London--Soho and Jersey Boys

Fred and I always like to see a play while in Lond0n--there is a huge variety and, compared to US prices, you can get some deals. We decided to go see Jersey Boys. The Prince Edward Theatre is down in Soho, and it was packed. Here are some of the crowds outside one of the bars as we left the theatre (it was a great show!)

A view of the theatre as we left, with all the little bicycle carts picking up people.

One quite often finds musicians in London's Underground. Here a quite talented violinist entertains us on a long escalator ride.

Quiet Day in London

Fred and I waved goodbye to Peg and Sue, then got up and took the laundry to be washed at the laundramat almost next to the hotel. Saw this MINI and Fiat 500 parked next to the hotel.


Then, we went for a walk in Hyde Park. Saw some cool birds (see www.birdlist.blogspot.com)

A doggy water fountain in Hyde Park.

A glimpse of the Memorial to Prince Albert that Queen Victoria had built. It's quite huge. It had to be painted black during WW II so the Germans couldn't bomb it.

London Sights

On our way back from the War Museum, we checked out the London Eye, which we rode on our last trip. This immense Ferris wheel never stops moving, one has to step on to the car as it slowly moves by. It was quite controversial, I suppose it still may be, but the crowds to get on were immense.

The Eye is right across the Thames from Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey (the low white double towers to the right of Big Ben).

There will always be an England...

Imperial War Museum, London--Part II

There was a maze in the basement that took one through both WWI and WWII. We spent a good bit of time in the WWI exhibit as we didn't know much about it, compared to WWII.

There were display cases about many different aspects of the war. This was part of one about protective gear, both German and British. That's some kind of gas mask.

A scene from trench life. There would be three trenches: a front line trench, a supply trench and a recovery trench. I believe this scene would have been in the recovery trench, the furthest from the front line. Communication passages linked the trenches. There were signs "Do Not Leave the Trenches in Daylight."


We did go through a bit of the WWII exhibit. Here is an Enigma machine, the German encoder/decoder broken by the Allies.

Fred posing by the guns outside the Museum (see pic below) to show scale. We had lunch ("jacket potatos") at a park stand near the museum.

London--Imperial War Museum

On Tuesday, we visited the Imperial War Museum. The building was built as a hospital in 1815 and continued there until 1930. The dome was added in 1846. The museum was established there in 1936.

There were several children's exhibits, including one about the trenches. We did not go to this one, but we did go to the regular exhibit about the trenches.

When you first walk in, this is the view, at least part of it. There are German V2 bombs, a P-51 and a Spitfire Mark 1A among others....

A Sherman tank on display.

Serpentine, Hyde Park, London

Another picture from last night that for some reason didn't publish...that's the full moon reflecting in the pool.

We Arrive in London!

9 AM Monday morning, we drove from Turku to Helsinki to catch our 2 PM flight to London. Everything went smoothly and I think everyone was grateful not to have to be crammed into Opel station wagon we'd been using. We left Outi at the airport--she was going to take the bus back to Heinola. It was sad to part after 12 days together!The flight went smoothly (except for some turbulence and a cross wind as we were landing), we took the Heathrow Express to London (did you know Return = Round Trip in British) and a short cab to our hotel. After a rest we headed out to a nearby pub, The Victoria, to meet some friends now living in London.

Peg with Mary Ann and Jim in front of the pub.

Our hotel is just across from Hyde Park, so we walked through a bit of it before turning in. Below, flowers in front of little cottage near the Serpentine.

The Serpentine as night fell.

Turku, Finland Part II

The Castle was great study in light and shadow, and wonderful textures. It was started, I think, in the 14th century and continually expanded through the 19th century.

The Catholic chapel.

After the castle, we had a wonderful lunch cruise, then went to the "underground" museum; it has a great tour of the underground ruins of medieval Turku.

Skeletal remains of a dog.

An early chapel, recreated.

Turku, Finland

The last part of our Finland trip, Turku. Turku was once the capital of Finland until 1809, when the Russians took control. The day we arrived, the annual midsummer's festival (I think) was taking place. Tons of people, loud music, and lots of alcohol. The river was lined with people, there was bungee jumping, and people everywhere. That's the Turku Cathedral in the background.

Paavo Nurmi, the great long distance runner and Olympic gold medalist of the late 50s early 60s was the first Finn I ever heard of. This statue of him was in a small park near the river.

Turku Castle, a medieval castle.

A passageway in the castle.

St Petersburg Food--Part II

Our lunch stop on our guided tour. I won't make any other comment except that the restaurant is named after Dostoevsky's book "The Idiot."

These crepe style pancakes are a staple. We saw them in several places, for breakfast and lunch. I had them with sour cream and caviar.

Peg's came stuffed with mushrooms and tied into these little "purses."

We also ate at a restaurant named after another famous Russian. We sat outside here. It was quite good, also.

This was a caviar terrine, with marzapone cheese and caviar. Yummy!

Our last meal in St Petersburg was at DaVinci's. We had beef stroganoff and borscht. Quite a nice ending before we went back to the train!

St Petersburg Food --Part I

We ate, the first night, at a little restaurant right next to our hotel. It was quite good, but service was s-l-o-w. Sue and Peg said it was a "one wok restaurant," a saying of their after being at a Chinese restauarant where each dish came out one at at time. Pretty much like ours did here. This was borscht (beet soup). Very good! It can be hot or cold, apparently. Mine was hot.

Fred got a pork cutlet. His was very good.

I got a potato, mushroom and "meat," local style. It was good, but the meat was a little chewy. Horse?

Here's the window for the restaurant.