On the Thames

Apparently our ghost writer didn't receive this last blog to post. We sent it this morning, but tonight I see that we received it back as undeliverable so consider it having been sent earlier than London Sightseeing.

"On the Thames"

Believing we had an hour before needing to meet our Cosmos Hosts forour Taste of London excursion, we settled down with crochet hook and abook. The phone ringing was unexpected and soon we were chargingoff....4 minutes late. The elevator crept to our floor as they always
do when you are in a hurry. We scrambled in and pushed the button for the Ground floor. The elevator stopped. We rushed out as another hotel guest stepped in. We looked left, then right before we realized our error. Our fellow passenger had already seen our confusion and was calling us back into the elevator. Together the three of us laughed t our mistake as we continued from the thired floor to the lobby.Meeting up with the other participants, we were escorted to High Street where we met the bus that would deliver us to the restaurant,Chez Gerard, for an exquisite meal. We had a choice of one of 3 starters, 3 entrees and 3 desserts. Damian, our host, suggested sitting in groups of 3, but we stayed in our twosome. We sat with Florence and Dave from Idaho and a retired nurse and her mother from New Norway Alberta. After dinner we took the boat ride up the river, which was so full of information we'll need to buy a book in order to remember it all. The one unusual occurrence was the lifting of The Tower Bridge to allow a boat to pass underneath, according to our guide this is unusual in modern times. Tired and satisfied we went right to bed once back at the hotel. A few noisy guests in the hallway reminded us we were not at home though everything else was oh so comfortable. Awoke shortly after 3 am, talked till 5 before making a start on our day. Sleeping with our window open we enjoyed the songbirds in the wee hours. Leslie mentioned there were a lot of birds singing and we tried to determine what kind of birds they were. But we noticed they all had Cockney accents to their songs, so it was hard to determine if we were listening to robins or english sparrows. Leslie's comment regarding a lot of birds in London sent Gloria-Rose into a fit of laughter as she correlated "birds" with it's English counterpart for girls. Well we are off now for another day of fun, having had a continental breakfast and two tours within London to be enjoyed today.


We will be seeing the changing of the guards at Buckinham Palace, and we are going to have tea with the Queen at Windsor Castle (except we just heard that she is in USA).

must run. getting dark out and i have to get back to the hotel.

ta ta.