Forbidden to sing in the bath but keep on treasure hunting.

It struck me the other day that if you look close enough there is a secret or a tale to be told around every corner. This is no truer than when exploring London. I was setting up a birthday treasure hunt on one of Black Cat`s rare excursions outside of Sussex and had to laugh at the constant, odd information I was uncovering.

The Strand is home to The Savoy Hotel amongst other places and remains fairly upmarket. Westminster and Whitehall are not far away. However..as I looked at a little plaque on the side of a pub called The Coal Hole I was amused to read that the venue had been established for oppressed husbands who had been forbidden to sing in the bath! Ha!..what an awful state of affairs! The plaque added that alternative reasons may have existed as well... The Savoy itself is interesting in that you have to drive up to and away from it on the wrong side of the road. Not quite sure whose idea that one was, but I still like the quirkiness.

Just before I turned off towards Trafalgar Square I passed Coutts bank with its Royal seal of approval reminding me that apparently the Queen banks there. Just off Duncannon Street there is an Oscar Wilde sculpture sharing the quote: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

Trafalgar Square has its` Fourth Plinth and further on down Whitehall there is the story of how long it took the news of Nelson`s victory at Trafalgar to get back to London. It involved 21 horse changes!

I checked out Horseguards Parade and was reminded when The Trooping of The Colour takes place. Close by back on Whitehall there is an interesting sculpture entitled Women of World War II.

I started and finished this London treasure hunt from Westminster tube station, but I haven`t told you about the  secrets I found on the other half including £125 for a bottle of Champagne. I will save those for another time and return to singing in the bath...when no-one is around to forbid me from doing so.