Even though there were several interesting walks on offer from London Walks, we decided to travel independently today. Well, if you want to know the truth, we just didn’t quite make it to any of the walks.

The day started with a knock on the door at 8:12am — it was Jeff, wanting to know if we were ready. His alarm had gone off an hour before. Ours hadn’t. I now understand one more trick about my mobile phone.

So we left the hotel a good bit later than we’d planned, and headed for the Imperial War Museum, located on the former site of Bedlam.

The Rick Steves travel guide said that most people find 90 minutes adequate for the museum; we spent longer than that in the “Secret War” exhibit alone (about MI5, MI6, and related agencies). By the time we finished there, it was already too late to make the Sherlock Holmes walk, so we had lunch at the museum (not bad!), and then we visited the “Children’s War” exhibit (how children in Britain were affected by WWII) and the “Post-1945 Conflicts” section. D-Day beckoned, but we decided we weren’t going to study war no more — at least not today.

By this time, it was nearly 5pm. Fortunately, we knew that the British Library was open late on Tuesdays, so it was back to the Tube and King’s Cross station. We made a brief detour to the mainline station, but though we found Platform 9-3/4,

we couldn’t figure out how to get onto the Express. So we walked to the British Library instead, and spent a couple of hours in the “Treasures” exhibit (photos not allowed, more’s the pity!), marvelling at items such as three versions of Magna Carta, a copy of the First Folio, original lyrics from the Beatles, Jane Austin’s writing desk (with the original manuscript of Persuasion on it), and a letter from Sir Isaac Newton. Amazing.

The rest of the evening was an anti-climax; we Tubed back to the hotel, then walked around the neighborhood looking for some ice cream for dessert. We found up having “Chocolate Giant Ice Cream Bars” from the local Marks & Spencer — £1 each, and barely worth it. But definitely better value for money than buying Ben & Jerry’s from the hotel for £5.75 for 500ml!

And now we’ve packed in preparation for tomorrow’s trip to Bath (again, with London Walks, though we won’t return to London with the rest of the tour). I had hoped to be able to leave our luggage at the train station in Bath, but as far as I could find out, there are no left luggage facilities there — or at the bus station. Fortunately, I was able to book us rooms for tomorrow evening at the Holly Villa Guest House (another Rick Steves recommendation); the owner often picks people up at the train station, and offered to pick up our luggage when we arrive so that we can take the tour. After the tour, I’ll pick up a car from Hertz and drive to the Guest House, and we’ll begin the second portion of our trip.

This morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed for the Tube to take another London Walk, this time through the British Museum. I nearly made the mistake of believing that the weather would improve, but Diane talked me into bringing umbrellas. We got to the Holborn tube station half-an-hour early, so we decided to take a little walk — it was dry when we left, and pouring down rain by the time we’d returned to the station. Chris (our guide) was waiting inside, gathering the troops — we left the station the usual five minutes late, and strolled through occasional raindrops to the Museum courtyard, where she gave us an introduction to the Museum and its history. Then we strolled through security and into the Museum proper.

Two hours is not long enough to see the British Museum; two days wouldn’t be, either. So she concentrated on showing us the unique items (as she said, “every museum in the world has mummies, so we’ll skip them”). We started with the Rosetta Stone — like the Mona Lisa, it’s nearly impossible to get close enough to take a decent picture, but I tried.

After the Rosetta Stone, the crowds diminished (or at least the areas containing them got bigger). We continued to the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, which are arranged around the perhiphery of a large room (I guess with the dimensions of the Parthenon itself). Then to the statue of Mausoleus, the Erectheum Caryatid,

the Portland Vase, and finally the Ship Burial at Sutton Hoo. The tour ended there, and if we had had nothing else to do, we could easily have spent the rest of the day in the Museum.

But we wanted to see more of London, so we left the Museum (noticing that the security lines had gotten far longer while we were inside) and walked to the Forum Cafe for lunch. It was nothing special, but I’d go back.

Then we returned to the Holborn Tube station for our second walk of the day, Legal and Illegal London, guided by Shaughan though the four Inns of Court.

This was our favorite walk of the day, though there was very little attention paid to the illegal side of things. One thing we learned was that the most important name on a list of those in Chambers is that of the senior clerk

even though it’s usually buried in the middle of the listing. The senior clerk controls the allocation of cases to the barristers in Chambers, and therefore has a considerable effect on their income. We also learned not to believe everything we saw.

The Inns of Court are private property, and the public is only allowed in at the discretion of the members. Good behavior is required.

Our tour ended at the Royal Courts of Justice, but since cameras are not permitted, we decided to enjoy it from the outside

and went to the home of Twinings Tea to buy tea towels instead. After that, we walked down to the river to pick up the Tube back to the hotel. And after a very brief stay, we left, en route to dinner at Sherlock Holmes Pub and Restaurant (the Pub was horribly smoky, so we went upstairs to the restaurant, which features a recreation of Holmes’s study, as well as pretty good food) and a fast walk to Embankment station to meet Graham (again) for our third walk of the day, Ghosts of the West End.

It turns out that many London theatres are haunted. So are some of the gentlemen’s clubs. But I’m afraid that the details, like many of the ghosts themselves, vanished rapidly. Some of the walkers continued on to a fine old Georgian pub, but since it didn’t have a license permitting under-16s, we chose to go back to the hotel and call it a night.