Not that it was bad, just a let down after that perfect day yesterday. We put the national gallery on the beginning of our list again. Grabbed the nearest Hop on-Hop off bus and made it there to see a line that was a block or two long. The museums in London are all free, the only cost is your time. The line moved quite well, only took 15 minutes then we were in. Weather was ok, meaning not raining, and there was a musician playing lovely songs.
I'm just not much of an art connoisseur, I mean they were impressive and old and when I stopped to read the description beside each painting I learned interesting stories but art galleries are just not my thing. Jim was a bit better, appreciating some of the artists names, but all I really wanted to see was the portrait gallery and we learned that it was in the building next door. Of we go
That line was not so long, we still had to let them inspect our backpacks, no biggy.
King Charles III, William and Kate, were impressive. Women, lots of women. It occurs to me that some of what I like about British culture comes from the fact that they have had women leaders as role models. Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Thatcher.
Wandering around these huge buildings takes a lot out of you! It's pub time. Right across the street, we see a likely dark wood Establishment - ?? We're in Covent gardens now. This was the quietest pub yet, I almost felt the need to whisper. They didn't have a Stout, and they didn't have small plates. I decided to be adventurous and ordered a curry after asking if it was spicy - oh no she said. Well I guess I have a different definition of spicy than anyone else. I could eat about half of it.
Next we wanted around Covent gardens. Large plazas with entertainment going on, outdoor restaurants with an opera singer! He had a helper gathering tips, when I said I had no cash, just a phone, he said "I too have a phone, how much would you like to give" I said 2 pounds and tapped his phone. Sure enough, $2.46 charge was posted to the credit card linked to my Google Pay . Then came the Covent gardens shopping areas - like swap shop. We bought a London magnet. As we continued walking, Jim noticed a sign for -6- the musical theatre performance that we had tried to book tickets and failed. Why not ask at the ticket counter? Nope, all sold out, but it's we come back at noon tomorrow there's a good chance we could pick some up. Sorry too much work. Keep on walking. Savoy theatre and sunset strip - 2 seats for tomorrow night $150 each. Nope
Walk thru Savoy, had to circle around twice and ask directions 3 times to find the back door. Now we're back at the Thames it's after 4 pm and we're tired. Let's find our HOHO bus, across the river we go. Aha, there's our bus, good timing - nope that's a red line, we need blue. Keep going, see another bus stop and bus, ask the driver but he says no, we stop service son, you're better off at the next stop and he points and gives vague directions. We keep walking, my feet are sore, my knee is sore. It's really getting cold. Jim is in horse-to-the+barn mode and I'm trying to keep up. We finally get on the right bus, relax and put on the headphones for more commentary. Cool, this is going on the one part of the route we haven't been, so we are learning everything the big bus has to teach. It's almost 7:00 before we get home.
What are we going to do tomorrow?
