What a great city, London. It's old as the hills and yet it's always changing, rebuilding and growing. We learned today that London was originally established by the Romans about 400 AD. Remnants of Roman roads have been found and preserved for us to see today--amazing. Yet modern Londoners want their own stamp on the city, thus they've built remarkable landmarks like the Millenium Bridge, the Eye and the new Shard Tower currently under construction. When complete, it will be the tallest site in Great Britain and the European Union. And the growth continues; the skyline is literally dotted with cranes making way for the new.

Today we took the Fat Tire Bike River Thames Tour, but before I talk about that, I simply must say a bit about WICKED. If you get a chance to see this great theatrical show, do not miss it! We saw it last night a the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It sweeps you off your feet with the first song in the first act! And it never let's you down for the rest of the show. It's a great story told with wonderful, lively and moving music, thrilling stage sets, and bedazzling dancing and costumes! The characters are straight out of the Wizard of OZ, but the perspective is from a completely different angle. It's the best, wittiest production I've seen in a long, long while! Can you tell? I loved it! I'm so glad we added this to our plans.

Like the two previous Fat Tire Bike Tours we have taken in Paris and in Barcelona, the tour today was tons of fun. But in case the London weather is not making US news, the temp today reached 85 degrees and broke a record for Southern England. It was fantastic weather for a bike ride but also a rare and superb day for tourists and Londoners themselves to be out. The streets, parks, sights, piazzas, virtually every speck of public space was filled with people. This complicates bike tours. Our 4-hour tour took about 5 1/2 hours and quite often, we had to walk our bikes through public areas to avoid mowing over a section of the crowd. I lovingly nicknamed the tour, The Fat Belly Walking Tour. Still it was a lot of fun and we got to see important sights up close and meet fellow travelers as well. I have not had a chance to view our pix yet, but I think we got a few good ones.

No time for Portobello Market today, but we are planning to spend most of the day at the Camden Markets tomorrow. But first, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at The Palace Theatre tonight!!