We had one day left in London, and it was to be a fairly local one. I had built in a few spare days and neither of us felt like another long walk. We had plans to visit a very small and unique museum, so we went ahead and visited The Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Hospital. The Croydon bus terminal is just across the street from the East Croydon train station. Here we caught the SL5, and after a 20 minute ride we arrived at the hospital complex. The museum lies straight ahead through the gate, about a 2 minute walk from the bus stop. Before visiting, however, we headed to as nearby Toby Carvery for lunch. Why would vegans go to a carvery for lunch? Because they actually have fantastic vegan mushroom tarts, plus all the veggies you can eat from the buffet. They also had Sharps Doombar on handpull, so it counts as a pub. We never did go to an all-vegan restaurant on this trip, since nearly everywhere we did go had multiple vegan options on their menu.
It was about an 18 minute walk from the museum, and we headed back there right afterwards. The museum is free but accepts donations. We were the only visitors on a mid afternoon Friday. Since many artists were treated here over the years the museum has some rather unique and very beautiful works, along with many disturbing ones. We came across works of a favourite Canadian artist, too; William Kurelek. There are some disturbing displays of ways that patients were restrained, as well as other questionable tools of the trade back in the day. The main gallery is upstairs. There is an elevator. We stayed about an hour then took the SL5 back to Croydon.
The rest of the day was given over to a final farewell to the three closest pubs to our hotel. At the George we shared Burton Bridges Top Dog Stout, quite delicious. At the Green Dragon we had another glass of that Viennese Swirl Chocolate Vanilla Porter, along with Pulp Apple Cider, another worthwhile beverage. Our final pub stop was Art and Craft taproom. They had a cask on, Pig and Porter Funky Claude Porter, which got better and better the more you drank.
We stopped at nearby Forbidden Planet, a SF store with everything from books to posters. We ended up buying three terrific posters, which I will feature on the main blog once they are hanging. Then it was back to the hotel for the packing ritual. We hadn't purchased many things this time, and I had been throwing away old tee shirts and such as I went through them. I had brought some old stuff I didn't want any more, so we had no trouble with the packing.
We were up at 6 am, which is 1 am Windsor time, and were home before 9 pm local time (2 am London time). So it was a long day. We caught the 6:30 am SLR bus to Heathrow, got through security easily and quickly, then sat around for a long time in terminal 2. Deb paid a half pint visit to the Fullers pub in the terminal, and we both drank coffee as per the jet lag program. Our flight for Toronto left on time, we had great seats (Deb had an aisle) and the flight was smooth but long. I mostly read while Deb watched a couple of movies. We were in Toronto on time, then had a dismal time trying to find something to eat. This wasn't London any more. Vegans are 3rd class citizens at this airport.
We were surprised by how quickly (after an interminable walk) we got through customs, and discovered that our luggage had been checked through to Windsor, a first. In the old days one had to go to baggage claim, get the suitcases, go through customs, recheck the bags and then go through security lines again. All that is now avoided if one has nothing to declare.
The flight to Windsor was delayed due to a bad storm, and we arrived about 45 minutes late. Randy was there to pick us up and drive us home. We weren't awake too long that night, and mostly slept well until next morning. We arrived with loads laundry to do and a few cool items we had picked up on the trip.
We will likely try and return in the autumn, world affairs allowing. It was a great trip and we even brought it in under budget! Thanks for reading. Until next time.
Mapman Mike
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