Abbey Road
Another full English breakfast and then off we went to play on the tube.
First stop was Abbey Road, just for fun. We found the zebra crossing. It was nothing special, it would appear that four blokes recording an album said 'what are we going to put on the cover?'
The answer was probably let's go outside the studio and find the closest thing.
Considering that, 45 years later the crossing is full of tourists, the locals must love it.
Anyway unlike the other tourists, Tammy did it properly and took her shoes off!
Tower of London
Tammy took me shopping for a new suit of armor, this is the breast plate section. Unfortunately it was suggested that I shop in the ladies section for a breast plate.
We went to the Tower of London, we thought a couple of hours would do it but we were there for 4.5 hours. This is a picture of a nice spire, I call it the Shard spire.
The queue to view the crown jewels was about 2 km long. I asked one of the guards, in his red skirt, why people would stand in line that long to see someone's pots and pans. 'Anyway', I added 'They are only replicas, not even real'. The guard was so upset by this comment that he said 'follow me' and led us through a side door straight into the crown jewels room in front of the line. OK point proven, they are real. But I didn't have to stand in line.
The Grenadiers are the elite of the Queens Guards. They have an exploding grenade picture on their collar to signify that they are grenadiers. The hats they wear are made from the skin of Canadian Black Bears. This is obviously after the bear has finished using it to keep all of his insides, in.
They march up and down for no apparent reason other than for tourists to take pictures and make hurtful mocking comments like 'hey is that a bear on your head?'
Anyway Tammy made me stop.
This is the White Tower that is now a museum with all the Queens armor and bits in it. William the Conqueror started building it in 1070 after his success at Hastings in 1066. That makes the building nearly one thousand years old. It is a bit hard to get your head round that, 250 generations.
Yay, Black Books.
It really is a book shop.
Night time in Soho.
We found a great restaurant in Chinatown.
Then it was time to tube it back to the motel.
Except we found one more pub with 20 local craft beers. Just behind the motel.
Tube
They must have known I was coming and made a nice special beer for me. I love English pubs.
Started the day with a full English breakfast then caught up with Mark, Michelle and Matilda, Off we went to the London Eye. The ride was brilliant with some great views over London.
Mark and I worked out that the ride generates five hundred thousand pounds a day. The 3D show after the ride was spectacular.
This is a picture of the Houses of Parliament from the top.
Some streets and carparks have charging stations for electric cars.
The girls had some retail therapy. Mark and I were not allowed to check the purchases until back at the hotel and all too late!
Found some people wearing funny hats and playing funny music.
Mark in a contemplative mood, nice handbag....
Went out to see The Commitments at the Palace theatre in the West End, I stayed awake.
The show was absolutely brilliant.
Look in the window below the Sax and you can see Tammy.
For tax reasons here is a picture of St Pancras train station. It is a great building with really big spans in steel. It was built in the late 1800's.
We walked around London after the show, It doesn't get dark until around 10.00pm, there is a really long twilight period after sun set and before sunrise, It's starts getting light again at about 4.30 am.
In Australia when the sun sets it gets dark in about 10 minutes, Twilight here is about 3 hours.
We stopped off at an English pub and had a couple of pints of real beer, Then a pizza restaurant for tea at about midnight.
Wandered home through the still busy streets and took some night photos. It's a good little camera
A couple of night scenes, Nelsons Column and the Eye.
It has been another long day, we are having fun.
Today is Saturday and it started with Tammy breaking the handle off of the toilet cistern.
Met up with Mark, Michelle and Matilda. We went into London and did some more walking. We wandered the river banks of the Thames where we found a sphinx or two.
Matilda and I did a bit of busking to help raise funds for some of the entry fees. We didn't make much money, but we did clear a space in the mall.
We then wandered on past a few red phone boxes and found a small forest of Silver Birches.
London is a magnificant place, full of history, and PEOPLE, I have never seen so many people!
The Shard.
Closest thing I could find to a Tardis, I do like the fact that someone has written 'BAD WOLF' on it.
St Paul's Cathedral.
Originally built in the 11th century but burnt down in the 1600's in the great fire. Rebuilt by the great Architect and now tax claimable Christopher Wren. It is an amazing building, no photo's allowed inside.
We climbed up into the dome and then out onto the roof. Brilliant.
Looking down Fleet Street from the top of the dome at StPaul's Cathedral. Around 500 steps to get up to the top. 150 of them steel spirals. At the top there is a small glass plate window in the floor that looks strainght down to bottom.
The building is 365 feet tall.
Millenium Bridge, It was closed soon after opening as started to wobble so badly people nearly fell off it. It took six months and two million pounds to fix. When the Architect was asked to explain he said 'there's nothing wrong with my bridge, it's just the way the English walk'
London Skyline
The walkie Talkie and the Gurkin, the tall one in between those two is called 'the cheese grater'
Tower Bridge
We walked across the bridge which still opens to let boats through, not bad considering it was built in late 1800's. It did indeed open while we were there, causing a tourist stampede in the direction of good photo opportunities. Like Lemmings to a beach party....
We then continued along the river bank past the Tower of London, by this time is was about 5.00pm and things were beginning to close. We hope to go through the Tower on Monday. There is so much to do and see in London.
Flood markers.
These copper lions heads are at about 20 metre centres on both sides of the river. If the water reaches the lions mouth then people were evacuated because it was about to flood.
"If the lion's drinking then London's sinking"
We then caught a boat back to Westminster and went back to our hotel for tea.
The food was good and we were the only ones there.
The 3 m's then went home to their hotel and tomorrow is planned.
Whilst we were out they fixed the toilet cistern.
After flying through the night for 12 hours we arrived at Heathrow airport at 4.30 am.
We couldn't sleep on the plane but it was a good flight.
Not saying that it's a big airport but we did have to catch a train for 2 stops to get to our luggage.
We breezed through Immigration and were on our way to the hotel by 6.00am
We decided to go for a bit of a walk around London Town and by 8.00 am we were standing on the bank of the Thames looking at the Houses of Parliament.
We were surprised at how quiet it all was as we wandered around, but by 10.00 am the streets werebeginning to fill up with tourists.
We went for the tour through Westminister Abby it is an amazing building. Not allowed to take pictures inside but I managed a couple from the outside. The flying buttress' were brilliant.
After Westminster we wandered around to look at Nelsons Column and Picidilly Circus, by now it was about 1.00pm and the streets were packed.
We went to visit the Queen for tea and cucumber sandwiches, she was home today but a man with a machine gun told us was a bit busy.
After a bit more wandering we went back to the hotel, a quick shower and then out to a little Italian restaurant for tea.
We went to the West End to see the musical, 'Billy Elliott' Tammy said it was really good, but I slept right the way through it.
It has been a very long day, but good fun.
We went to the Tower of London, we thought a couple of hours would do it but we were there for 4.5 hours. This is a picture of a nice spire, I call it the Shard spire.
The queue to view the crown jewels was about 2 km long. I asked one of the guards, in his red skirt, why people would stand in line that long to see someone's pots and pans. 'Anyway', I added 'They are only replicas, not even real'. The guard was so upset by this comment that he said 'follow me' and led us through a side door straight into the crown jewels room in front of the line. OK point proven, they are real. But I didn't have to stand in line.
Tube
