Y

Yet it could have been worse.
 

 
  I was so blessed to be kicked out of that hotel! This one Jane found for me, the Strand Palace, was a much better place to isolate. Map showing area around Strand Palace Hotel Strand Palace Hotel  
 
   
    5th Floor map showing room in relationship to elevator   View from hotel window   View from bathroom window    
       
Instead of signs with numbers and arrows, this map was outside the elevator.
(I added the green.)		   When I got to my room, the first thing I did was to look out of the windows. The room's main window was dirty, but it had a view! The bathroom window overlooked the back of a theatre.
(There were several theaters nearby.)
    Art Deco floor tile and TP   Chair and table pulled up to window, with fruit, book, and ipad   View from hotel window: day    
    The room was tiny but cozy, with a small but nicely renovated art deco bathroom.

   I immediately rearranged the furniture. I spent most of my time (when I wasn't in the bed) sitting in this chair, reading or looking at my iPad, and watching the sky change.    
    View from hotel window: dusk   View from hotel window: darker   View from hotel window: darker    
                 
    View from hotel window: darker   View from hotel window: darker   View from hotel window: darkest    
                 
    Sandwich and fruit salad in Tesco packaging   Pastry display, with worker   café scene with three red double-decker buses    
       
Mostly I ate in the room. I still had fruit Susan had brought from the breakfast buffet, and there was a Tesco shop across the street and a bakery down the way. But I was less infectious than I had been, and there were lots of cafés with outdoor dining nearby so I did dine out a bit.
    Savoy entrance 1   Savoy entrance 2   Historic plaque on Savoy entry    
       
The Strand Palace Hotel is right across the street from the Savoy! How I wished that I could go in for a drink...
    Cleopatra's Needle   Bronze sphinx at Cleopatra's Needle   airplane wing at dawn    
       
I wasn't strong enough for long walks, but there was much to see (like Cleopatra's Needle)
in the hour or so I spent away from my room each day.
    Glass covered Covent Garden with British flags over café   Rope walker at Covent Garden   Muslim women in ritzy part of Covent Garden    
       
Covent Garden was right there, with its shops and this rope walker and people from all over.
    Royal Opera House Arcade   Tiffany & Co. with planted wall   Hat shop window    
       
There were all sorts of shops near my hotel, both upscale and a sort of flea market (that I didn't think to photograph).
    Open book in foreground, fountain   Bronze of dramatic woman against pillar holding bust of Gilbert Sullivan   Bronze of British soldier on camel    
       
I made it down to the Victoria Embankment on the Thames: there are steps near the Waterloo Bridge entrance.
There were parks with shady benches.

   This is Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame.   A member of the Imperial Camel Corps.
    Boys playing ping pong at permanent table with metal net, with painted Corgi in garden   Sculpture of peasant-looking girl holding up dish   Sculpture of seated man with name hidden by greenery    
       
The embankment has ping pong tables. There were painted corgis around London, probably related to the queen's jubilee.

   I think this sculpture has to do with a charity for children. It reminds me of the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.   Who knows who this is?
Plants are mightier than bronze or granite.
    Theater entrance under bridge   Dragon handle on theater door   View of modern skyscrapers from under bridge    
       
The embankment also has this theater under the Waterloo Bridge.
(Isn't the dragon a fine door handle?)

   I got a glimpse of the modern part of London from under the bridge.
    Somerset House banners on building   Somerset House embankment entrance   RIver Thames with garbage barges: ferris wheel and other landmarks    
       
Lady Somerset was honored for her work on temperance. Somerset House is a warren of galleries and God knows what else, since I couldn't go in.
These shots are from down on the embankment.


Taken from up on the Waterloo Bridge: a garbage barge, and a view of my previous neighborhood.
    Above ground Sommerset House courtyard   Building with displays in windows celebrating alumni of King's College   Workers lounging about Telephone and WiFi here booths    
       
Somerset House up on the street level.

   A WiFi booth?!
    Building with displays in windows celebrating alumni of King's College   Sculpture over doorway above "The Friendshipof English Speakers"   Building with displays in windows celebrating alumni of King's College    
       
India House, one of the many government buildings and diplomatic houses I passed.

   "To the Friendship of English Speaking Peoples." Enough said.
   Back to my hotel, my London sanctuary.
   

(I was forced to buy
this pink carry-on bag
in Scotland because I
couldn't fit everything
into my suitcase.)

 

 

 

   View from bed with window and pink bag  

 


Finally it was time to pack up my bags,
put the furniture back where it had been,
say farewell to my little nest, and
catch a black cab (aka a hackney).

I was ready to go home.

    
                 
   
   

   
 


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