April 3, 2010 (Saturday)

Bummer, it’s another dreary, rainy, cold, wet day outside! Have breakfast at the hotel, and then, armed with instructions for taking the “tube” to Big Ben from the hotel proprietor, we head out. Before going to the tube, we go to British Museum to take a few outside pictures. We then found the tube stop on our way for a “walk-a-bout” to see the traditional sites.

We arrived at the Big Ben tube stop and what do you know? The sun popped out! Yea! Thank you God. We really needed a weather break. We’ve got blue sky for pictures of Big Ben and Parliament. We first get a shot of the World’s Fair ferris wheel on the bank of the river.

We tried to take self portraits at Big Ben by holding the camera out ourselves with some very funny results, but finally got a good one. Well, we got some good laughs out of that process.

We then walked over to Westminster Abbey. What a magnificent church! There’s been an operating church on this spot for over 1000 years. The architecture is intricate and just aesthetically perfect. We spent several hours until lunch time in the Abbey. Pictures were not allowed inside, so these are scans of postcards.

As we were leaving, I asked a guard if he knew of a good place for lunch close by. He recommended the Albert Pub on Victoria Street which he said was about a 5 minute walk. So, we had our “English pub experience,” and the meal was quite good. Jerry had Italian chicken and I had a Caesar salad.

After lunch at The Albert pub, we headed off to find the “tube” system again to go to the Tower. Some of the tube lines are not working today so we had to get instructions for an alternate route. We finally got to the Tower and walked around taking pictures. We decided not to do the tour. The day has turned off pretty, so we’re happy to be outside looking at the Tower and Tower Bridge.

On the way back to the tube station, we stopped at the Fire Monument (the monument on Pudding Street where the great London fire started at a bakery). Jerry climbed the 311 steps to the top while I sat outside at a sidewalk café. I just didn’t think I could make that climb at this point in the day. Jerry loved it and took lots of pictures from the top.

Off to the tube again and back to the hotel. After freshening up, we headed over to TAS Restaurant for dinner which was delicious again. Jerry had some great rice pudding for dessert! We went across the street to a Baskin Robbins and bought a bottle of diet Coke and then back up to the room to “charge up” everything.

I paid our hotel bill and asked about arranging a taxi for the next morning to the chunnel for our train to Paris at St. Pancreas station. The hotel tells us getting a cab will be “no problem” in the morning, and they will help us catch one. So, off to bed.

Out with the “pounds” and in with the “Euros.”