May 25 - London

Another busy day as we were out to Mark & Spencers by 11, they open at 11:30 for browsing, Tills (cashiers) open at 12:00... but they were able to take the security tag off M jacket before 12 then we shopped for a while M got a new pair of pants I looked at mens dept saw some nice jackets and pants but the ones i liked were all just like the ones i brought so no i'll wait till Scotland see how cold it is if i need a warmer jacket i'll get it up there, i have plenty of layers shirts and neckwear and head covers so fingers crossed what i got works. Then we went for food in the M&S food department, all kinds of ready made sandwiches, wraps, soups, drinks, pastries, breads you name it they got it... so i settled for a cous-cous & tabouli salad and M had the BLT sandwich, we walked over toward the British Museum we had booked free entry tickets for 1:50pm so we stopped on a bench at Bedford Square

which has a nice park in the middle of a square but it was locked up private only for locals that live there i guess, signs said it's patrolled no trespassing! but they had a number of nice benches outside so we had lunch there, then went round the corner to the massive British museum, and the lines to get in... maybe 8 wide and a block long, for those with ticket reservations... oh no we are not doing that, not today anyway... we bought the audio guide to all the tours and everything is online too so figure that will be much less hassle. As we walked towards Holborn the nearest underground station Holborn, we passed a house Bertrand Russell lived in for some time, they have these blue plaques on buildings where famous people lived there are hundreds around town... anyway, heres's a shot of it...

So back to the room, put a load of laundry in the washer / dryer machine she has washes and gets things pretty dry, then you put them on a drying rack for a few hours good to go. Then M to nap for 2 hours and i finally got out on a e-bike from Forest, never got Santander to work they are the city official bike share partners but their software is poor, never could connect with them only by phone well they never sent me a code and i could not get through to their number... Forest, on the other hand, has phone, email, and live chat.. which i didn't need cuz their software was so good, put in your credit card, scan the rf id on the ebike, and away you go.. It was my first time riding an e-bike i liked it pedal a couiple times it zooms about 15 mph you can coast a lot don't have to pedal all that much but 100 minutes i got a nice workout my legs still felt it pretty good. They have bike lanes everywhere or you share the bus lanes and car lanes but cars are good about sharing and all the traffic signals they have a box in front of the cars for bikes and they all have separate bike signals which turn from red to yellow before green, so you get a head start then the car lights turn green a few seconds later... I rode 15 miles south across Blackfriar bridge to start then i tried to go east I got on bike superhiway 7 first but lost it somewhere in a hm not touristy neighborhood,

I thought i would go to waterloo then up to Abbey Road but i rode for bout a half hour you know lots of turns this and that well the second time i pass the Elephant & Castle underground station i figured i did a big circle... ended up at Waterloo bridge then it was really windy dusty today got stuff in my eyes pretty bad and my cap flew off once but otherwise a good time. Started up towards Abbey road when i came across waterloo bridge to Westminster

and past Buckingham palace, but i ended up on a good bike route along the river next thing i went through Chelsea to Battersea Bridge so back south and west through battersea park which was really nice childrens zoo lots of people fountains, right along the river bank

... then i got on Cycle Superhiway 8 which brought me back to Blackfriars Bridge so i parked the bike right where i found it and walked up the hill. Get a quick shower we're just going local for thai food to Wagamama it's a chain but they have dishes we both like. After dinner we jumped the 15 bus towards Tower Bridge and the Tower of London pretty much finished our day as it started to get dark...