England mop up

post #371
       I'm home again, after a full week in England (also called Great Britain or the United Kingdom...)  There seem to be some photos left to share, so here we go:

arriving in Paddington station, in London: the board shows which train is where.

Paddington -- the bear, that is -- continues to be on platform one, but his statue is better shown off now than when I was last here: 

I always love the designs on the rail stations. This is Paddington's look:

After the train, it's the "tube", or the "Underground" -- before the rush hour starts. I hear that the subways then become incredibly and uncomfortably crowded.  

I am using my iPhone here to show the escalator that was part of my transfer between two lines of the Underground. I also encountered stairs with no elevator option! But there was always a friendly person, both female and male, who would offer to help me with my two smallish suitcases.  That's what I call hospitality!

The walk from the Underground to the place where I was staying is only two blocks, and it includes a walk through the park called Russell Square.  I loved the quote on this bench -- from Charlotte's Web, one of my favorite books because it is by E.B.White. It's wrenching to be reminded about terrorist bombings designed primarily to kill people. Why does it happen!

This is the view back toward Russell Square from my window in the Penn Club B and B where I stayed.

 Very nearby is the famous British Museum, with its modern roof from within the building, transfering the very use of its venerable tradional shape. Entry is free and the place is fascinating. This is where the Rosetta Stone is located as well as the Elgin Marbles.

The ROSETTA STONE, within a glass case now, always surrrounded by people

A display at the neighborhood bookstore, operated by the London Review of Books:

Bloomsbury Park is at the other end of the street where I stayed, past the motorcycles..

 

This feels like a very random collection of photos, but I only had a day and a half in London. I did some pub hopping with a young friend from Morehead who lives nearby while working on her PhD. I also went to the theatre with a cousin and her husband who live now in France but who happened to be in town. And it was chilly and often rainy --- not a photography trip, but there are times I can't resist taking photos.  I hope some of this is interesting to hear about. I am delighted to be back home, however. I'm glad my stepmother seems to be doing well. I hope I've been able to share some of the adventure of travel, which is sort of, in my case, a bit off the beaten track. "Life is a journey, not a destination." (I just found out that this quote is quite accepted even though there seems to be no evidence of where it started. That's kind of ironic, actually.) Thanks for reading this, and Bon Voyage wherever you are going  -- Ann