London is a fascinating place - so much history, places names you hear in songs or have read about in books (does the Muffin Man STILL live on Drury Lane?). Everything is so easy to get to on the Underground, and all the major historic sites were mostly within walking distance of our hotel. I was amazed at how many languages I heard spoken. And, yes, it IS cold and damp, especially in the dead of winter.

We didn't have real plan of what to see/when, just played it by ear/foot/weather/tube stop -- and had a truly grand adventure.

(Click the pictures or the links in the text to see big photos.)

I drove to Andrea's Wednesday morning, arrived around 2:00. Andrea's friend, Anna, came by and took us to the airport. Because we had no luggage to check, check in was painless, as was security. Andrea: Both being very polite people, Annie and I waited in the first available line at the check-in area at the United counter area until we figured out that the line we were in was for people who were checking their luggage mountains, rather than for those of us who were traveling light and using the e-check in kiosks. The five-hour plane trip was uneventful, but neither of us slept much (video in the bulkhead seats in front of us - lots of light).

Our plane landed at Heathrow Airport in London at 5:30 AM local time - almost an hour earlier than scheduled, due to a very strong tailwind. We went through customs (about 20 minutes in line), tried to acclimatize our ears to English jargon and accents. We walked to the Tube station (at least a half mile underground), and the person at the counter said the cheapest way to travel was to buy a day ticket each day after 9:30 AM (post commute time). We bought a one-way ticket into London, armed with the Tube employee's clear markings on our Tube maps. Andrea: I had a deer in the headlights feeling about me, and at this point was just following Annie, not really paying attention to much except keeping Annie's coat in view so as not to get lost. Or is it "so as not to go missing?" (In Brit English, does the question mark go inside or outside the quote marks?) We stopped at the ATM machine. Don't let the machines and the pretty pictures of Her Majesty on the bills fool you… £100 from that ATM was actually about $174 in "real" money. We arrived at the St. James's Park station and exited to find....a STARBUCKS! Andrea really needed coffee, so we stopped (I had a mocha - and Andrea discovered that the Brit version of Starbuck's coffee needed espresso shots added to it in order to taste right), and got out our tour/idea stuff. We were pretty groggy, but coffee helped a bit. We walked the block and a half to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, arriving about 8:00 AM - and they had a room for us!! A large, elegant room, plenty of space, king size bed, and a nice big bathtub. Andrea: There was a deep, churly commode there as well. Took us a couple of days to get the hang of the flush. You had to flush with a no-nonsense attitude and determination communicated through your arm and hand to the toilet. We unpacked and went downstairs for the buffet breakfast (not very good for the price - Andrea couldn't stand the texture of the eggs, and hated the orange juice (Anyone who knows Andrea understands the eggs and OJ thing - hey, it's gotta be right, just like the coffee!)--but the beans, mushrooms, and grilled tomatoes were good). After breakfast, we walked the two blocks to Buckingham Palace -- very stark (It really doesn't look like a palace. It's pretty plain.), with extremely ornate (gaudy?) fences. I took some pix of the guards (check out his eyes). As we crossed over to the center of the plaza (Victoria Regina statue), some costumed horsemen exited the palace gates (red capes, white pointy helmets--Andrea thought they looked like KKK), heading down "the Mall" toward the river. We walked down the mall, planning on taking an indirect route to Westminster Abbey. We saw the horsemen in a parade ground with other horsemen in black capes. We got to watch the changing of the horse guard! So ceremonious/ritualistic! Andrea: With the red horsemen and black horsemen, and the length of time it took for anyone to move, it had the feel of a chess game.

From there, we walked past 10 Downing Street, to the area where Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey were. We walked around the Abbey -- there were hundreds of people waiting in line to get into the museum/tour. We were a bit worried, as we'd planned to attend Evensong the next evening. St. Margaret's Chapel, part of Westminster Abbey, had a couple of interesting sundials on the outer walls. We walked to a park on the River Thames, just west of the Parliament building, where there was a really cool gazebo. At this point, the sun had gone away, and a cold breeze kicked up. We walked in the general direction of Westminster Cathedral/Victoria Street, stopping for another much needed hot cup of coffee in a warm coffee shop. We took the back streets to Westminster Cathedral - and found that Mass was in progress. We stayed for a minute, then went over to the immense gift store/bookshop - anything you could EVER want having to do with the Catholic liturgy/rites. Then we walked back along Victoria Street - lots of standard mall-like shops. Feeling a bit wiped out, we went back to the hotel. Andrea: Doesn't it sound as though we knew exactly where we were heading every step of the way? Annie has some sort of internal GPS system that needs only a brief glimpse of a map to keep her oriented. You could spin her around and around, walk into and out of buildings, up and down escalators, and she knows where she is and how to get to the next destination. Andrea took a bath and I found the hotel computer center (£7 for 15 minutes!!) and sent a note to Curt and other family members. I went back to the room, took my bath, and we both took a nap until around 5:00. Much better!! We got dressed, went downstairs, and the concierge told us that Harrod's was open 'til 8:00 that evening. We split cab fare with a couple of girls from Illinois. Harrod's is amazing - a huge department store, but smallish rooms all with their own theme/products. They were having their post-Christmas sale! After going through the sale stuff on the entrance floor (gifts for family, I got a wool scarf and mittens), we toured the Haute Couture women's clothing section (all major designers), the food rooms (chocolate, fish, meat - poultry and bacon - wine, etc.), jewelry, exiting just as they were closing. We decided to walk back toward the hotel, looking for a place to eat dinner. A couple blocks from "Home", we found the Cafe Moca - which was actually a restaurant owned and operated by a man from Portugal. We were the ONLY people in the place, and the proprietor was charming -food was excellent, we had several glasses of wine, etc. Good talk. Stayed there almost 3 hours!! Walked the couple of blocks back to the hotel and crashed. Lost the good map on the way...Andrea: but at least I had Annie there!!! I was sorry she'd lost the map, as it had come from a friend, but I wasn't the least bit worried that we'd ever be lost with Annie's sense of direction.

On Andrea's must-see list was the Freud Museum, so we figured out how to get there on the Tube - a bit north of the hotel. The museum was actually the last house Freud lived in before he died, in a nice little neighborhood, with a beautiful garden. Freud's (and his daughter's) couch was displayed, along with lots of artifacts/collections/books, and a nice gift store. I was really taken by a sketch of Freud done by Frederick Schmutzer. (I ended up ordering a print when I got home.) Andrea: And, for you psych buffs, over Freud's couch was the famous picture of Charcot demonstrating how hypnosis cures hysteria!

It was still raining and windy (and my umbrella was broken), so we took the Tube down to Baker Street of Sherlock Holmes fame. We had lunch at a nice pub called The Globe (Dang! no fish and chips - seems all establishments had limited menus that day, prepping for New Year's Eve the following day), wrote some postcards (Andrea: guess who, of the two of us, remembered to bring addresses from home in order to be able to send postcards?), then walked a couple blocks to Madam Toussaud's - didn't have time to go in -- the line there was about the same as the line at Westminster Abbey the day before. We took the Tube to the Covent Gardens stop and checked out Trafalgar Square. It was just after three in the afternoon, but because of the clouds, rain, and northern latitude, it was getting really dark. We poked our heads in St. Martin in the Fields, and discovered that they would be presenting all six Brandenburg concertos that evening! We took the Tube one more stop to Westminster to attend Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. We sat in the Choir, so beautiful, very moving service. And there were only about 60 people there--no line to get into the service! There is music there pretty much every evening.

After the service, we walked out into an incredible downpour - which lasted about 5 minutes. Then the rain STOPPED (finally!), and it started warming up. We wandered back toward the hotel along Victoria Avenue, and stopped at a newer basement pub, which was serving food - and had fish and chips on their (limited) menu! They were the best fish & chips I've ever eaten. The fish was hot with a thin crisp crust, moist inside, great chips, and peas - done perfectly (NOT the traditional "mushy"). Went great with a Guinness. We didn't even go back to the hotel, but took the Tube back to St. Martin in the Fields to hear the Brandenburg Concertos--so beautiful! The church isn't very big, and we sat up in the balcony/mezzanine and tried to stay awake for the performance (full bellies, warm church, and wonderful music). We went back to the hotel, and sat in the lounge for a bit for a nightcap and tea -- and to rest our very tired feet. Back in the room, we caught a bit of local news on the telly -- and found that Tube workers were supposed to go on strike from noon Saturday (New Year's Eve) through noon on Sunday. Argh! We didn't want to have to pay cab fare back to Heathrow on Sunday!

We took the Tube to Temple stop - recommended by my friend Keith, who grew up in the area. (Andrea: Oh, Keith, I am forever grateful as this turned into a wonderful adventure!) (As we exited the station at 11:45, we asked the workers about the strike - and they said it wasn't going to happen.) Temple Avenue area is where all the attorneys/barristers have their offices, a wonderfully quiet neighborhood of old tall, broad (very British) buildings, filled with statues, courtyards and gardens. We exited up on Fleet Street (timed it perfectly - there was someone coming IN the locked door as we needed to go out), and walked west along the Strand past Old Baily (Royal Courts of Justice), Lloyds of London, Twinings teashop (closed), and St. Clement's church, which still had evidence of shrapnel from the bombings in WW II (pic coming). As we walked west, we discovered we were in the Theatre district (another pic)! Beautiful area! Then we were suddenly in Covent Gardens - we just HAPPENED to go down the street that ran right into it! Covent Gardens wasn't on our list of things to see, but I'm so glad we just fell into it - so many GREAT little shops in the neighborhood, a lot of character. Andrea: We got started with a little mulled wine from a street vendor. We stopped in a whiskey shop (just to look 8-)) and spent a while in Penhaligon's perfumery - very elegant, got some nice candles and some lavender bath oil. Smells so nice! Because it was Saturday, there was a great carousel, and buskers everywhere in Covent Garden's itself - mimes, a guy on a unicycle, jugglers, and some REALLY good musicians. Andrea: Now, everyone's seen "strolling violins". There was a quartet - three violins and a cello - playing opera arias and other classical pieces outdoors near a crowd of folks seated at tables enjoying wine and coffee. The violins started strolling and the poor abandoned cellist decided he, too, would try strolling. Hysterical sight to see -- the cellist playing while walking. We spent a couple of hours (and quite a few £s) cruising the shops (Transportation gift shop, a toyshop, tobacconist, plus all the booths in the open market area.

After we'd had enough, and were getting a bit hungry, we headed in the general direction of the hotel (weren't even using a map at this point Andrea: I didn't need a map, I had Annie!), and suddenly we saw - St. Martin in the Fields! We were at Trafalgar Square again Andrea: What??!! Again??!! (a lot lighter, warmer, and dryer)! We decided to go into the National Museum - ended up spending a couple of hours there, saw a few Vermeers and a DaVinci! By this time, our feet were really tired, and we knew we needed to get something to eat. We found a tiny Italian Restaurant that had a couple of open tables, and had a glass of Chianti, a wonderful dinner (I had lamb 'cutlets' in a delicious wine sauce!), and topped it off with some decadent chocolate dessert and Limoncello. Wonderful meal! Our timing again, was charmed - revelers were starting to come into the Trafalgar Square area for the evening's festivities, and I don't imagine there was an open seat at any restaurant after about 6:00 pm.

We went back to the hotel, unloaded our treasures, spruced up, and went down to the lounge for a couple of champagne cocktails and a wonderful cheese platter (Yum!). We watched the local regulars come in - older businessmen in their suits, accompanied by large wives in sparkly dresses with done up do's and high heels - the bartenders knew their "ususal." We had some tea, and went back upstairs about 10:30 - the bar was getting crowded, and we'd already had a long day. We packed for our trip home, took baths, and ... watched a REALLY stupid movie (Leslie Nielson's "Spy Hard") until well after midnight. Happy New Year!

It was hard to wake up at 8:00 - we shouldn't have stayed up till 2:00 watching that movie. We packed, checked out. We found out from the concierge that the Tubes WERE running (we wouldn't have to take a cab to the airport - saving us about £40!!), so we walked to the station - which was empty. We had to wait several minutes for a train to come. When we transferred at Hammersmith, there were a lot more people on the train - sleepy people heading for Heathrow with their luggage. When we got to the airport, they didn't have our gate number posted until about 20 minutes before the flight, so we got a sandwich and coffee (Starbucks 8-)). The way they board, check in, etc. at Heathrow seemed really scattered - maybe just cuz it was different - but we made it on the plane in one piece with all our luggage. We had a pleasant flight back across the pond - I worked on some sketches for the illustration show in April, we watched "In Her Shoes" ...and An and I started planning our trip to France.

We landed at Dulles, went through customs, etc., and Michael picked us up. By the time we got to Andrea's house, I was pretty wiped out (my body was still on London time - saying it was about 2:00 am). We watched Monte Python's Holy Grail and Wallace and Gromit's Fine Day Out (because of the CHEESE), and had a nice Chinese takeout dinner with Leeann and her sister Kate. I drove home the next morning...