Just Roman around Londinium

Vanda, Vanda, where have YOU been? I've been to London to visit the ...
Museum of London!!! A week or so ago, the drama group that Elena attends, asked me if I would go with them to London to learn about the Romans. Of course I jumped at the chance :O) So today we got up early, packed our lunch and headed off to the bus stop at the end of the road where the coach picked us up. We caught the 8:30 boat to Portsmouth and got to London about 11:30. We drove past Battersea Power Station, a very famous eye-sore. The London Eye. The Houses of Parliament. St Paul's Cathedral. And lots of other buildings too. (All the photos were taken out of the coach window.)I spotted this on Bracken House. I have no idea what Bracken House is I just loved the art work above the door :O) The Museum of London (or Londonium as the Romans called it)!We had a guided tour from the Museum. We walked to the Guildhall Art Gallery where the guide pointed out a circle in the square which marks out a Roman Amphitheatre. We went through the Art Gallery down 4 flights of stairs into the basement where they have preserved some of the actual stones. It was so interesting learning about it and how they had preserved it all. We had a picnic lunch and then had another guided tour by a Roman Lady. She was brilliant and spoke to us as if she were a Roman slave working for a rich man. The drama group children were fascinated and listened to every word. She told us how they were making stuffed dormice for tea and how the drinking water made you ill so they drank wine all the time. She told us about the Roman baths and important they were to everyday life and how she had heard about the Barbarians sitting in their own dirty water until it went cold. She told us about her own job of dressing the lady of the house and doing her hair. It was fantastic. We had chance to look at all the Roman artefact's the archaeologists had discovered in London. We had half an hour in the shop to buy souvenirs. For the last guided tour we were going to have a go at bringing up water from the well using a replica water wheel. We had managed all day to dodge all the rain showers, but because it had been wet, health & safety wouldn't allow it. So instead we were treated to a visit of the Roman Fort. The leaflet says ... Just east of the Museum of London, a bridge spans over gardens and in Noble Street: You are standing above the site of the Roman fort built 1900 years ago. The fort and city wall continues, across the road in Noble Street, down to it's South West corner. The West Gate of the fort is partly preserved underground. This is where we went, under the road and down to a locked door which the guide unlocked. It led us into a room where 2 archaeologists were doing some surveying. It was quite difficult to grasp the fact that we were looking at stones laid down by the Romans all those hundreds of years ago ~ wow!! We left London about 3:40 and headed back to Portsmouth. The Spinnaker Tower is right next to the ferry port so we got a fantastic view of it from the boat :O) Whilst we had a great day poor Andrew had to have an in-growing toenail removed poor thing. He only got the appointment through a couple of days ago and wouldn't let me cancel the London trip to stay home & look after him.