London 1

We took the number 11 bus today which goes from Liverpool St. Station to Victoria Station, passing most of the sights that the guided bus tours do for a lot less money. Of course there is no commentary but we recognized most of them. We were on top at the front so had a good view of everything. There are areas that are very different from each other in a small area, you get a good view of this on the bus.

We took a walking tour of the East End this morning. There was only one other person on the tour so we got all the guide's attention. It was actually called "Undiscovered London" and although there was some history obviously what the guide was really interested in was street art so we saw a lot of that, which we enjoyed. Afterwards we spent a couple of hours in the Spitslfields Market. There were a few stalls that looked as if they had been stocked from Daphne's basement.  I do like the east end, it's more ordinary people there.

Anne took a day off work yesterday and met us at the Imperial War Museum. We got tickets to see a special exhibition called Fashion on the Ration which was about how people, especially women, made do with not many resources regarding clothing during the war. It was great. The museum has changed a lot since we were there last in 2012. There is a really big WW1 gallery and I thought of Will all the way through it. Very well done.

Anne was not feeling well so did not join us for supper. We got tickets to see The Commitments. Jude has been encouraging us to go see The Book of Morman but Geoff did not want to see it. There is a deal on a discount ticket website where you can add a meal at any one of a variety of restaurants before the show you are going to see, so we did that and ate at an Italian restaurant only a block form the theatre. We both enjoyed the show (thanks for the recommendation, Laura), me probably more than Geoff, but he did like it too. The music was great.

We are really enjoying London, have done a lot of walking. It is very nice to have an apartment and make our own breakfast, leave on our own schedule and have room to each have our own bit of space  in the evenings.

Am starting to feel a bit nervous about going to Paris.

Below is Geoff on the No. 11 bus by St. Paul's.