Let the London Walks begin

London Voyage - Saturday, October 5, 2002

I made my second day in London a London Walks day. London Walks is a great tour company that charges you £5 and you get to follow around a very knowledgeable (and certified) tour guide, all of whom are very animated and fun to listen to. On this day (a Saturday), there were some walks that I definitely wanted to participate on. The first one I went on was the Old Westminster walk, led by Shaughan, a very witty and funny Brit. He started us off right at the base of Big Ben, then proceeded to take us around Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Lobbyists area, a private school just outside Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street and then finally over by the Treasury buildings, which also house the Cabinet War Rooms (where Churchill spent most of WWII).

The Old Westminster Walk

After this very good walk, I did go in and see the Cabinet War rooms. Sort of a yawn to me, but interesting still to think that Churchill did indeed plan a lot of the war efforts from there. Anyways, I then started walking to Buckingham Palace, but decided, nah, I'm already set for the London Walk tomorrow which would take me there. So instead, I made my way down to the Imperial War Museum, which Alan had said I needed to see. Well, yes indeed, this museum was incredible. There are sections devoted to every war Britain has been involved with - every section extremely engaging and interestingly portrayed. Contained within is also a new Holocaust museum which is one of the best you can see outside of the one in Washington DC. Additionally, they have built a mockup of a WWI trench, in order to give you a vantage of what it would have been like on the Western Front fighting the Germans. Pretty intense, especially when you go into the 'night' section, where it is quite dark and the sounds of artillery going right over your head fills the air. After spending about 3 hours (and my feet complaining quite loudly - trying to remind me I was going on a pub walk tonight!) in the museum, I went over to my first pub and picked up a pint (or two) of Kronenberg and a steak sandwich. Mmmmmm......

The Imperial War Museum

I completed my meal at the pub and then took the long tube read to Hampstead, which was the location of tonight's London Walks pub crawl. I missed the famous 'Along the Thames Pubwalk' and wouldn't be able to catch it any other night I was there, so I decided to just catch one. I didn't know Hampstead from anything, but why not? After riding up the elevator from the deepest-in-London tube station, I joined up with the tour meeting just outside the station exit. Emily, a very charming and entertaining Margot-Kidder-voiced guide, took us around one of London's nicer and richer neighborhoods. We saw two of the Spice Girl's houses, the house used for Mary Poppins (and also rumored to soon be owned by Russell Crowe), and a whole host of other houses and things, including the Heath and a pub frequented by Elizabeth Taylor. Not too shabby. Also on this pub walk (NOT crawl, even though I did end up drinking about 5.5 pints by the end of the night), I met a couple, Eric and Sheri. They were a blast to hang out with, and I talked to them for most of the evening, when I wasn't talking to a couple of schoolteachers I also met on this tour, Liz and Kim. This walk helped make what I thought was going to be a lonely part of the trip into a LOT of fun. I met people, drank ale, and just had lots of fun. Liz and Kim were returning to their home that night (Surrey), but Eric and Sheri were vacationing and we both were planning to go on the Jack the Ripper tour the next night, so I knew I'd see them then.

The Old Hampstead Village Pub Walk (highly recommended)

You'd think I would have gotten lost because of how much beer I had consumed, but actually, I made it back to the hotel just fine. Needless to say, I passed out and got some much needed sleep.

Click here to see what happened the next day!

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