December 16th Shopping in London, The Trek Home and STONEHENGE!

The view from my hotel room that morning.

These are pix of the CARPET in the “Elizabethan Dining Room” of the Imperial Hotel, where we enjoyed breakfast at “half-eight” on each of the mornings we were there. I luved that carpet! Har. The morning before, I had “kippered fish” with breakfast for the first time. Don’t need to do THAT again!

After breakfast, we shopped for a few hours before heading out of London.
I didn’t take any pix of the shops … but , I’ve got ONE QUICK STORY:

(Marble Arch sits on the Northeast corner of Hyde Park, across from the western end of Oxford Street.)

Cecelia, Judy, Jane & I, with Roger – the only GUY who managed to drag his butt out o’ bed for breakfast – took a cab almost all the way to the west end of Oxford Street; a street famous for being lined with several hoity-toity, big-name English Department stores. The Ladies wanted to start at “Selfridges.” So we did. Selfridges was terrifically impressive. It has six floors of shopping area, and contains several areas where very famous brand-name products are offered: Ralph Lauren, Armani, Versace, Rolex [Jeeze! 3000 Pounds (5,683.22 US dollars) for a WATCH!], and many others. I was merely shopping for inexpensive gifties, so I didn’t bother to enter any of the high-priced zones – or so I thought! I came upon a little table in an aisle of the store, filled with plastic, unlined TOTE BAGS. No pockets, no fancy brand-name. Just simple, plastic tote bags. There was a little tote on the table … about 8"x8"x2" … sporting a cute kittycat photo. Thinking that would be a great gift for my niece, Annaclarice, I checked out the price tag.

Thankfully, Roger wasn’t interested in the department stores, either. And! Located in between the Oxford Street department stores were other – cheaper – stores and shops. So Roger & I separated from the Ladies, and managed to accomplish some not-so-pricey shopping! LOL.

Once we all made it back to the Imperial Hotel, we piled into the SCS van
that Roger and all had driven to London, and headed for home (Somerton).
Here are a couple pix I snapped from the Van on our way out of town.

After finally reaching the MOTORWAY, (the English version of a US “Interstate Highway”) we drove for a bit before stopping at the first “Welcome Break” for Lunch. (Welcome Breaks are very nice “rest stops” that have a building with shops & food, and a gas station – er … petrol station!) Then, we were back on the road.

TRAVEL TIP: Never SLEEP in a van when someone has a camera! LOL

The drive was relatively dull. UNTIL, we left the Motorway and were
driving along a highway (“Dual Carriageway”) in the area of STONEHENGE!
Currently, STONEHENGE is VISIBLE from the highway!

I took the above pic through a window of the van as we drove past STONEHENGE.

But, plans are in the works to MOVE the ROAD that goes by STONEHENGE!

From a great STONEHENGE WEBSITE:
Stonehenge is one of the country’s most important prehistoric monuments, but has been famously described by a UK government committee as a 'national disgrace'. It is currently surrounded by roads and its visitor facilities are inadequate for today’s needs.
The Stonehenge Project will rescue this iconic World Heritage Site from the noise and clutter of the 21st century and give it the dignified setting it deserves.
Roads will be removed or tunneled and ploughed fields returned to open grassland. A new world-class visitor centre will be built outside the World Heritage Site and there will be improved access through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site landscape.

If you have information or suggestions for myne 2004 UK TOUR Website
– or PHOTO contributions for it! –
PLZ Email Me!
c-d-miller@neb.rr.com
That’s: c-d-miller@neb.rr.com –
those are hyphens/dashes (-) between the “c” and “d” and “miller”