Sightseeing overload

Now that I'm back in the flat after a day too full of sightseeing trips, I'm really glad they were already sold out of Proms tickets at the Albert Hall (see above) this morning for tonight's concert. I'm not sure if I would have enough energy tonight to give Rachmaninoff the attention he deserves. We got this great view of this impressive concert hall during our Kensington walking tour this morning. Other highlights were the Albert Memorial, right across the street, and the rest of Hyde Park. The picture of the Memorial at the right was taken under a gorgeous plane tree as we sheltered during one of today's many brief but heavy showers. (Since I lived on Hyde Park street in Houston many years ago, it was doubly nice to be able to see the "original" and of course it's a wonderful park anyway; and the nice public restrooms are a plus!)

We also got to see lots of neat little Kensington streets with their fascinating histories, often duly marked with little plaques like this one at left, showing us that T.S. Eliot had lived there.

After a really yummy pizza lunch at Da Mario's, which we were repeatedly told was Princess Di's favorite neighborhood pizzeria (the pizza was exceptionally good) we took our second tour of the day, this one fortunately letting us sit down as it was a bus overview of major London tourist spots. Most of the pictures I took were out of the bus window and not particularly good, but we did get out at St. Paul's and walked around, which is where I took this shot:



I also got my first look at the Thames, as we walked out onto the Millennium Bridge.

Another first today was my first tube ride, home with more groceries from Sainsbury's, executed with no problems using the pass our program graciously provides. We'll put the passes to the test tomorrow with a trip to Greenwich. There will be a market there tomorrow that some of the students want to sample, plus museums and the Prime Meridian. Talk about being in the center of the universe! I miss all of you—friends and family—that aren't lucky enough to be in the land of GMT here with me.