Euro tour day 17, Search for Plagues and the strange

Euro tour day 17

I did some looking after breakfast to see where I could go. One of the places being Putney Vale Cemetery would actually take up plenty of time just trying to get to the location. At least an hour then trying to get to the cemetery from the train station. I knew I wanted to get a visit to a museum into the visit some time. I thought I would leave the cemetery until next time I am in the country. I know I will be back eventually. Today the sun is out and the sky is blue. It is going to be a warm day but I wear my jacket as it is something that holds everything. My phone, cards for the hostel room and my oyster card. The other pockets have maps, wallet and my camera in them. I love the inside pockets.

I left and went looking for the first place I wanted to and this might be a little morbid of me. I wanted to find St Pauls church as they supposedly have the first plague victim who was buried there. The church is also known as the actors church. I wandered around the inside while the priest was sorting stuff out inside. I asked a lady who was helping and she had no idea about the person and thought I was after the cathedral and actually thought the monument to the great fire at first was to do with the plague. She asked the priest and he confirmed what I was after, but they did not know the location of the grave at all. She for all I knew could have been buried in a plague pit. Across the road in front of the church was the markets where the first Punch and Judy show took place. I had actually forgotten about this location.

After leaving Leicester Square, I headed to Hyde Park where I wanted to visit one Peter Pan statue that I had tried to look for the first time I was in London. This was in Hyde park, but I had given up after walking half way as I was on a tour bus. I walked along Rotten Row and tried to get an ice cream at the lake. Seems they do not sell them during the winter in Hyde Park although I was able to get one the night before at London Tower. I powered along the path and found my way at the bridge which I eventually crossed cursi ng several Italians who were standing right in front of the park map. I did watch a dog try and chase a swan into the water although the idiot owner shouldn’t reward the dog for doing something like that while telling him to sit and telling the dog is bad with a reward. He wonders why it doesn’t listen to his commands. The swan would have taken on the dog in the water and won too. I had a quick look in the Princess Diana memorial with water running. I was too early last year to even view this. I powered past a man fishing in the pond right next to a sign that specifically said no fishing. He had two rods out and I was thinking about going to Speakers corner of the park, but wanted to go elsewhere like The Strand and Fleet Street again. I paused at Hyde Park corner watching the service being performed there. Then I was off again around 10 minutes later.

I got off at Leicester Square and wandered  towards Strand street hoping that there would be a marker at number one Strand Street to say that this street was the first street in London to be numbered. Only problem was the only thing I seen was 1-3 Strand. This didn’t bother me as I knew this random bit of trivia. I then took to walking along the Stand and found a hotel, well several hotels that I think would be on the monopoly board. I found the oldest store front in London which is the Twinnings tea company and a private bank called Childes. I did find several consulates including Australia house although this place was impressive and huge. I looked for the Sweeny Todd location and did find the church that was supposedly next door. I don’t think they want to advertise something like this. I would not blame them at all.

The next and last stop i was going to make for the day was to visit the Imperial War Museum. I did have to stop for lunch on the way as it was close to 2pm. I had a roast beef at a pub called The Three Stags right around the corner of the museum. I had to sit outside, but I could feel it starting to get chilly. The museum was one of my quick whirlwind tours last year. I had only gotten past the main area before speeding off. This time I was there until closing time at 6pm and still had not seen everything. I wandered through the Trench experience, The Blitz experience as well a short show. The cause of WW1 and what happened during WWII were all interesting including the Enigma machines. I did find the children’s war too where they showed what happened to the kids when the war started. There were several other displays like about the real spies and the British spy groups including military groups that Churchill formed. One that I did not have much time to look through was the treatment of the Jewish people during the war. This did include how the disabled were treated as well which was the same way. There was a model display showing what happened at the major camp of Auschwitz. This concluded my museum tour. I will be back next time with an audio guide and a full day . It was night by the time I walked out