Just adding photos tonight.
Will write on the plane tomorrow.
Climbed St Paul's.
Walked Millennium Bridge.
Toured The Globe Theatre.
Walked Southbank.
Found and 'tested' The Vault beer garden under Tower Bridge.
Absolutely wonderful day.
Oh
Oh
Did I mention HARRODS?!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned.....

Hello.
I'm back.
It's 1.05pm .... Saturday.
We are sitting at Gate 15 waiting to board the flight to Istanbul.
It has been delayed an hour.
( Just as well really, as take off time was 12.35pm and the Departure Board kept saying it would advise a Gate Number at 12.34pm. That would have been a sprint! Especially if it was Gate 95.)

So back to yesterday.
Up and on our way by 9am.
Tube to Mansion House.
3 minute walk to St Paul's Cathedral.
And you just keep looking to the sky for the Dome to make sure you are going the right way.
There it is!
Just absolutely magnificent.
We walked the length of the outside on the left to approach the front.Took time to just look and gaze.
Took photos of ourselves with the dome in the background.

In the front doors, and you just immediately look up.
You can't help it.
Your eyes are just drawn upwards.
A little bit of looking and walking but because we were early, we wanted to do the climb before anyone arrived.
No queue, just us and up we went.
I had forgotten about the wide wooden stairs that start the climb.
Then, really quickly, we are at the Whispering Gallery.
That surprised me.
We are good at this!

Great view both up to the decorated Dome and down to the Cathedral floor.
Then, on a mission, Emily was sent to the other side.
Just as well we are good at hand signals because I couldn't hear her.
She could hear me.
So many other positions tried...
Once getting told off as I stood on the stone seat to try to put my ear against the small holes that are placed every now and then around the a Dome.
( My thinking, you must be allowed to stand on these, otherwise how do the children reach them?)
I was nicely told off and the 2 patient supervisors explained that you have to talk below the painted line, not up where the holes are.
Oh.
Gotta look up those holes on a Google.
Then, I could hear the couple talking a way way.
So Emily and I started talking normally... and we could hear each other.
Success!
That was fun.
Talking in The Whispering Gallery!

Then up the steel circular staircases to the Stone Gallery.
What a staircase!
Great photos here.
Once we hit the Stone Gallery.... You just gaze out over London.
Wow.
Great view.
One of the women guides up there offered to take our picture.
I am sure she was the lovely woman that I met here before and took my photo as well.
Lovely, friendly lady.

Then up the small stone stairs, round and round and round, duck your head, up to the Golden Gallery.
We had a great time, taking photos, finding landmarks and chatting to different people.
Like the young man from Boston who played the Cello and was touring Europe with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
He took our photo.
So we took his.
Like the man who was doing a removals job across in the 'Cheese Grater'...
( I seriously do not know it's proper name.)
And he thought he'd never been up St Paul's so he climbed it in his lunch hour.
Like the father waving a red hanky to his son who was working in the 'Cheese Grater'.
They were talking on the phone...
" Can you see me?"
I helped.
I started furiously waving at the 'Cheese Grater' too.
( Emily moved a considerable distance away from me.)
All to no avail, his son didn't see us.
I know this because the man told me when he got off the phone.
We had quite a chat.
Lovely man.

Looking down, Emily pointed out all the churches we could see and wondered why people felt the need for one on every street corner and almost one half way up each street as well.
It really was fascinating to think about and they really are everywhere.

Oh
Oh
Also, while we were up there, we saw Tower bridge open to let a ship through!
I took a photo.
I think it wins the award for the 'grainiest' photo ever.
But the bridge is open.

Ok, back down the stairs ... that's actually seems a bit harder.

Wandered St Paul's.
Then down into the Crypt.
Had some lunch at the cafe and we were particularly fascinated by the Time Line.
There has been a church on this site for 1400 years.
Saw where Nelson is buried.
Loved this.

Then out into the sun.
We walked down the steps leading to Millennium Bridge.
( I was chuffed as I know this spot as an iconic photo of Cybermen in front of St Paul's.)
Then onto the bridge.
Great spot for photos.
Where was the roasted peanut man?
I have dreamt about these peanuts!
He was not there.

Moving on, into Shakespeare's Globe.
Right in time for a guided tour.
The guide was brilliant.
It was fun.
We were lucky we timed it well.
There were 2 performances a day.
One at 2.30pm and another in the evening.
Different plays too so they have to change the stage dressings etc.
We just fitted our tour in before the actors took to the stage at 1pm to do a Shakespearian 'Jig' to warm up!
We know this because the stage director came out and asked us to wrap up the tour.

Out and onto to Southbank for our walk along the Thames towards Tower Bridge.
Magnificent sunny day.
Found the fountains of water coming up out of the pavement.... looking towards Tower Bridge.
Kept walking....
Lots of selfies.
Then we found 'The Vault'.
This is the Restaurant and Beer Garden situated under Tower Bridge, with a view of the Bridge that is out of this world.
So we sat in this wonderful garden space, under the shade of the beautiful trees, with a nice cooling breeze having a drink or two, gazing at the view.
It was absolutely amazing.
Hope the photos do it justice.

I saw a man taking photos of his family and the bridge.
So I offered to take some for him.
And then he came over and took photos of us.
I wandered inside for another order and then casually wandered out again.
It takes your breath away.
We are here in the Vault beer garden.
Wow.

Then, what to do next.
I decided that I had to go to HARRODS.
It was only 2.30pm.
Emily thought she'd walk back to the Hotel.
So after deciding to check out all the HOHO Bus Ticket sellers on the other side of the Thames and see which bus would get me to HARRODS quickest, we set off to walk Tower Bridge.

And what does Emily spy as soon as we set foot on the bridge?
The marvellous Roasted Nut Selling Man!
She says I was hysterical with delight.
So we munched on the most beautiful snack in London as we walked the Bridge.
Yah.

Healthy competition between the HOHO ticket guys ended up with them deciding it was better for me to catch a cab to HARRODS, which I did.
Great taxi driver.
We had a great chat about everything all the way there.
HARRODS.
OK, little elephants.
Now as luck would have it, a little elephant collecting lady
( that's a lady collecting little elephants not... Anyway...)
This lady was there YESTERDAY and bought all the good ones.

I know. Because I had sales people showing me books with pictures of beautiful little elephants that sold yesterday.
I loved a small Lladro one but there were none left.
There was one absolutely beautiful statue, quite small and very expensive.

So regrouped.
Looked at a lot .
Went up and down escalators
Twice.
Even 3 times.
Into different departments.
Chatted to lots of people.
And did not buy anything at HARRODS of London.

Taxi back home.
Peak hour.
Long trip.

Found Emily in the restaurant eating dinner.
Ordered some myself.
Packed the case.
Very relaxing night.

Great fun day with icons of London.