One of the first things I noticed about our room was the lack of a clock radio. Of course we hadn't brought our travel alarm clock because "everywhere we stayed had a clock radio". WRONG. Eventually we discovered there was a clock - it was on the flat screen tv in both rooms, lower left corner, blue light, 24hr time. When you turned on the TV a menu appeared and 3/4 the way down was a tab that said Wake Up Call. You had to program it each night for the next morning - again in 24 hr time. When it was time for the alarm to go off, the TV came on with a bright light and music that gradually got louder and louder until you managed to find the remote to turn it off.
Even though my daughter had told me that she didn't need a wake up call, I called her anyway - had to go through the front desk because they don't allow room-to-room calls before 7 am.
We went back downstairs to the -3 basement (thank goodness I found elevators from the lobby and ground floor down to the basement levels) for breakfast. We met Kiki and Garnet there and Kiki told me it was a good thing I'd called as her phone battery ran down and that alarm didn't wake her - but not to do it again as she would make sure the battery was charged and I told her how to set the wake-up call on her TV.
I'm not used to English continental breakfasts. We got in line, grabbed plates, utensils and a napkin (paper towel) and started down the line. First up was cold cuts - ham and cheese and maybe a roll. Then we had what looked like oatmeal with fruit in it followed by bowls of yogurt (shudder). I grabbed a bowl and ladled some oatmeal in and when I found the urn with milk in it I added some. Then there were several fruit and/or juice choices along with water. Apparently they knew about American's liking ice water because ice was available. There was another table with croissants filled with something - whether it was prunes or chocolate I'm not sure. Finally there was another table with coffee, tea and hot chocolate. We found a table and sat down. The oatmeal, if that's what it was, was NOT hot. But, cold oatmeal really isn't all that bad. British coffee is strong but not too objectionable. I could have had tea but they only had Earl Grey, not Lady Grey beyond the usual English Breakfast teas. I like Lady Grey because it's not as strong with Bergamot.
The whole group had a tour that started at 10. We piled into three buses and off we went. John and I had seen much of what the tour was but it was nice to see it all again. I finally learned why there are so many Plane trees in London. It dates back to the time of Queen Victoria when the industrial revolution was going full swing. London at that time was a very dirty town. Everyone burned coal to keep warm and coal produces a lot of soot. Buildings were built with brick because it didn't show the soot quite as much. But all that soot in the air wasn't good for people, animals or anything as well as buildings. Then someone discovered that while most green trees were dying, the Plane trees were not. Taking a closer look at the trees they discovered that the trees' bark would turn colors and flake off or be shed. Analysis of the bark showed that the trees were absorbing the pollutants and pushing them out into the bark which they then shed. Apparently the process also negated the poisons enough that if the bark was dissolved by the rain the resultant moisture didn't carry the pollutants back into the tree. So it was ordered to plant hundred of the trees and they're still around, doing their job. And London is no longer the dirty city it used to be.
We had lunch at Covent Gardens and while our lunch experience wasn't the greatest it at least filled the stomach. We had been given some vouchers for meals but couldn't find a place to take them so I finally decided we'd eat at the pub. Service was slow (what did I expect during the Christmas holidays on a Friday at noon?) and John ordered what he thought would be cider but turned out to be ale. Still we all got to eat even if we couldn't sit together and we made it back to the bus in time.
The green deer in the pictures on the layout below was right at the entrance to Covent Gardens. Next to it is a picture of the Tower Bridge lit up at night from the pier at the Tower of London which was our last stop of the day. We went back another day to visit again the Tower of London.
We toured St. Paul's cathedral after lunch. But that deserves its own post.
The only supplies used were a template by Lynne Marie of The Lily Pad.
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