First Days in London - September 1995

So, I pried the drawer open and found my 1995 photo album, covered by a thick blanket of dust. I didn't realize dust accumulated in drawers. I suppose when said drawer is in a hundred-year-old built-in wood buffet, dust gets in.

The album is fairly typical of the time - brown exterior with metallic detail, housing a three-ring binder of plastic-covered sticky sheets. These pages hold photographs, postcards, ticket stubs, dried flowers, brochures, receipts, and more. I guess it's a scrapbook more than a photo alubum.

I still need to locate my travel journal. It wasn't where I thought it was, so I guess I need to go to the next layer of storage!

Let's get started looking at the scrapbook...

The first thirty-two pages of the book are devoted to five days in London. I had forgotten how super excited I was to go to London. This section of the scrapbook features A LOT of postcards. I remember us not taking many photographs while in London. I would like to think were too busy "being there", but we were most likely too busy looking at street maps, Tube maps, keeping track of our passports and getting on one another's nerves. But never fear, there are a few gems of us in our mid-1990s glory.

I won't bore you with all 32 London pages, such as the four or five pages of postcards of my favorite paintings from the Natinal Gallery, or the three pages full of Westminster Abbey brochures. I will try to hit the high points.

Page 2 made me chuckle. We took this bus from Heathrow to our hotel. If I remember correctly, the bus ride took about three hours, stopping at every single hotel in greater London. I am sure I was queasy. And tired. And anxious that Airbus Direct would forget to stop at our hotel.

Our hotel was the Ridgemount near the British Museum. It was run by a very nice couple.

I will describe the hotel and our cute little room when I get to that photo.

We didn't lose anytime, hitting the British Museum the afternoon we arrived.

Nothing like bog bodies and ancient marble monuments to perk up one's jet lag!

This is Regan, on the bottom of the page.

You can see the strap of her "pouch" around her neck. Those pouches were the biggest pains in the neck. Meant to keep your passport, money and credit cards safe and on your person at all times, they proved to be sources of much annoyance and many jokes throughout our three week trip.

That's me on the left. I sure look young...

Looks like I am referencing the guide book. Probably "Let's Go: London". I think this was one of the last times I used a guide book.

In fact, I am pretty sure this was the only time I looked at that guidebook!

Regan - what exactly are you looking at? My memory fails me...












That's all for now. This trip down memory lane might just take me forever...

And by the way, some other items in that broken drawer: a strobe light, an even older scrapbook from my first trip to Ireland in 1988, some tarnished silverware from my grandma, and the clock that hung in the kitchen of my childhood home.

Those things stayed put, covered in the dust blanket. Their times will come.






















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