Tuesday 20 May - London

After the tour of the Duxford museum we kept close to home waiting to hear about Jim's flight home. His was the first flight to be cancelled when the airspace was closed due to the volcanic ash. There was one small emergency that was solved by the National Health Service. Jim (Jeff's step father) had only brought enough medication for his week's stay plus one day. Jeff contacted the NHS and was told Jim could register with a doctor and would be given his medications. He did just that and  received another week's supply of meds.
From this experience I have come to understand that as long as I am visiting the UK, the NHS will provide medical help if needed at no charge. In other words the only travel insurance I need is to cover me flying to and returning from the UK.
As it turned out, Jim had to get a second supply of meds. In all, he spent an extra 8 days in the UK.

On Sunday the 18th we started out at 6:30 am to do some car boot sales. Almost every large community has a boot sale once or twice a month, and I'm talking hundred's of tables being set out. Mark is a vinyl record collector and it is surprising to me that he can find a record that he knows is valuable and be able to purchase it for 50 pence. Jeff is new at it and has to carry a book about 3 inches thick that lists all the records produced and their current value to collectors. At one car boot sale he spent about £2 for records that had a potential value of over £20!
Tramping among all the stalls make one hungry so we made out way to the Mad Cat Pub on High Street in Pidley, not far from home. The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) voted the Mad Cat the best pub in 2009, and I must agree. A great selection of ales and a delicious, all you can eat carvery for £7.95. A fitting end to a great day. All headed home for naps.

After our naps some of the hardier ones joined me for a six mile walk in the early evening.

Tuesday saw me on a train heading for London to spend the day bus touring and seeing a couple of the more interesting sites. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the bus tour I found I had forgotten my camera so I was not able to record the sites. The bus tour was well worth the fee of £25, which allowed me to hop on and off all day long. It was a cold and blustery day, especially when you are sitting on a double decker bus open to the elements. But I got to see many of the sites that have figured in world history.
I saw Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square and learned that the height from the top of the statue to the base is the same height as from the top of the main mast to the deck of Nelson's ship HMS Victory. At the same time I noticed that as we passed Canada House there was no mention of the building on the audio tape I was listening to; and the tape did mention the Australian Embassy as we passed. Did we do something to upset the Brits?
I did the whole tour which takes about 2 hours and then got off at Westminster Abbey. What a magnificent building, it is more than I could imagined from seeing services on the TV. The only problem was that I was not allowed to take photographs, a ploy I am sure to increase the sale of their souvenir book of Westminster - didn't work with me. They did have an excellent audio tour by Jeremy Irons.
I re-boarded the tour bus and got off again at St Paul's Cathedral. Again no photos and again no souvenir booklet purchased, although it was offered. In other cathedrals there was no problem with taking photographs, some charged a small amount and others nothing. I know running a cathedral is expensive, but no photographs!!??
I had spent about 2-1/2 hours in Westminster Abbey listening to the audio tour and taking in all of the history. With the bus ride back I did not have time I wanted to see St Paul's so I made a quick tour of the cathedral with the thought that I would have to come back again soon.
I did a walkabout of the streets around the cathedral and decided that I much prefer the smaller towns and villages to London. There is a tremendous amount of history here dating back to the Romans but it is overwhelming when trying to take it all in on a single day, it is impossible. And then there is the traffic, the people the noise, the construction and did I mention the noise.