Saturday through Monday - Chartwell, Marathon & British Museum

The day we left Broadstairs, Saturday, we first had breakfast on the seaside at one of the huts that is a food kiosk.  Regular english breakfast with sausage, bacon, eggs, toast and baked beans!!  No tomatoes or mushrooms, though the view was about as English you can get - the Channel and the Cliffs!

Walked around Broadstairs for awhile and then had chocolate gelatto at Morelli's at 11 AM.  Couldn't resist!

Packed up, cleaned the flat and took off for London with the intention of going to Chartwell, the Churchill's family home for over 20 years, on the way.  We found it down a country road about halfway to London and it is lovely.  The view from the terrace was as far as you could see and all countryside.  Breathtaking, really.  The house is furnished the way Mrs. Churchill wanted it to be with several bedrooms set aside for all of Churchill's awards and gifts, including his order of the Charter!  And surprisingly close to London.  Took us only an hour from there and that was on country and town roads, no highways.  After the war, Churchill was afraid that he wasn't going to be able to afford to keep it so a group of his friends purchased it for him and sold it to the National Trust with the understanding that Churchill and his wife could live there until they died.  This end of the house with the trellis on it dates back to Tudor times, the 1500s. 

On Sunday, I decided to stay at the flat and write, do some straightening up and go for a walk.  John wanted to go into the City to watch the London marathon and I had no desire to be in the crowds.  He had a great time and so did I!


Yesterday, Monday the 26th, we went into London to go to the British Museum.  You know, after about 3 hours, both of us were on overload and decided to leave.  John had gone to see the "money" exhibit, I had gone to see "Europe" 1100 to 1800 AD.  I was fascinated with the artifacts that local citizens find on their land with a metal detector or under large mounds.  Good grief, one women had an entire Viking ship buried under one of the mounds on her land with all kinds of gold stuff and one man found a "hoard", a small metal bowl stuffed full of gold roman artifacts valued now at 3 million and if there is a buyer, he gets to keep it!  Worth the cost of a metal detector, huh?  This picture is of the big entrance hall.  It looks like once upon a time it was all open to the sky and they built a glass roof over all the parts.

After the museum, we went to Harrods and headed directly for the famous Food Court - a museum of it's own sort.  We decided we would each buy something - John got a roast beef and stilton sandwich for his dinner and I got a small chocolate mousse for dessert.  Yum.  His was very good, mine was better!  We thought about taking the cake pictured here but decided against it.  It wasn't the price tag of almost 5000 pounds that made us hesitate, but carrying it home on the bus would have been a challenge!