Day 5 – Dec. 27th
We managed to survive the first night in the Avonmore. Much to our surprise, we were not eaten by dust mites or other bed bugs. We started the day with breakfast provided by the hotel. Unfortunately, we are both now at the point where if we have another Traditional English Breakfast – eggs, bacon, sausage, fried tomato and mushrooms – we might actually explode! We met another family at breakfast. They were from Boston, but the man’s father had been born in Hamilton. Small world! They were nice. A funny lot though, they were trying to stay on Boston time instead of converting to British time. Seems like an odd idea to me, but if you only have a few days over here, I guess it is a reasonable strategy. They were real theatre goers too. They try to see two shows a day – one matinee and one evening production. Sounds like fun.
Shockingly, most of the fun stores were still closed today so no trips to Oxford street for Beth (damn European socialism getting in the way of shopping!). Much to Brent’s delight this means a day of touring historical sights. Is there a better historical sight at which to waste, I mean spend the day, than the Tower of London? We toured around the Tower for several hours, on what was of course the coldest day of our trip. It is quite the place. Many stories of traitors, Kings and prisoners. Sounds like the same stories that Brent tells about his days in elementary school!
Interestingly, we have now come full circle in many of our historical journeys…..we have seen the Crown Jewels of Scotland (at Edinburgh Castle) and of England (at the Tower of London), and we have seen were Mary Queen of Scots was born (Edinburgh Castle) and where she was buried (Westminster Abbey). I wonder when we get our full British tourist membership cards?
We had a long walk along the Thames in the afternoon. Although we were pretty knackered, we had plans for the evening. That’s right, we actually had a social life for one small night. We met up with another midwife from Oakville who has just moved over here. We had a great time talking about midwifery and adjusting to life in England. Sadly, though after a few hours of chatting and a few pints of ale, we had to return to our hotel room. We had managed to avoid our hotel room all day, but the bedbugs were calling….
