Tower of London ... and Dickens

Shirley's daughters

Today I joined Shirley and the girls on a tour of the Tower of London.  Another beautiful day.  Apparently the good weather arrived the same day that I did.  I've been very lucky!

Beefeater with tour and Tower Bridge in  the background

It's 35 years since I've been to the Tower, and it is much easier to get around, and see the crown jewels.  Also, the tourist concourses are much better - there are many areas to take good photos.

After lunch, the girls went off to the London Eye, and I went to see the Dickens Exhibition  at the London Museum.  It was well worthwhile.
I find it's good to plan out my day and the itinerary on Google maps, to discover the best way to travel without too many changes.  I then write the best journey down in my notebook.  I'd never remember them all.

When I can, I prefer buses since there is less walking up and down stairs.  We couldn't believe the distance we had to travel - up and down stairs, about three sets of escalators and about 10 tunnels between the Central and
District lines, just to travel one station. We all agreed it would have been quicker to walk, but none of us had a London A-Z.

Fortunately, from London Tower to the Museum of London was a simple matter of jumping on the 100 red bus.

Very tired again tonight, and felt like I'd broken a toe, my big toe was giving me a lot of grief, but it's easing now, so that's a relief.  I planned and booked my train journeys for the next fortnight, since I will be travelling from Southampton to Coventry, Coventry to Barnsley, Barnsley to Banbury in the space of four days between 6th and 10th June.  After that, who knows?  I have a couple of ideas, but maybe I'll wait and see what happens with my research.

I was so lacking in energy that I haven't contacted any of my "new" cousins, it seemed better to spend the time with Shirley, Johnnie and the girls whilst I could.  After all, it's a long way to Florida, and none of them are keen to come to Australia.  Long flights give them the horrors.

Tomorrow at 2pm I will be catching the train from Victoria Station to Arundel, a castle town just 10 minutes drive from Linda and Peter's place.  They suggested that as a good route to take and they will pick me up.  Looking forward to my third visit - always a delight. Linda was a Tucker, and we are going to make contact with yet another one - Sarah, who is more distantly related but from the same gene pool of yeoman and "ag lab" Tuckers.  See my other blog at http://tuckersinsouthampton.blogspot.co.uk/ for information about that side of my family.