From Bedlam to Lambeth

Thursday, July 19, 2007
London, United Kingdom
To sum up today, Jeannette sings, "these boots were made for walkin'."  You'll soon see why.
 
First, we walked to the Alamo car rental place to see if we could make arrangements for the car for tomorrow's trip to the Cotswolds . We were successful in obtaining the car. Parking it was another story. We had to figure out a place to park the car overnight for an early morning departure tomorrow. This isn't very simple in central London, where certain areas are designated as congestion zones, within which a charge must be paid. In order to pay, one must phone in the details of the car's license plates to a designated number. We didn't do this. We ended up in the congestion zone anyway. Who knows what will come of it. After meandering around Islington, where everything is named Angel this or Angel that (we wondered where our guardian angel was), totally lost and not having any idea where we were going, we finally found the Angel car park. If our car is there tomorrow will be thankful. Our new plate number for Eurotrip '07 (we miss you AK55 FUU) is KAO7 WYM. We'll figure out a fun acronym for our new car tomorrow.
 
After spending a couple hours finding a place to park and a Borders to buy a roadmap, it was time for breakfast. Luckily we found a nice restaurant that was still serving breakfast at 11:30 . It was good and cheap.
 
From there we rode the tube to Monument, a leisurely walk along the Thames that brought back memories of last time. We followed what we thought would be a brief walk across the Tower Bridge to the Imperial War Museum. It turned into a forced march to nowhere. The map was totally off on the location of the museum. Thanks to the help of several friendly locals, we finally found the Museum. Its wonders lifted our spirits and saved the day.
 
The Museum traced British military history through the 20th century and we especially enjoyed the exhibit, "Children at War."  The museum was located in the former Bethlam Hospital, a former asylum for the mentally ill that used to charge admission and gave birth to the modern word "bedlam" due to the chaos that once existed within its walls. Barb commented that this was not unlike the modern day Jerry Springer show.
 
Upon leaving the museum we asked an attendant where the nearest tube stop was. She told us to go down the street to the pub and turn right. We made it down the street to the pub. We were hungry, after all. Another fine dining experience ensued. Before the pub, we took note of Captain Blithe's house. Ladies: "It had a charming garden."  Gents: "Hey, more flowers!"  (Grrrrrrrrr.)
 
After dinner we took the tube back to Euston station to scope out our route for Saturday, which will be a full day of travel ending in Dublin. Euston should be about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. With our luggage, and luck, it will pour Saturday morning and end up taking twice as long.
 
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