Monday Nov. 22, 2004 View Monday's Pictures
We slept late today. I made coffee in the kitchen and worked on Sundays web pictures. We uploaded some pictures on Sunday night from Laura's dorm. I had loaded the tools on her laptop before we left so was able to build the picture pages and upload them to my server at home using her secure copy program. I plan to take the cleaned up pages over to Laura's on a thumb drive to upload . All of the toys that I brought have 100-240 VAC 50/60 Hz power supplies so running the computers and charging the cameras are no big deal. I only need an adapter for the power cords. They have 220 VAC / 50 Hz over here. Another option is to take my laptop around the corner to Starbucks and upload the pictures there. According to the real estate agent, Starbucks has free WIFI. I use the term free guardedly because I think that includes the purchase of a $6 cup of coffee. Speaking of money, things are very expensive here due to the exchange rate. If you read the purchase price of items in pounds it doesn't seem too bad if you don't think about the fact that a pound is worth about $2. Another way of looking at things is to think of this trip to visit Laura as one element of the cost of a liberal arts education! It's not so expensive - relatively.
We left the apartment around 11:30 and headed toward Harrods. After a false start in the right direction, then the wrong direction, we walked past the Albert and Victoria restaurant then to Harrods. Our purpose in going to Harrods was to pick up a tour bus but we did walk through for a short visit. We boarded "The Big Bus" tour and headed toward the West end of Kensington. The Big Bus is a double decker bus with the roof cut off on the top. There are 3 routes in London and you can get on and off as you wish for a 24 hour period. We rode Monday until dark and will ride in the morning Tuesday. We rode past Kensington palace which is where Diana lived and Princess Margaret after that. Kensington Palace is at one end of a huge park which is Kensington on one end and Hyde Park on the other. The bus took turns through various neighborhoods and there was an automated presentation that you listen to with headphones. Seeing the number of restaurants and pubs, you sure wouldn't starve in London. We changed buses at the Marble arch and headed toward Baker St., Oxford Circus and then got off at Picadilly Circus for Lunch. We stopped into a pub for a most satiating lunch of stuffed baked potato, tomato soup, and ale. I haven't mastered the difference between beer, ale, and bitters but am studying real hard. We boarded another bus, this time with a live tour guide, and rode past Trafalgar Square, Whitehall Rd., Parliament, then over the Thames past the London Eye wheel. We saw Waterloo station then back over the Thames and got off at St. Paul's Cathedral. We took a city bus back to the Bond St. station where we met up with Laura. She worked at the Handel House museum on Monday. We walked around the Oxford shopping district and tried to strike the right balance between shopping and pubbing. We took a bus from the Oxford district to London's east end to the Brick Lane section. Laura pointed out that at one time the Hugenots lived in Brick Lane, then the Jews, and now the Indians. The street is lined with Indian restaurants and each one has a hawker who will take you to the window to read the reviews and hear about their chef and to offer you something very individual such as a free round of drinks, glass of wine, yadda yadda. Each of them is London's restaurant of the year! Laura picked a restaurant and we had the special dinner which included several items served family style. It was great and we promised them that we would send all of our friends from America there. The restaurant was "Clipper" Bangladeshi Cuisine, so, everyone go there when in London.
We walked back to Liverpool St. station and caught a bus back to Oxford St. where we split up and took separate buses home. There is so much to see and do here that we are already talking about scaling back some of our plans. We are going to finish the bus tour Tuesday, maybe go to Windsor Castle Wed, and down the Thames to Greenwich on Thursday. We are hoping to cook a chicken for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.