May 26 - London

It was a bank holiday here today, which means a lot of places were closed just like Memorial Day back home. But also a lot of places were open so we ventured out, having seen all the things we set out to, well, except for Abbey Road but I'll get to that in a bit... so we thought we would preview our trip to Kings Cross Station tomorrow morning for our 11:00 train to Edinburgh. We are still not getting up so early and want to set the alarm clock in plenty of time, as we have to check out of here by 10:00. I thought we would just Uber or take a cab over there as it's only 2.2 miles, not hassle with the bags, but as it turns out, we just went out to the bus stop near our apartment and the 17 bus comes by every few minutes and gets to Kings Cross in about 15-20 mins, and we have already paid for Oyster Cards so it won't cost anything. The buses kneel and have a place for strollers and luggage, i asked the driver if it was ok to roll luggage on he said sure if it's normal size luggage no trouble. So we went to the station (didn't get a pic of the outside maybe tomorrow) and there are only 11 platforms, well 12 if you count this one

We saw the boards with all the departures, the LNER (London Northeast Railway) to Edinburgh for today, they list the platform about 15-20 minutes before departure. So that's a snap, and we already have e-tickets saved in apple wallet and they have a first class lounge with complementary beverages and snacks we can stay in as we do have first class tickets. And that was about all we really did today, rode the bus over, then rode the tube around back to blackfriars station and M went for a nap. Then i went out on a bike ride, of course it started to rain as i got ready but oh the hell with it i'm going and soon after i found a forest e-bike it stopped. Well i rode north like crazy for through Camden, up Marlborough road, Islington, Whittington, went way too far to Hampstead Heath north of town, then it started to rain again... and it was a big steep hill to climb up even with the e-bike it was serious work, but i made it, thankfully there was one other guy struggling up the hill once i passed him i had to keep going right? Well this Hampstead Heath is a huge green area that goes on for a few miles, all green forest and horse trails, hiking trails, and nice nice homes and a school, very high rent district nice cars. And only one road went through well i missed the turn and kept going, you have to share the lane with cars they go by pretty close but are respectful for the most part, but your on the wrong side of the road it's a trick to make a right turn from the left curb cuz the oncoming traffic is all on the right too, and where you aren't sharing the lane you are in a bus lane so sharing with the buses so not having a helmet or rear view mirror it was a little nervy so just keep going. Finally i got to turn left and start south again and went through some very nice residential area's fancy places to shop and eat, oh we did stop earlier in the day on our bus rides we stopped at Kensington High Street well omg we went into a second hand shop a charity benefit right? First clue, in the front window first thing you see as you walk in, here's a Louis Vuitton handbag for only £1,100 ... that's $1,485 ... in a second hand shop! so.. M is looking at stuff... well i looked at 2 things a hugo boss shirt for only £80 ($108) and a pair of pants for about half that, so i'm out of there. There was another shop a couple doors down same thing only designer stuff, used at that, at outrageous prices (well to me anyway) there were people shopping in there... so wrong neighborhood we caught the next bus out of there... I finally found Abbey Road crosswalk...

lol no thats not it, the "real" one is about 50 feet away to my right in this picture, it was a joke, it was a crosswalk just like this one, but there were about 30 people waiting in line to walk across and have one of their group video them and snap a photo, well, the cars have to stop for peds in a crosswalk so there was a line of about 50 cars going each way getting pissed about this so i thought i would have to wait forever (and it was still misty threatening to rain more) and i was not comfortable to wait, then have to stop the cars just for that, and besides i had no one with me to video a still selfie was all i could get, so there was a crosswalk just near this Y in the road i snapped this photo, so technically it is an abbey road crosswalk just not "the" abbey road crosswalk... ok.. so it was cold rainy i said hell with this it was a bust i rode til i saw edgeware road tube station and parked the bike, well not so fast i could not park it there forest has designated places you have to park it... which was about a half mile down edgeware road... so i finally parked it walked back up was going to stop in a pub for a pint and there was one right there, but... no i decided i'd just walk up the road didn't want to pay $10 for a pint when you can get them anywhere for $4 or $5 and not have to sit around a stranger there and that part of town it's a busy road all the businesses are immigrants lots of arabs wasn't real comfortable so walk to the station right before it here's a Mark and Spencer, well we've had good luck with them and i go into the food section and got some corn chips and they had all there "low" alcohol cocktails in little cans so i got a Gin and Tonic with .5% alcohol and sat on the wall by the train station had my snack it was just fine. Oh they also had those little shortbread fingers not the ones in the red packages, their own brand M&S for £1.10 a pack ! that's $1.49 well they are at least $5 in schnucks or dierbergs cuz i just bought some for M a while back so i got a pack of them too... took the tube back to the apartment showed M...

well it was my turn to pick where to eat dinner tonight so we both wanted salad n greens of some sort so I suggested we go to M&S food for dinner and we did, rode the tube over just one stop from St Pauls, oh another thing they do at M&S is markdown their ready made salads sandwiches everything on the due date so we got really nice salads like i had sweet potato and brocolli with quinoa for $1.50... M got a grilled chicken salad and a greek salad she said was best she ever had, and i got some falafel and hummus and a pint of Fullers London Porter, which they claim is the Best Porter in the world... oh and a couple chiabatta rolls so we came back to the room had a nice cozy dinner as we need to pack up tonight it should be a early night... yes the porter was good but i had had some draft porter both in southern oregon a pin up porter, and in juneau alaska their local brewery had a good porter too... so i checked in with chat gpt how can they say that... she said well it's a big claim, but they have won numerous awards including the World Beer Awards - Worlds Best Porter so ok yes it was good i would like another but nope not tonight...

Then on the way back from there, walking from the tube station to here there was this statue that was just put up yesterday we were watching them crane the pieces into place, it's to raise awareness about wildlife and the hundreds of species that are becoming extinct due to human causes...

M says snap a pic of that...the kids will like to see it... then we next come to St Pauls Cathedral which we have not taken a full pic of the front yet so here's that..

so now you are up to date tomorrow is a travel day next pics will be from Edinburgh or along the train route... oh we love M&S and yes they are in edinburgh for more shortbread cookies which is says on the package "Baked in Edinburgh"!