Gaslight Pub Walk

You last saw Jen and Bill at the wine bar, sufficiently relaxed and ready to hit the streets (at least Jen was!)  Our next event was one of the London walking tours - billed as a pub crawl by gaslight.  I'll say right up front that there were not a lot of gaslights in the streets and there weren't even that many pubs on the route but we enjoyed listening to the history and factoids along the way.  Our guide was known as Richard III because there are six Richards that do these walking tours.

 Bill had to do the whole walk carrying his big wrapped up parcel.

 Factoid - this is a built-in torch snuffer used by the torch bearers (called link boys) who would guide pedestrians and horses in the night before there were any street lights.

 Cat and Mike joined us for the walk.  This is the first pub - the Coal Hole.  

 Simpsons-in-the-Strand is part of the Savoy buildings and famous as a chess venue in the 1800's.  Richard III told us that chess pieces were standardized here because people would come with unrecognizable sets.  After a bit of googling I do see that the Staunton chess set became the standard in London in 1849 but I have yet to find a link to Simpson's and I'm bored of looking so I'm moving on.  This factoid may or may not be true.

 Somerset House.  Richard walked us through the fountains - fortunately they did not go off until after we passed through.  I don't think that was from planning - I think he just lucked out that he didn't get the whole tour wet.

At the next pub we finally unveiled Bill's package - - and it's a beaver!!

 The crowd at the Nell Gwynn loved it!!  There was a group of gay men at the end of the bar - one of them took a few photos proclaiming:  "This is my first stuffed beaver!"

 Bill and his beaver were the stars of the night.

 Even celebrity beavers and their handlers have to eat so Jules lead us to a Thai place near Covent Garden.

 We took in a stray from the walk - Joe from NY (sitting next to Bill on the left) who was here for a week of work and a weekend of fun.

 I think Joe got his money's worth out of the night and a few good stories to tell the folks at home.  It's not every night you kiss a beaver on the streets of London.

 This guy thought he was something special but we were walking the streets of London with a dead stuffed beaver.  We win.

 Beaver on the tube.

 Jerry started working the tube rabble asking for suggestions to name the beaver.  We have yet to settle on a good one.

 We ended the night at Cat and Mike's.  They live behind Paddington Station, 9 floors up.

At this point we were several hours past midnight.  Bill and I were already racking up Fitbit steps for Sunday so we took our beaver home and called it a night.