We enjoyed the service, but were a little disappointed that the acoustics wasn’t so good there so it was difficult to hear all the words. But evensong is a lovely way to get a taste of these beautiful cathedrals. Following that we grabbed a little dinner and then went to see a play.

London has an area that is very similar to Broadway with lots of really good to theater. We spent quite a bit of time searching for just the right show. Lots of the theater are things we could see in the states or even in San Diego. We chose a smaller show The Choir of Man. This was a show that was set up like it was happening in a pub, with an actual bar on the stage that when you arrived, you could go up on stage and get yourself a pint and hang out for a while. 

Sometimes there were also audience members who were brought up on stage during the show. But mostly it was an hour and a half of these nine men who ere all great singers and number of good musicians, singing, and sharing about their lives:relationships, the good, the bad,  the struggles. It was really well done and we really recommend if you get a chance to see that show you should do it.

At the end of the night, it was a quick walk over to hop on the tube and then back to our flat south of London. What a full day.