14 - London

Wednesday 05 October / Cloudy and cold
My Favorite Photo of the Day
Storyteller at Tower of London (video)
Guard pacing at Tower of London (video)

(Remember the menu to the left has albums of photos)

(Remember for the panoramas at left, once they finish downloading, moving the cursor to the bottom right of the photo allows you to view it full size and scroll and explore.  The detail is amazing, eg. you can actually see a stop sign...)

After a great night's sleep, we got room service breakfast, showered, and were off to make time seeing London.  We were excited.  We got tickets for the Big Bus Tour (double-decker) in the lobby, went outside where there was a stop for it, waited 10 minutes or so and boarded.  It was cool outside.  I being my usual stubborn self elected not to bring a sweater or jacket.  I would as I always do, tough it out.  Well, atop the bus (with the second level being roofless), it was damn cold!  We wound our way around a few streets where we stopped on the other side of Hyde Park, they made us change buses (I do not know why), we waited for 20 minutes, then the tour resumed.  Very bad, very very bad.  The tour from here was also very slow and boring.  At every stop you could see employees of the bus company hawking tickets at street level - seemed very cheap.  And the bus would wait while these vendors convinced people to get on.  Very slow, very boring, and still very cold. 

We went through Trafalgar square which was really nice and then headed for St. Paul's Cathedral (where we got off).  Picture taking thus far was difficult, there was construction everywhere, buildings wrapped by staging and plastic as they seemed to be cleaning and refinishing buildings.  I noticed a difference from Paris.  The architecture.  Paris was so consistent, the buildings so white and clean looking.  Here, the buildings were darker, grayer, and old building next to a new (ugly) building, and the Brits seem to have recently (last 20 years) liked buildings with round tops or sides - they just looked out of place.  St. Paul's Cathedral was amazing, we walked up the windy stairs as high as the would let us, stopping at the hall of whispers and then onto the roof. 

Once down and out of St. Paul's, we went across the street to Black's (a clothing store) where I bought a fleece jacket and Lisa a fleece sweater.  Now we could be warmer and enjoy ourselves a bit more.  The nice chap who helped us in the store pointed us for a short walk to the Tower of London, which was very cool.  We spent a couple of hours there.  Again I noticed the sales pitches.  Instead of having just one gift shop in the complex, which they did at the entrance/exit, in every building as they wound us through the exhibits, they always wound us through a gift shop on the way out of each building - too commercial.  How many Tower of London key chains do I need?

From here we hopped onto the river boat (as we did in Paris) which was owned by the Big Bus Tour and so was included in our ticket.  What a great ride down the river to Big Ben.  We got out, walked over to Parliament and down alongside the abbey on our way to a nice pub called The Feathers where we had fish and chips and a cold one for around £20.  From here we walked some more and eventually ended up taking the tube back to the hotel - again, an easy and great way to travel.

The evening was to start with dinner at an Italian restaurant in the area.  Took us a while to find it, but as we walked, Lisa noticed the pub she and her classmates had a beer in when they came over on a school trip (and of course they were under aged).  But is was funny, it was around the corner from our hotel, and the restaurant just 10 minutes further.  NO, I didn't have nor ask for canard.  I decided no wine for me tonight, so during the course of the meal I had 3 pints of Coke Lite (which was on the menu but the price wasn't - but how much could a glass of Coke cost in the civilized world, really).  £3 each!  So about I don't know $24 CDN.  I don't even like Coke! 

I thought it cool that in London, in every cross walk, there are instructions on how to cross the street - I'm sure they are for the world, not the locals as they should know to look right first.  On the other hand, it would probably be cheaper to drive on the correct side of the street and save money spent on this painting project for other things - like the subsidization of diet soda.  Back at the hotel we capped the night off with a couple of cocktails where we met a nice lad from BC who moved over here to work.  He was waiting for his girlfriend who worked at the desk.  All in all, a great day.  We need to do London again, when we have more time, and the weather is warmer - maybe in July or August.