Just before landing at Heathrow Airport, I saw many houses made of brick, many cars parked along the streets, and relatively few cars running . This scene was my first impression about London and this has strongly remained in my mind. After 5-hour's waiting at the airport, we flew to Inverness. One of our two bags did not arrive at Inverness with us. At the airport office, we asked them to check the lost one and went to the hotel.
Our trip to London on a sightseeing bus (coach in British English) began the next day. First we visited Loch Ness, which is famous for the monster, Nessie. I do not know the atmosphere there in the winter but the lake was too bright for the monster to appear. The bus ran in the grassland where sheep were grazing. This scenery continued as far as London except around Edinburgh and a few big towns. The traffic keeps left in this country just as in Japan. But the speed of cars in this country was faster than that of cars in Japan. It maybe depends on the difference of the speed units used in both countries. The speed limit on signs is almost the same, that is 60, in both countries. But in this country, 60 means 60 miles/hr = 96 km/hr and in Japan, 60 means 60 km/hr. (1 mile = 1.6 km.)
We stayed at a hotel at Edinburgh. Our lost bag finally arrived at this hotel. It was lucky. We went to Edinburgh Castle the next day. The castle was different in terms of scale and size from our Japanese castles. I thought their castle was a fortress. I supposed that Edinburgh Castle was built for the battles with heavy guns but Japanese castles for the battles with swords, and bows and arrows.
Left: Edinburgh Castle
Right: Wakayama Castle (Japan)
We returned to the hotel in the evening and went to the restaurant in the hotel. I was asked my room number but I could not understand it at once. My English listening skill was not improved yet.
We left Scotland and entered the Lake District, England. We looked around the Dove cottage where Wordsworth lived. Many members of us were Japanese English teachers. They were interested in Wordsworth and Shakespeare. So they were very impressed by this house. I had not been interested in literature but it was a good experience to see the wooden house built at the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century in England. To tell the truth, I entered this house because I thought we would be able to have lunch there. It was my mistake. After seeing around Hill Top Farm, we arrived the Armathwaite Hall hotel and stayed one night.
The next day, we were on the bus almost all day long except the lunch time and arrived at a hotel in Chester. Although other people unloaded their baggage at this hotel and went to see the town, I directly went to my room because I was tired. When I began to take a shower, a bellboy opened the door of my room with the master key and brought our bags into the room. Then he knocked on the bathroom and said, "Excuse me, sir." I got mixed up and answered, "I'm bathing now!" He said, "All right. Thank you, sir" and left. I had not known whether I could use the word "bath" as a verb or not until I consulted it in my dictionary.
The next morning, we visited Wedgwood Visitor Centre and saw the production process of china. There are some such places in Japan too but this was my first experience to see the process. Recently I often watched TV programs that a potter was shaping clay on the lathe. I think basic methods are almost the same in any country, China, Britain, or Japan, etc. We visited the house where Shakespeare was born, a church, and the Royal Shakespeare Theater in the afternoon and arrived at Stratford-upon-Avon.
The next morning, we went to Oxford. The other people, except me, got off the bus, walked around the streets, and had lunch. I waited for them on the bus and had lunch at a restaurant near a parking lot. The restaurant was crowded with children and their parents. I could understand the meaning of "family restaurant" at there. I was stared at by everyone because I was the only Asian in the restaurant. I joined with other people and went to Compleate Angler Restaurant to have an afternoon tea. The taste was very good and the scenery was very beautiful. Then we arrived at the Park Court Hotel in London. The television in our room did not work. So I called the front desk and asked them to repair it. A serviceman came and found that a circuit breaker on the corridor outside of our room had been off. Next, I knew our bathtub's plug was not found. I called the front desk again to bring us the plug. A plug was brought us but it was too small. We gave up bathing.
The next morning, I went to the bus centre with my wife and our grandson by taxi. From the bus centre, we went to the place where we could see The Houses of Parliament from the other side of the Thames on a sightseeing bus with a Japanese guide and got off the bus for some time. We often had watched this view on TV.
We returned to the bus and went to the square, where we could watch the guards' shift of Buckingham Palace, via Westminster and got off the bus again. Many people began to crowd and our shoulders touched each other. Most of the people said, "Excuse me!" but occasionally someone said, "Entschuldigen! (a German: Excuse!)" I thought people had come here from many countries and most of them used English but some of them used their native languages.
From the bus, we saw many kinds of foreigners sitting around the Statue of Eros at Piccadilly Circus. I had seen many Japanese people crowded at one place in Japan but had never seen so many races at once. I thought "This is the Great Britain."(I do not know what Tokyo and Osaka are like today.)
After lunch, we went to the Thames and rode on a sightseeing boat. We were not able to understand the explanation given about the scenery in English on the boat because we did not take the seats next to the Japanese guide. We visited the Tower of London with the Japanese guide and returned to the hotel.My son and grandson came to pick us up the next morning. We parted from all the people on the packaged tour there and went to their home in Richmond. I heard he was able to go to his office in the City of London within 30 minutes from his home. Their three-story house was built as a brick duplex, or brick semidetached house. It was pretty good. I thought it would be impossible for them to live in such a good house when they returned to Japan. My son and his wife provided us with a guest room with a bathroom.
My grandchild
at the neighborhood.
There are many parking
cars along the road.
We stayed for a few days and went to Richmond Park and Kew Gardens near their house. The atmosphere was very nice. Our daughter-in-law invited a friend of her son's one day. His friend came upstairs, looked at our feet, and looking embarrassed, he took off his shoes. It's our custom to take off our shoes at the entrance of the house. Our son's family almost stuck to British customs except for taking off shoes.
We left London by British Airways. I talked with a woman passenger on the plane. At first I thought she was a British woman, but she said, "Now I live near London with my husband but I lived in Kobe, Japan before the Second World War. I am visiting my mother living in Kushimoto, Japan." Surely she might speak fluent Japanese but she continued to speak in English.
This trip became my final foreign trip. I cannot go abroad any more because my health does not allow to. Now I think three foreign trips were enough for me.