Hello everyone,

We left our luggage at the B&B and headed for the London Eye as soon as we hit town. We didn’t make our reservation time so stopped for the first food in many hours. Then we found that our time slot was just a serving suggestion and the thing they were really interested in was that we had purchased tickets aforehand so we walked right on. Yes, I am a sniveling coward when it comes to heights but the London Eye is not like roads in the  Blue Ridge Parkway that turn corners against the sky with a thousand foot drop and an outside lane. The LE has no jiggle, no rattle, no herky jerky, no torque and no speed. The gondolas move very slowly and the view unfolds and before I knew it I was up and photographing the superstructure and the river and what all else.

We walked the plaza, clapped for the street entertainers and sat and watched the river go by and finally, when we thought it would never, ever set, the sun went down and we went back to our room. Next day we took a turn through Harrods, still switching time zones and we found a watch for 220, 000 pounds. It was the only one of its kind.   Oh, and a carry-on suitcase for 16, 000 pounds. I kid you not. Really. If I had thought I was enough of a Yahoo to photograph the price tags I would have but I was one hayseed shy.

If you ask, the clerks will tell you about interesting things in the store, they are so helpful. One told us about the Egyptian escalator and said that even ‘tho the entire stair is carved to resemble Egyptian tombs the name comes from the speed of the escalator which is said to be as fast as the flow of the Nile. I asked, “Rainy season or dry season”, but my informant did not know. Pity.

Here is a picture of the perfect hat to wear to Elea and Alan’s wedding….only 375 pounds. Sigh. It is in a hat shop just down from our B&B in a very ordinary street. I guess they really like their hats here. 

In 1925 my mother was ten and her family took a trip to California by car. She was given a note book to record her journey but when she got home all she had written was, “Saw a bar of soap in the middle of the road”.  I hope I can do better with witticisms and pithy remarks and a bit of philosophy and, wonder of wonders,  right away I found a bear in Paddington Station. Probably as photographed as the Queen. We got on our train to Oxford to pick up a car and then we were on our way to……