Day FORTY TWO. To Be or Not to Be. A Tourist.

 In the morning I was having a hard time deciding what to do with my time for the day.... bike tour....be lazy.....see some sights....grocery shop... be lazy...I opted for see some sights. Essex had recommended some places for me to see, so I used that as a guide for my day.

 First stop. Poppies at The Tower of London. I didn't go inside (I am saving that for any visitors that want to come see me), rather I went along the outer edge to see an instalation called "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" marking 100 years since the First World War. The moat surrounding the Tower is filled with ceramic poppies, 888,246 to be exact. One poppy for each british & territorial soldier who dies in WWI. I didnt know that's what the poppies stood for until I heard an older lady tell two boys about the poppies. It is amazing and sobering to think of the sacrafices of all those soldiers. The contrast of the red poppies against the gray stone tower walls was pretty amazing. 

Before I left home (arizona), I went to familysearch.org and printed out my family tree fan chart. I wrote in where every ancestor was born. There are a few from England, and one from a burrough of London, Wapping. My great great grandfather (my mom's dad's mom's dad) was born in Wapping in 1827. I decided to go to the town he was born in. I checked with Malta first to make sure it wasnt a scetchy part of town, and she said that "it was up and coming. Helen Mirren lives there." Shoot if its good enough for an Oscar winner, it is good enough for me. From the Tower of London I walked to Wapping. [I really need to invest in learning the bus system.] I didnt have an exact location of his (William Sheperd) birth, but I was good enough with the town/signage of Wapping on a building. The area is a bit old mixed in with a lot of new buildings surrounding it. I asked a random lady in a Wapping Garden park to take my picture with the scroll I made of my lineage to this place. She didnt comment on my scroll, just took the pictures, and walked on. And so did I. I walked on.

 I walked along the River Thames walking path over the Tower Bridge (the one people think is the London Bridge) to the south side of the river to go to the Design Museum. By the time I got there I needed the loo & something to eat, and decided to save $$ for the museum to go with somone else (most all museums here are free, not this one :((). Luckilly they had wifi, and I used my CityMapper app to get me to Burough (Burro) market...on a bus....it is a place that I had heard a lot about and it comes with lots of food stalls.

 I circled and circled Burough Market, fascinated by all the foods, produce, meats, fish, breads, cheeses, food vendors. I found an indian place to grab a bite to eat at. I have no idea what it was, but it was vegetarian and delicious. I also got a brownie and a ginger cookie to eat later. Lisa, your ginger cookies are way better, and the brownie...was like eating something brown, but not a brownie if you catch my drift.

 At this point I decided to call it a day. It was only 430, but I had a successful tourist day. I still needed to be local, and buy some groceries. Since I hadn't walked enough (hahah) I decided to get off 2 stops early and head to North End Road to the farmers market stalls. Looking at all the food, I had no stamina to carry to much. I bought bananas (12 for 1 pound) and walked home. Envying the buses that drove past, always missing the stops. I stopped by the grocery store to buy almond milk. Exciting I know.

Came home and felt exhausted. Ate the rest of my indian food, ate the ginger cookie, caught up on rewriting some recipes, watched some tv, and went to bed.

 I need an app that tells me how far I walk, but some days I'd rather not know.  I tallied it up for the day at it was about 4.25 miles of walking. That isnt much I know, but it was still a fair amount.

 A great day to be a tourist.

If you dont want to leave a comment, you can always send me an email michelletarwater at gmail dot com

For more information on the Poppies go to: http://poppies.hrp.org.uk