2022 - A Trip to the United Kingdom
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The Hendersons 2022 - A Trip to the United Kingdom - London |
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2022 - A Trip to the United Kingdom |
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20 and 21 July 2022 Wednesday and Thursday After 2 ½ years of essentially no travel we are finally on
our way to the United Kingdom for just shy of three weeks. May the criminals who
carelessly allowed the Wuhan virus to escape and kill over 6 million
people rot in Hell. We were greatly relieved that masks on flights are no
longer mandated as we find them uncomfortable. We were also surprised that
flights from Houston to Heathrow were about $400 per person less than from DFW.
Tom and I decided to save the money so we drove to Houston, picked up son Tom at
his apartment, then drove to the airport. The flight was pleasant enough, although we were surprised
at the number of empty seats. We had read last week that Heathrow was chaotic so
we were pleased that we didn’t have any delays going through passport control
and customs. They didn’t check our vaccination status either. We took an express train to London but it terminated rather
far from our hotel in Shepherd`s Bush, which meant three different underground
trains with luggage. Lesson learned, next time take Uber. Our hotel was close to the underground station and the
neighborhood was quite lively and there were a number of eateries within walking
distance. By the end of the day, having only a fitful sleep on the plane, we were
ready for a good night’s rest. 22 July 2022 Friday We booked a London Walk in the morning. This was a tour of
City of London churches, most of them designed by
Christopher Wren. Many of them had been damaged during The Blitz. Some
have been restored, others repurposed. We asked about the church that had been
destroyed by the Germans, the ruins acquired by Westminster College in Fulton,
Missouri. Our guide took us to the site of the church, the only evidence were
some foundation piers for the original columns and a nice plaque explaining
where the church had been reconstructed and information related to
Churchill`s speech there – the famous “Iron Curtain” speech. After lunch we took the Docklands Light Rail to the London
Docklands Museum, located near the Thames. The docks no longer exist as the
cargo ships today are much too large for the old docks to accommodate and the
area was devastated during The Blitz. Today it is a very upscale area. In fact
if we ever come back to London we’d like to stay there. The Museum was constructed from original materials salvaged
from the ruins of the docks. The displays were very interesting and well
documented. There were films showing how manually intensive loading and
unloading the ships would have been. There was a display of a dock worker’s home
showing how modestly people lived. Back at Shepherd’s Bush we walked to a Thai restaurant for
dinner which was quite nice. 23 July 2022 Saturday Our day for a trip to Greenwich. We had booked a boat trip
from Westminster to Greenwich as we wanted one with some commentary. For some
reason the boat departed more than an hour late and we were queued up standing
for about 30 minutes, which made us a bit grumpy. Our first stop was the Royal Maritime Museum. We have found
museums in the UK to be quite well run with interesting displays and this is no
exception. On the second floor there is a very large map of the world on the
floor. They have kid size boats and cars for the youngsters to ride around to
explore the oceans and continents. The painting of the ship the William Yeo is in the
collection and I’ve been told there is a portrait of my great grandfather, James
Yeo, but we didn’t see either, possibly because the exhibit for 19th
century trade was closed. Son Tom and I wandered around for a while and Tom went
downstairs but took a bad step at the bottom of the stairs and fell, hurting his
left ankle and hand. Fortunately, he wasn’t seriously injured and only had to
slow down a bit. We made the trek up the hill behind the National Maritime
Museum to the Royal Observatory. Quite a hike with a dodgy ankle. The building
was very small and the place was packed. There were a lot of Italian teenagers -
we joked that there weren’t any teenagers left in Italy, they were all in the
UK. The Observatory had several displays related to discovery
of a method to determine longitude, a significant finding to aid navigation.
We took public transportation back to Shepherd’s Bush,
bought an ankle brace for Tom, then set him up with ice for his ankle. 24 July 2022 Sunday Tom needed to take it easy so son Tom and I went to the
Wallace Collection. What a find. This is an extensive collection of antique
furniture, dinner ware, armor and paintings. It was set up to be free admission
and self funded. The man who acquired the stuff had an unsavory reputation. It
was said that the only worthwhile thing he did was acquiring the collection. His
wife, Isabella, Marchioness of Hertford, was said to be the mistress of George
IV for 20 some years.
Neither of us are fond of Rococo art of which there was a
lot but we greatly enjoyed the Dutch school including some Rembrandts and Rubens.
My favorite was of a little girl about Cassidy`s age holding a small dog by
English painter Reynolds. See here.
https://www.wallacecollection.org/blog/childhood/ After the tour of the Wallace Collection son Tom and I went
to Shepherd’s Bush, met Tom, who was well rested then we three made our way by
underground and train to Rayne`s Park where we were met by my cousin Nicholas
Sanders. We walked to the home of his son, Anthony, where we joined cousin
Robert Sanders and his wife, Venetia. Anthony and his partner are proud parents
of little Tabitha, age 5 ½ weeks. We went to a lovely pub in Wimbledon, The
Fox and Grapes. It was crowded but
the staff did their best to accommodate our party, made somewhat challenging as
Robert is now confined to a wheel chair and the pub is cramped. That said, we
had a very nice lunch and enjoyed seeing my family members after so long – our
last get together was in 2013.
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