Monday 20th July Got up refreshed this morning and ventured down to the breakfast room in the basement. The Paddington hotel is floor floors up and one down with no lift! We are on the second floor so it's 56 steps up from the breakfast room. We will get fit.

Went and organised a dental appointment for Jannie tomorrow morning at 9.00am.

Then got the tube to Piccadilly Circus which is on the Bakerloo Line so no changes from Paddington. We had booked a walking tour of Soho to start at 11.00am and had a good look around the streets around Piccadilly Circus before we met up with Gregory, our guide for the two and a half hour tour. Had a coffee and at 10.45am went to the meeting place to start the tour.

What a great time we had. There were about 18 persons on the tour and a real little united nations too. Gregory stopped every few minutes and told us stories of the area - he was very good. Without the tour we would never have seen as much of the one square mile that makes up the area of Soho. Went through Carnaby Street but wasn't time to stop at the Liberty Shop so will have to go back on another day. Brilliant.

After the tour finished in China Town Jannie and I went walking towards Trafalgar Square. We stopped off - to rest our feet - oh and to have a beer and shared a fish and chips at the Pub called The Bear and Staff in Leicester Square. We sat outside and watched the people going about their daily grind although there were a few men in suits having a casual beer as well. The waitress called us "Darling" after every sentence.

After lunch we wandered down Charring Cross Road as we were going to spend a few hours in the National Portrait Gallery. There were lots of people in the gallery and although we spent a fair time in the Stuart's, Tudor's and Victorian Galleries the part we most enjoyed was the BP Young Portrait Awards. There were dozens of wonderful portraits mostly of the particular artist's family or friends. They were brilliant.

Worn out feet so headed back to the hotel for a rest before heading out to dinner.

Walked up Praed Street to have a meal at Angus Steakhouse where we both had chicken.