From the plane, I could see the Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and several parks. I followed along the Thames to find Kew Gardens - couldn’t miss that Palm House.Landing in Heathrow was also uneventful as was customs and baggage claim. However, I was the tenth person for a question/spot check. A woman asked me three questions: what is my country of origin, where have I lived for the past year and how long would I be in the UK? (Then I was allowed to cross the bridge for answering the questions three, just like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail). I also found a pound coin near the entrance to the Tube - my lucky pound.
We arrived at Cassock's House, 626 Fulham Road, by 9:00 am. Mary Laurie sent us down the street to a Seattle Coffee Co. shop until our room would be ready. Luckily, I found Cadbury Flakes nearby (for Ken) and Pepsi! At least they have more than just Coke. When I was here 18 years ago, it seemed that I could only find Coke and not Pepsi. It will be good to get back to our U.S. Pepsi, though because theirs doesn't taste as good as ours.
Our room was ready by 10:00 and it was lovely (until we brought in our luggage). I've noticed that Mary uses "lovely" a lot. How British! It's a nice word, though.
We napped until about 2:00 pm and then left for the Aquarium (which turned out to be closed). Oops, I forgot that we spent a couple of hours in Harrods. Lunch at the Green Man Pub (good sandwich) saw a pet bed for £9,999.00 (very detailed and extravagant). Since we ate at one of their restaurants, I could use my receipt to go to the luxury ladies room - it was very, very nice - the best I’ve seen. The whole store is ornate. The lower ground level had a memorial to Diana and Dodi.
Since the aquarium was closed, we continued walking toward the Waterloo Bridge and then to Covent Garden. It was full of people drinking and sitting on the street in broken glass, believe it or not. We found Neal’s Yard and many shops with the name "Neal" in them. Sat in Leicester Square eating ice cream then climbed up to see lions at Trafalgar Square.
Later, we found Queens Theatre at Piccadilly easily and saw the musical "Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens," a very bizarre little show, too much to explain. But I’ve got two of the songs going through my mind "Glitter Boots Saved My Life" and "All I Need is Disco." One must be very open-minded to accept it. It was a fun show. Afterwards, we went into Segaworld (easy to get to, hard to get out). It was a loud place.