More family history - that long walk to Scotland and back

For the past two days Barb and I have walked all through London, I was sure we would see Scotland soon!!  We both like to have things all planned out so we know what to expect, so on Wednesday we decided to find our Hotel in Central London where we will be next week. As I mentioned in another post, not all underground stations have lifts (elevators) so, we wanted to find a route where we would not have to carry our luggage up many flights of stairs. Many stations do not even have escalators. With this in mind we have decided we no choice but to use the trains, and then we will take a short cab ride to our hotel.

So then off for a little walk. There is a lovely park across from this Central London hotel, which never seemed to end. We soon found out that we were in Hyde Park, 142 hectares (352 acres)!! We walked most of it then continued from the park to Kensington Palace.

Later that evening, we met up with Brian and he suggested we go see a movie! Not something we would normally do while traveling but we saw Love and Mercy, the story of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. We recommend this one to you it was a very good choice.  Afterwards, Barb's cousin suggested we try a Tapas Spanish restaurant called Andalucia, it was new for us but wonderful. We also enjoyed the Sangria and Margaritas!

Yesterday was another day devoted to tracing Barb's past. We started off in Hounslow to find the home of her English Grandparents on her Mom's side. The current owner of this home even allowed Barb and Brian to enter to see the inside  ... something they were not expecting.

Now to trace the route from this home to the Church where Barb's parents were married. Unfortunately the church was not open to go in while we were there, but we found it and it's still in operation.

Now off to where the reception was held, a pub called the Red Lion, It is still there and has been preserved so it looks very much like it did back then, 74 years ago, at least on the inside, The owner took us around to show us the old stables, hay loft, and even the original ladies room when they finally allowed women into the saloon area.  She also came out with some old pictures from the 1950's about the time when her parents were there. The Pub dates back to the 1880s,

Next up, a family mystery. When we found the burial records for her Scotch grandparents, a last known address for her Scotch Gran was 39 Thorpebank Road, in Shepherd's Bush and Barb does not remember anything about this address. She thought that her Scotch Gran lived with her family after her grandfather past away.  So we went to this address and found the house, it is the white one.

 

We will investigate this further when we get home, maybe Carol remembers something about this home.

And finally we went to find the home that Barb was born in, also in Shepherd's Bush. I was getting tired and cranky by this time, but Barb said there was a pub right across the street from this home, so my hopes were lifted and off we went.

As you can see the home is currently under renovations so we really could not see it well so this was a little disappointing, but she was right, there was a pub across the street....

As you can see the Pub has been closed up.

We found another one for a quick drink then had dinner at a Turkish restaurant, again something new that we would have not done without Brian suggesting it, and it was wonderful. We thank Brian for taking a day out of his schedule to come around with us ... I'm sure we would still be out there walking without his help!

Today will be a quiet day for us. It is raining here, so I think it is going to be laundry day!