The demands from my travel buddy to sleep in are getting stronger and stronger. This morning we slept in until 730 am or so, which was just enough to stave off a revolt for now. The hotel had the same old breakfast. Melissa asked for her bacon (ham) to be switched out for tomato, and the staff obliged. I was jealous, as the ham is not my favorite. It is also really tough and required a knife, but none of the knives available had serrations. I cut my ham with force, will, and determination.
Today was the day that Melissa got her visit to the Natural History Museum. We took the Picadilly line to South Kensington. We got there just before opening, and there we found class after class of schoolchildren lined up to get in. It seems that most schools in Brittain have uniforms. The museum hfeatured exhibits stretching from dinosaurs to minerals. In a case they had two stuffed dodo birds. I assume that these birds died if old age and the taxidermist was really talented. There was an exhibit on fine jewels that Melissa spent a long time ogling. I hope she doesn't get any ideas... Here are a few pics of the museum.
After the museum, we hopped the underground to Green Park, where we walked across the park to Buckingham Palace. We did not see the changing of the guards as one was not scheduled for the day. Also, we had seen the changing at Windsor already. Looking at the flag on Buckingham, the Queen was in the house.
After Buckingam, we took a scenic walk through St. James Park to get back to the underground. The cherry blossoms were in bloom.
Our next stop was Greenwich. I wanted to see the Royal Observatory, which is resposible for such innovations as the accurate measurement of longitude. Most of their best work centered on naval navigation. To get there we needed to transfer to the light rail at tower hill. The light rail took us through the financial heart of London, Canary Wharf. Canary Wharf consisted of tightly packed skyscrapers and high rise condos. Eventually we got to Greenwich, where or first sight was the Cutty Sark in dry dock.
We grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Desperado's. Their menu was a bit concerning, as they did Mexican, Spanish tapas, BBQ, and fish & chips. Restaurants should avoid this, as it had no idea what they did well at this point. Also, the owner pretty much pulled us in off the sidewalk when we were reading their menu. We were hungry, so we took the bait and went in. I ordered a chicken burrito and Melissa ordered abondigas (meatballs) and garlic bread with gouda cheese. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad. My burrito avoided some of the pitfalls that I've seen even on the east coast, where I've had burritos with lettuce and olives in them. The cook knew his Mexican. Melissa enjoyed the abondigas, and the garlic bread was garlic bread.
After lunch, we walked over to the Royal Observatory. It was a short walk with a little hill at the end. From what I have read about Edinburgh, this is just a warm-up.
The highlight was getting my picture taken at an arbitrary line on the ground, the Prime Meridian.
We trained back to the hotel and printed our Ryanair boarding passes for our flight to Ireland later in the trip. I could not do this stateside because they are strict that they be printed on paper size A4, which is standard in Europe. For anyone that is unfamiliar with Ryanair, they get you to fly on them with a ridiculously low fare, but then make it really near impossible to not end up paying them lots of fees for upgrades or penalties for not following their ridiculous rules. I have not even flown them yet, and I have already decided that I will never do it again.
We had dinner at a French restaurant named Cote, which was on Charlotte St near our hotel. I had the Beef Bourgogne and Melissa had Chicken Breton. Both were really good, and the red wine complemented my dish nicely. After getting back to the hotel we skyped with the kids, packed a bit, and went nighty night.
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