London and all

Big Ben from the Waterloo bridge

Well yesterday was our day in London.  On the bus by 8 am for the trip in, alight at the Houses of Parliament on the Embankment.  While the group had briefings in the House of Commons, I was
lucky enough to be able to take the morning and walk around all over the area, up and down the embankment.





Amazing, there are palm trees growing all over place.  And London is further north than we are at home.  Dawn doesn't happen until about 7:15 and it is dark by 4:45.  It was about 8 degrees yesterday and a mix of cloudy day, then turned very sunny in the afternoon.  What nice is that there aren't a large number of tourists, so it's easy to get around and not be too crowded.  It's been a long time since I have been here, and one thing for sure - the food and the coffee is much much better.

Templar Church just off the Embankment

This is the Templar Church in London, Scrunched in-between two other newer large buildings.  Atop is a gold ship with the Maltese Cross on the sail, and off the right on the sidewalk of the embankment is a silver/pewter griffin wearing a shield bearing the Maltese Cross.

I spent the afternoon in the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square.  Wandering around the rooms was a great way to relax, and get some quiet.  When I came out there were several events/performers going on - a food promotion/bbq by Nelson's statue, and a performer right in front of the steps of the Gallery.  It was quite funny because they both had PA systems and remote microphones so of course were competing loudly with each other.  The audiences were definitely amused.


Met up with everyone after their meetings were finished, and we all got back on the bus to head back through London traffic to Windsor.  Since we had a number of people onboard who had just arrived that day and had their luggage with them, the plan was to go back to Cumberland Lodge, let them check in, everyone have a quick change and then back on the bus to go to Fort Belvedere.  Fort Belvedere is the home of Galen and Hilary Weston, who were hosting a reception for us, as attendees of the Canada-UK Colloquium.  We were all really curious and intrigued to be going there.  As you can guess, the plans fell apart rather quickly.  London traffic ruled the day, and the first part of the evening.  It took us 2.5 hours to get to Windsor, so the bus took us straight there.  Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to take any pictures.  But it was pretty amazing.  While it has a long history, the most recent would be that Fort Belvedere was the home of Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor.  The room where we had drinks and the reception was the room where Edward signed the abdication papers. After abdicating, the Duke and Duchess continued to live there.  The Westons have lived there for 35 years and have fully restored it.  7:30 came, and back on the bus we got to finally return to Cumberland Lodge for dinner.  Dinner was over around 10, and it was time to fall into bed.

Today started a little later - catching up on jet lag, and feeling a little slow today.  But it was conference day 2, so meetings all day and catching up on work.  Am glad it wasn't so hectic. Just have to finish up with dinner, then early to bed.  Tomorrow is the last day here - I hope to be able to take the 'Long Walk' (a straight grassy avenue 2 miles long) up to Windsor Castle, but that will depend on weather.  Then off to Heathrow tomorrow night for the long flight to Singapore and Sydney.  Right now this is jet lag in training, lol.