May 25 - The Glorious Gorgeous Day That Was Monday….

Up early again this morning, I think it was excitement. I finally started my tour this morning, which meant I got to transfer from the ‘quaint’ Royal Court Apartments to the Hilton London Metropol. I’m only one tube stop away from my old hotel, but the Hilton seems a million miles away – trés chick and classy. I got here around 10, but my room wasn’t ready until 11. I wasn’t struggling to fight the jet lag like a lot of people sitting around me, so I didn’t mind the hour or so wait to get a room above the 12th floor.

After getting to my room and settling in (I get more than 5 channels on the plasma screen TV – how will I learn to live again!?!?) I had a real fight on my hands as to whether or not today was going to be a lazy-do-nothing day or not. The thought of getting to have tea at a Richoux drove me from my room, so I walked over to Regent Park. Of all the parks London has to offer and that I’ve seen, Regent has to be my favorite – the gardens are immaculately kept and it’s gorgeous there. There was some debate as to whether or not it was going to rain today or not. The final decision out of the Met Office was that it was going to rain this afternoon. Knowing that, I grabbed my umbrella a coat and headed out the door.

It was past noon at this point so I stopped at the first appealing restaurant I saw (a pizza express for lunch). As I came out, there must have been some sort of soccer matching being shown at the local pub(s) because the street corners were packed and there were cops out en mass. So, I kept walking. Then, I came across Madame Tussaud’s – the line up to get in by buying tickets that day was more than half a BIG city block long; just to look at fake celebrities? WTF? Besides, it was so beautiful by that point of the day, why would you want to stay inside?

Just as I was getting to the park I had to take my jacket off because it was getting so hot. There was some sort of family picnic day being sponsored in the Park, so it was packed with people, kids, and families. But just walking around was a treat – I got lots of really beautiful photos. Besides being a large human population in the park, there were a whole whack of birds – pigeons, doves, geese, ducks…. So, there was more than enough bird shit on all the paths. The birds were aggressive, but strangely passive as are all birds in London. It is also apparently matting season for the pigeons in the city, so there was quite the show going on.

After walking through the Park, I went to the Richoux for tea that was near the St. James’s Wood tube station. It was a really different feel than the one near Hyde Park – instead of having a Victorian feel like the Hyde branch, it was more of a hipster joint with jazz music and art deco decorations. The waitress was far less attentive than the ones at Hyde, but the tea was just as delicious. Yum. From there, I headed back to my hotel after stopping at the M&S for some take-away dinner.

Now, I’ll looking forward to a quiet night in my 4 star hotel after taking a shower in a full bath-tub! Yeah!