Final Post from Europe - Day 51

Well this is it, my final post from Europe. I will post tomorrow from home!

We had a great day today going to Greenwich.

We took the Underground into London again today and we got off across from the London Eye to catch the boat down to Greenwich.

   

 

We were right across from Big Ben too. Love this view.

  

  

As our boat pulled out we got an even better view of the London Eye.

  

We went by St. Paul's Cathedral.

  

Under bridges.

  

And under my favorite Tower Bridge.

 

And past the Tower of London.

   

And the other side of the bridge.

  

Up toward the Cutty Sark

To the pier and off the boat to discover Greenwich.

  

The National Maritime Museum.  

      

Outside by the huge anchor and inside with the fresnel lens.

   

Figureheads of many different kinds.

Then onto the Royal Observatory.

It was quite an uphill walk to the observatory.

Our feet on either side of the Prime Meridian.

  

  

Then back down the hill to see the Cutty Sark.

  

Unfortunately we were 15 minutes too late to get inside. Oh well.

Back on the Underground and to the hotel. We'll pack up our final things and get up early tomorrow for our flight home. We fly from London Heathrow to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and after going through customs we'll fly from Philadelphia to Orlando, rent a car and drive home.

Just a few statistics from our trip.

We cruised 11,535 nautical miles which is abut 13,254 miles on the ocean.

We drove 1221 miles in the rental car.

We were in 16 countries, 17 ports and had 18 sea days.

We changed our clocks 15 times.

We went miles and miles on buses, jeeps, cabs and other public transportation

And I believe we walked a million miles or so. 

As we fly back home tomorrow I know this...

There's a whole big world out there to see and as we've traveled we met people in each country and found everyone to be kind and helpful. 

The places we've been, and the things we've seen and the experiences we've had have been amazing and it has only made us want to see more. I hope you've been able to experience some of it with us through the blog. 

I will post a final blog post after we get home. We look forward to our own bed and house as well as seeing our friends and loved ones. Thanks for following us around the world. 

Stonehenge and London - Day 50

Well everyone it's day 50.... I can't believe it. We had a great day even though we had to leave our ship.


We were docked when we got up this morning.


We had breakfast and came back to the room to pick up the remainder of our things. Good-bye cabin #1297 it was fabulous!

As we said yesterday we had an excursion planned to go to Stonehenge and then to the Hilton at Heathrow Airport.




Stonehenge was amazing. I really had low expectations because I'd heard that you couldn't get close to the stones but we found it to be a great stop and a great view.


The audio guide was wonderful and very informative.


This is the side that is more complete and still standing.

  
As you walk around it you see different things and of course different perspectives.

  



  

  

  

  

   

  
Jim and I felt that we were able to get very close to the stones. You cannot walk into the circle of stones anymore, because people were causing damage and putting graffiti on the stones. I can't believe people sometimes.

They have an excellent visitor center with great exhibits and information.

There is so much more to Stonehenge than just the stones. There are other burial grounds around there and other interesting information, more than I ever knew.


This is Jim standing in front of an example of how they would move the stones... It's amazing how they moved them.

We drove the rest of the way to the airport and took a taxi to our hotel. After getting our luggage in our room we headed to the tube station by the hotel to head into London.



We went to Covent Gardens Market a place we visited in 2010 when we were here and it's a favorite.
There are many street entertainers and craft vendors and many familiar high end stores.

We watched a couple of the entertainers and laughed and had a good time.


We watched this guy stand on a ladder and juggle.... amazing.

We were hungry and walked into this restaurant on the corner and had a fabulous meal. Shepherd's Pie to die for and Jim had wonderful roast chicken and then dessert. You know when we get home we've got to work on a better eating plan. But in the meantime....


Jim had THE BEST Creme Brulee I've ever tasted, and I had some sort of Strawberry cake thing. Yummy!!



We walked across the street back to the craft vendor area and purchased a couple of pictures we'd seen before dinner to add to our collection. Tired but happy and full we got back on the tube and rode back out to our hotel.

We'll head back into London tomorrow and do some more sightseeing.