Sunday, August 12, 2012

We spent Wednesday visiting the Tower of London (second time for me), and also Buckingham Palace. I was the tour guide! On Thursday we had tickets to the athletics at Olympic Stadium. We enjoyed our time although I thought there were more events scheduled than we saw, and we only had 1 event with the Aussies to cheer on. (The 4 x 400 metres for the men). We were sitting alongside a cousin of 1 of the runners. After we returned to the city we went up in the Eye for another look. On Friday we went shopping at Harrods, then made our way to Greenwich to have a look around there before the basketball semifinal. Unfortunately the Observatory was closed because they had set up the equestrian centre around it, very annoying as it was somewhere I particularly wanted to go. We saw the semifinal of the basketball between Russia and Spain. On Saturday we picked up a car and drove to Hever Castle, the former home of Anne Boleyn. It has been restored and done up in typical 1500 style. In the afternoon there was a display of jousting and other sword play and games, some on horseback others on foot. Henry VIII was the MC. We then drove down to Canterbury where we are staying. Today we went to Dover to see the White Cliffs. After a bit of driving around to find our way we went for a walk along the cliff top to a good vantage point. When we returned to Canterbury we walked around town to see some of the old buildings. There is 1, a hospital from Thomas Beckett's time, 1118. There is also a Roman museum with pottery, glass and jewellery from Roman times, 54AD - 450AD. People were discovering pieces from those times for several centuries but after some areas of the city were bombed during the 2nd world war several Roman buildings were discovered underneath the modern streets. Part of one of these buildings is shown in the museum, with the underfloor heating and a mosaic floor in a corridor. We also walked around the cathedral, but didn't go in - maybe in the morning before we return to London.

No comments:

Post a Comment