London 12/31/18

Happy New Year!  The group went off by bus to Oxford and Windsor, but since Dave and I had been there before, we opted to stay here.  We went to the Museum of London, which is a museum that starts at prehistory and moves you from room to room until you get to modern times - a very interesting way to portray the city through time.

The top pic is of an ancient bison skull and some early stone points.

This next set is of Roman London (Londinium).  The last shot is of a piece of roman wall and column outside the museum.

Next is Renaissance London with a piece of sculpture of Neptune.  The bottom photo is of an early book made with wax pages so a stylus could engrave the words on it - very cool.

The great fire exhibit was very interesting.  It was amazing how fast and fierce the fire spread.  The bottom shot is of the first petrol powered taxi cab in London - it is in remarkably great shape.

We stopped in a pub for lunch.  I had a cheese toastie, but it was so enormous I ended up giving 3/4 of it away to young fellow who was sitting next to us with his friends.  He thanked me and said his "mum calls me her human dust bin".  We had a chuckle at that.

Those are Dave's fingers hovering over my sandwich.

We made our way back to the hotel by tube and I saw a great ad on the wall for furniture.

After Dave's nap, we took a walk down by the river.  I had intended to walk across, but the bridges were all blocked off so we walked along instead.  It was crazy busy.  Keep in mind that it was only 4 PM and there were already thousands of people lining up along the embankment to get in position for the fireworks that are not going off until midnight! 

I got a great shot of Big Ben with a lion from the bridge in the foreground.  Unfortunately, the tower is under construction so is covered in scaffolding.  Did you know that Big Ben is not the name of the tower or the clock, but of the bell?  It was made by the same company that made the Liberty Bell and it also cracked the first time is was struck.  It was repaired, but has a distinctive odd sound because of how it was repaired.  It has been silent for quite a while, but will peal out the new year tonight at midnight.  The next picture is one of the fireworks barges.  They are already set up in the river.  There were a number of buskers out and I caught a pic of one of them blowing giant bubbles to the delight of the children trying to catch and pop them. 

We made our was back and are now waiting for dinner, which doesn't start until 7:30 tonight.  Afterwards there will be a party in the hotel for the kids with pizza and soda.  Tomorrow is the day of the parade.  I am excited for the kids.  They will be #6 in line so we will see them early.