London

Well, today turned out to be very enjoyable.  The tour ‘London by land and water’ was our choice for the day and the coach left the port at 8.30 am.  Regent never ever fill the coaches, always enough room to spread out in comfort, making it easy to have forty winks on the way!  Our guide explained that London this weekend is awash with rallies, protests, and anything else that brings people into the city.  As a result, we had to duck and weave to get to our first stop, a boat ride on the Thames. Along with thousands of other people, groups of kids etc, we boarded the open deck boat and had a wonderful view of all the London sights, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben (under renovations till 2020),the London Eye, Tate Gallery, London Bridge, Tower of London etc. etc.  I know you’ve mostly all been there and done that but it was nice to be chauffeured around.  Later on we had a short stop near Westminster Abbey then a drive past Buckingham Palace, the Horse Guards, Harrods, Museum of Natural History and on back to Southampton.  

We passed several groups of riot police, helicopters buzzed overhead but still haven’t heard exactly what the protests were about.  

Sat by ourselves for dinner, then listened to the pianist in the lounge for a while, too loud for George so he went back to the room, then met me later at the show. Tonight we had an Irish comedian/singer.  He told many jokes, some we’d heard before, and sang some good old Irish favourite songs.