To Whitehall and Beyond ...

On our last day in London we awoke early and as we had only paid for the room and not to have breakfast we finished packing our case and left it with the Concierge whilst we strolled over to Trafalgar Square and purchased our breakfast from a take away cafe. I only wanted a cup of tea and the Other Half only wanted a coffee. Our Daughter had a cheese and ham panini! We sat on the steps of the National Gallery surveying the World around us.

The photo at the top is of the hotel we stayed in - Charring Cross, a part of the railway station. Strangely, we didn't hear any train noises during our stay. I would have expected the rumble of a few trains as they went past but it was competely noiseless as far as trains were concerned. If only the same had been true of clarinet players - see previous posts!

A double post-box outside the hotel!

Trafalgar Square got busy.

We walked down Whitehall.

Our Daughter had her photograph taken with the Horse Guards.

We walked past the statue of Earl Haig.

We saw the Monument to The Women of the Second World War - which I have photographed on a previous London trip.

We walked past Downing Street.

We passed The Cenotaph.

We came to the Houses of Parliament.

The Houses of Parliament from Westminster Bridge.

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge.

Big Ben - I can still hear the Other Half saying to Our Daughter "Big Ben is the bell and not the clock!"

The Lion which guards the Thames Path!

Our Daughter with one of the many mime artists. I read in the paper recently that two of the mime artists had quarrelled over the position of their spot and that one had sustained quite grave injuries. The culprit had been sent to prison for some years. Not as quiet an occupation as you might think!

We came across this guy who did some moon-dancing and danced with this ball. The photos don't do justice as to how good he was.

I liked the artists reflection in the glass ball.

A view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from the base of the London Eye.

Looking up at the Eye.

And finally, a treat for Our Daughter - a ride on the carousel.

We had pootled along at quite a slow pace and by now it was time for lunch. We grabbed a hot dog and some drinks and watched the people walking along the river bank and those patiently queuing up to go on the London Eye.

All too soon we had to traipse back to the hotel to collect our luggage and hail a taxi to take us back to Waterloo Station.

We narrowly missed our train and so had to wait for an hour for the next one.

We purchased some magazines in WH Smith - one of those puzzle ones for our Daughter and went and sat in Costa. I wondered if this was the table where a young violinist recently had her very expensive violin stolen from. It was worth a ridiculous sum of money like a million pounds and in the blink of an eye when she went to purchase a cup of coffee it disappeared. I kept a hold on our luggage - I didn't want anyone to steal our souvenir brochure from "Betty Blue Eyes" and of course, my camera.

We'll soon be off to Devon for a few days - so the blog will be quiet until our return!

Until next time.

June.