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Tuesday, May 08, 2018
Another morning walk, I took, to get some apples at the store. The weather...yup, fantastic once again.
This was going to be our day trip day, but we elected to make it a "walking tour" day instead. For our afternoon portion, we had reservations to a "Harry Potter" walking tour. The meeting place was Leicester Square. Thus, our first stop was there. We arrived a bit early and both needed to use the restroom. Public bathrooms being nowhere to be found, we simply used a local McDonalds, which did not seem to mind.
After that, our tour began. Katie led the group and she herself was an actress, who did a great job in being informative and energetic. She took us to many sites and showed us where scenes from the movies were filmed in London. She also asked many trivia questions from the movies, though we bombed miserably almost each and every time a question was posed. I think I had 5 points for the lead (for Gryffindor) until Ruth stole the contest by answering a question about how Rowling used Garrick for someone's first name. Thus, Hufflepuff won the trivia cup.
These types of tours are "free," though you tip what you want at the end. It's my favorite kind because it allows us full control and since one usually tips even on a paid tour, it saves that much more money. Since she did a fine job, we put in 10 pounds each. I think our group had 20 people so I'm guessing Katie probably did just fine that afternoon.
There was some time before our next event, so Ruth and I did different things for a while. I walked around and sat near a statue for some time. It felt so nice to sit down. A nearby disabled pigeon was hopping about (with only one foot) so I tore off pieces of my Bavarian pretzel and fed it to him.
Then I walked onward to Westminster Cathedral. I got some photos both within and without. Ruth was running behind so I headed across the street and had a pint in a pub (a favorite thing for me in London). When she arrived, we both explored the church for a while and then headed to Southwark Cathedral. We finally caught the Evensong there, which also was a treat to take part in. It was a very small crowd in attendance, yet still marvelous to behold.
Passing by the Shard, I was curious about tickets. The prices were just insane. Roughly $35 to go up. I love great photos, but I couldn't justify that price. No, but thanks. We passed and moved onwards.
For dinner, we had burgers at Gourmet Burger Kitchen. The place is great for a sit down place, but still with a counter order. I noticed my phone would not get a signal in there, despite sitting right at the window. My iPhone was just getting worse and worse. And it certainly couldn't be blamed on Verizon. Ruth's Pixel 2 had no troubles at all getting a signal. I may in fact be truly done with the iPhone series at this point.
Then we had our "Ghost Tour." We met back at Leicester Square again and had a different guide. He took us around to several spots in the area and told the ghost stories, filled with facts and speculation and myth. He was a nice guy and knew his history well, but lacked the acting side of being a tour guide, so it wasn't quite as entertaining as our earlier tour. One can learn facts and history in classes. It's much harder to acquire stage presence.
Since the tour ended in Green Park, we headed back to that Tube station and caught a train home. Our feet were aching. Two walking tours in one day is just one too many.