Well - what a day!!! The tubes were hit with a strike - some lines closed, some stations closed. We had to skip our Abbey Road visit (have to catch it next time!!). Brekky didn't start till 8.30am, so it was a later start than planned. We managed to travel to the next station, then change lines to get us to Westminster. We found our Thames River Cruise there, but their services were shot to pieces because there was an abnormally high tide, making going under bridges impossible for some of their craft. They took us to Tower pier where we had to change craft to go the rest of the way to Greenwich.

Greenwich was interesting - beautiful grounds. Tom explored the National Maritime Museum but found it a little underwhelming. The Queen's House turned out to be an art gallery. So Tom walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory to Greenwich Meantime. We had to give the planned Docklands Light Rail a miss, because no connecting tube services were operating during the strike. We caught the river cruise back to Westminster, got the tube to Earls Court, but no connections were working, so we went back to Embankment where we managed to get the tube to Paddington. All the trains were jam packed. We bought some prepared meals which we had for dinner before preparing for the theatre.

Charing Cross station was closed, so we caught a different line to Embankment, walked up and found we were surprisingly 30 mins early! We rewarded ourselves with some French champagne. We had great seats for the show (Love Never Dies) - which we had booked online months ago - but were terribly disappointed in it. It was certainly not an uplifting, feel good kind of show, and the music was not at all memorable. But we did meet a lovely English couple at intermission!

Now, the trip home from the theatre during an escalating tube strike!!! After the show we found our way to Charing Cross because the strike was supposed to finish at 7pm or 9pm but the station was closed, so we continued on to Embankment. The first train to pull in was jam packed, so we decided to sit down and wait for the next one, only to have them announce that this was the last train, so we poured ourselves into it, only just managing to get on. Some more people arrived who squashed us in even further (thank heavens) - we were jammed so tight no-one had a chance to hold on, or fall over!! At each station more wanted to get on, but only a few would get off. Most of us were going to Paddington but just as we were nearing the station, they announced that it had just closed!! So we continued on to Warwick Avenue, where everyone had to get off, even though no-one knew where they were or how to get home. After about 1/2 hour of walking Tom hailed a cab who was actually on his way home but took pity on us. We shared our cab with a girl who lived out at Windsor (UK)!

We finally arrived back at our hotel, covered in sweat (because of all the walking and the unseasonably high temperatures) and needing more showers.

My itinerary had been prepared soooooo well, with the instructions of which lines to take from which tube stations ....... all for nothing!!!