London

Sailed into Dover early am. A small and relatively quiet port (apart from the cross-channel ferries)

Pretty town. Tucked away under the protective walls of Dover Castle which sits on top of the famous white cliffs.

Factoid. The other side of the channel at Le Havre exact same white cliffs. Same limestone geology. No one talks or sings about the white cliffs of Normandy?

Plan was to drive into London for the day and catch up on shopping and have a quiet day. Weather awful. Sunday. Wimbledon. British Grand Prix. Kept all sensible people at home so we had an easy run into and out of the city.

Interesting to me as a confirmed republican (not American-style; no belief in royalty style) how Australians behaved the moment they landed in England. They became positively gooey eyed. Singing White cliffs of Dover on the busride. Intense questioning of the guide re the status of Charles and horseface. I was amazed

City was packed. Seems the Emirates emptied for the weekend (and I dont mean the stadium Barb!!!)

A 10K run caused traffic chaos

Celebration everywhere for the happy (dampish) summer Hamleys had the royals immortalized in Lego.

Union Jacks in Oxford Street

Flags of all the nations down Regent Street

Little bitty flags in little bitty Soho streets

Beautiful places to see

Olympic rings in Tower Bridge above the river

Windows of Selfridges decorated with humorous British scenelets

Did some good things shopped for supplies. Bought some English mags and some much-awaited DVDs 

Failed in my effort to buy paints for the project (which, as a result, I cant finish completely)

Saw the London Eye, the river, Big Ben, Parliament, lovely old bank and St Pauls all at a distance.

And the new tallest building in Europe - the "shard"

Spoke to Cousin Ruth (tho sadly had no time to visit)

Walking back to the bus was navigating through Soho when Merle got to see Jason Statham face to face while I missed him completely (him being, like, four feet tall or something) (and it was raining) (and I had to get us through the maze of streets)

Bah humbug