Here’s our timeline

Friday began with another opportunity to take a very long walk due to getting lost again...and again. This certainly contributes to our being able to eat and drink whatever we want, as we're getting in a lot of mileage. And loving getting to see lots of the city. Fortunately, the weather is giving us a lovely gift of sunshine and reasonably warm temperatures--until the wind comes up in the afternoon (just like the Bay Area!).

We had to be at the Ritz at 10:50am to catch up with our tour guide for the Changing of the Guard (I warned you that we'd be doing touristy stuff...), so we had plenty of time to dawdle along the way and see the parliamentary section of the city. Crossed the river on the Westminster Bridge for a stunning view of the newly refurbished Elizabeth Tower--you know, the one that houses Big Ben. Big Ben, by the way, actually is only the bell that tolls the hours--not the tower, not the chimes heard on the quarter hour, just that beautifully sonorous bell.

For about the past five or so years, up to sometime last year, that bell was silent and the tower was covered in scaffolding, so it was exciting to see it glittering in the sunshine. Once across the bridge, we walked up Whitehall Street, past Downing Street, which we actually didn't notice because we were so busy looking at this monument dedicated to the Women of World War II.

When we arrived at the meeting place for the tour, we were early enough to be assigned to the earlier group, which gave us front-row status across from St. James's Palace for the mustering and marching out of the old guards (48 hours on duty, and I'm sure they must feel mighty old by then). We then followed Rachel, our guide, as she threaded us through massive crowds toward Buckingham Palace to watch the full parade, for which we still were able to secure decent standing spaces.

I took a short video of the parade, but it seems to have disappeared, so I'm having to be satisfied with this great shot (thanks to Cindy) of the Victoria Memorial and all her representatives sitting out in front of Buckingham Palace. You probably already know this, but that gilded chick on top is Winged Victory. Every figure on this monument has a responsibility/personification, but I'm not going to go into that here. If you don't already know it, and you'd like to read up on it, here's a Wikipedia link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Memorial,_London

Marching ever onward...we finished the tour by watching the old guardsmen (persons; we saw at least one woman) un-muster at the Wellington Barracks. Walked back to Parliament Square where we learned about the Big Ben tower being named for Queen Elizabeth for her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The other tower, at the other end of the Palace of Westminster, is the Victoria Tower, named after the second-longest-reigning monarch in English history. I really love that the Houses of Parliament are bookended by two women monarchs. Full disclosure: I'm really not that into the Uk monarchy, but it's almost impossible not to get caught up in the royal history in London, it's so inextricably woven into all of this city's history. I'll be moving on shortly, I promise. But first, some other notes.

There are event barriers all along the Mall ( by the way, that's pronounced mowl, not maul). Turns out they are left over from the coronation, perhaps primarily because there's a huge bicycle race tomorrow (Sunday). By this evening there were even more barriers, and now they're all over the city.

The flags, too, were left in place after the coronation, probably for the same reason. Or perhaps because when you're royalty you can do whatever you want about leftover event materials. What are you gonna do, arrest the king?

Cindy and I headed to lunch at the Clarence, a pub on Whitehall--as I mentioned in an earlier blog, this is pretty new, having only been established in 1862. Cindy decided to do her best, but not very accurate, impression of Churchill:

And we found a charming portrait of ... I dunno, the establishment's founder, Viscount Olaf? ... that we felt obliged to include here:

He must have spent many hours whetting his whistle there at the Clarence.

After lunch we headed to the Westminster Pier to board a boat to go to Greenwich to visit the Royal Observatory and the Greenwich Mean Time line. Did I already mention that the weather has been beautiful? It was a great day for a boat ride on the Thames.

More fish, by the way:

Fish are clearly important to London's economy and thus its history and public art.

A challenging hike up the hill to the observatory on a gorgeously sunny day was rewarding enough, but then we were treated to information, much of which went over our pea brains, about the early royal astronomers and their impact worldwide. Of course, one must stand on the mean time line. Cindy and I asked someone to take a couple of pictures of us standing in different days-but when he handed my phone back, it turned out he'd taken about 70 shots. Sheesh. Here's one...

Returning back to the city gave us another chance to get lost again, this time on the underground. And we're still trying to get the swing of using our Oyster Cards for transportation. By the time we leave on Monday, we'll have figured it out, I'm sure.

A couple more architectural shots to round out this adventure...

...then back to the center of the city to an appointment at Lyaness, an amazing cocktail establishment (we don't just go to pubs) that uses handcrafted ingredients made from the strangest things--a caramel syrup made from trees, some ingredient made from fossilized elephant dung, other equally weird things that defy my ability to remember their starting point. But those cocktails were unlike anything we've ever experienced. Definitely a high point of our time here. But of course I forgot to take any photos! So...unforgettable experience along with an inability to adequately describe the concoctions except to say they were really good.

Ah well...time to put Friday and myself to bed. I've kept you too long with my ramblings.