Truncated

Today we planned a day that we figured was not too taxing, but flexible enough to shorten if necessary. We planned it geographically – on the map there was a cluster of places we had circled, so it made sense to aim for that general area. The plan was to visit the Tower of London, walk across Tower Bridge, take in a couple of small museums, possibly have lunch at Borough Market, and then finish with the Globe Theatre. It seemed to be about a mile end to end. Eminently doable.
However…
The Tower of London is really quite interesting, you know. When we got inside, I was astonished at how much there was to it. I don’t recall ever having seen a full panorama of the site. I think I assumed it was one building, and certainly from one era. It was brilliant to see crumbling walls from I don’t know when, and actual extant tower keeps and so on dated as being from 1240, along with Tudor and even Georgian (I reckon) buildings. We decided not to do the guided tours, but instead paid for the audio guides, to wander round with at our own pace. That worked well (mostly), and I expect we’ll do that again at other attractions. It was fascinating, and we spent a good couple of hours there.
We then set off over Tower Bridge, and as we approached we decided just to walk straight over. But then we found that we could do the “Tower Bridge Experience” for free because it was included in the Tourist Pass that we had bought, and the Pass gave us priority entry (no queuing) and there was a lift to take you to the upper walkway. So we did that too. When we finally got to the other side we found a place for lunch and reconsidered our plans.
We were quite close to one of the museums we were interested in, the Design Museum, so we found that. Some items were interesting, but for a Design Museum it seemed a bit bloody difficult to navigate in a way that made sense. From there we were almost ready to call it a day, but walking to the next station was virtually the same as walking to the next museum, so we decided just to go there and see what happened.
We made it to where we were aiming for, and we found the museum before we found the station so we did that. This one was the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret. It was such fun! Lots of scary old surgical instruments, apothecaries’ tools and ingredients, and some delightful medical illustrations and insights. We bought our first souvenirs: key-rings with fuzzy replicas of microbes and cells. I chose a common cold bacterium and Stephen got a brain cell, complete with synapse. Cute!
When we came out we saw Borough Market in front of us. It was 4.30, and we had arrived at our scheduled lunch spot. Time to go home, and start fresh from that point tomorrow.
For dinner we settled on a place we had seen on our way back home from the station, the Greedy Cow. (Such a great name, how could we not try it?) (That, and the pizza place we wanted to go to turned out to be not sit-down but takeaway only.) It was a really good meal, and a deservedly popular place.
And finally, some observations about baths:
• They feel really good after a hard day’s walking.
• You don’t need to take your glasses off. (Stephen was looking for his after he got out, then realised he was still wearing them.)

• It’s not as relaxing reading a Kindle in the bath as it is a book. Adding a cup of tea to the mix increases the tension exponentially.
• Apparently those angled handrails on bathroom walls are not just to help the elderly in case they fall; the merely middle-aged can find it a bit bloody hard just to stand up again.
Right, now I have to go back and re-write yesterday’s blog. A while ago Word exploded, and took yesterday’s report with it. Bastard Word.