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Yesterday we went on the Hop on Hop off bus for a tour of London & Westminster; our guide provided colorful commentary as we paraded through road construction and heavy traffic. We cruised across the river for great view of Parliament and the Eye, then back to the other side to Downing street, Fleet Street, Trafalgar Square with its modern colorful bird perch seldom used by the many pigeons that prefer the old statues instead; past St. Paul Cathedral where Charles and Diana were married; past the monument designed by Christopher Wren to commemorate the great fire of 1666. But our final destination was the Tower of London and the TowerBridge.

The Tower of London dates back to William the Conqueror in 1067; through the centuries that followed, successive monarchs added to the fortifications. Over the years it was used as a palace, prison, royal mint and living museum. In 1536 Queen Anne Boleyn passed through Traitors Gate to be beheaded at Tower Green. Inscriptions by inmates, including religious messages from persecuted Catholics, are still legible. "Beefeaters" whose nickname may be a reference to their daily allowance of meat in former times, still guard the fortress dressed in their distinctive uniforms. Some retired British Crowns are housed here as well as the Scepter with the Cross topped with the First Star of Africa, the largest quality cut diamond in the world.

Next the TowerBridge which costs a mere £1,184,000 had a Royal Opening June 30th, 1894. I climbed the 200 odd steps to walk along the top of the bridge while Gail & Michael stayed grounded - they laughed at me when I made it up and down in a matter of 15 or 20 mins - its suppose to be half a hour.

We caught the boat back to Westminster which was considerably faster than the bus considering the construction and traffic getting here. London is fairly busy this time of year - lots of school kids, which if you know me well, how much I love screaming kids speaking a different language that don't have enough sense to believe its rude to stick a camera in one's personal space so they can get a good picture of the shore, but that's just me.

The food has been alright - trying various restaurants. At lunch I had Fish & Chips from a street vendor at the Tower of London, it was yummy and 100 times better than Gail and Michael's hotdog. Last night we dined with Michael's work associate Ken at the Belvedere - I had sea bass and crème burlee - it was so good.

May 16th we went back to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery (which was about the only site we went to that was free). We checked out Van Gogh's Sunflower, Renoir's the Umbrella and hundreds of other famous pieces of art. The highlight of London though had to be "Wicked" which was playing at the ApolloVictoriaTheatre, which happened to be within walking distance of the hotel. The show was phenomenal; it's about the wicked witch and the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. The good witch, Glenda reminded me of Reese Witherspoon. She was teaching Alphaba how to be popular by toss her hair left then right with a "toss" "toss" guess you had to be there.