Had breakfast at Cassocks House with a cat named Chloe. Then left for Regent’s Park to get to the London Zoo. Some of the people were as interesting as the animals. One little boy noticed that the sand cat and its kitten had a coconut in their enclosure. He commented to his mummy that "they’ve given them very hard food to eat, look they’ve got a coconut," to which his mother replied "I don’t think they eat the coconut, dear, they play with it." All this was said with very proper and delicate British accents. We couldn’t stop laughing. Later, a woman was yelling at her son to stop "whinging." I’m not sure if I’m spelling it correctly, it may be with a "j" instead of "g." She said "you’ve been whinging all day." Then she bopped him on the head and yelled "That’ll give you something to whinge about." All this with a not so proper and delicate British accent while the 11-12 year old was crying. I wish I knew what the problem was but at least I learned another slang word.We saw giraffes, elephants, llamas, rhino iguanas, a meerkat, camels, a cow, chameleons, dung beetles, rare golden lion tamarins, okapi, plus more. For the first half hour or so, though, most animals were missing or exhibits were closed. The zoo’s aquarium was also nice.
Lunch at the zoo was very good. I had salmon and boiled roasted potatoes. Then we walked around in Queen Mary’s Garden and saw many lovely flowers, trees and shrubbery, many of which I’ve seen at Longwood in the conservatory. We sat and relaxed on one of the lawns and Neal enjoyed ice cream while I had a banana.
rhino iguana another rhino iguana blue macaws (click on thumbnail to see full image) Then we went to the London Aquarium and saw lots of fish. We also heard a talk (very interesting) on sharks. They are very impressive and have lots of rows of teeth.
Surprisingly, lots of places serve Pepsi! That makes me very happy.
We’ve had perfect weather yesterday and today. Sunny, warm and mostly clear. Just like the tourist book photos.
Dinner at an excellent little place called "Palms." I had a Caesar salad and Neal’s fish and chips were delicious too.
After a brief mess up with the pick up time and place of the sinister London tour, we had a very nice combination Sinister London/Pub tour. Our guide was quite knowledgeable and an excellent driver. We met four other nice people too - Californians and Australians.
We went to Smithfield where we saw the oldest church in London, a memorial to Sir William Wallace (Braveheart) a plague pit (burial ground of bubonic plague victims). It is now sealed. It needs to be because the virus is still active and there’s a meat market nearby. There are other pits that pop up now and then when someone starts digging. We also saw the pub in Whitechapel where Jack the Ripper probably met one of his victims, that’s where she had her last drink. They were playing some haunting music from "Dracula." There was also a unique and pretty pub near "Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre called "The Anchor" that had lots of little rooms - very cozy. Then there was "The George," very famous and very old. We stopped at a place for bagels (10 pence) and pastries. The last stop was a lovely little pub near Michael Crawford’s London home on the Thames. It was called, I think, "City of Ramsgate." Its significance comes from Captain Bligh. He hired his men for the Bounty here. It was also right outside the pub (in the rear) that pirates and others were executed and drowned.
Our guide then gave us a ride back to our cozy and non-sinister little B&B. It was a good experience to ride on the left and watch someone else drive because tomorrow, we’ll be driving on the left - yikes!
