England 2017, Wednesday 5/17/17

A fairly solid night's sleep after our long travel day. Our morning begins with a full English breakfast in the hotel dining room (two eggs, (poached,) sausage, bacon, toast, baked beans, grilled mushrooms and a grilled tomato) washed down with copious coffee.

Today's weather forecast was intermittent rain throughout the day. Refreshed and stoked with fuel, we headed out to utilize the last remaining hours on our hop on - hop off bus passes. Boarding the bus at Buckingham Palace Mews (stables,) it headed out towards the west end of the city and towards City of London proper. The on-board guide this morning was a former opera baritone who had performed numerous times around London.  Not only was he filled with history and stories, he would occasionally break out into some Gilbert and Sullivan, or an excerpt from a Churchill speech.  Very entertaining and friendly. Traffic in and around London is atrocious - no other word can describe.  Street repair work is everywhere and back-ups are inevitable.  This causes impromptu route changes by the bus drivers, which makes for a lovely running commentary from the guide.

We hopped off at St. Paul's Cathedral and headed down the hill to cross the Millennial Bridge, a walking bridge that crosses the Thames and disgorges its strollers at the entrance to the Tate Modern Museum. We, however, take a left turn and head to Shakespeare's Globe, the recreation of the original Globe Theater near its original Thames side location.  As all but Tim had visited the site before, so we elected to save some entry fees and headed directly to the gift shop.  Frankly, the entry fees would have probably cost us less!

Our troop then headed back out into the rain and marched onward toward the London Bridge tube station for our next adventure up to Hatfield, some 20 miles outside of London.  After some misdirection we arrived at King's Cross Station and made the transition from the tube (subway) to the railway for the 20 minute trip.

We arrived at Hatfield Station and were met by the Duggan's dear friend Sandra. We loaded ourselves into her Yaris sedan and proceeded a short distance to the Hatfield Palace.  Hatfield is a 12th century era palace which was the childhood home of Elizabeth I.  Due to the rain, we skipped the garden tour and opted for a short tour in the Old Palace.  The tour was small (only the 5 of us,) and included a very informative lecture regarding the history of the structure and another lesson on the Elizabethan monarchy.  Afterwards, we toured the shop area and did make it into the gift shop, that perennial attachment to every museum in the world.

Next on to a restaurant called Bumpkin's for a cream tea and scone. This lovely spot on a working farm is run be some young friends of Sandra and was out in the country in a perfectly picturesque setting.

Sandra then drove us round to her niece's home to visit her and her grandniece, Sarah and India.  Thereafter to Sandra's home for a quick tour and then on to her sister Sharon, and niece Jane's home for a lovely conversation, some libations and a meal of fish & chips.

As we neared 9:00, we received some travel tips and then a ride back to the train station for our train/tube/walk back to our headquarters hotel.  Home by 10:30, we fell into bed, much thankful for our afternoon and evening enjoying the hospitality and home visit with our new English friends.