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13-20JUN2004 Arriving in England seemed like deja vu.  All the place names are so familiar from my reading and, of course, all the places in America named after English towns.  My Aunt Betty put me up in her flat right across the street from Madame Tussaud's and around the corner from Baker Street.  

The first day in London, we played tourist and took the sightseeing bus to get an overview.  Lunch in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, a ride on a Thames riverboat and a look at all the world famous sights prepared us for a dinner of Betty's authentic Texas chili.

The next day I began my search for a motorcycle.  I was looking for a Honda Deauville.  I checked the Bike Trader magazine and went on line.  I took the tube to check out one bike at a shop and made an appointment with a private seller to see his.  Both bikes looked a little dodgy.  

The next day I traveled by tube and train to a shop in Essex and found the perfect bike.  Good price.  Only 8,000 miles.  Looked almost new.  I plunked down a deposit and set about getting insurance.  Getting insurance to ride a bike in Europe proved to be very difficult.  I called a dozen companies but all required that I be a UK resident.  After a week of searching and emailing, I gave up and got my deposit back.  Naturally, the next day I got three emails from companies in America that could insure the bike.  I found them on a site called http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/.  But, it was too late.  The bike was already sold.  I was very frustrated.

While driving myself crazy with the bike, I managed to do the normal London tourist bit.  I saw the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the Imperial War Museum, and the Natural History Museum.  All free and all amazing.  

I paid big bucks to visit the Tower of London.  The tour given by the Yeoman Warder was the highligt.  What a character!  He had the booming voice of a sargeant major and a real sense of theater.  He embellished all the gruesome stories about the bloody tower.  And at the end of each tale he always added the phrase:  "And everything I tell you is absolutely true."

My time in London passed quickly and it was very good to catch up on family gossip with my Aunt.  I was particulary pleased to be present on the official publication date of her first novel, Just Desserts.  She said it was the English cosy genre and I enjoyed it without figuring out the murderer until the very end.  I took some publicity photos with my digital camera and emailed them off to America.  Betty is hard at work on the next novel and is rightfully proud to have gotten her work published.

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