Those Places Thursday: Mom's 1953 Europe Road Trip - London, continued

From Mom's Europe trip diary, in the "PLACES VISITED" section:

August 12, 13, 14, 15 – London [4 pages, excerpt only for this day]

[Aug. 14] The next day we got up – caught a double decker bus to The Tower of London. From there walked to Old Bailey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and thence to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Works. Very interesting. Went to see stage play “The Moon is Blue” at night. Quite good. 

Amazing things about England – parks beautiful (lots of trees and space), buildings sooty but almost all with flowerboxes, friendliness & honesty of people, lack of flavoring in food which makes everything seem tasteless, the way the people look – all pink cheeked, men in black suits and black Hamburgs, 12 yr. old boys in short pants, eating ices and drinking coffee at seats during intermission at a play, standing up for “God Save the Queen” after a play. …

[That]… night we went to French rest. where we got pretty good food.

Here are some photos of these places - one of which was taken by my mother:

Double-decker at Bus stop in London, 1956 / via Stockholm Transport Museum / no known copyright restrictions

The Tower of London, 14 August 1953 / Geraldine Guokas Pape / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Old Bailey, London 14 June 2004 / Nevilley / CC BY-SA 3.0

"St Paul's Cathedral High Altar [and apse], London, UK - Diliff"
as viewed from the choir, looking east, 30 May 2014/ David Iliff  / CC BY-SA 3.0

"'Madame Tussaud' herself at 'Madame tussauds waxworks in London" 26 May 2010
 / Rudolph.A.furtado - Own work / Public domain

Marie Tussaud made a wax model of herself in 1842, just eight years before her death. It remains on display today and was likely on display in 1953 when my mother, Geraldine Guokas Pape, toured the museum.

This is the eighth in a series of posts about my mother's 1953 Europe Trip.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.