London calling, again

 Day 1. Or something…

We are in London.  Okay, literally this is written on the train from London to Liverpool but details, details. 

We all got in yesterday, five of us late enough that it doesn’t count. 

So today…

But first — new rule: only 3 pics per blog.  And the first pic (as I’ve learned) is the one that is the thumbnail, so it’ll be the day’s “best pic.”  [for those Philistines out there, Golf pic will be third].

Today.  Prob should start with the hotel.  It was very, very convenient to Paddington Station, where we all came in on the express.  It wasn’t a bad price for London.  But it was not going on the recommended list.  The rooms were tiny — we had a “triple,” which had the numerically strange number of five beds (a set of bunk beds and 3 singles).  OJ (as he will be called this week so I don’t have to type out the whole thing all the time :)) wondered if the “singles” were smaller than singles.  Is that possible?  Okay, and the bathroom was so small.  How small was it? It was so small you had to step outside to change your mind.  Yeah, like that.  OC it wasn’t air conditioned (it was warm in London yesterday and today.  And sunny!)

And, to top it all off, there was no elevator ):  And we had two bags that were over 45 lbs. ): 😭  Geez. 

And that’s my first day blog…

No. 

We made a semi quick exit this morning, taking the Tube to Charing Cross (after several bulks to get ‘coffee’) — I thought to see the Horse Guard’s parade at 10.  There was no parade! The English woman next to me thought there was a parade.  But the policeman (‘Bobby”) told me that there was a parade at 11. 

So off to the tourist square. 

On the way, in what will clearly be the highlight of the week, we saw Larry the Cat (@number10cat) outside of 10 Downing Street.  We’re fans. 

Then to Parliament Square.  Usual Big Ben photos; usual Westminster Abbey photos; OJ, MOJ & GB went into the abbey shop, which was open and came out with a bag of souvenirs.  So you get the tone of the trip, GBRM (his name is actually that short :)) commented that the vendor who gave us waters “was sick.  But I cleaned my bottle and hands with sanitizer.”  This will be a thing, folks. :)

Then back to the Horse Guards parade grounds.  They came out at 11 and did and inspection — there were 7 horses and their riders in regalia — and went back inside.  

We decided to walk through St. James’s Park (or is there no possessive?), which lies off the back of the Horse Guards grounds and toward Buckingham Palace. 

I resisted ice cream till the second stand.  MOJ said “it’s 11 o’clock, that’s too early for ice cream!” Sacrilege!  OJ, GB and I had ice cream. It will not make the top 5 list for the week.

Then to the Palace, where a crowd was assembled.  We were in time to see the band march away from the changing of the guard there, which is kinda the thing anyway.  EH said they were in “marching band 601”, though she dissed them when saw they had sheet music. LoL

Then to High Tea.  We had tea in The Library (capital T, capital L), which is in the Marriot, which is in the old city hall building.  It is quite the building.  It is on the river right across from Big Ben (there are pics from there at the clock) and OC river view.  And the food is aesthetically pleasing — today the banana brownie was shaped like the Elizabeth tower.  Here’s the requisite food porn (there will be view porn momentarily).

The Library is almost right next to the London Eye.  Which none of us had ever been up (I thought I had, but maybe I’ve just seen so many pictures, because neither EH or NRR said they’d been up it).  Surprisingly, I was little bothered by the heights.  OTOH, both EH and I had coughing fits…we’re not sure whether it is the bad air, the plant life, or see water vendor above ):

Here’s the best shot from the trip, which was quite fun…though I was disappointed not to be able to see the famed Gherkin.  ):  

And that’s your 3 pictures and a recap.  

We almost missed the train to Liverpool but the less said about that, the better. :)

The next 5 days we are in an airbnb in Liverpool— there’ll be comments about it I’m sure over the next 5 days.  4 days OJ and I are playing golf, the 5th we are booked on the Magical Mystery Tour.  While we are golfing the others have all kinds of plans: river cruises, trips to Dublin, trips to the Lake District…you’ll hear about them.  I don’t guarantee quality food porn till we return to London, though we have reservations Wed night at a Meditterranean place that is supposed to be food porny. 

With day ends Day 1, crazy readers.  

Post script: Airbnb did not do us right by gettting us into the flat. Actually, it wasn’t airbnb but the Liverpool company that runs rentals and does a bunch with airbnb.  They didn’t send instructions to get into the lockbox!  I messaged them through the app.  No answer.   When we pulled into Liverpool RR station, I called the number I had for a second person.  He eventually texted me back and we had a prolonged text exchange.  He didn’t believe that I had paid…he didn’t seem to have his airbnb records handy. 🙁🙁🙁 then he said he’d “WhatsApp” me…I said can’t you just text.  And then someone else WhatsApp Ed me the instructions!!!  This took forever…I could go back and check the time markers, but we all stood on the RR platform waiting to finally get the code.  OJ was sure it was a scam; I said they wouldn’t be texting if they were scamming, he disagreed.