The Fab Two?? - Day Six (London)

Although it is Saturday, we had limited time to explore today too because David had a meeting this evening in Windsor. The Tube doesn't go out to Windsor so he had the pleasure of trying to negotiate his way there on the National Rail. That is actually where he is as I am blogging away. Oh...by the way, I forgot to mention, so you don't think I left Madeline in the flat while I headed to the pub, our flat's Internet issue was fixed Friday. David and I were able to use the Internet here for the past two days. That is a good thing because this drunk Polish (yes, from Poland) guy wouldn't leave me alone when I was at the pub on Thursday night. But, anyway, here I sit in the cozy, comfort of the flat.

In the time we did have today, David, Madeline and I tried to make the most of our time. We had a list of five things we wanted to try to squeeze in today. The first stop today was on the Tube again to St. Paul's Cathedral. This too is a very beautiful church, however, I think Westminster Abbey was a bit more impressive. Although we weren't supposed to take pictures inside, I sneaked a couple. For the pop culture fans, this church is the one where Prince Charles and Princess Diana got married. The dome of the Cathedral was breath-taking. The photos do not do it justice. In the exterior photo of the dome, you can sort of see the various "layers" of the dome. These "layers" is approximately where the church's various observation areas are located. On the interior, you can climb up to various observation decks (actually there is also one on the outside as well). The three of us climbed up for a view. In the dome photo, you can sort of see the rail of where we were in the dome. The rail can be seen just above the arch. The climb up was a work-out in itself. Yes, stairs....spiral, round and round. It sounded like a good idea from the ground but you really have no concept of how high you actually were. I think David and I both had a death gripe on Madeline's hands. Any thought of going any higher was completely forgotten about. However, if Madeline were a little older we probably would've trekked to the other two higher decks (one of which was outside). The third, highest deck at the top of the dome was closed for repair.



Back on the Tube. We tried to search out the Temple Church. For those of you that have read the DaVinci Code (or saw the movie) like David and I have, you will know that the characters, made a mad dash through parts of Paris and London on their quest. We were able to see the Temple Bar Memorial (the bronze griffin) but were not able to get to Temple Church. The streets surrounding this church almost form a gated community. The public normally would have access to this area, however many law offices are in this area (because of its proximity to the courts). The gates were closed due to G-20 protesters. We did, however, take a picture of the the Royal Courts of Justice that were located across the street from where we tried to go.

Back on the Tube again. David is a big fan of British television. Quite honestly, I just don't find Brit-coms funny. David can be rolling on the floor laughing while I don't even crack a smile. He also likes the Sci-Fi stuff such as Dr. Who. So, a tour book said there was a BBC Shop. We figured that would be a good place for David to pick up a souvenir. No luck, the store was closed (not for the day, but out of business). Oh well....back on the Tube again.

Growing up a Beatles fan, (Although the Beatles were before my time, my older brothers gave me no choice in the music department) how could you go to England and not do something related to the Beatles? The three of us rode the Tube to see the famous cross walk from the cover of the Abbey Road album. When we exited the Tube, there was a small coffee shop that sold all types of Beatles gifts too. We asked for directions and they told us to walk to the third stop light. You knew that you arrived because (a) it was just outside of the Abbey Road Studios (see photo above) where the Beatles recorded the album, but (b) there was a small group of tourists there that were trying to snap pictures and recreate the album cover photo. The funny thing, that you cannot tell from this picture is that the intersection is actually a fairly busy intersection. Every time there was a small break in traffic tourists would jump out into the cross walk. I can't even imagine what a pain in the butt it would be if you lived in that neighborhood and had to drive past there often. I tried to get David to have someone take a picture of the three of us but he didn't want to do that because it was a busy intersection....although he told me to take Maddie with me....hmmm???? Anyway, even though the photo wasn't an exact recreation of the famous Fab Four's photo, the "Fab Two" had to suffice. However, if you click of the photo of Madeline and me in the crosswalk it will enlarge and you will be able to see that I decided to portray Paul McCartney. Yes, I am barefoot and it is about 40 degrees out and raining.

Back to the Tube. We still wanted to get to the Tower of London but ran out of time. We still needed to get some dinner before David headed out for his evening meeting. The plan is (not sure how well it will work, but it is a plan nonetheless) to get up early tomorrow and head to the Tower of London before our afternoon flight out of London.

Next stop.....Berlin!