OK - we've been in our apartment about 29 hours now and we have done a lot and put 6.4 miles on my pedometer today and Ross survived with his plantar fasciitis - what a trooper!
Last night dinner and we sat at a lovely counter facing the street in Soho and it was really interesting to watch the goings on. Thank goodness I had reservations because the small place was buzzing!
On our walk home - I love signs and toilets! Of course a little further down the block Ross says "Did you look in the windows of that store" Me: "No" - R: "It was a sex shop" - hmm could have been more interesting than the sidewalk!
The street or maybe we would call it "alley" on the way to the restaurant from our apartment - a 5" walk on this route and it made sense to me.
The kitchen of our apartment at 78 Dean Street in Soho. There's usually something strange about every place and this one has the bedroom at one end, then living/dining room, kitchen and full bath at the opposite end. I keep turning the wrong direction! Also having learned from an Italy experience on a girl trip - there are 2 steps down to the bathroom so we have placed the wastebasket right in front of the step so you would have to knock it over and maybe not fall. In Italy not so lucky and I tripped on the only step down in the apartment but I survived!
Westminster Cathedral - Ross is the church, evensong, organ concert buff so we took the tube here using our Oyster Card this morning. It is a refillable card to use on buses, tube and all and works great. A young staffer at the station helped us with this and I must say we have had so much help here from people of all ages all over the place. Ross decided the 17 GBP (appr. $20) per person to visit was a bit much and we might get in free to attend an actual service!
Drive on the left so all the streets are well marked with reminders of how not to get run over by a vehicle.
"Hey Kids - It's Big Ben" from one of my favorite Chevy Chase movies National Lampoon European Vacation. It was a bit foggy this morning but so far we have had fantastic weather and not the rain and drizzle that London is famous for.
Supreme Court Justices - a recent addition to the rules since maybe 2009. The visit was free but we did have to go through an intense security check of all metal off including watches, belts, neck pendants and my safety neck thing where everything important is kept.
Beautiful stained glass window in the Supreme Court.
There are 3 courtrooms and we saw 2 of them. The flags are from different places including one from Germany and many other places that don't have Supreme Courts. I don't understand the rules so of course will have to study up on it!
Ross first sat in the middle seat but the guard told him he couldn't sit there but only in the two seats to the left. I think the middle one might be a British "leader".
Winston Churchill Statue along with many others including Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi who are known for trying to bring peace.
I got tickets for the newly opened Royal Mail Train and Postal Museum. The mail train took mail underground via tunnels all over London and it was interesting and I think from the 1920s to 2003 - a long long time.
Ever the engineer!
Inside the tunnel after one of the WWII bombings in the London Blitz but the next day mail delivery resumed. Amazing! The guy who checked us in asked where we were from because he likes to hear accents. He said he lived in Milwaukee for a year. Such a small world we live in.
The Royal Family had their mail delivered in a fancy carriage and the display on the left showed the necessary uniforms.
They had some old coin and dial phones and now they are just not seen. Hello cellphone!
1960s stamp of the Beatles:
So I was totally hooked on the "Mr. Selfridge" series on PBS a couple years ago. Jeremy Piven was Mr. Selfridge and I was heartbroken that there would be no more to the series.
The Food Hall at Selfridges and I did buy bread and it is really good!
The most beautiful and largest meringues I have ever seen and I didn't dare ask how much they cost!
The Champagne and Oyster Bar at Selfridge's which is on Oxford Street and there are tons of stores of all kinds on that street.
Our apartment is the white door right side and we are ground floor so no stairs. Three doors to get in- two with a key and one with a coded keypad -complicated for me but not Ross! The restaurant next door is where we have dinner reservations tomorrow night and it is Indian food so we may need staff advice on interpreting what the foods are.
These are the mounted police patrolling our street, Dean Street in Soho, this afternoon. No cars honked at them to hurry.
So we had a great dinner at the French/British/European restaurant 3" from our apartment tonight and tomorrow is a huge day of the "Royal Day Out" at Buckingham Palace which might be a total of 5 hours. We have never been lucky enough to visit because it's only for about 6 weeks in August/September when the Queen spends her time in Balmoral Castle in Scotland. I lucked out and got the tickets early!
So it's almost 9pm here and 3pm at home and I'm ready for bed and a full day tomorrow. Good day, Mate!!!
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