Another day in London. The boys and I took in the Tower of London ( heaven for history buffs like myself) for several hours whilst Nancy, Sarah and Harley went on a cruise on the Thames, and Nancy and Sarah played catch up after 12 years since last seeing each other.

Such history behind the walls of the Tower beginning with in 1078 with William the Conqueror. And yes, the boys and I were hanging on every word of the tales of execution of both traitor and queen alike. Wives of Henry VIII seemed to fallout of favour repeatedly and relatively quickly... Even predating the White Tower (William's castle) are the old Roman walls that form the foundation of the Tower walls dating back to 200 AD

A late lunch at a pub (had to have the fish and chips and a pint of ale!) and we spent the next 3-4 hours mostly on foot exploring some of the posh neighbourhoods in the Hyde Park area. Imagine a flat going for £2-3M ($4-6M) and being nowhere near Coal Harbour.

Nancy and I both wanted to get inside Westminster Abbey, but sadly we ran out of time today, so Sarah took all the kids back to Bromley while giving Nancy and I a couple of hours to walk around the Abbey admiring the architecture and along the Thames to view the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben lit up at night. A train ride put us back to Bromley at 10:00.

(Unable to get some photos off the camera of today's adventures, but the above is of the Millenium Bridge that we walked across yesterday, with St Paul's Catherdral in the background)
-Scott

Hiya: I am trying hard not to copy the lovely lilt of my friend Sara and her daughter Harley, it is just so easy to do, totally by accident.

Today, I got to taste some more highlights from Sara's London. While the boys saw the Tower, Sara, Harley and I got coffee and boarded a Thames river canal boat with an open upper deck, and an amateur tour guide who was also a crew member who told us what seemed like made up bits of info. We really didn't pay attention as we had 12 or so years of catching up to do. It is so great to just pick up with someone and be able to be open and honest and feel so heard. It turns out that her son Tom (who couldn't be roused this am to join us) also has something similar to dysgraphia and uses a laptop for most of his subjects. What a small world. I am hoping that Jonas and he might have a chin wag about it.

After we got off the boat, we went to Covent Garden where there was a woman signing arias from various operas that enthralled Harley and myself. The aucostics were great. We roamed through a shop or two and were imagining Eliza Doolittle trying to sell her posies there. (from my Fair lady). After the pub lunch, we strolled through the Chelsea/Kensignton area of London, very posh. It looks exactly like the house from an episode of Upstairs/Downstairs or when the sisters from Pride and Prejudice got to visit their good friend in London. There are housing areas called Mews which are flats created from the stalls of the stables from the large houses. There are even coal bins underneath the street that fed the many fireplaces which are evident by the dozens of chimney pots on the roof. It was beautiful strolling through with the sun shining down highlighting the architectural details. I kept stopping to admire the door knobs which are right in the middle of the doors. We also saw the church where Alpha started and saw someone very impressive come out of a Rolls Royce with specialized license plates,I am hoping it is someone famous doing something illegal that I could sell to the tabloids..... We also went through the shopping district seeing the likes of Prada, Gucci, Jimmy Cho (sp?), United Colour of Benneton, Burberry, Harrods, and of course, Tiffany (too late for breakfast!). It was nice to have Scott to myself for a little while and have fun catching the bus and the train like we were locals (well, except for the shorts and the camera!).What a clean, friendly city London is. There was even a bus driver today that hauled out a map and gave us tips to go certain places, then honked us back to the bus to give us the map.

Todays images for me will be:
....hearing the heart of Sara for her family and the church....
...Black and white photos being sold at Covent Garden....
...The opera singer at Covent Garden....Door knobs in the middle of doors....
....the bomb damage from WWII on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum...
...The brass handrails at the same museum that entertained the kids for a long while... getting a chance to snog with my honey on the Thames with Big Ben lit up in the background.....the friendly bus driver....the extraordinary accomodations of the rich in London....Cornish Pasties...finding another tube station that repeated "mind the gap", shopping for same such souvenirs.....

Nancy