London day 5

Day 5 was another explore the city day. We got up "early" around 8:30ish. We wanted to see if we could buy tickets to the Eye before the crowds showed up. We acquired our morning coffee and headed across the Hungerford bridge.



Unfortunately the ticket person informed us they were having technical difficulties and there was no eta when they would be back up and running.

Kiri's unpleased face.


As we crossed back over to the north side of the river I snapped a shot of an officer on a R1200(t?). Seems to be the common bike of motorcycle cops here.


Kiri and I stopped by a monument ,close to our hotel, called Cleopatra's Needle.









Kiri said to give my best "scared" face.



We started walking east. We have one of Rick Steve's London guides and were lightly following one of his city walks. I saw the name of this pub and laughed.



We passed the Savoy. Kiri informs me it's a fancy hotel.



Then we hit the Somerset house. Used to be a private residence, but now home to multiple galleries. They had a very neat courtyard with ground fountains. I asked Kiri to play in the water. She said no:(






You'll find these zones for motorcycle parking all over London and they're almost always full.



We stopped by St. Clement Danes church. It's dedicated to all of the RAF servicemen who gave their lives in both world wars.






Kiri wanted to pop into Twinings tea shop and buy some gifts. Apparently they've been around since 1706, according to Rick Steves. What does he know?






Gifts acquired we proceeded down the street and passed the Temple Bar Monument. It marks the border between the city of Westminster and the city of London. And here I thought I was in London the whole time!



Doesn't look like much but we get to this small nondescript walkway off of a major street and Kiri says follow me.



She leads me to Temple Church, which doesn't mean much to me until I recognize it from the movie "The Da Vinci Code". To much history to cover here. Go google it's past. Or read Rick Steve's small blurb on it.


















Tons of photos here but I don't want to put people to sleep. Just go watch the movie and picture me as Tom Hanks.

There are quite a few small courtyards in this area with amazing gardens. Kiri and I wandered through all of them. This is one of my favorite pictures from there.



From here we kept heading east. Another great pub name.



More bikes!


From here we took a tour of Dr. Johnson's house. Famous for quite a few things, one of them the first real English dictionary.
His house was set up to look like it was in 1750.



Here I am in his library pondering the meaning of life.



A neat shot looking down the houses central staircase.



After we left it was time for lunch so we stopped at the "ye old bell".






Next up was St. Paul's Cathedral. This place is amazing, you walk in and the place takes your breath away. I was blown away with how high the ceiling was.



They don't let you take pictures inside but the do let you climb up into the dome!



These are some vies from the stone gallery.






Then from the golden gallery. It was quite windy up there.



Looking down at the millinial bridge.



Close quarters coming down. Kiri took her time.



We finished up and went across the street to get a shot of where we were. The golden gallery is the spot right where the dome curves into the top spire. This picture is being taken 6 floors up off the ground. So you're pretty up there!


We weren't done with tight stair cases. On our second day into the trip we tried to get into "the monument" but it was closed. We made our way over after St. Paul's.



This was a monument to the great London fire. It as 311 steps and their is barely room for people to pass each other going up and down. Not for people scared of tight spaces.



View looking down the staircase from the top.



From here kiri and I caught a subway up north so I could cross off another wish while in town. Visiting the famous Lewis Leathers!



These guys were making jackets back in the 50's and 60's. Kiri thought I was acting like a kid in a candy store.






The helpful assistant even took our photo!



Kiri and I bought some matching gloves and I got some jacket pins.



We headed back to the hotel and cleaned up. Before going to dinner Kiri wanted to try the eye again. We walked over, bought some tickets and boom we got into a bubble with only one other couple! They usually pack ~15 people into these things.


















I'm glad we road it. I didn't know if it was going to be worth it, but now we can say we've done it.

We headed out to a great Indian restaurant Kiri found on Yelp and we ended another fun day.






These last two are Indian desserts. Pistachio Kulfi(icecream) and Coti(sp?) ice.


Sorry for any mistakes or ramblings. It's now 1:30am on our last full day here. Need to get some sleep:)

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