London

The COG and I went into London yesterday.  We spent the day before doing very little except our usual walking around. However, we did spend an amazingly long time in line buying train tickets for the trip, and also for another trip into London this Saturday.

The only interesting thing about that day was the shoes of the person in front of us in line:

Then, yesterday, we took the earliest possible train (on cheap tickets), which was just after 10.  We took the underground from the train station to the Barbican station, and hurried to the Museum of London where we were meeting people (more about that tomorrow).  

The COG commented that they should have video screens in the underground to show you what you are missing above you!  

After the events at the Museum of London, we walked to Victoria Station. This is a longish walk across London, but it was fantastic.  The Museum of London is near St. Paul's Cathedral. We stopped off to one side of the cathedral for the COG to take pictures in the beautiful evening light. But moments after we stopped, a group of Italian students saw us, realized what a great photo op it was and completely took over the spot.  There were 8 or 10 of them taking pictures of each other in every possible combination of ones and twos and threes, with their iphones and point&shoot cameras.  Standing completely in the way of the COGS beautifully composed arty shots.  When they left, the light had gone. The COG was very nice about it. Normally, people are quite polite about walking in front of someone's camera, but they were young, I guess.  I didn't think of taking a picture, till we had walked some way, and I turned around and shot this, pathetic but proof I was there:

From the front of St Paul's you can see the Milennium Bridge and, across the river,  the front of the Tate Modern, and also the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, shown here.

We turned right and walked west along the Thames.  We watched a beautiful sunset. The river turns, so perspectives were off. We saw this in the distance looking like something from a dream of Fairyland:

We still aren't entirely sure what it is. We later walked right by it, but were not enlightened. It's in Whitehall, right by the Horse Guards and it seems to be the National Liberal Club, founded in 1882, not really a political organization, though kind of, which is open to male and female members (at a cost of £675+ pa.) At least, that's what google seems to indicate. 

We walked a bit farther and passed the London Eye, across the river:

 And at Big Ben, we turned inland and walked past Westminster Abbey to the train station.

Got to the train and home, tired but content.  A good day. More about what we saw at the Museum of London, tomorrow.