Lovely London

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When we weren't running off to the country, we were in London staying with Alec and Briony for some of the time and with my old flatmate Aoife for the rest. Given the small number of days we actually spent touring about, we saw a whole lot!! So I will try to get it all in. Some is self explanatory, but a lot of it comes with fun little tidbits of information mostly from my infinitely knowledgeable tour guides and friends Aoife and Adam.
Here is day one- you can follow the day's activities through the pictures- I think it's just about all there.

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Photos

The football !!
as they call it (referring to the whole game, not just the ball itself) , was our first stop upon arrival at Aoife's after Christmas. She is a life-long fan and even helped rebuild this stadium! Our team lost, but only in overtime. Still, it was crushing.

Changing of the guard
which we really just missed, but we got a fine view of the previous guard's rump as horse and soldier walked off

everyone's seen Big Ben
or at least they think they have- but did you know that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside and not the tower itself? Also, have you all seen Aoife? There she is!

Westminster Abbey...
was closed. But Adam, who went to school there, took us around to this back entrance...

Buckingham Palace
view through Kyle, Adam and Aoife in the bird sanctuary park next door

Lobb Cobbler's
"the most beautiful shop in the world" and it is. such fine shoes. a very kind and dapper young cobbler described to us how they make the shoes, how the shop functions, who does what- there are apparently 5 years of apprenticeship before you are considered trained in your craft, and that's only for one part of the assembly.

the shoes
These are the \"uppers\" all cut and ready to be molded to the wooden stays carved according to at least 30 measurements to perfectly match the customer\'s foot. They had measurements and foot-tracings on display from lords and princes and maharajas and in the brochure they show they once made shoes for groucho marx too!!

famous for its lights
this street is best seen fom the second level of a bus

and the national gallery
behind us is actually where we started the day, catching a couple of lovely exhibits before beginning our wanderings