It was the nicest weather day in London, (ever).
Sun shining, birds singing, the houses safe as houses.
Gareth had some time before having to get to work, so we walked...
...to the Lewisham Docklands Light Rail station...
...and then up to the Greenwich Observatory.
The view of the field below through the monocular was stunning.
This was what the 24-hour clock looked like from around 30 meters away - in fantastic monocular vision.
We caught a ferry from Greenwich heading down the Thames.
I made everybody pick up their stuff to move up to the front row.
Under the glass canopy.And the best view.
We passed under several famed bridges.
And then passed the great London Eye, and docked right next to the Houses of Parliament.
We resisted the temptation to take pictures inside the phone booths.
And walked toward Saville Row, through St. James Park. All the office workers were out on lunch - basking in the warm spring day's sun.
We stopped for lunch at a place near Green Park.
After dessert, we started hunting for some "real tweed". On Neil's tip, we walked up and down Jermyn Street, looking for the bespoke. We wandered into a store full of fancy shaving tools - everything was gold plated. There was a barbershop downstairs where very proper and unconcerned men got their hair cut.
But it was getting late - we had to leave to go see some fossils and things.
There was an exhibition on Evolution going on at the Natural History Museum. The tickets were for a specific time slot, so we went to see some dinosaurs while we waited for our turn.
We then spent about an hour in the Darwin exhibit, which made me feel slightly guilty, as it was all this stuff I had foggy memories of/should've remembered from college. The most valuable thing (re)-learned from this show? One of the defining features of a mammal = 3 inner ear bones.
Afterwards, we looked at a bunch of stuffed animals. This is just a close-up of a huge, cluttered case full of branchfuls of hummingbirds.
We stayed until closing, and left as the sun was setting.We met Neil at the Waterloo station.
He showed us the Southbank Centre/Royal Festival Hall...
...and the nice walk next to the Thames. We went to a cute pizza place for dinner, where we toasted his pending birthday. Then we ambled by the Tate Modern...
...and stopped to take in the dramatic Millennium Bridge. You can see St. Paul's cathedral across the river.
Neil said it's one of his favorite views in London.
We checked out the closed Borough Market - usually thronging on Saturday mornings - as we got to the London Bridge station. Then we returned to the Coach House.
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