Interpreting the Cues to Queue

 The writer took a reprieve for a few days. Our last days in London were good and a little quieter so we could rest up before our travels to Paris. We had a lovely evening out with the family celebrating the runner’s achievements and it was lots of fun. Diana was definitely on a “runner’s high” having raced through Kew Gardens (not Kew Green as I erroneously stated earlier. I’ve learned Kew Green is just the access point that let us into the park! Rest assured she was not just running in circles around a few blades of grass!). 

The wee kids are great to travel with and have been bringing lots of joy to Grandma and Grandpa’s days. One evening, when big brother got to go to another play, (this time “Hercules”), sister enjoyed a night in playing cards and keeping us on our toes. Much laughter and many giggles ensued as she reminded us that her bedroom on this part of the trip had its own kitchen, washer and dryer, couch and tv! And of course she won the card game!

Monday involved David and I heading out to tour Tate Britain, the art gallery. We’d seen the Tate Modern years ago and this Britain gallery focused more on the artists from the 17th and 18th century onwards. Lots of very large landscape paintings, especially by Turner who is exceptional at depicting light, and other artists’ portrayals of conflict, war, and life in that era. It was also interesting to observe the way artists chose to display the societal class structures that operated in Britain. Artwork from that time chose to mostly positively portray life—with a small number of artists depicting life the way it really was happening. 

These two works were completed by the artist who used concrete, not cast, to make his art.

Margaret Thatcher

We then attempted to go to Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury and after lots of walking in semi-circles, past the same brick wall, we learned it wasn’t open to the public for tours. We tried to visit the adjacent Museum of Gardens and it too seemed to be unapproachable. We spent our time instead, crossing many of the bridges that span the Thames. They all have such beautiful views. And the crowds were endless. People-watching is really one of my favourite activities and observing the buskers out on the millennium pedestrian-only bridge is a perfect spot to catch glimpses of our world all around us. 

On Tuesday we went by the Tower of London and David, Jon, and big brother toured the H.M.S. Belfast, a British cruiser that was involved in the World War II Arctic convoys, and in the Korean War, and was finally mothballed in 1971. David enjoyed every single one of the nine floors on the cruiser. 

The claustrophobic boiler room below the water line. 

Inside the chapel on board the H.M.S.Belfast

This scene  shows the landowner  and his family in the  well-lit foreground,
while the labourer toils in the background. 

The runner and I went with little sister and toured through Borough Market enjoying the delicious scents of food wafting through the air. It was packed with people, as it apparently always is, and most of the booths had long queues of people waiting to order their lunch. It was certainly easy to see which ones were the most popular. Mrs. King’s Pies sadly didn’t have anyone lined up. 

We did a long walk alongside the Thames and strolled past the Globe Theatre where I spied the Poet For Hire, situated a short distance from Shakespeare’s theatre. We didn’t engage him to create anything for us but what an interesting and unique way to perform as a busker. There was a mime on the millennium bridge who was all dressed in black and white striped “prison gear”— even his face make-up— and he stood perfectly still. That was presumably his full day gig. 

Poet for Hire

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Yes, people play pickle ball everywhere, even in Hay’s Galleria *a shopping mall

The littles in our life have enjoyed observing the different cultural practices that keep popping up on our trip. They were fascinated with the toilet that lights up— bidet, it brought much laughter to little sister to think that it would squirt water around to clean your “you know what.” Opening bottles of water and other drinks in Britain has become a little more challenging of late. The companies now manufacture their bottles so that the lids stay slightly affixed to the bottle to reduce the excess litter of bottle caps strewn all over. The system that keeps this lids on has also made them much more challenging to open. 

We had a very chatty taxi driver on the way to St. Pancras station today. He ended up talking about the homeless situation in London, which to be honest has not been prevalent in the places we’ve been visiting. He made a point of showing us the tent villages that pop up along the roadways next to some of the larger stations and interchange points.  Apparently many people have now adopted a van-life and they live in these vans that they purchase and convert into a home, changing their parking location every few days to avoid getting caught by the authorities. 

It was an experience taking the Eurostar train from St. Pancras to Paris today. When they tell you no-one can queue like the British, they weren’t joking. The line to get through customs for international travel at the train station was unlike anything we’d ever seen. We had taken a cab to get there and the others took the tube. They were lucky to be able to cut into our line with an agent’s permission. The train ride is fast and fabulous and you’re in Paris in just over two hours. However the queue to walk into the Paris station once you got off the train was equally long. David counted 16 cars of 100 guests each so there were over 1600 people travelling into Paris on just our train alone. And then there was yet another queue to line-up for the taxis. We arrived at our hotel dry but went for a walk to pick-up groceries amidst a significant deluge of rain. Crossing our fingers for warmer and drier weather tomorrow. Because Easter weekend is coming up there are so many families travelling and many of the sites we’d hoped to visit don’t have any tickets left. That’s okay—there’s never a shortage of things to do in the city of lights.