Easter Monday Maggi arranged for Richard, Aida and Josh to walk the streets of London following one of the Dickens walks. Before everyone arrived I toured Pinner to buy yogurt for our next day breakfast. Before I returned Richard etc had already arrived. We set off for London by tube and landed at Barbican Station where we expected to find Lucy. Unsurprisingly she came late and we hung around for 15 minutes.
The tour took us around the corner to Charterhouse Square to see the famous Charterhouse building. Because of Easter Monday we faced locked gates so could not walk around the place or go on the tour of this historic Medieval and Tudor building which has nothing to do with Dickens.
We continued on our journey towards Smithfield Market, but before we arrived we stopped outside the Fox and Anchor, an old pub that still opens at 5 am for the meat market trade. The Hungarian born barman couldn’t stop talking, asking questions and telling us his life story. We finished our half-pints and moved on to St John’s St and St John’s Place, where we walked under the arch.
The arch again has no connection with Dickens but is an attractive London monument with a museum inside dedicated to the story of the St John’s crusaders and St John’s ambulance. Again the place was closed because of Easter Monday. By this time we had all become quite hungry as the time approached 2 pm. She decided therefore to go straight to Exmouth Market where Maggi had planned for us to eat at an Italian restaurant. When we arrived the we found it closed. A passing stranger suggested we try Pizza Pilgrims. I don’t intend to visit this food establishment again. I’m not that keen on pizzas in the first place and this was far from the best that I’ve ever tried and there was no choice, pizza or pizza. In a generous gesture Aida decided to pay.
By the time we had finished the time had moved on and instead of taking the rest of the journey from the guide book we wandered back down to Farringdon Station where Lucy took the train home and we returned via the tube to Pinner. Richard etc stayed and had a cup of tea and then left.
The only aspect of the tour related to Dickens happened when we walked past the Betsy Trottwood pub on Farringdon road.
Josh has matured a lot since I last saw him. He has just finished his second year at university and is now a confident young man. This summer he departs for a year at Phoenix Arizona to attend a year’s study into his chosen field of planetary science. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the time.