Wednesday, August 17, 2022

London - Marching Up and Down The Squares

As the time allotted for the British Museum expired, Leah and Tash announced that they were done walking around for the moment, but Abby wanted to continue.

Abby's friend who had lived in London, had recommended she visit Covent Gardens, Leicester Square, and Trafalgar Square.

So Abby and I left the British Museum and we decided to go on foot to these places.

First, we passed by the spot where anesthetic was first used in England in 1846. That of course means that prior to 1846, surgeries were done without anesthetic, Ouch.

We then passed by the house where Sir Isaac Newton once lived.

We then reached Covent Garden.


Covent Garden is not actually a garden but is instead a large complex of very swanky shops.


Many shops didn't display their prices.  If you had to ask . . .

Fun browsing occurred.

Then we walked on over  to Leicester Square.

Leicester Square is a very artsy kind of place with many street performers including musicians and comedians about, and ads for many theater shows.

There's a nice statue there to the Bard:

Then we walked to Trafalgar Square.

The square was very busy, as there was a party going on for the UEFA Women's Soccer championship that was upcoming for England v Germany.

This made it rather hard to get a good shot of Nelson's column as they had some walls and tents up, preventing access to much of the area, and I could not get a view of the front of the column.


I did get a decent shot of the statue of Sir Charles Napier towering over passers-by

There was also a memorial to Edith Cavell.  It turns out she is the great-aunt to a friend of mine here in Michigan, which was kinda neat and we sent him some pictures of his famous and heroic relative.


The square was rather busy and full of people.  After walking there, Abby decided she was done for the day so we walked back to the hotel.

With 16,662 steps taken, I was a tad sore, and that called for a beer.  But not just any beer.


 Yes, it's the Bottle of Britain, Spitfire Ale.

A really darn nice ale it was too. Really wish they exported some here.

A very successful day out and about the City of London.

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

Great pics, and yes, London is a 'tad' busy.

pigpen51 said...

So glad that you included pictures for us. It really helps some of us that have never travelled to Britain, let alone any part of Europe. It is mind boggling to think about just how old the continent of Europe is, with some countries being well over 1,000 years old, when America is barely 250 years old.
I think of the firearms company of Berreta being over 1500 years old, itself, and am in awe of just how history remains something to be proud of, in some areas of the world, yet in America, a baby when it comes to our own history, tries to turn away from it, and replace it with alternative ideas of what occurred, as if we think that by changing the narrative of our history, we change the actual events that happened.
Better to keep the history the way that it truly is, and learn from both our mistakes and our successes, then to hide from them, and learn nothing, being condemned to repeat them.

Aaron said...

Old NFO: Thanks, and yes it's rather busy indeed.

pigpen51: Thanks, expect lots more pictures. As the
saying goes: Americans think 100 years is a long time, while Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance. Lots of history pics to come.