LondonWe were greeted at London's Gatwick Airport by Uncle Michael and his daughter Debbie on Saturday, March 14. They whisked Mom off with them, and with a few words of direction as to what trains to take and where to get off, they left the rest of us to fend for ourselves for the afternoon and evening in London.This was real adventure! After about half an hour on the train, we arrived in Victoria Station and proceeded to explore the center of London. It was a bonus not having to contend with driving a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right hand side. It was bad enough learning to glance right instead of left when stepping off a curb. Why do these people insist on driving on the wrong side of the road?
We were quite hungry by now and so we looked for a place to eat. We looked at some of the menus in front of the restaurants and found the prices to be about double what we were used to paying in Canada. Three of us ordered fish and chips for four pounds twenty-five pence or ten dollars Canadian, and Len ordered a burger.
We were glad that we had a place to stay with our cousins. Michael had told us which train to take and where we were to get off. We phoned them from the train station and our cousin Peter Russell came down and picked us up and drove us to his house. Mom was already there, and so was Michael. We were introduced to all our cousins and some of their kids and generally had a really good time visiting and catching up on old times until it was time for bed. We divided up between our cousins, Peter & Isabel Pring, Peter & Lois Russell and Felicity & Tony Cook. They all took us to their homes where they cared for us with real down home hospitality and pizzazz. We felt spoiled. It was great to have friends and relatives this far from home who made us feel so welcome, and treated us like royalty. I hope they visit us in Canada so we can return the favour.
After completing our tour, we headed back to Brentwood for a family dinner which reminded us of family reunions back home in Winnipeg.
Back in Watford, we had dinner in a very stylish Tudor restaurant. We reminisced a little about some of Arthur's trips over to Canada and also talked a little about our family history. Arthur has been delving into some of the Cavenagh history and has located some more distant relatives - some living, but some, rest their souls, in various cemeteries. We stopped in to visit several of the latter on our way home
It was a wonderful trip, and one we will never forget. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving us such a terrific holiday!
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I'll just have to talk to the queen. We walked down to
Buckingham Palace and the Parliament Buildings and didn't see
any sign of royalty. We saw the back side of Westminster Abbey,
and that big clock on the tower that made us feel like we'd been
there before. The time was wrong though. It was out by about
eight hours according to my watch.
By now we were beginning to feel at home and were
getting the hang of this London traffic. We walked up to
Trafalger Square and enjoyed watching the pidgeons for a while.
I decided that with so many birds around there had to be a few
bad eggs, so I checked that my passport and my valuables were
safely tucked away in my money belt. 
We continued our walk up to Covent Gardens in the dark
and found that it was closed for the day. It looked like the
night life was winding up, though, and the bobbies were out in
full force. At one point a van load of about eight of them
screamed past us with lights flashing and sirens blaring. On one
street corner, two bobbies were arguing heatedly with a small
gang of young men. I think they must have had their bicycles
stolen.
On Sunday morning we awoke with the smell of
bacon. Isabel had gone to choir practice and Peter was cooking
breakfast. It was fabulous! After breakfast, Peter drove us to
Felicity's house to pick up Len and Shauna and then dropped us
all off at the Harold Wood train station. When we arrived in
London, we purchased tickets for a tour of London in an
open-topped double decker bus. We were allowed to get off the
bus at various points of the tour and get back on a later bus
for no extra charge.
We finally found the Queen! And we also found Princess
Diana! So much for the theory that she died in a car crash. We
found them in the basement of this warehouse type of building
where they were just watching the tourists. I am told the royal
family and others spend most of their time there now. I hear
it's a really big thing with the royal family - tourist watching.
The Queen didn't want to talk, though. I think she was having a
bad day. The place was called Madame Tussaud's, and there were
celebrities there from all over the world - no one from Canada,
though. I think it was a summit conference of some kind. I guess
Canada wasn't invited. Someday the Scotts are going to learn how
to clone these wax figures. Imagine having two identical wax
figures staring out at you! With all the technology they have
there, they can even make them talk and smile. Spooky!
We said goodbye to Mom who was staying for another week in
London, and then the next morning, Monday, Peter Pring
drove the rest of us over to Arthur and Susan Boyt's. Arthur,
another cousin who lives in Watford, accompanied us back into
London and treated us to a tour of the Tower of London. It was
most interesting to hear the tour guide give his rendition of
British history and to hear about the bloody reigns of some of
Britain's most infamous monarchs. There is a lot more to the
Tower of London than the name suggests. 
We took our pictures beside the Tower Bridge, walked down to St.
Paul's Cathedral where we listened to a choir singing. Arthur is
an excellent tour guide with a fascinating knowledge of the
history in and around London. He told us how St. Paul's
Caghedral had been spared from the bombing in World War II and
he gave us a lot of interesting background of the things we saw
as we walked through the streets of London. 
Susan was home when we arrived. This was the first time we had
met Susan, who was very friendly and hospitable, and a perfect
match for our beloved Arthur. She had our beds made for us and
served us tea while we visited for a while before heading off to
bed. We had one of the most relaxing night's sleep of our entire
trip. 
Tuesday was the day we were to fly back to Canada. We
left The Coop, as Arthur affectionately called his house,
and rode with him around some of the countryside where he grew
up. It was beautiful! We stopped at another cemetery where we
saw the grave of some distant ancestors with the name Curtis.
Then we stopped by to see Barry Curtis, a distant cousin who
rebuilds and tunes racing Porches. He was getting one ready for
the Tour de France which was only several weeks away. 
We returned to The Coop, loaded up our luggage, said
goodbye to Susan and then made our way to the airport with time
to spare. After saying our final farewells to Arthur we boarded
the British Airways 747 bound for home. From Toronto we flew
Canadian Airlines to Winnipeg and then Sheila and Brian proceeded
the next day to Prince George via Calgary. Notice the snow beside
the runway in Calgary. 
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