Day 3, Monday January 7th.  St, Paul’s and the Tower of London

We got up early again, and went down to breakfast. Scowls from the staff before we even sat down, but this time we had gotten wise and had remembered money so we could leave a “mess surcharge”. We ate and fed Genevieve and then headed out to St. Paul’s, this time taking the underground. We wisely waited until after rush hour to embark on our journey, thus sparing the rushed commuters the hassle of dealing with the clueless American family with the stroller. The London Underground (or Tube) is not really that handicapped accessible, so we wound up taking Genevieve out of the stroller and collapsing it and carrying it all up and down stairs quite a lot. I’m not sure what you do if you’re by yourself or god forbid really are handicapped!

We made it to St. Paul’s, and both Mark and I were surprised to feel faintly resentful of the upstart Church of England. What a silly reason to split off from the Catholic church, after all! Anyhow, we resolved to not let it get to us and we toured the church. It was nice but didn’t really affect us the way some churches do. Maybe we’ve seen too many in our day, or maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t our religion, who knows. After St. Paul’s we got back on the Tube and took it to the Tower of London. This we really enjoyed! We took the Beefeater’s tour which was interesting and funny, and then I went off to explore while Mark watched Genevieve. He wasn’t as interested as I in the Towers and such, and Genevieve was sleeping so it seemed a waste to take her out of her stroller. We both got to see the crown jewels, again and again and again as there was no line.  My god!  A 512 carat diamond!  And here I was with only a measly 3/4 carat on my finger.

After we toured the Tower we went to lunch at one of the more touristy pubs but it was uncrowded and Genevieve liked the casino machine because of all of the pretty lights. After lunch, it was starting to get dark (already!  These early nights really get you) so we headed back to the hotel going past the Horse Guards where we got a picture of Genevieve and the guard. Not quite the same as the Palace guards but close enough. Before we went back to the hotel we stopped at Hamleys again. Finally decided on a toy for Genevieve along with a Noddy book (from my childhood) and a Postman Pat book because it had a little cat Jess attached and Genevieve wouldn’t let go of it. We also got a set of melamine dinnerware for Genevieve because for some reason the US stores don’t seem to carry it and this was the cutest set I’d seen (a squiggly cartoon of a “princess” and the words Princess on it). Instead of ordering the expensive and odd room service again, we stopped by the Tesco Metro grocery store where they have more ready-to-eat gourmet convenience food than I’ve ever seen in one place, and got our dinner and snacks for Genevieve.

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