London Day 5

We headed off to The Shard for our booked session. This is currently London's tallest building and the top floors are devoted to viewing platforms with a 360 degree view. It isn't cheap but it's twice as high as The Eye and much less mucking about. Then we took a River Bus along the Thames and walked to Westminster, going past Big Ben on the way. Had to queue a while to get into Westminster Abbey but I have to say it was worthwhile. If Windsor was the taster for memorials then this was the main - more dead'uns than you could shake a stick at. Even spotted a couple of Australians memorialized there - scientist Florey and poet Ted Hughes. From there we walked to Westminster Cathedral. This is London's main Catholic church and is only about 100 years old. It's thus unusual for being in Byzantine style, which makes it more like the Russian Orthodox churches we saw in the Baltic than a Catholic church. It is only part way through having mosaics applied so it is like seeing a work in progress. Much of it is still dark brick but it will eventually be all glittery - though this may take centuries yet. Then we hopped onto a very humid and sweaty underground train to the location of the Barbican. Near there is the Museum of London where we inadvertently finally learnt why we weren't getting cold drinks in British shops. Their fridges aren't even plugged in! Seriously. The museum is a half about London and half about Britain as a whole. Once again we have seen references to Barnardo that don't acknowledge the horror that he wrought upon countless children (he'd shown up in the National Portrait Gallery as a "benefactor" of children) - at least here they quoted that he'd been caught lying about his activities. We'd walked to the museum from the Barbican train station and had to walk in loops and ups to find the entrance. But then to go to the Barbican centre we followed signs along an elevated walkway. To our surprise this went through a housing development with spacious water gardens. It was all very Singapore-esque. After a gander at the library there we were joined by Barbara and Delia for drinks. We took the lift to our planned perusal of the gallery only to find it closed - despite both Lee and Delia having checked online that it should be open. We walked with D&B back toward their station before waving them goodbye. We took a few streets to go around The Old Bailey and St Paul's Cathedral. On the way we found dinner at Cafe Rouge opposite St Paul's. Slowest service we'd had in London and the smallest simplest food serve disguised by fancy naming. This was probably exactly what I had expected from the UK so I should glad it was the exception rather than the rule. A two step rail journey back to the apartment where Joan was staying with us overnight. Managed to have the packing done by before 1am.