A Traveling Fool

August 4, 2026August 4, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 009: Day 5 – Onward to Cairo

My least favorite part of traveling is the actual traveling. To make it even worse, in my opinion at least, both Heathrow Airport and Istanbul Airport make you wait until about an hour or less before your flight will be leaving to let you know which gate you will need to run to at top speed (this is because most international flights tend to start boarding roughly an hour before they take off). So, from 12:15am to 2:35am, I had to sit and wait for the gate to show up on the board announcing departures.

Istanbul Airport is the larger of the two international airports in Istanbul and has been the airport for all scheduled commercial passenger flights since 2019. It is also the largest privately-owned airport in the world and the second busiest airport in Europe after Heathrow.

The other times I had flown in or out of Istanbul (this was my first time with a connecting flight there) I had been at the Ataturk Airport. I did not realize just how enormous this newer airport was until I was trying to get from F13, where I had arrived from London, to C4 for the plane to Cairo. I found that it just went on and on and on.

I have included here a couple of photos of the interior of the airport, the sign that needed to show the departure gate (with a red arrow pointing at the flight involved), a diagram of the airport with red arrows pointing at the two gates involved, and a photo of the airport from the outside as the flight to Cairo was departing.

Immediately after I had arrived from London, I headed for the WC. The line for the ladies was quite long. It was going to take some time to get inside, much less into a stall. Many of the women around me were getting rather surly. Didn’t have a clue as to what they were saying, but they apparently didn’t feel that they should have to wait.

There was a cleaning lady working. I smiled at her. Shortly after that, a woman and some young children came out of the Family Room. The cleaning lady looked around for another family, saw none, and then came to me and motioned for me to use the Family Room. Very kind of her.

About an hour or so later when I was pretty much alone in the waiting area, another lovely cleaning woman smiled at me and said in clear English, “Welcome to Istanbul”. I didn’t know how to say “thank you” in Turkish, but she was wearing a hijab, so I said “Shkran”. She smiled even more broadly and so did I.

The gate was finally revealed and I headed down the long F gates concourse. The Cairo flight was scheduled to leave at 3:50am. Good thing as it took a little over a half an hour to get from F13 to C4. This was even with using the moving sidewalks and not standing still on them. Reaching C4 and seeing that they weren’t yet boarding, I visited the WC again and then found a seat in the Gate C4 area.

Eventually boarding began. Nobody was speaking English. But they were directing people towards signs that had letters on them. They were the group numbers for our seats. When I got to the airlines agent who was checking on the passports and boarding passes, the computer said that my boarding pass was invalid. I showed him my boarding pass from London to Istanbul and explained that I had been given both boarding passes at Heathrow by Turkish Airlines. I also said that my case had been checked through to Cairo and would be on the plane. He decided to wave me through. Thank God!

We were due to arrive in Cairo at 6:10am and got there about 20 minutes late. I was just happy to be there. I had also been up since 6am the prior morning, London time. My brain was getting a bit foggy. I was praying that I would find the Viking rep at the airport quickly and that I would be able to get into my hotel room without having to wait until 3pm.

We deplaned on the tarmac and then took a bus to the terminal. There, waiting for me at the door, was the Viking rep. I was it as far as any other Viking tour participants at that point, so he grabbed my carryon and led me towards the Visa window. As we were heading towards it, he asked me for my passport and my $30 USD Visa fee. He paid for the Visa, pasted it into my passport and off we went to where the Egyptian passport control was located. Instead of taking me to the very long line of people, he led me to a pretty much non-existent line marked for Business Class passengers. He said something to them, my passport was scanned and handed back to me.

We went on to where the cases from my flight were arriving. He was in a bit of a hurry because he did have another group arriving soon and my flight had been late. So, of course, my case was the last to show up. Once we had my case, we set off for the exit, where my driver would be waiting. He pointed out my driver to me and sent me on my way.

I remembered from my prior trip to Egypt that driving in Cairo was not for the faint of heart and that traffic tended to be in various degrees of standing still or totally chaotic and nothing in between. First of all, there are no stop signs or traffic lights. Lanes are a suggestion only. Nobody uses turn indicators. It is all by the various honks of the horn. The only thing different this time was that traffic, for the most part, kept moving. They had modernized the roads. There were still camels, donkeys, carts, etc., on the same road with the other vehicles, but there were many more lanes.

By the time we got to the hotel, there was another Viking rep waiting for me. He greeted me as I got out of the car. My cases went off with another fella. This Viking rep had my room key! I nearly kissed him. He then led me through the hotel to my room. The entrance was on the ground floor of the South Tower of the Sheraton Cairo Hotel & Casino. My room was on the 19^th floor of the North Tower. I had Nile River views.

My cases arrived in the room just seconds after I did. I wanted two main things at that time – food and sleep. But the reps for the two river cruise ships that would be traveling together would be available back down in the lobby at 10am. So I did some unpacking for what I would need for rest of that day and the next two days in Cairo, as well as for when we would fly to Luxor to get on the ship the day after that. Then I went to do some exploring of the hotel itself and where things were before meeting up with the rep for my ship.

Another thing that I remembered from my prior trip to Egypt was that the water was not drinkable. It had stuff in it that my body would not take kindly to at all. But this hotel was set up for non-Egyptians and so the water and ice there were fine. The ship would also be fine as far as both water and ice were concerned. But anywhere else in Egypt, I would need to be careful to get bottled water, no ice, and nothing that may have been touched by water or mixed with water. So, if I wanted fresh-squeezed orange juice, I would need to watch that it was the juice of the orange only without any added water or ice.

Cairo was founded in 969AD and is home to more than 9.8 million people. The Greater Cairo metropolitan area has a population of over 22 million people. Areas of what would eventually become Cairo were inhabited from the pre-dynastic and early dynastic ancient Egypt roughly 6,000 years ago. The ancient cities of Memphis and Heliopolis, as well as the Giza pyramid complex, had been absorbed within the current city.

At 10am, there were two women sitting at Viking tables in the lobby area. One was for Viking Antares and the other for Viking Amun. I would be on Amun, so I sat down and had a chat with Hanaa. It turned out that she would be the Egyptologist/Program Director for my particular group. There would be 60 people on the ship, divided into three groups of 20 each. Our group was Amun A. We hit it off really well. I was the only Viking passenger down there at that time and so we had a very nice, unhurried conversation.

One thing about being an Egyptologist as opposed to just being a tour guide is that they actually have a university degree in Egyptology. They know the history, the mythology, the archaeology, and can read hieroglyphics. In short, they really know what they are showing you and telling you.

Hanaa gave me the Viking Daily for that day and the following day. This provided information regarding our schedule for the day and other information of interest. Information about where we were, what we were doing, local food, nautical terms, the predicted highs in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, and anything else that we might want to know was included.

The nautical term for that day was Land A’hoy. It said, “This interjection was shouted by the ship’s lookout to announce that land had been spotted. ‘Ahoy’ is also a traditional greeting for hailing other sailors, and was originally a Viking battle cry.”

After our initial meeting, I was certain that I was going to have a great time learning about all we were experiencing with Hanaa as our Egyptologist. I went back to the room to put what I had received from her away and take some photos plus a short video from the balcony of my room. Not only did I have some great views of the city and the Nile, but I could also see Tahrir Square and the pink old Cairo Museum.

I went to lunch (the smoked salmon sandwich in the photo was mine, plus one of the salads and the lemon juice with mint) and then took a nap.

Next – Exploring the Step Pyramid and other Sakkara tombs

August 1, 2026August 4, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 008: Day 4 – Highclere Castle

Just like my interest in The Randolph Hotel in Oxford was mainly based on a television series, so was my initial interest in Highclere Castle. It had been used as Totleigh Towers in the Jeeves and Wooster television series starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry back in 1990 to 1993. I had been a fan of that series and still have the DVDs of the show as well as the books upon which it was based. But Highclere Castle’s biggest claim to fame is that it was Downton Abbey. I was a huge fan of that series (which ran from 2010 to 2015, followed by several films in 2019, 2022, and 2025), so I definitely had an interest in getting to see it in person. For many years, I tried to get on a tour to see it, but couldn’t seem to get anything to work out at the right time.

The reason why it was on this tour was its connection to Egypt. George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon (the old English spelling, as opposed to the modern Welsh spelling “Caernarfon”), married the daughter of the bank heir, Alfred de Rothschild. The Earl had a fascination with all things Egyptian – much like me, but with a whole lot more money. He got into it seriously in 1907 when he sponsored the excavation of some of the nobles’ tombs in Deir el-Bahari (Thebes). A few years later, he hired archaeologist Howard Carter to search for the tomb of Tutankhamum. That search took roughly ten years and ended with the discovery in 1922 of the most famous Egyptian tomb to date.

Highclere Castle is a country house that was built in 1679 and largely renovated in the 1840s from a design by Charles Berry, the same fellow who designed the Houses of Parliament in London. The park was designed by Capability Brown in the 18^th century.

We were taken on an exclusive tour of the entire ground floor, which included rooms that had been used in Downton Abbey and rooms that had not been used in the series, but had their own histories. The woman who led the tour was an employee of the present Earl and Lady Carnarvon and had many personal stories regarding the filming of the series and films. She could tell us all about it because she had been a part of it.

We could take as many photos as we wanted of the exterior and grounds, but nothing of the inside. Since this was someone’s home as opposed to a museum, that made perfect sense.

She also gave us a tour of the entire first floor, which contained many of the bedrooms used as family bedrooms or guest rooms. One of the stories our guide told us while on that floor was about how they filmed the third episode of the first series having to do with the young, virile, and incredibly handsome Turkish diplomat, Mr Kemal Pamuk (played by Theo James). For those familiar with the series, that’s probably all I have to say. For the rest of you, Mister Pamuk sneaks into the oldest daughter, Mary’s, bedroom, seduces her and ends up dying in her bed. Mary enlists her mother, Cora, and a ladies maid, Anna, to help her move his body back to his room. Our guide took us step by step through the logistics of all of that as we visited both Mary’s room and Pamuk’s as well as the corridors involved.

The entire lower level/basement houses the Egyptian Exhibition. We could explore that at our own pace.

The exhibition included six rooms which illustrated the 5^th Earl’s fascination with Egypt, his early excavations from 1906 on, his relationship with Howard Carter, and the discovery and contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The collection featured authentic antiquities, burial chamber recreations, and replicas of Tutankhamun’s shrine and death mask. I very much enjoyed seeing it all.

Afterwards I went to the gift shop. There I bought a miniature of Highclere Castle and some rather unique earrings. Then I saw the tiaras. Fortunately none of them were terribly expensive. So I picked out the one I like the best. I didn’t buy it to wear it anyplace specific. I mainly just wanted to own a tiara from Downton Abbey. I have included photos of my purchases shown with some of the items I bought on my first trip to Egypt in 2008.

We had also been given coupons for a free tea and pastry. So those of us who decided to take a break prior to exploring the gardens redeemed our coupons and sat in the shade at some tables just outside of the café. It was a lovely, but warm day. Then we explored the gardens, including one that was labeled as a Secret Garden. This particular garden had been used as such for one of the various television and film adaptations of that story.

Returning to our coach at the end of our time at Highclere, we were each handed an autographed copy of Lady Carnarvon’s book A Year at Highclere: Secrets and Stories from the Real Downton Abbey. We were then taken to our lunch stop.

The Jack Russell Inn was located on the Faccombe Estate, halfway between Newbury and Andover. It was a small inn with eleven bedrooms, but with a sizeable pub. As in many pubs throughout the British Isles, dogs were not only allowed but welcomed.

This time I chose a Cottage Pie (like a Shepherd’s Pie, but with beef instead of lamb) and a Lemon Posset with raspberry sorbet, coulis, and fresh berries for dessert. With that I ordered a shandy to drink. This was a combination of ale and a lemon-flavored soda (which is called “lemonade” in the UK; what is called “lemonade” in the US is called “lemon squash” in the UK; to further complicate matters, it is “lemon juice” in Egypt). As I often do, I forgot to take a photo before starting to eat, so I am including a photo of a friend’s fish ‘n’ chips with mushy peas.

After lunch, we headed back to Oxford. We were due to arrive at the hotel at 2:30pm and I was to be picked up by a car and driver at 2:45pm to be taken to Heathrow Airport back in London. I just had time to shove my purchases and book into my larger case before locking it up again and heading downstairs. A hotel employee took the cases down and kept an eye on them while I took a short trip to the WC. I came out to find the car and driver there and my cases in the boot (trunk).

My Turkish Airlines flight left Heathrow at 6:30pm, London time, and arrived in Istanbul at a quarter past midnight, Istanbul time. I had not been allowed to get my seats assigned ahead of time, so they were assigned at Heathrow for both the flight to Istanbul and the flight from Istanbul to Cairo. I was given my boarding passes for both flights and my larger case was checked through to Cairo.

Once everyone was on the plane, several people were jockeying and negotiating to get a seat closer to whoever they were with or to separate themselves from strangers. A woman right in front of me was in between two men she didn’t know. She moved to the empty seat across the aisle from where I was sitting after asking first if anyone was sitting there.

I was fine with where I was sitting, so I stayed put. More about the time at the Istanbul airport and the flight to Cairo in the next installment.

Next – Onward to Cairo

Highclere Castle seen from path from gardens

July 22, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 007: Day 3 – University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum

Although the visit to the Griffith Institute had been a private one for just us. The Ashmolean had plenty of people inside, including a large group of children. This seemed to perplex our guide that we had for that visit a bit as the portion of the museum in which she planned to start her presentation was then occupied by those children. She would need to start us off elsewhere and return there later. She appeared to have a memorized script that she needed to closely follow. Eventually she regained her stride and began to add more information to what we could have read ourselves on the cards with most of the items.

One of the stories that I enjoyed hearing was about the Ram of Amun-Re. He was a guardian. It was considered to be bad luck to pass directly in front of him. There were all sorts of people doing exactly that as they didn’t know the story. Our group gave him a wide berth, however. I had been doing my usual wandering around to avoid standing in one place for too long, so he and I had already met earlier. But I instinctively did not walk in front of him. The photo I took was while I was standing a bit off to the side.

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology was Britain’s first public museum. Its original building was erected in 1678-1683. It is also the world’s second oldest university museum. The oldest is the Kunstmuseum Basel founded at the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1661. The present museum was built between 1841 and 1845. The new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were created in 2016.

The main museum houses one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, as well as majolica pottery, and English silver. In addition to the items from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan, the archaeology department also has a collection of Greek and Minoan pottery. The Egyptian antiquities are mostly from Prehistoric Egypt (roughly 6210-3150 BC) and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (3150-2686 BC).

The Ram of Amun-Re was commissioned by the Kushite King Taharqa at about 680 BC. The ram is shown sheltering the king between its forelegs and originally stood at the Temple of Kawa in the Sudan right outside of the Shrine of King Taharqa. That shrine is also in the Ashmolean. You can see part of it behind the Ram of Amun-Re in the photo it took of the statue (photo 012).

I walked all around the Shrine of Taharqa and photographed it all the way around (photos 013 – 017). This shrine was commissioned by Taharqa at the same time as he built the Temple of Kawa and was built within that temple which was dedicated to Amun-Re.

Shortly after the archaeological digs exposed the remains of the buildings to the weather (in 1929 & 1930) they started to decay. The Sudanese government took several carvings from the buildings to Khartoum. Then they gave the Ashmolean permission to dismantle the shrine and move it to the museum in 1936. This was all to try to protect what they could from further decay. As you can see by my photos, the shrine is looking pretty darned good 90 years later.

Some other items of interest include the “Two Dog Palette” (photo 010). This dates to about 3200 BC and was found at the Temple of Horus in Hierakonpolis. Then there is a Statue of Sobek, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenamhat III (003).

Photo 004 is a statue of King Khasekhemwy. This is one of the oldest known inscribed statues of an Egyptian king. He is made of limestone and is seated on a throne, wearing a conical crown. This too was excavated at Heirakonpolis. He was the last Pharaoh of the 2^nd Dynasty (roughly 2690-2670 BC). Little is known about him other than that he led several significant military campaigns, reunified Egypt by his 13^th year, and built a large mudbrick structure known as Shunet El Zebib.

Photos 005 and 006 are front and back of headless statues of Akhennaten & Nefertiti. Akhennaten was Tutankhamun’s father. But they don’t think that Nefertiti was his mother.

Photo 011 is a rare, life-sized terracotta sculpture of a beautiful red lion. It dates back to the 6^th Dynasty (c 2325-2175 BC) and was excavated at the ancient royal capital of Nekhen (modern Hierakonpolis).

I also include here a photo of a Roman Sphinx (002), that I saw in the outer sculpture gallery near the museum entrance, dating to roughly 50 – 200 AD.

Photo 007 shows several shabti in different sizes. These were the workers who would take care of the king in the afterlife. Photo 008 is a mummy who is still wrapped and still with the coins and amulets in their wrappings.

The last photo in this grouping (021) includes an actual Ostrich egg in the lower right. It dates to 3600 BC and is decorated with figures believed to be gazelles. It is also thought to have been included in the tomb in which it was found as a possible substitute for a missing head.

When we returned to the hotel, the Morse Bar and the Alice restaurant were both quite busy. I was also rapidly running out of steam. So the decision was made to grab my Sainsbury carry bag from my room and head on down the road beside the hotel just a couple of blocks to the grocers.

I picked up a cheese & onion sandwich, a chocolate mousse, and a bottle of an Argentinian Malbek. All were delicious.

Next – Touring Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey)

July 15, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 006: Day 3 – University of Oxford’s Griffith Institute

Do you want to know why King Tutankhamun’s tomb remained hidden from both tomb robbers and archaeologists for a few thousand years? Just read this post.

The Griffith Institute (established in 1939) is a part of the University of Oxford that concentrates on Egyptology. Its holdings include: manuscripts, excavation records, journals, inscriptions, drawings, watercolors, old negatives, photographs, squeezes, and rubbings. All from Archaeologists and Egyptologists who were instrumental in the archaeological discoveries and knowledge of Ancient Egypt. This collection includes the complete records of the ten-year excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb which were deposited in the Griffith Institute by Howard Carter’s niece shortly after his death.

Our group met up with our Oxford Tour Director, Sally, at the planned time and place and walked across the street to the Ashmolean Museum. There we were split into two groups – one of twelve people, and the other of six. The group of twelve (which included me) was taken around the corner to the Griffith Institute (photo 001) where we were further split into two groups of six each. One group was taken in hand by one of the people who worked at the Institute, and the other group went elsewhere within the building with another guide.

My group was taken to a smallish room with a table that had six chairs for guests and one for our guide. She started with some documents from Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie. These were some photos with his hand-written labels (002 & 003) and some excavation records with his drawings (004). We were allowed to take photographs. Most of us did so.

Next we were shown Howard Carter’s journal. I took photos of several of the pages that were shown to us. One of the entries that actually moved me more than I had anticipated was the Saturday, November 4, 1922 entry that had one line written diagonally across the page. It said, “First steps of tomb found.” (005). There were audible gasps from pretty much our entire group. The following day, his entry declared, “Discovered tomb under tomb of Ramses VI. Investigated same & found seals intact.” (006)

Tutankhamun had reigned from roughly 1332 to 1323 BC during the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt and died at the age of about 18 or 19. The cause of death has been debated. Although the tomb had a few items stolen shortly after the burial, it had managed to remain pretty much as it had been when Tutankhamun was buried in it.

In 1145 BC, Ramasses V (reign 1147–1143 BC) started a tomb above it, which was taken over and enlarged by his uncle, Ramasses VI (reign 1143–1136 BC). The rubble from this tomb fell down over the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb burying it. Workman’s huts were built over the buried entrance. The tomb was then completely hidden.

I have also included here some of the photographs taken by Harry Burton of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its contents as it was found. In the first one (007), the wall between the two sentinel statues was the plastered over entrance to the burial chamber.

The other two photos show some of the items stacked around in the outer room shown in 007. The oval boxes shown in the center of 008 and to the right in 009 contain food. This was to tide the Pharaoh over, in the afterlife, until his shabti (small figures of workers buried with the Pharaoh) could come magically to life and grow crops, bake bread etc.

Photo 010 is of Howard Carter with Lord Caernarfon at the entrance to the Burial Chamber shortly after they broke through. Tutankhamun’s mask is shown as it was found, still on Tutankhamun’s mummy, in photo 011. The last photo (012) of the tomb shows the entrance to the Treasury, just off of the Burial Chamber.

We then switched places with the other group and went to another room. There we were first shown the early attempts of an Archaeologist/Egyptologist to decipher hieroglyphics (photo 013), prior to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and some of his other notes and illustrations (photos 014 & 015).

Several drawings and watercolor paintings created by various archaeologists were shared with us as well. Photo 016 shows a drawing of a cache of mummies with a rather grumpy-looking statue at the top, just to the right of the text. Photo 017 shows three watercolor panoramic views of Cairo. Photo 018 shows a watercolor painting of Abu Simbel in its original setting.

Photo 019 shows a watercolor of just the tops of the columns (which were mostly buried in the sand) in what appears to be Luxor Temple in the city that had once been called Thebes. There is also a diagram of the temple (which looks to me to be Luxor and not Karnak) and two smaller watercolor illustrations. I am using the illustration in the lower right, which is definitely of Luxor Temple, to identify the location.

They also shared what is called an archaeological squeeze (020). This is a 3D facsimile of an ancient inscription made by pressing moistened filter paper into the carved surfaces of stone or metal. When dry, the paper was peeled off, leaving a durable, lightweight negative impression that captured the original pretty accurately. This allowed for enhanced readability of the original as well as being able to have a portable version of it.

They thought they were also helping to preserve the artifacts and not causing any damage to them. Turns out that some of the artifacts were damaged as the technique originally involved using a mallet to help create the squeeze. Later the mallet was replaced with a special brush with stiff, closely packed bristles, usually made of horsehair.

They also showed us a photo of the actual item from which the squeeze had been created. It was a relief of Amenhotep III (021).

After this, all twelve of us switched places with the group of six who had gone to the Ashmolean first.

Next – More Egyptian treasures at the Ashmolean Museum

July 12, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 005: Day 3 – Arrival in Oxford at The Randolph Hotel

I dearly love the Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, and Endeavour mysteries. So the idea of staying at The Randolph Hotel in Oxford really appealed to me. The hotel featured in both the Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis television series several times. The cast also stayed at the hotel during filming in 1987. There is a Morse Bar, which features photos of the cast of Inspector Morse, especially its star, John Thaw.

Built in the Gothic Victorian style, it is a 5-star hotel in Oxford, on the south side of Beaumont Street, at the corner of Magdalen Street. The Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum is on the other side of Beaumont, across from the hotel. On Magdalen, just across from the hotel is the Martyr’s Memorial.

This monument was built 300 years after the events of the English Reformation. It commemorates the deaths of the Bishop of Worcester, Hugh Latimer, and the Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley in 1555. They were both burned at the stake for heresy, near where the memorial is located, because of their Protestant beliefs. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was imprisoned in a nearby tower at this time and watched the deaths of his colleagues from his window. A few months later, he was dispatched in a similar fashion and therefore is included in the inscription on the monument, which was completed in 1843.

When construction began on the Randolph Hotel in 1864, many people wanted it to be in the same Gothic Revival style as the Martyr’s Memorial. The City Council wanted it to be in the classical style of the early 19^th century Regency buildings on the rest of the two block long Beaumont Street. They ended up compromising with a simplified Gothic façade in brick, instead of stone.

Colin Dexter, author of the novels upon which the Inspector Morse television series was based, often used to stay at the hotel and drink in the bar that existed back then. The series was produced between January of 1987 and November of 2000. There were 33 two-hour, self contained, episodes. The author of the novels made cameo appearances in all but three of them. John Thaw starred as Detective Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately was Sergeant Lewis.

I think that he was so popular because, even though he was brilliant, he was far from perfect. Professionally he would often come to the wrong conclusion and arrest the wrong person. He tended to be quite cynical and lacked ambition. Plus he often rubbed higher-ups the wrong way. In his personal life, he was a romantic, who had little success at love. In the final episode, his death is explained as caused by heart problems exacerbated by heavy drinking.

The first spin-off, Inspector Lewis, starring the same actor who had played Sergeant Lewis, Kevin Whately, ran from 2006 to 2015. In 2012 a two-hour special prequel film, Endeavour, (set in 1965) was aired with Shaun Evans playing Detective Constable Morse. A series followed from 2013 to 2023.

Morse’s first name, Endeavour, was revealed on only one occasion during the run of Inspector Morse. He explains to a lady friend that his father was obsessed with Captain James Cook and so he was named after the HMS Endeavour. Otherwise he was simply called “Morse”. There were many references to the earlier series and audiences saw how the younger version of Morse evolved into the older version over the years.

Our group traveled by coach from London to Oxford in roughly two hours. Our cases were taken into the hotel and stored until our rooms were ready. We were met by our Oxford Tour Director, Sally, who took those of us who were interested on a half hour orientation tour of Oxford. It was graduation weekend, so there were loads of graduates in their gowns and with their families. After this little walk, everyone went their separate ways until we were supposed to meet up for our tours of the Griffith Institute and the Ashmolean Museum.

In addition to being a Morse fan, I have always been fond of Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll. I even played Alice more than once as I had blonde hair and blue eyes. I began playing her in Minneapolis, when I was a child, and continued to do so when we moved to Texas, where blue-eyed blondes were not too common. Never got to played Snow White, but always got cast as Alice or Sleeping Beauty. Then there was the one time I played George Washington at the age of ten. But we won’t get into that.

The hotel also had Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) associations. He had been a student at Christ Church in Oxford and remained there for most of his life as a teacher. Alice Liddell, a daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church, is thought to be the most likely inspiration for Alice. But Carroll himself always denied it.

At any rate, the hotel’s restaurant was The Alice. Both it and the bedrooms had distinctive Alice touches. I had determined that I wanted to have at least one meal in the restaurant and another meal (or drink) in the Morse Bar. It was noon when I returned to the hotel. The bar had several people in it, but The Alice was not yet too crowded. The website had also indicated that reservations were necessary for dinner at the restaurant, so I decided to have lunch there and hang out at the bar later.

I had eaten a good breakfast in my room back in London at 7:30am. At noon, I was hungry, but not overly so. The Spring Risotto with wild mushrooms and truffle looked like a good choice and it was. I sat facing the windows where I could see the Martyr’s Memorial and watch people going by. The photo I took of the restaurant was a little off kilter, but I was trying to be unobtrusive.

After a leisurely lunch, I still had a little over an hour before the tour would commence, and so decided to go ahead and have a drink in the Morse Bar. The drinks were pretty much all named after elements of the television shows. I selected the Last Endeavour, which consisted of Beefeater’s Gin, Prosecco, and Limoncello. It was delicious and I figured I would likely have another when I had some pub food for dinner.

Business was picking up with more and more people coming in. So, when I finished my drink, I went to the desk to see if my room might be ready early. It wasn’t quite yet. I was directed to a room called the Snug to hang out until it was ready. I went in there and only waited about ten minutes before I was told that my room was ready and handed my keys. Yippee.

The room was on the first floor, so I took the really cool-looking staircase up as it would be quicker than the lift. At that point, I had about twenty minutes before I needed to meet up with the group. Just enough time to do a little unpacking for later and to freshen up a bit. This time the room had a small shower, but a large, deep tub. Great for a soaking bubble bath later.

One more historic association for the hotel. In about 1130, Henry I built a new royal palace in the vicinity of the Randolph Hotel. It was called Beaumont Palace. The street the hotel is on was named Beaumont Street after this palace. Two of his grandson Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s sons, Richard the Lionhearted (King Richard I) and John Lackland (King John) were born there in 1157 and 1167 respectively. Ironically the last remains of the palace were destroyed when Beaumont Street was laid out in 1829. Prior to that, during the Reformation in the 1500s, many of the building stones from the palace were reused in Christ Church College (founded in 1546) and St John’s College (founded in 1555).

Next – The treasures at the Griffith Institute

July 6, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 004: Day 2 – Sir John Soane’s Fascinating Home

I had visited Sir John Soane’s home back in 1991, during the Gulf War. The war began while I was on the flight over to London and I ended up spending it in the UK. The day it ended, I was in York and all of the bells were ringing out. My memories of that war are entirely from the British point of view as all of my conversations about it at the time were with British people and all of the news I saw of it was from the BBC.

That first visit to that fascinating house museum was during a tour of Legal London that was conducted by a retired London policeman named Donald Rumbelow. I was familiar with him because he also wrote one of the better books on the 1888 London murders Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook. He also conducted a nighttime tour of the locations involved in that investigation which I joined a few days later. The tour of Sir John Soane’s Museum came about because it was located at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holburn.

This time, we visited the house in the evening by candlelight. It was a private tour. We were welcomed in the library and given a drink. I had a glass of wine. Then our group of 18 people was divided into two groups. The group I ended up in was led by the charming fellow with whom I had been chatting while sipping my wine.

The candlelight was in keeping with the period of the house. Sir John Soane was an 18^th century brick mason who had a real talent for architectural design. He was sponsored by an aristocrat who recognized his talent and formally educated as an architect. He was so successful that he was able to buy three houses which he demolished and completely rebuild into one home. This allowed him and his family to live well while he also displayed his very large collection of art and antiquities. During his lifetime, his home was designated as a museum by a private act of Parliament in 1833. This went into effect on his death in 1837. One of the stipulations of the Act was that the museum needed to remain as it was upon his death forever, with as little change as possible.

They have managed to add electricity, upgrade the plumbing, and any necessary structural upgrades and repairs. But the rooms themselves and the collections they contain remain as they were when Soane died.

He began with No. 12, between 1792 and 1794. In 1806 he bought No.13 and made it the main portion of the museum (which is mostly located in the former stable block at the back and ended up spreading across the rear of all three houses). Sir John’s family then mainly lived in No. 13 and rented out No. 12. His intent was that the rental income would fund the running of the museum after his death.

He purchased No. 14 in 1823, when he was over 70. He then turned its stable block into a picture gallery, which he linked to No. 13. The front of the house was treated as a separate dwelling and wasn’t internally connected to the other buildings. It was a rental property until he died. At that point, it was bequeathed to his family and wasn’t part of the museum.

No. 13 was where we entered the home and congregated in the library. The tour for our group began in the Dining Room. Over the fireplace on one side was a model of some of the buildings that Sir John had designed along Whitehall. Above that was his portrait. I have a photo of those items as the second one included here. The third included photo is the other side of the dining room with a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The next room we entered was the domed Breakfast Room. This had a statue of Victory. Behind that was a watercolor painting of the family tomb (4^th photo).

Then we entered the Central Dome (photos 5, 6, & 7) where we stayed for quite a while. Photos 6 and 7 include a statue of Apollo. This is actually a plaster cast and not the original. Copy or original, I still liked it. Looking down below (while being careful not to topple any of the sculptures in the process), we could see the alabaster sarcophagus of King Seti I of Egypt (photo 8). We would later have the opportunity to see his tomb in the Valley of the Kings and his mummy in the National Museum of Egyptian Culture in Cairo. By the end of this trip, I felt that I knew Seti almost as well as Tutankhamun.

Seti I’s sarcophagus (covered in hieroglyphs) was discovered in his tomb in 1817 by a fella named Giovanni Battista Belzoni and was offered for sale to the British Museum for the price of £2,000 (roughly £190,000 today). They didn’t want to pay that much for it, so Sir John Soane bought it. It is by far the most expensive piece in his collection.

After this prize arrived at his house in March of 1825, Soane held a three-day party. The basement was lit by over one hundred lamps and candelabra. Guests included Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson (2^nd Earl of Liverpool) and his wife, Robert Peel (a later Prime Minister), Prince Augustus Frederick (Duke of Sussex), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), J.M.W. Turner (one of my favorite Impressionist painters), as well as other celebrities of the day and foreign dignitaries.

After passing through the Colonnade, we reached the Picture Room (photo 9). There the walls were covered from top to bottom with paintings. These included four paintings by Canaletto and three paintings by Soane’s friend Turner. There were also all eight of the Hogarth paintings, A Rakes Progress (along the bottom of photo 10). These depicted the folly of a young man from the country, squandering his inheritance in London brothels, and with gambling, and every kind of indulgence. Eventually he is left bankrupt, imprisoned for debt, and ultimately thrown into the mad house (Bedlam). These paintings were purchased by Missus Soane for £370 in 1802.

The Picture Room had a secret that was about to be revealed. Three of the walls were fitted with large, movable doors upon which the paintings we could see were hung. When these doors were opened, there were other paintings and drawings behind them. In one case, there was another room behind the paintings. This was the Recessed Room (photo 13). When we looked down into the basement from there, we saw a room called the Monk’s Parlor (photo 14). This included a pair of beautiful 16^th & 17^th century Flemish stained-glass windows.

Another bit of cleverness in a few of the rooms was the addition of clear, acrylic chairs to allow people who had issues standing for very long to sit down. These chairs were nearly invisible, allowing people to be able to see through them to whatever was behind them while still helping anyone who was weary of standing.

The last room we visited was the South Drawing Room up on the First Floor at the front of House No.13. This was where we saw family portraits and heard about Sir John Soane’s wife and two sons.

This ended our second and final day in London. The following day we would continue our adventures in Oxford for a couple more days, after which it was on to Cairo.

Next – Arriving in Oxford at The Randolph Hotel

July 3, 2026July 5, 2026

Egyptian Expedition #003: Day 2 – Petrie Museum

Once we were full of good food and drink from our pub lunch, we piled back onto the coach and headed for the Petrie Museum to see items that were either sold or donated directly to this museum by the archaeologists who found them.

I have to admit that I am an Egyptian archaeology junky and always have been. I saw my first mummy at about age 7 or 8 and was hooked. It was fully wrapped and had a few items nearby, including its coffin. Since then, any museum that I visited that had anything Egyptian caught my attention.

What made this particular trip a “must do” included the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (where 22 royal mummies are kept and shown to the public). Then there were the temples and experiences that I did not have during my first trip to Egypt back in 2008 – Sakkara, Dendera Temple, Esna Temple, watching Nubian dancers (and ending up dancing with them), visiting a Nubian Village, sailing on a felucca, and riding a motorboat on the Nile. The final piece that made me really want to do this was the pre-cruise tour involving all of the Egyptian stuff in London and Oxford.

Even when it came to the parts I had done before, back in 2008 I was just recovering from a two-year fight with an illness that had involved surgery and six months of chemo. I did not have my full energy back then and was also just getting used to living with hypothyroidism (that I had gotten from the chemo). I am actually in much better physical condition here in 2026 than I was 18 years ago. I could engage with what I was seeing, doing, and experiencing so much easier and more fully now. Plus being 60 pounds lighter now than before helped me to say, “Hey. I’m going to ride a camel.”

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology is part of London’s University College Museums and Collections. It contains over 80,000 objects, making it one of the world’s largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese material.

The museum was established in 1892 as a teaching resource for the Department of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology. In 1913, William Matthew Flinders Petrie sold his collection of artifacts from all of his years conducting major Egyptian excavations to University College. This created the Flinders Petrie Collection of Egyptian Antiquities and transformed the museum into one of the leading collections outside of Egypt.

At this point the museum was still for the use of students and academics. It was not yet open to the public. Over the years other archaeologists added to the collections housed at the Petrie Museum.

One of the significant holdings of the Petrie Museum is a limestone head of a king. Petrie thought it could have been King Narmer, based on the similarity to another head of Narmer that he had encountered. Others have thought that it is more likely to be the Fourth Dynasty King Khufu. Narmer had been an Early Dynastic king who was credited with the unification of Egypt. Essentially the first king of both Upper and Lower Egypt.

A garment called the Tarkhan Dress, from the fourth millennium BC, is considered to be the oldest known woven garment in existence. There is also a completely see-through dress made of beads. It was possibly worn over a linen dress like the Tarkhan dress.

In one case, I saw some figures of Isis and Horus as well as one of Isis with baby Horus. At that point, I did not yet know that I would end up playing the role of Isis in our Egyptologist’s explanations of Egyptian mythology. That would not happen until we were actually in Egypt and seeing the temples.

I found the collections at the Petrie to be quite amazing to see and highly recommend seeing them to anyone who, like me, really loves Egyptian archaeology and the objects it unearths.

Next – Sir John Soanes’ fascinating home by candlelight

June 26, 2026July 5, 2026

Egyptian Expedition #002: Day 2 – London British Museum

Having set my wake-up call for 6:30am and my breakfast delivery for 7am, I needed to make sure that I would be awake and dressed by when my doorbell rang. I had taken my shower the night before to cut down the morning time and was dressed on time. Whew!

I actually felt pretty perky and was ready to roll when we assembled down in the lobby at 8:15am to walk over to the British Museum. They didn’t open until 10am, but we had a private viewing of the Egyptian collection set for 8:30am. We were a smidge early. They let us in, giving us a little extra time. We entered and walked up the stairs to the third floor and started our tour in Galleries 62 & 63.

For anyone not familiar with the British Museum, it is a public museum, located in the Bloomsbury district of London, which is dedicated to human history, art, and culture. Established in 1753, they have a permanent collection of eight million objects, with roughly 80,000 of those objects on public view, making it the largest museum in the world. It was also the first of its kind – a free, public, national museum.

In the early 1800s, the museum expanded its collection of Egyptian sculpture, with its acquisition of the Rosetta Stone (1802) and the colossal bust of Pharaoh Ramesses II (1818). They also acquired several pieces after the defeat of the French in the Battle of the Nile.

In Galleries 62 & 63, the death and afterlife, which held particular significance and meaning for the ancient Egyptians, is explored. This includes mummies, coffins, funerary masks, portraits, and other items designed to be buried with the deceased. Mummification, magic, and rituals are explored.

Several internal organs were removed and preserved in canopic jars. These were the lungs, intestines, stomach and liver. The brain was also removed (through the nose), but wasn’t considered to be important, so it was thrown away. The heart was kept in the body.

Small figures called shabtis were buried to magically provide for the deceased in the afterlife. Animals considered to be sacred, like bulls, crocodiles, cats, and falcons, were also mummified.

One of the highlights of these galleries is the Book of the Dead of Hunefer, which shows scenes of Hunefer’s judgement. He was a royal scribe and an overseer of cattle. It is celebrated as one of the finest surviving examples of the Book of the Dead in the world. Due to the fact that, as ancient papyrus, it needs to have special care, it is not always on public display. We were very fortunate to be able to see and photograph it.

The Book of the Dead of Hunefer dates to the 19^th Dynasty (c. 1310 – 1275 BC). It contains magical spells and guides meant to help the deceased safely navigate the underworld and reach the afterlife. It is most famous for its illustrations depicting the journey through the afterlife. These included the following rituals: 1) The Opening of the Mouth – which restores the deceased’s senses so they could eat, drink, and speak in the afterlife; 2) The Weighing of the Heart – in which the deceased’s heart is weighed against the feather of Ma’at (representing truth and justice) on a scale overseen by the jackal-headed god Anubis; 3) The Devourer – if the heart was heavy with sin, it was consumed by Ammit, a hybrid beast composed of a crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus; 4) The Presentation to Osiris – if the deceased passes the judgement, they are deemed “true of voice” and taken by Horus (the falcon-headed god) to Osiris, the lord of the underworld. Osiris is shown sitting under a canopy with his sister Nephthys and his wife (who was also his sister) Isis.

Since I have an issue with my back that doesn’t tolerate standing in one place for too long, I love the modern whisper devices that allow me to hear what the person showing us around is saying without needing to be all that close to them. That lets me keep moving around while I am listening. I can also take loads of photos without too much of a crowd. That’s why most of the photos I took in the British Museum have so few other people in them.

I took a lot of photos (131 that I kept). There were so many great items to photograph. Plus the lack of people outside of my group of eighteen meant that I had a chance of getting some good ones. In more crowded situations (or more rushed) later on in the trip, I might not be so fortunate.

Once we had explored those two galleries, we moved on to Gallery 64. This one concentrated on the beginnings of ancient Egyptian civilization from about 11000 BC along the Nile.

The annual flooding of the Nile created fertile land ideal for growing crops. The culture rapidly advanced in technology and social organization during the 5^th millennium BC. By the end of the Predynastic period (about 3300 BC), regional rulers began competing for power and territory. This ultimately led to the unification of Egypt in about 3100 BC. This was believed to have been under King Narmer. Egyptian hieroglyphs were invented about 3200 BC and were used for almost 4,000 years.

The first royal tombs were built in the Egyptian desert at Abydos, 56 miles (90km) north of Luxor. Funerals at this point of Egyptian history were simple and didn’t involve mummification, which was a practice that began about 2500 BC. They had a couple burials from this time in Gallery 64, which I did photograph, but thought they might be a bit much for some people who might not want to see them.

The strong central increase in wealth led to dramatic achievements in architecture, writing, and the arts. This culminated in the Great Pyramids of Giza in about 2600 BC.

Two special treasures that I photographed in Gallery 64 were the Statue of Ankhwa and the Pitt-Rivers Knife. Ankhwa was a ship-builder who was shown holding an adze, a woodworking tool indicative of his trade. This dates to roughly 2686 – 2613 BC (3^rd Dynasty), was made of red granite and was probably found in Sakkara (formerly Memphis).

The Pitt-Rivers Knife (named after the archaeologist who discovered it), has an ivory grip decorated with rows of animals in relief and a flint blade with a serrated lower edge. The caramel-colored flint portion of the knife is distinctive and is of a type known as a ‘ripple-flaked knife’. At the time of the knife’s purchase for the museum its date was unknown, but in 1894 the pioneering archaeologist W.M.F. Petrie came across examples of similar knives among the grave objects in a large cemetery at Naqada. Petrie and Pitt-Rivers knew each other and were both determined to figure out when it was made. Eventually it was determined it belonged to prehistoric times. The period became known as the Predynastic (c. 4500 BC – 3100 BC) and the knife was subsequently dated to roughly 3200 BC. It was believed to have been used for ceremonial purposes only.

Next we took a glance at the items in galleries 65, 66, and 61 before heading downstairs to Gallery 4 on the ground floor. This contained the Egyptian sculpture gallery, which represents three millennia of history. The monuments displayed here were meant as vehicles for the spirits of deities, kings, and officials, and were originally placed in temples and tombs.

Our first stop was the Rosetta Stone. By this time, the museum had just opened. People were already swarming around the Rosetta Stone and posing in front of it. This made it difficult to get a decent photo of it. Patience was required, but seemed to be quite thin among several of the people there who weren’t part of our group. One woman tried to pick a fight with me, but I didn’t let her.

On my first visit to the British Museum, back in 1983, the Rosetta Stone wasn’t protected by glass and didn’t seem to hold that much interest for people. It was more of a side note. This time, it was getting nearly as much attention as the Mona Lisa does at the Louvre.

The Rosetta Stone served as the key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian language of hieroglyphics. It was stumbled upon in 1799 by a group of French soldiers who were digging foundations for a fort in the town of Rashid (or Rosetta) near Alexandria. Fortunately, they immediately recognized that their find was important.

The three languages carved into the stone are: Hieroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian Demotic script, and Ancient Greek. The presence of Greek was the main key to deciphering the hieroglyphs.

The largest Egyptian sculpture in the British Museum is of Pharaoh Ramesses II, who reigned through most of the 13^th century BC (for 66 years) and died at the ripe old age of 96. The full, seated statue originally stood at the Ramesseum, Ramesses II’s memorial temple on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes (now Luxor). It was one of a pair which faced the Nile and the temples of Karnak and Luxor on the other side of the river.

It was cut from a single block of two-tone granite and granodiorite, one of Egypt’s hardest and most prized stones, chosen for both symbolism and durability. In the closeup photo I have included, you can see that the face and crown are more of a pinkish color than the rest of the statue. This was on purpose for visual impact between the dark, earthy contrast of the body (evoking Egypt’s fertile, black soil) with the more ethereal connotations of the lighter, pinkish face and crown. I also caught a nice photo of the head of Amenhotep III.

Another photo that I captured (and doesn’t look like much) is part of the Great Giza Sphinx’s missing beard. I thought that was pretty cool to see. After we left the Egyptian sculptures in Gallery 4, we took a short visit to the Parthenon Sculptures in Gallery 18.

Not too far from the museum, a coach was waiting for us to take us on a sightseeing tour of London for about an hour. They made sure to include the Egyptian obelisk they call “Cleopatra’s Needle” along the Victorian Embankment. It is actually one of a pair of obelisks that were carved during the New Kingdom period and inscribed by both Thutmose III and Ramesses II. Both obelisks were on display in Alexandria for almost two millennia. Then, they were sent to London (gifted 1819, erected in 1878) and New York City (gifted 1869, erected in 1881).

After our sightseeing tour, we were taken for a pub lunch. We put in our orders the day before so the food would be ready shortly after we arrived. We sat all together in an upstairs room of the pub. We had a couple choices for a main course and a dessert plus several choices for beverages. I usually like to get whatever the best draft ale, lager, or stout might be in any particular pub or possibly a draft hard cider. This time, I got a pint of the ale with fish and chips and a sticky toffee pudding. I found a taker for the mushy peas that came with the fish and chips. I definitely had the vinegar on the fish as well as the tartar sauce.

After lunch, we headed for the Petrie Museum at the University of London.

Next – A special museum of artifacts from Egypt and the Sudan at the University of London – the Petrie Museum

June 21, 2026July 5, 2026

Egyptian Expedition #001: Day 1 – London Arrival

I arrived at the hotel in the Fitrovia district of London at about 9:30am. The room wasn’t ready. Although check-in time was officially 3pm, I was told at the desk that they would make me a priority. They checked my cases into a locked room. Then they showed me the guest lounge where I could hang out, if I chose to do so. They also said that breakfast was still being served and I could get some in the Oscar Restaurant. I was hungry, so I had some Eggs Royale (Eggs Benedict with salmon instead of ham) plus fresh squeezed orange juice and English Breakfast tea with milk. Wonderful. My tummy was happy and I had the energy to set out to explore the area.

As part of the Pharaohs & Pyramids Viking River Cruise to Egypt, I had signed up for a pre-cruise tour called British Collections of Ancient Egypt. The pre-tour focused on the many Egyptian treasures in London and Oxford. Day 1 was a free day for people to arrive in London and get settled in the hotel. Day 2 would be a full itinerary and busy, busy, busy.

In the many times I have been to London over the years since my first trip in 1983, I had never stayed in a hotel in this particular area of London before. I had stayed in Covent Garden (at the Fielding and at The Strand Palace) and at Russell Square (at the Bedford) and at various other locations around the city, but this was my first stay in the bohemian home to such writers as Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw. Urbanized in the 18^th century, the core area of Fitrovia had its roots in the ancient estate (1000AD) of Tottenham Court. The Fitzroy family owned a good share of the land at the time that it was urbanized, so their name was attached to the district.

The area became a focus of Chartist activities after the Reform Act of 1832. Karl Marx attended some of the events, including meetings held at Charlotte Street (the location of my hotel). The area also had several working men’s clubs, including the Communist Club.

The area’s most prominent feature is the BT Tower on Cleveland Street, one of London’s tallest buildings. I took a photo of it during my exploratory walk after breakfast. I also took a photo of one of the pedestrian-only residential streets as I walked from one end to the other and back again. This one was just a short walk from the hotel.

Charlotte Street was formed in 1763 and was named in honor of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. The Charlotte Street Hotel had opened in 2000 as a small (52 rooms), five star, luxury hotel paying homage to the Bloomsbury Group – the influential circle of early 20^th century artists and writers who had gathered just a few streets away in the townhouses of Bloomsbury.

The hotel had been transformed from a former 19^th century dental warehouse and was part of the British Firmdale Hotels. Each room is completely individual. No two are alike. I had hoped that the restaurant, Oscar, had some connection or tribute to Oscar Wilde. But it did not.

I had just returned from my walk and was settling into a cozy chair in the guest-only lounge when I was informed that my room was ready and my cases were there waiting for me. It was a very nice room, with an impressive (and tempting) mini-bar and a sizeable shower. I took note that I could see the Newman Arms from the room. I had already explored the Newman Passage and planned to have lunch at the Newman Arms. So I settled into the room, getting things ready for the next couple of days. Then I made my way to the pub.

Just steps away from the hotel was Newman Passage. Basically, I just needed to hang a right after going out of the front entrance of the hotel and hang another quick right down the very narrow Percy Passage to Rathbone Street. The Newman Arms was right across the street with the entrance to the Newman Passage just to its left.

The Newman Passage is a narrow, cobbled lane linking Rathbone Street to Newman Street. The passage dates to 1746. It is little changed and so gives a view into what Georgian London might have looked like. It is often used in films and television shows whenever they want a dark Georgian or Victorian atmosphere. In real life, it had been home to a co-op kitchen for Communist refugees and a famous location for London’s streetwalkers.

The Newman Arms had been built in 1730 as a pub. But the building had previously been used as a tallow chandler, an ironmongery, a picture framers, and a brothel. The pub was a popular hangout for George Orwell and inspired the Proles pub in his novel 1984. It was also a London hangout for Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas (“Do not go gentle into that good night”). The pub downstairs is quite tiny. But the restaurant upstairs has a bit more room and is known for its pies (of the savory variety). I ordered a Scotch Egg, Chicken Liver Pate, and a Limoncello Spritzer Aperitif. Looking out of the pub’s window at the hotel, I could see the windows of my room.

At 3:30pm, the Tour Director for the London part of the trip was available in the lobby of the hotel for us to check in, get any questions answered, etc. I discovered that my travel alarm had died on the way to London. A new battery didn’t help. So I had a chat with the hotel’s concierge. His suggestion was to schedule a wakeup call and also fill out the card to have my breakfast delivered to my room. This way I would have more time to sleep and not need to be fully ready for the day, just clothed, when breakfast was delivered. That worked out great.

Was quite full from lunch, so just snacked a bit for dinner. When the fellow arrived later for turn-down service, I was already comfortably settled in the bed. So he just gave me a couple of bottles of water and went on his merry way. I did make it until 9pm before calling it a night. But that was it. I needed to get up at 6:30 the next morning. Nine and a half hours would be a good rest.

Next – Privileged access to the Egyptian Rooms of the British Museum

June 18, 2026

London Adventure: Big Bus Tour, Kensington Palace

The second day of the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off tour, I had planned to visit Kensington Palace (which I had not been to since 1983) and the Sherlock Holmes Museum (which I had never visited before). To get to both of these places, I needed the Blue Line. The first bus to arrive was the Red Line. But the Big Bus driver suggested that I take it to the London Eye stop as there would be more buses there than at the stop I was currently. I would be able to get a Blue Line bus more quickly.

Arriving at the London Eye, I found that the next Blue Line bus wouldn’t be there for a half hour. At least I had a place to sit down there. It took longer than a half hour. We did alright until we got to the Houses of Parliament. That was when it became clear as to why the buses were taking longer than anticipated. There were protests going on that were completely blocking traffic. So we sat at Parliament for about an hour before we were on our way again. By the time I finally got to Kensington Palace, it was 1pm. Two hours later than I had planned to get there.

Kensington Palace was once a small and suburban villa, known as Nottingham House until monarchs William III and Mary II chose it in 1689 to be their country retreat. When his beloved Mary died from smallpox in 1694 in the palace, William lost interest in the lavish entertainments and balls. Despite his grief, the King finished the building with a grand gallery to the south of the palace, enlarging Sir Christopher Wren’s original plan. William III died in 1702 after catching a fatal chill in the King’s Gallery.

Queen Anne spent very little time at Kensington Palace. It wasn’t until George I succeeded to the throne that the palace was enlarged by the designer, architect, and artist William Kent. He filled it with art and fine furniture, giving it the refined 18th-century appearance that many of the rooms still have today.

After King George II’s death, no other reigning monarch lived at Kensington for nearly 70 years. Since George III didn’t wish to live at Kensington himself, he granted apartments to other members of the royal family. This included his fourth son, Edward, Duke of Kent. Edward’s wife, the German duchess, Victoire, gave birth to the future Queen Victoria there in 1819. The baby was christened Alexandrina Victoria.

Edward died eight months later, leaving the Duchess to raise Victoria alone. The Duchess of Kent did her best to educate and protect the girl who might one day become queen. Victoria was educated almost entirely in her rooms at Kensington. Frequent trips to the theatre, daily rides in the gardens and her favorite dog, Dash, punctuated Victoria’s early days. However, Victoria saw virtually no other children and was kept away from life at court.

On the morning of June 20, 1837, Princess Victoria woke up to be told that the King had died and she was now Queen. She was just 18 years old. She held her first Privy Council meeting that day in the Red Saloon at Kensington Palace. A few weeks later, she departed for Buckingham Palace.

Kensington Palace once again became a dormitory for minor royals until after World War II. Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon lived at the palace with their family from the 1960s. The couple created fashionable interiors and hosted many parties for celebrity guests, pop stars and artists.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana lived at Kensington after their wedding in 1981. Their sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, grew up there. Kensington is the London home of the current Prince and Princess of Wales and their children. It was also the home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they were first married.

I started my visit in the Queen’s State Apartments, which is presented as it was in the 1690s when Queen Mary II ruled with her husband, King William III. Then I explored the King’s State Apartments which retain the era of King George II in the 1700s. I finished my visit with the rooms of Queen Victoria. They remain as they were when she lived there as a child.

I had lunch at the palace and then revised my plans. By this point it was about 3:30pm. So I decided to save the Sherlock Holmes Museum for a later visit. Since the house where my father’s maternal great grandfather had been a butler was nearby, I decided to take a look at that and then take the Hop On Hop Off bus back to Trafalgar Square and call it a day.

That night I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. They had a dish with salmon, haddock, and prawns in a Bechamel sauce with whipped potatoes on top. Carrots were served with it. I also had a sparkling rose wine. For dessert was a trifle. This was made with sponge cake, cherry jelly (what would be called jello in the States), custard, whipped cream and whole cherries.

My last day in London was spent starting at the National Portrait Gallery in the morning, among the portraits of the famous and powerful of the country throughout its history, beginning with the Tudors. The afternoon was spent among some truly amazing and beautiful works of art at the National Gallery. They had such a wonderful variety of art. It was a lovely way to spend my last day on that trip.