Yes, I know, I said it would be a couple of days until I picked up with my travelogue, and it has been three. I fibbed--but not on purpose. I forgot that I had to go to ASUMH for the new Chancellor interviews yesterday afternoon and two more days this week. It is exciting times at ASUMH, but let us not forget the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in exciting times." Oh, boy!
Back to the trip..
Even after being awake for over 36 hours the day before, Kellie and I were among the first in line for the Continental breakfast at 6 AM. Now, I don't have any pictures, but let me tell you. The typical British breakfast is not my thing. They curdle their eggs instead of scrambling them, they cook ham till its brown and crisp like bacon, they have baked beans by their eggs, ham, and hashbrowns (I never ate any!), and they only had yoghurt (their spelling) in unsweetened form. It was edible and included in the room price, but I didn't exactly race to breakfast the next day.
After the edible but not tasty breakfast, Kellie and I rode the Tube to King's Cross where we caught the Big Bus Hop-on/Hop-off tour. I highly recommend using this service anytime one visits a city with which a person is not familiar. The Big Bus tours proved to be huge advantage on our trip in San Francisco last year, and the Big Bus worked pretty well for us in London. However, I was confused by something. We bought tickets for the Blue Line which goes to all 40 tourist destinations in London and was supposed to, according to the map, go around the center of London to St. Paul's Cathedral, Kensington gardens and palace, etc. However, we got on the right bus for the Blue Line, but it immediately started following the Red Line route to the center of London that we had explored the day before. I was a bit unhappy with the situation until we pulled up at the stop in front of the National Gallery, and Kellie and I noticed that there was no line into the building. We jumped off the bus in a hurry. I took this picture of the fountain more to show how few people were there than to show the fountain itself.
I think there is one person on the steps, three or four on the balcony and one sitting on the bench. There was no line into the Gallery, so we walked right in and went to see the paintings that we wanted to see with hardly any other visitors around. Here is the view of Trafalgar Square from the entry to the National Gallery. The day before, we could not walk through the Square without bumping into or circling around people.
Now, you know what we went back into the National Gallery to see. Yep, Monet, Van Gogh, and the other paintings we hadn't got to see well the day before. Here is Sunflowers in all its glory.
With hardly anyone around, we also got to stand around and study Van Gogh's Chair.
Kellie will be supplying me with many more pictures later that I will figure out how to share. As I said last time, I didn't really take many pictures, and mine were of sort of weird things. Anyway...On our way out of the National Gallery and back to the bus stop, we snapped another selfie. I think the last one of the trip. Yes, I am wearing a jacket and a stocking cap, and Kellie is wearing a scarf. It was about 50 degrees that morning and breezy. Later, the sun came out and the temperature was in the low 70's. I am told that we enjoyed some rather unusual sunny and warm days for England in May on our trip, but I carried my jacket and wore it every day we were in Great Britain except one.
So, back on the Big Bus, we headed down the streets where Kellie and I had walked the day before, past White Hall, past the Horse Guards, and to Westminster. We had planned to go to Westminster Abbey, but when we saw the long, long line waiting to get in at 8:30 in the morning, we decided to save that for another time. (We never got back to it!?!) However, when the bus stopped at Westminster on the bridge, we decided to go ahead and do the river boat tour that came with our Big Bus package. That is when I snapped this picture of Big Ben.
The River Boat tour was quite an experience. The tour guide spoke over a loud speaker pointing out places of interest, telling jokes, and repeatedly asking people to stay seated for safety reasons and to allow others to enjoy the sights. Some Asian tourists who obviously did not understand a word of English or who were very stubborn and lawless stood, walked around, and were everyone's way taking selfies with long selfie sticks for the entire cruise. It was a significant distraction for me and many other tourists on the boat. This was the second time that extremely rude and thoughtless people had taken enjoyment from our trip. Please, when you're a tourist, don't be an asshole!
Anyway, I had to take at least one picture of the London Eye. Here it is.
The tour guide asked if anyone knew why the London Eye was built. When nobody answered, he said, "Solely, to take money from tourists." Then, he told a story about how it has become a fad to have a wedding ceremony at the top of the Eye. Again, like with Westminster Abbey, Kellie and I had thought we might take a ride on the extremely touristy Eye, but after seeing the length of the line to it, it was a hard NO. If I had wanted to stand in lines for rides, I could have gone to Silver Dollar City. By the way, anybody who tells you that the tourist season in London doesn't start until mid-June is full of crap. In case you wanted to know...
Also, on the river boat on the River Thames (pronounced "tims" if you didn't know), we passed Shakespeare's Globe Theater. It wasn't open, so there was no sense in walking to it, but there it is.
According to the tour guide, it costs nothing to have the London Tower bridge raised and lowered, but it still does not happen very often. Here is a shot of the London Tower bridge. By the way, the famous London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City in Arizona. It was disassembled, shipped through the Panama Canal to Long Beach, California, then reassembled piece by piece from 1967-1971. I have never seen it. Anyway...here is the London Tower bridge.
You know, I just realized that I am still in the early morning, probably around 9 AM, with the travelogue and this blog is pretty long. I think we will divide Day Two in London into a couple parts. I'll end today's travelogue with the last picture that I took from the boat, which, apparently is that picture of London Tower Bridge above. It seems that I am done for now. The next picture is of the entrance to London Tower
I promise that I will be back tomorrow with pictures of London Tower and its contents and take you up till lunch at least.