A Foggy Day in London Town

What is it with me and song titles for post titles! I love this song; the lyrics are pretty applicable. Without the cute love story part. I have many adventures to share for today.  (By the way, the picture under the title was taken today by Christiana. Amazing, huh!)

We woke up bright and early for a group meeting. At a little after 10 we headed out to see London.  We got off the tube right at the Big Ben clock.  Did you know that Big Ben is not the name of the tower, only the bell inside? It's the Clock Tower. And this is me in front of it.

Also, the London Eye. The largest Ferris Wheel in Europe.  Christiana and I plan to ride it.

And here's the group I traveled with today, minus the adults.

We traveled with London pros today. They knew everything and every place and taught us so much.
We walked down South Bank along the Thames River (pronounced temz).  This man was an amazing dancer, but you can't tell by the picture. I took a video. He is with Pat Wimmer, the spunkiest lady I have ever met, also the best navigator.  She taught us a lot today.

The "highlight" I guess you could call it was a mime dressed in a police uniform top...and a tutu.

I didn't even see him until he held out his white gloved hand. I decided to go along with it.

He leaned over and almost knocked me over.

Unfortunately FORTUNATELY, I don't have any pictures of what happened next. He turned his head and tapped his cheek for me to kiss him. I really didn't want to. There was a big audience around us by now so I decided to be a good sport and play along with it.  I wouldn't kiss him but I would at least get close. In the last second, he whipped his head around fast and planted one on me!! I was pretty quick too, though, so he only got the corner of my mouth.  GROSS!  Everyone laughed hysterically; I was apparently cherry red. We said goodbye politely, and then I realized I forgot to pay him. I grabbed a coin and went back to put it in. Then he pulled me back in!  He did a bunch of other shenanigans with me but luckily no more close calls.  Funny guy.  There is a video of the whole thing floating around somewhere. I hope it doesn't make it to Facebook.

Continuing our walk... here is St. Paul's Cathedral. We'll go there later this month I believe.

And.......here is the famous picture!!!!   It's the London Bridge, right?

....Wrong!   80% of Americans believe this to be the London Bridge. It's actually the Tower Bridge.

It's beautiful and quite majestic.

In case you are curious, here is the real (rebuilt) London Bridge.

We walked across the Tower Bridge.  This picture is in front of what you really call "London City."  Do you see the egg shaped building right above my head?

That is called The Pickle. Interesting note: Prince Charles hates it. He think it's tacky. Funny, because it's such a tourist favorite!  When I convince his dashing son to cancel his engagement and fall in love with me (and when we marry), I'll have a little chat with my father-in-law, convincing him that it is really a nice addition to the skyline.

We stopped at Burough Market for lunch. Christiana and I had our first Fish and Chips of the trip. So delicious!!!  It started raining, but we didn't really notice.

We got really familiar with buses today. I love red double decker buses! My new favorite. I will have to put up a picture of them soon. Here is us inside one (and definitely my favorite picture of the day):

Tonight we went to our first choir concert. At St. Martin-in-the-Fields, we listened to a choir, orchestra, and solo quartet perform music by Handel, Mozart, and Purcell. The soprano was angelic.  If I could sing like anybody, I would choose her. It was a lovely show.  It's been a long day, and I can't believe how much I experienced.  Dear family, I know I will be hearing about this mime incident for some time. I accept that fact.