Thanks to our UK hosts, Kathrin & Ryan (BTW Kathrin-Colin can't get the monkey song out of his head), Sarah & Jamie(mmm champagne) & Mel (who we're sure loved having her Canadian friends stay, but is happy to have her bed & couch back!).
The day started with Maria heading to Darlington Town Center for some shopping, brewed coffee and to use the post. Colin toured the Darlington radio station, which was directly behind where they were staying.
Colin met Star Radio (name of station) www.thisisstar.co.uk on air presenter Phillip. Radio operations in the UK & Canada and all around the world are exactly the same, with different accents. Sales enquiring about weekend promotions, music scheduling software & work place smoking areas.. Outback. The only difference with UK radio and North American radio, there’s hardly any rock stations in the UK. Mostly dance and top 40.
After returning from their morning visits, Mel treated C&M to bacon sandwiches with brown sauce before taking them to Aycliffe, where Maria went to school in grade 11. The place has changed... Then on their way to the train station to catch the 1:06pm train to London, Mel’s car (aptly named Rust Bucket) made a fun noise, it was 12:30pm, 36 minutes til the train departs. After giving the passengers a headache, Mel thought it would be best to take it immediately to the shop.
Our travelers parted ways with Mel and walked three buildings down to a taxi stand to catch a ride to the train station. It was 1AB Taxi, the reason they want you to know this is because of the service. Don’t use 1AB if ever in Darlington. When they got to the stand, they asked for a taxi to the train station. With 3 or 4 drivers standing about & a few taxi’s parked outside they waited.. and waited.. and waited.. It was now 12:42. Finally a taxi pulled up, they two dumped their backpacks in the trunk and jumped in the car.. Then the driver yelled at his buddy at the stand and told Colin & Maria to get out, they had the wrong taxi.
Seeing how things were going, C&M just said “screw it, we’ll walk to catch the train.” A very fast paced walk through downtown Darlington, passing plenty of empty taxis’, they finally reached the beautiful train station. Just as they walked onto platform 1 to hop on the 1:06pm train, it was just pulling up.. Another close call..
They arrived in London (metro population 14,000,000) at 3:44pm. Found their bed & breakfast which is just around the corner from the Underground & in what seems like a quiet residential area. Then it was off to a cafe for a latte and a mocha to decide what to do in London!
The motto on the trip is sleep later, do everything now! So even though it was a long travel day, Colin & Maria decided to take the evening Jack The Ripper- London Walk.
It starts at Tower Hill which is across the road from the London Tower which is seen in the background.
It’s about 2 hours with a stroll through London, with a guide, theirs was Simon, to give a fascinating historical account of the fear that swept through East London in 1888. Was it a Prince? Was it a Doctor? Was it an American? Was it the Freemasons? You decide! You’ll visit area’s (which are different now than 1888 because of World War 2 & the 1960’s) where "Jack" supposedly murdered prostitutes.
Simon BTW visited Canada last year. He took a train fro Quebec to Moncton, rented a a car, traveled to PEI to view Anne Of Green Gables, then took the ferry to Nova Scotia!
This is one area where a prostitute was found.
This was a photo of an alley where another prostitute was found, but when Colin went to upload it 3 times, it kept turning blank! Truth! Weird or what?
The really cool thing about this walk is that Johnny Depp actually did it for the 2001 movie “Into Hell”.
This is Ten Bells Pub, a pub featured in the movie..
And so was this church..
This Jack the Ripper Walk was worth the 16 quid! Even though they looked for it, Colin & Maria tried to find the pub that the last murdered prostitute was seen alive, The White Hart Pub, they had no luck.. Guess Colin should have listened to Maria. After, it was a trip to Brick Lane for some of the world’s best curry at Halal Al-Badar, it was 10:00pm when they walked in, just as they were closing down..
The answer to the quiz is “no”, Big Ben is the bell inside the tower which can’t be seen from the street.
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