{"id":298,"date":"2014-08-09T14:14:06","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T18:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/?p=298"},"modified":"2014-11-18T15:57:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T20:57:41","slug":"august-8-and-9-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/august-8-and-9-london\/","title":{"rendered":"August 8 & 9: London"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Big<\/a>

Big Ben<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Doubledecker<\/a>

Doubledecker Bus on the Kingsway<\/p><\/div>\n

London was incredibly crowded.\u00a0 You had to stand in line everywhere or shuffle in a crowd.\u00a0 We had three nights and two days planned.\u00a0 On our first day we went to the British Museum, within walking distance from our hotel.\u00a0 We had both been there before, but you can spend a week there and never see the same thing twice.\u00a0 The place is enormous and always interesting, and still free, although they ask for a 5-pound donation.\u00a0 We walked primarily through exhibitions relating to British history.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/a>

British Museum Rotunda<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sutton<\/a>

Sutton Hoo Burial Helmet<\/p><\/div>\n

Our second day, the weather was beautiful.\u00a0\u00a0There was a big bicycle event that day.\u00a0 A long course had been cordoned off throughout the city center.<\/p>\n

\"Houses<\/a>

Houses of Parliament, Winchester Palace<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Family-Friendly<\/a>

Family-Friendly FreeCycle Event in the 2014 RideLondon Festival<\/p><\/div>\n

When we surfaced from the tube at Westminster,\u00a0we found\u00a0the bridge closed to traffic and difficult to reach because the bicycle course was in the way.\u00a0 \u00a0You could only cross at limited places. \u00a0 Just shuffling was possible, and\u00a0if we ever lost each other,\u00a0we might never meet again!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The London Eye on the Thames<\/p><\/div>\n

\"World<\/a>

World War I Memorial at the Tower of London<\/p><\/div>\n

We decided to try for the Tower of London.\u00a0 There is a project underway\u00a0to put 888,246 blood-red ceramic poppies on the lawn, one for\u00a0each World War I victim of the British Commonwealth.\u00a0 That war started 100 years ago on July 28.\u00a0\u00a0That puts today’s troubles into perspective.<\/p>\n

Alas, at the Tower of London,\u00a0it was equally impossibly crowded, so on to Hyde Park where they were demonstrating against Israel. Then we walked to Buckingham Palace, where we ran into the bicycle course again.\u00a0 Never again will I visit London in the peak season!<\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/a>

Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace<\/p><\/div>\n

The food in London was excellent, no bad experience yet\u2014 also later outside London.\u00a0 Quite a change from thirty years ago!<\/p>\n

\"Gourmet<\/a>

Gourmet Vegetarian Breakfast at Bill’s Restaurant in Holborn<\/p><\/div>\n

Photos \u00a9 2014 P.J. Gardner<\/a>. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London was incredibly crowded.\u00a0 You had to stand in line everywhere or shuffle in a crowd.\u00a0 We had three nights and two days planned.\u00a0 On our first day we went to the British Museum, within walking distance from our hotel.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1259,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/1259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}