Since the hotel rooms would not be ready until 2 pm, we left our luggage at the hotel and headed to Westminster by subway or "The Tube" or "The Underground" for sightseeing and lunch. The Underground is a lot like in Paris, although the Paris Métro is so much more cultural. We are getting a kick out of British expressions here and one of our favorites is something we hear over and over again in The Underground: "Mind the gap!" Of course, this means "Watch Your Step" (because there is a gaping space between the subway train and the edge of the platform). As Americans, the expression "Mind the gap" evokes many images, all of which are hilarious to us now!
Westminster was very impressive, especially Big Ben. This is where the Parliament meets. The architecture is stunning and imposing. We stopped to look around and find a place to eat.
We ate lunch at a typical British pub called "The Red Lion" that dated back to the early 1800's. It reminded me of eating at Durgan Park in Boston, just on a smaller scale. It was all oak lined walls with a marble fireplace behind our table. I had fish & chips for £10 (crazy expensive!)
Alexa & Jordan play around with a London phone booth.
Then, we returned to the hotel for some much needed rest and a wash-up. A couple of hours later the entire group went to eat and Madame accompanied a student to the airport to get the C-Pap machine a student had left on the transfer bus from the airport. Since it was just me and this boy out and on our own, we made the most of the evening by walking around the main road in Chiswick, a small city town outside of London (but really part of London) and right near our hotel. The famous painter William Hogarth is from Chiswick and here (on the left)is a statue of him that we found as we wandered around Chiswick together. We ate a great meal (also expensive) at a Thai restaurant.
Exhausted and seriously in need of sleep, we returned to our rooms and hit the sack! A big day on Monday awaits!
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