We woke to find more welcoming notes and breakfast laid out by our kind hosts. And another gorgeous sunny day. We were being blessed everywhere we turned. We made our usual way into London - to do our city tour by bus - now looking like pros: Marcia with her magazines to occupy her and me with my MP3 player, pretending to shut out all those pesky tourists. We got out at Tower Hill, to be greeted with the sight of all the London workers taking lunch on some lawns:
Making our way across the street to The Tower of London, we started snapping away - especially by Tower Bridge (*not* London Bridge! My mom says when the Americans wanted to buy it, they asked for London Bridge and were then surprised to find the less spectacular bridge shipped out to Arizona!) Apparently it's an ordinary steel bridge, which they dressed up with a bit of stonework to look pretty:
Across the Thames River, you can see this strange-shaped building (although this particular angle I shot from the side during the bus tour). Believe it or not, this is where the mayor works from! Not quite the civil servant buildings we're used to.
Across from The Tower of London (around which they were hosting some running race) we found a scrumptious and healthy sandwich bar called EAT. We grabbed baguettes - roast ham, brie and cranberry for M. - and went to catch our bus. It's a hop-on, hop-off affair with buses every 15 minutes or so. Then we were off! Madly snapping away at anything that looked cultural. Here's a shot from one of the circuses (traffic roundabouts) - Oxford, I think - showing some of London's famous red buses and Big Ben. That cream and red bus is like the one we were on:
Westminister Abbey (careful not to pronounce that second "i") follows with other famous sights amazingly lined up by the photographer: London Eye, Big Ben, some dude on a column - he didn't command the navy or lose valuable limbs so he remains nameless at this time.
St. Paul's Cathedral (no time to visit the awesome whispering gallery inside the base of the dome) follows. Christopher Wren designed it and its distinctive dome - you can see smaller trial runs of the dome scattered around the city.
This is how many London city girls dress in Spring ('scuse the window reflections): 
We passed a street where a well-known law enforcement agency used to be housed. Although the agency has moved on, you can see it got its name from the street name, which is still called: Great Scotland Yard: 
Here's Lord Admiral Nelson on top of a column in the middle of Trafalgar Square (I guess I always have a connection to him as my primary school, Admiral Tait, had a whole navy theme):
Of course, on the tour you pass abour 347 other interesting sights, each with its own story, the original Twinings Tea shop, which has been around forever. The ride took almost exactly 2 hours - well worth it, ending at the Tower of London.
Cruisin'
From the Tower, we walked down to the River Thames and hopped on a boat that would take us on a cruise down to Greenwich. This was free when we bought the bus ticket. We love our cruises (although we haven't been brave enough to try one on the ocean. More about Titanic in later blogs.) We enjoyed a leisurely pace on the river, passing under Tower Bridge. The banks are lined with four-storey apartment blocks, the ones on ground level going for 5 million pounds!
Out of time at Greenwich
Arriving at Greenwich, we were told the next boat back leaves in 30 minutes at 5:25. So we made hasty tracks up the hill to see where East meets West. But we didn't count on it being more than 15 minutes away and the hill to be so steep. We found ourselves trying to run up at a 45-degree angle. Pain! Then at the top we were told that the building housing the clock and the East-West line had closed half an hour before! Emotional pain! Imagine Jack & Jill running up the hill only to find no pail of water anywhere in sight. What next? Cinderella's step-sister finds that she can actually fit into Cinderella's shoe?
Anyway, we had to race back down... and saw our boat sailing away from the jetty. Frustration all around. We had to wait for the 6:10 (not to Yuma, but to Tower.) When the boat arrived, we could at least sit back and relax, me with a steaming styrofoam cup of coffee.
Canaries and Bengals
We arranged to meet Dave at the Tower Underground station. He decided to take us on a walking tour of a part of London, regularly consulting his map book. As we set off, Dave pointing out some interesting things like old Roman walls, a lady came up and asked if this was the Jack the Ripper tour! Dave must have sounded like he knew what he was talking about!
Then we took the Underground to Canary Wharf, the financial district, where we met up with Victoria at the Bengal Quay restaurant. Delicious Indian food, white tablecloths, fantastic company. Afterwards, we took a stroll up to the Millennium Dome, where they've got a bunch of restaurants and a whole lot of neon lights - and even a South African Spur Steak house!
After the late train back home for coffees and teas, we had to say our goodbyes for the next day. That didn't stop Dave & I talking until 2.30 - just like ole times!
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