Wednesday, July 16, 2014 London

Up early for our continental breakfast of cereal, rolls, fruit and coffee - sounds reasonable unless I add adjectives such as weak coffee, stale rolls, canned fruit and cereal that relies heavily on gravity to be swallowed.   The dining room is run by a neo-Nazi who trained under Himmler.  There are two buffet tables for hot food and two for continental.  Our resident Nazi patrols these tables looking like a bobble head glaring at the 2nd class passengers, sure that we desire above all else to snag a sausage or hard boiled egg.  He is almost comical in his obsession to defeat our machinations to acquire the holy grail of slices of bacon or other goodies he guards so closely.   Kat gave her opinion of the president so I may as well get my opinion out of the way. 

We don't need much to meet our needs but the president comes in as wanting when it comes to a below average rating.  The room is adequate but every morning at 7:00, we are awakened to the sound of the staff dumping all of the  previous days bottles into the dumpster - after all 758 bottles crash, we then enjoy the sound of jackhammers competing with cement trucks.  As you can imagine, we don't need to ask for wake up calls.  They advertise Internet in the room but we call it phantom Internet as it tends to come and go making blogging a true adventure.  Well enough of my whining.

We headed into town and asked directions for the Tate Modern.  It was a beautiful sunny day with thousands of folks scurrying from one place to the next.  We checked out St. Paul's Cathedral which is a large impressive structure.  We would have enjoyed touring the inside but they wanted $30.00 apiece for the privilege and neither of us felt the need that bad.  There will be no lighting of candles this day.  We decided to stop for lunch before the Tate as breakfast was a distant memory and I needed to gird my loins for what lay in front of us - 6 floors of culture with a capital C.  Shepard's pie and a pint of England's finest and I was sufficiently girded for the day.

Now that's some kind of Dome

Putting Kat on a pedestal

All the folks pondering...$30.00???

Kat snapped a few interior shots until being asked to pay up...or leave!

The Tate is a wonderful museum with a wide array of modern art that sometimes appeals and at other times leaves you scratching your head going WTF?  We browsed and strolled and got through 4 of 6 floors before saying "Uncle" and heading back to el presidente for a much needed hot shower and nap. 

Kat entertaining the masses

The Thames with London Bridge in the background

Picasso's "Weeping Woman"

Inside the Tate

Picasso's "Three Dancers" - the Dude could handle a paintbrush

Kat and I are adapting to this traveling life by sightseeing in the morning and early afternoon, showering and doing our days laundry in the bathtub, napping and then being refreshed, going out for a fun evening.  This routine will hopefully allow us to avoid burnout, dissension and mutiny.

We wandered out around 7:00, enjoying the cool evening air and had Greek food for dinner.  We stopped at the Portland Market for ice cream and acquired a London street map that does everything but the dishes.  A nice day!

A little slice of home