The final leg of our adventure took place after we disembarked from our cruise ship. We spent two days in London, staying at the Conrad London St. James just a half mile from Westminster Abbey.
in many ways this was the best part of our trip. The cruise itself was great: the staff was wonderful, the food was great, and the ship was beautiful. However, since we had to dock somewhat far from the advertised sites, we spent a lot of time on buses, and were confined to specific tours for which we had to sign up in advance of the trip. That left little room for spontaneity, and many of the more desirable excursions had significant surcharges. By comparison London felt very free, and just about everything we wanted to see was either walkable or “Uberable”.
our first stop was Westminster Abbey, which was inundated with tourists at the time of our visit. A sobering experience to see so much history housed in one building.
From Westminster we walked to Buckingham Palace – about a 15 minute stroll. Again, this site displayed what high tourist season looks like.
The icing on the cake for me was a visit to the street where my mother was born in 1906. The street itself remains, but the property where she lived no longer exists. The street has been extremely gentrified, after a wave of Jamaican immigration in the ’70’s and ’80’s, and a huge sell-off to upwardly mobile Brits in the ’90’s.
