Day 25: Monday 21 April 2014

It is Easter bank holiday in London today, so I am expecting lots of people to be out and about, like myself.  I start the morning with the complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel.  When I booked my accommodation at the Copthorn Tara they offered me an upgrade to a "Club" room at the same price.  Included in the Club room package is free wi-fi and free continental breakfast.  Included in the continental breakfast is fruit salad, cereals & yoghurt (if you wish), cold meats, cheeses, toast, jam, pastries and good coffee.

The hotel was probably built in the 60's and is large by London standards.  It is very busy with lots of tour groups and airline crews staying here.  It is sort of like a proper hotel with a concierge, doorman, gift shop, gymnasium (like I am going to use that), bar and restaurants.  The location is great, near Kensington High Street station, shops and pubs.  Given that this weekend was the Easter long weekend it has been particularly busy but is a bit quieter tonight in the bar as I compose today's description of my adventures.

When I was planning this trip and thinking about thing to do in London I realized that I had never visited St Pauls cathedral, probably one of the prime tourist destinations in London.  So once more on the underground, using my Oyster card like a pro, disembark at Mansion House station and I am a 5 minute walk from St Pauls.  St Pauls is the cathedral that was destroyed in the great fire of London and was rebuilt to the design of Christopher Wren.  It really is magnificent and they charge a magnificent price to get in, $16, (remember I am using $ sign instead of pounds, and although Andrew sent me the ASIC code for pounds I can't make it work).  When I was paying my entrance fee I asked the guy if they accepted credit cards in the lord's house and he told me "of course they do". 

St Pauls Cathedral

 It was nearly worth the $16.  The crypt has many great English folk buried in it, including Wellington (who gave Napoleon his come uppance and whose tomb I have also visited on this trip) and Horatio Nelson amongst others.  I also climbed the 300 + steps to the "whispering gallery" in the dome of the cathedral but baulked at going the next 300 or so steps to the next two levels, must be getting old or lazy or something.

After leaving St Pauls I realized I was near the "wibbly wobbly" bridge across the Thames.  This bridge is a pedestrian bridge across the river and its proper name is the Millenium Bridge.  It was designed by the same architect who designed the building in London that the locals have nicknamed the "gherkin".  Anyway, what happened is this, when the bridge was first opened it was discovered that people walking across it caused it to develop a rather alarming swaying movement.  The guy who designed it said that the bridge's swaying was caused by people "not walking on it properly".  It has been redesigned to stop the wibbly wobbly bits.

I crossed the wibbly wobbly bridge safely and ended up on the Southbank near the Globe Theatre.  Apparently today, as well as being the Queen's 88th birthday it is Shakespeare's 450th birthday and the Globe Theatre was open to the public and there was about a million of them lined up to get in.  There was also a 84 gun salute being fired from near the Tower of London in honour of Her Maj's birthday.

White Ensign with Tower of London in background

HMS Belfast

As I thought, lots of people out and about enjoying their long weekend with a bit of sunshine in the afternoon.  I rounded off my day with a visit to HMS Belfast, which is the last WW2 cruiser in existence and is moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge.  I walked across Tower Bridge which took me past the Tower of London.  Crikey, am I pleased that I hadn't decided to visit the Tower, the place looked absolutely packed even at 4.00 in the afternoon.

Tower Bridge

I had three groups of people ask me directions today and two yesterday.  I must look like a local, anyway I was able to help four out of the five.  And today I saw my first gypsy in London, he was doing the ol' pea under the cup routine near the Tower.  Fun watching and trying to work out who his accomplices are and if any punters get caught.  The trick is to let your accomplices win until somebody else gets sucked in and then off course they lose their money. 

Train home and out to a local pub for dinner.