For more information about this trip, our travel schedule, membership, partnership or anything else, please contact the Jet Setl office at 1-800-892-3604 or by email at .

For more information about this trip, our travel schedule, membership, partnership or anything else, please contact the Jet Setl office at 1-800-892-3604 or by email at .

SUNDAY 4/10
We arrived at Heathrow Airport in London, where we were met by Globus Travel: Janet Jones and Alyson Nancy Jones, trip leaders, Ken Turner, Clifton Shaw, Gloria Aneb House, and Ami Ayo Jackson.

Our group was taken to the Ramada Jarvis in Hyde Park.  There was a little hitch in our hotel accommodations, but we worked that out fairly quickly.   We freshened up, and took a cab to meet Nikki and Drew Godfrey, friends of Janet and Alyson, who live in Brixton, London.   We spent the afternoon with them at the St. James Church Café Nero in Piccadilly Street.  Then we walked to Marble Arch and Edgeware Road to find a Lebanese restaurant recommended by Drew.  We were walking forever; we even neglected the fact that we were passing the famous Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, where anybody may come on Sundays to express their opinions and concerns in an open public forum.  There are only three rules at this forum:  you may not insult the Queen, you may not disparage any religion, and you may not incite a riot!

We walked what seemed an interminable distance, trying to find our hotel.   When we finally reached the hotel, we collapsed in the lounge, which would become our living room, for our nightly debriefing, refreshments and relaxation.

MONDAY 4/11
Fantastic breakfast in the hotel dining room.  A full spread — including the traditional English sausage, beans, tomatoes and mushrooms.

We left our hotel for a full morning tour of the city with Globus Tours.  Our guide, Bev, was charming and knowledgeable. The following are some of the sites we visited and had pointed out to us:

St. Paul’s Cathedral (Christopher Wren, architect; origin of expression “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”)
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben and Houses of Parliament
Mayfair and other important districts of the City
London Eye of 2000
Memorial to 9/11
London Bridge
Tower Bridge
Trafalgar Square, including the following statues:
Mandela
Lincoln
Churchill
George Washington
Lord Nelson

After this extensive, thorough tour, we took a cab to shop and have lunch at Fortnum and Mason, the second most luxurious department store in London – after Harrod’s.  Then off to the Buckingham Palace Gift Shop, where Alyson and Janet wanted to buy candles in the Queen’s favorite fragrance, hyacinth.

In late afternoon, we were back in our “living room,” where we collapsed again, intending to go out later to eat at the Indian restaurant, Rasa Samura, but we were too tired to move.   Aneb had come back to the hotel earlier and we expected she would join us in the “living room.”  We phoned her room, but got no answer.  Clifton happened to look out the window just as Aneb was getting into a cab, thinking we were already at the restaurant, and intending to meet us there. Alyson raced out to catch her just before the taxi pulled off.  We interpreted this quick save as a sign that we were in fact becoming a unit!  That was it for Monday.

TUESDAY 4/12
We rose, donned our spiffy black and gold Source Booksellers t-shirts, had breakfast, and took a cab to Earl’s Court for the London Book Fair.  Took photos in front of the signs outside the building, put on our ID cards and ventured in.  Checked our coats, got lost in the sea of folks — all wearing black just like us.

Meandered for several hours among a zillion books from all over the world, very chic displays, enticing complementary refreshments and eager sellers.  Amy attended a lecture on children’s literature.  Aneb made notes on the trip.  Clifton, Janet, Alyson and Ken spent time with Richard Webster.  Janet made notes on books by Webster that she intends to order from Llewellyn.

The guys headed off to do their thang!

We visited Rachel, Janet’s bookseller friend, at work at the Great Jones Books booth.  We helped Janet make some choices about the books she would buy for the store.  As we were about to leave, Rachel very generously gave Aneb two books that she had been perusing.

The idea occurred to Aneb that Janet might create an attractive and witty new card for the store featuring a pen and ink drawing of herself with her round glasses.  Janet liked the idea.

Amy and Aneb turned in early.  The other folks hiked all the way over to Piccadilly again to hang out at a vegetarian restaurant!

WEDNESDAY 4/13
Yippee!  Shopping day; but first to Greenwich for a stop at the Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian of the World, where Alyson wanted to straddle the line dividing the eastern and western hemispheres.  The Royal Observatory Museum was definitely interesting, with its tracing of the numerous discoveries and inventions that form the basis of our knowledge of time, astral rhythms, and ocean navigation.

From there we took a ferry from Greenwich down the Thames to the Westminster district.  Now we were off to shop!  We took the tube to Harrod’s! The splendor of the place overwhelmed us as we entered this world famous department store.  We decided we’d better agree on a rendezvous spot since the place was so large.  We chose the oyster bar, where there was an impressive monument to world of Neptune.

Aneb and Amy had the most exquisite ever lunch in the elegant restaurant and wine bar in the store’s basement.  All of us enjoyed finding souvenirs for friends and family.  We bought several of the little Harrod’s bags that are popular among folks who have visited or simply know about Harrod’s.

The newly refurbished complex of Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House was our next stop.   Clifton, our own opera star, simply had to have a souvenir from this important cultural mecca.  We spent an hour or so in the Royal Opera House gift shop, then, so exhilarated by this visit, Clifton performed a riff from some opera or the other right there in the plaza!

Janet was tempted to attend the performance of “Aida” scheduled at the Royal Opera House that evening.  The ticket price of one hundred and fifty pounds dissuaded her.

We stopped in the plaza, — where there was a teeming crowd of people, even on this week night — to hear a Chinese gentleman play the sheng, an instrument that produces a lovely, hauntingly peaceful sound, constructed of a series of pipes attached to a mouthpiece.  Over 3,000 years old, the sheng is said to be the forerunner of the pipe organ and the accordion.  Janet purchased a CD from this gentleman to take to her yoga sessions.

For more information about this trip, our travel schedule, membership, partnership or anything else, please contact the Jet Setl office at 1-800-892-3604 or by email at .