Jet lag is easy if you don't have to be anywhere...

View from the Tower of London Bridge

Hanging out in the drawing room of The Dukes

St. Paul's Cathedral

A little skyline. The pointy bullet building is the Gherkin

The back of Buckingham Palace from the garden

Today we got started a bit late. Neither one of us woke up until around noon, so by the time we had finished our tour of the Buckingham Palace state rooms, we had only a little bit of time before the stores closed.

Edith has become obsessed with the Liberty signature soaps, so we had to go back and snag a few more bars of it. I don't know how we're getting it home considering that on the way here her bags were already prohibitively over the weight allowance. Going to have to get some more luggage I guess.

We had wanted to do a river tour on the Thames, but by the time we got to the dock area, they had shuttered for the night. Instead, our cab driver took us around and showed us some important buildings--the building they call the gherkin due to it's pickle shape, a government office they call the glass testicle, the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abby, Parliament, and a few others. This was excellent, one we didn't have to walk and two I didn't have to pretend I actually cared and could just admire the window boxes (like the ones that have little topiary bushes the best. Geranium plantings a close second).

I think it's time to head out. The staff at the hotel have started asking us what our room number is with an intonation that suggests they are putting a black mark next to it on some "spit in their tea" ledger.

Oh! And speaking of tea, we had afternoon tea/coffee/ice cream in the hotel drawing room and a group of ladies with southern accents were gabbing in one of the alcoves. They were snapping pictures and I offered to take on of their group. When I asked them where they were from, they said Lubbock. The story continues in a really boring way so the gist of it is that not only did Edith live in Lubbock, but apparently Edith and the ladies all knew the same people and we're all going on the same trip. Only Edith and I can travel all the way to London and not meet anyone British.

The real point of the trip, the cruise, will start tomorrow. We leave for Southampton in a hired car at 11 a.m. and it apparently takes about two hours to get there. I'm not sure what the wi-fi situation will be on the boat, so if you don't see any more posts from me, it means the situation is expensive!