Londonium

Days 40 to 43 - 23 to 26 June
Londonium was the original Roman settlement in AD 47 on the site of what is now London. In some ways the current London is trying to re-live the 'good old days'. By re-live I mean they've forgotten pretty much 2000 years of advances in logic and communication skills.
Take the landing cards that British Airways handed us on our flight from Amsterdam to London City (the small airport beside the Thames river).

Part of the Landing Card

I hate forms. Actually I don't hate the forms, I despise the idiots who design the forms. If you want people to fill a form in using BLOCK CAPITALS, wouldn't it make sense to use BLOCK CAPITALS everywhere on the form. I'm just saying that it's harder than it should be to do the right thing.
We decided to take a taxi to the hotel, based on the foolish notion that the £30 taxi fare that the British Airways magazine quoted was accurate, and that a taxi would be quicker than taking a train, and changing trains part of the way to the hotel.
WRONG! The taxi fare ended up being £50 and took ages, due to the inconvenient fact that half the roads in London are closed due to building construction, the creation of cycle paths and road works (ironic since the roads festooned by signs stating 'road works' actually don't work).
We eventually reached our hotel and then faced the daunting task of finding our room. We had been allocated room RT9 (RT signifying that it was on the rooftop). The check-in-desk staff told us we would need to take a lift from the lobby to the 11th floor and then transfer our cases to another lift to get to the rooftop (or, if we're honest, the 13th floor). Our quest to reach our room started promisingly and we soon reached the 11th floor. Once there we searched for a lift to take us up to the rooftop. Unfortunately we couldn't find a lift with an 'up' button (generally a prerequisite for going up).

The sign at the top clearly states: Lift to 12th and RT. The lift it points to, however, only has a 'down' button.

Closer view of the lift - see, no 'up' button

While the lack of an 'up' button was a little confusing, the lack of space in the lift was more annoying. There was only enough room in the lift for one person and two suitcases. It was clearly a service lift, running only between the 8th and 13th floors. I decided to search out our room before we took the lift to the top floor. I climbed up the flight of stairs to the next floor and was faced by the sign below.

Our room was RT9. Thus, according to this sign on the 12th floor, I had to go to the left

There was no extra flight of stairs to find our room, RT9 - it would seem that the 'rooftop' was a bit of an afterthought. Hopefully it wasn't a badly-constructed addition to the hotel. Anyway, in accordance with the sign I turned left and proceeded to the end of the building, to the fire exit. I climbed the additional flight of stairs and entered the 13th floor. I then passed RT1, RT2, RT3, RT4, RT5 and RT6 before having to descend three steps, walk a short distance and then climb up three steps, before passing RT7, RT8 and finally getting to RT9, just short of the other end of the building. I then went through the fire exit and descended one flight of stairs to check what was at this end of the 12th floor. Just inside the fire exit at the nearest end (to our room) on the 12th floor was this sign, shown below.

The sign on the door that I would have seen if I had turned right instead of left when I first got to the 12th floor

Clearly, the management at the hotel have never tried to get to the 13th floor. If they had, they might have noticed that their signs are not very logical (to put it mildly). Still, we were in London and the hotel room was reasonably comfortable (but it only had a double bed). We then looked out of the window and saw why the traffic is so bad in London - there really are building sites everywhere, and each building site causes traffic problems.

London skyline viewed from our room - not a great photo (taken through a dirty window) but if you look closely you'll see cranes everywhere - London is one big building site at the moment

Once we had settled in we went for a walk and the area of London in which we stayed was very interesting. I'll let the photos that follow provide the narrative.

Another nice sign outside a pub in near our hotel - sums up our experience of the European summer, to this point

What else? Fish and chips (and very good comfort food it was)

Yes, that's flame coming out of the tuba (in time with the music if you could watch it happening)

One of our reasons for visiting London was for Rhonda to meet with the retail manager at the British Museum (BM). The photographs below are some we took while visiting the BM.

The front entrance to the British Museum (BM)

Interior view of the Great Court in the BM

A more 'artistic' view of the ceiling in the Great Court 

Gallery in the BM - this one houses the 'Elgin Marbles', rescued (or stolen - from a different perspective) from the Parthenon in Greece

This photo reminds me of a joke by American comedian Steven Wright, who said he visited the museum that houses the heads, arms and legs missing from all the other museums (or words to that effect)

One of the world's shortest rising lifts - and someone who could have made use of it

More ancient stuff

Small model of the Parthenon - it would have been an amazing building to see in its prime

The vicinity of a rubbish bin outside the BM. This illustrates the argument for not having rubbish bins - if there was no bin here, there would be no rubbish. People will happily overfill a bin, but are (generally) reluctant to just drop rubbish

While in London we also caught up with friends. John and Trudy Young (who were visiting the UK from Perth in Western Australia), and John's sister Joy (who Rhonda and I stayed with in Bournemouth a couple of years ago). Unfortunately, Joy's husband David couldn't be with us this night. It was lovely to catch up, and a very pleasant bonus for us.

Me, Rhonda, John and Trudy, and Joy

Just had to photograph this little truck - not sure that the manufacturer quite understands the implication of 'Mega' on the door

The Leaning Tower of London - actually caused by camera distortion

Rhonda at, you guessed it, New Scotland Yard

Brilliant idea at a big train station - pick where you want to go and follow the coloured line

Highlights of London in one photo: Red double-decker bus (the top is visible above the FedEx truck lower left), the London Eye (above the bus), a red phone box, black cabs, Westminster Abbey, and (a bit of) the Houses of Parliament (tower on the right with a big Union Jack flying)

Clearly, 'only £2389.99' means different things to different people

On our last night in London Rhonda and I also caught up with my cousin Malcolm, and his wife Cathy, who came to London from Chepstow to take us to dinner.

Rhonda and me with Malcolm and Cathy - pre-dinner cocktails (mine was a very pleasant 2015 Coke Light)

After pre-dinner drinks we headed off to Simpson's-In-The-Strand Restaurant for dinner.

The roast arrived and was carved at our table

The meat was sensational

The Yorkshire pudding was also sensational (and spectacular)

The next morning we broke our fast and left the hotel to take a train to Heathrow for our flight to Bilbao in Spain, where I was attending a conference.

Final breakfast at the hotel - described on the menu as: "Muesli with strawberries and banana and blackcurrant". Not sure that accurately describes four quarters of a strawberry, two thin slices of a banana and a single blackcurrant. Still, it tasted good and was sustaining 

Huge thanks to John and Trudy, Joy, and Malcolm and Cathy for their efforts in coming to London to share some time with us. They made our London visit so much more memorable and special.
That's a wrap for another post. I'll do the 'Bilbao' experience in our next post.