Saturday started quietly enough. Breakfast with Sandy, Bill painting, I went out for lunch and a little shopping with Fiona.
Fast forward to 5:30 (or 17:30 they say in the UK). We're all gathering at ours before heading out for the night.
Sandy meet Fiona, Fiona meet Sandy.
Sandy and Fiona meet Mr. Dibley.
Jerry and Jules were there too! Then we headed to the Tube.
Destination: St Paul's Station
Event: London Ghost Walk
I kept hoping that our pictures would reveal a shadowy presence that we didn't see in person but I'm pretty sure that guy in the white sweatshirt is alive.
St Paul's was beautiful lit up at night.
There were a LOT of people on this tour. Everyone likes a ghost story, right?
If you really love a good ghost story, this was not the walk for you. The guide was great, he added sound effects and hammed it up but the content was 80% London history and only 20% ghost story - not of which were particularly scary. But we had a fun time anyway and I loved hearing the history of the area.
The King's Wardrobe was a building - not all his outfits.
The area of London was great - we'd been in the general area before but not down all the medieval streets. Since much of this area was destroyed in the 1666 fire and then a third again was destroyed in the Blitz, there is a interesting mix of buildings dating from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century.
I think Bill and Fi might be trying to act spooky here…but I'm not sure.
We learned the origin of several common expressions….
When the prisoners were being taken in a horse drawn cart to be hanged they would stop for a pint - the prisoners would have "one for the road" but the driver couldn't because he was "on the wagon".
Also in the 1600s there were concerns that people were being buried alive. So they would tie a string to the wrist of their loved one's bodies that would come up through the ground and be tied to a bell. That way, if you woke up on a coffin you could just pull the string giving us "dead ringer" and "saved by the bell." The family members who would sit up all night to listen were on the "graveyard shift."
Once the walk was over we meandered back through the winding streets to the last pub we passed - The Rising Sun.
The Scene: Bill told Jules to pretend she was telling me that she was pregnant with Bill's baby.
Immediately after our award winning performance wine was spilled. But all was blotted and we went on with the night.
Fi and Jerry got into some intense political discussions.
While the rest of us checked out Sandy's tramp stamp.
Not to be outdone, Fi flashed her own tats.
Sandy is determined to take Bill's hat with her when she leaves.
Jules fascinated the visiting team by whipping open the crisp packets into little serving platters.
We even tried pork scratchings. They were officially disgusting. But they were not made with any artificial flavorings, colorings, or preservatives.
Sandy just got up this morning as I was typing this and summed it up nicely: "You have great friends!"
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