Sore Feet

Thursday, 8th September

Last evening we were lucky enough to have dinner with Les' nephew, Justin, who travelled from Oxford especially to see us. It was great to catch up with him again after a few years.

We are managing to stay awake later each night but one of us is still waking up about 3.00 am and then gets to listen to the other one snoring until breakfast time!

Today we simply walked, and walked, and walked. Set out early this morning for Westminster Abbey and managed to beat the main horde of tourists by half an hour. The Abbey seems to be simply a large cemetery and certainly looked much lighter on television during the recent wedding. (Wedding memorabelia is obviously still big business among the souvenir shops!) We paid our respects to Queen Elizabeth I and Winston Churchill, among many, many others and saw the Coronation Chair undergoing restoration work. Cat didn't think it looked at all comfortable!

After leaving the Abbey, we battled our way through the crowds and across Westminster Bridge for photo opportunities of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Then it was a stroll along the Embankment opposite the London Eye (if the weather hadn't been so grey and overcast, we would have considered a ride on the Eye) before heading to Leicester Square.

M & M have opened a store in Leicester Square - four floors of M & Ms and associated products. It would have been far more enjoyable if the background music had actually been background; it was a pleasure to actually get outside into the crowds again. It didn't take Cat very long to make friends with a young lady who thought he belonged to Postman Pat!

We continued on to Piccadilly Circus, and Eros, before heading to Pall Mall where we were halted by a large number of police (we estimated more than 20 uniformed and some were very well armed) who were waiting for a VIP to appear from one of the nearby buildings. We don't know who it was, only that he was Asian (or rather, Oriental, as they say in London).

After walking through St James's Park and looking at all the squirrels, it was actually a relief to arrive back at the hotel and put the feet up. Now we just have to stay awake!