Great day in Britian

June 24, 2010

o530 am London
No longer feeling like we hadbeen run over by a double decker. Tanja and I had a wonderful day of lessons. The education started immediately upon picking up and reading the breakfast menu at a nice establishment. Pardon our lack of knowledge, but the word "bloomer", which only brings to mind a pair of pants that are worn on your body[made us chuckle]... Well our vocabulary now was expanded to include this very common term used in restaurants, to mean simply toast ( *yes, like the bread). Oh boy, this was just the beginning of our British English lessons, for the day. We smartly moved into the Underground Subway system shamefully hiding our faces, only to be directed by the PA system to "alight" at the following station.

What? Huh? we asked each other, while following the others off of the train.
[I totally feel like a heel, not knowing such basic English terminology. Please respond, if this is your first time hearing this word.] Ok, back to the day.

Our day began at a house of worship. The infamous St. Paul Cathedral was super cool. Although not Catholic, we were astonished and floored, by the sheer beauty of this building and its artwork built in 1666, after the great London fire.

In more recent times the church has been the setting for: a speech that Martin Luther King Jr. gave just prior to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1964.

It may also be remembered for the opulent wedding that I, and most of the America stayed up all night to watch on tv in 1981.[OMG , I was only eleven years old back then.} The ceremony of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer... I was fixed to the screen, seeing the newlyweds "alight"

[to come down from or to exit from] from their royal carriage and walk into this massive church, for all of the pomp and circumstances.

I will not continue with a history lesson but, I was quite enamored. There are at least some 15 notable persons from history that even I personally found to be familiar; entombed in this architectural and historical landmark. The crypt below holds too many war hero's to bore you all with, but just seeing names like: the Duke of Wellington, Florence Nightingale, and Lord Nelson was down right cool !!!

Finishing up the tour, we challenged ourselves and got a free work out in, by climbing all 528 stairs to the roof terrace of the dome structure (some 370 feet) into the London skyline.

Did I ever mention that I am afraid of heights?

The rest of the day consisted of visiting other well known land marks, which everyone visits or sees when coming tothe citythat features the crown jewels.

Feel free to reminisce about your trips here while enjoying the pics. All of this was done to a fantastic 87 * F temperature backdrop. Tomorrow is a flying day... South Africa here we come!

TMZ was not around, but one table away from us during our morning breakfast sat Venus and Serena Williams parents.They both said a polite good morning, as I fought the urge to say good morn'n back to them for todays match... I merely ended up saying G'morning and sipped my tea trying not to stare.

The current time is 11:00 pm gmt Good Night!

With Love,

Bill (Tanja is getting her beauty rest)