a very london sunday...

I made plans on sunday to meet two friends for a farewell lunch, Nikki and Fiona. We met beneath Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, and this was a great start to a very touristy day!

We went to the National Portrait Gallery restaurant for lunch, which had unbelievable views back over Trafalgar Square, ol' Nelson, and down Whitehall with Big Ben and Westminster in the distance. We had an extremely delicious 3 course lunch, with wine, which ended with raspberry cheesecake and coffee.

We jumped on a big red bus and went down The Strand to a place called Somerset House, which is essentially an art gallery - and in their huge outdoor courtyard they'd set up London's Largest Livingroom, complete with oversized furniture. We sat with our legs dangling and ate ice cream (yep, after all that lunch!).

To burn that off we walked over Waterloo Bridge (pic left) and down to the London Eye, where we went for a spin. It was my 4th flight, and I'm not tired of it yet!

As we ate cinnamon donuts, we walked back over the Thames on Westminster Bridge and bought tickets for a short boat trip up to Tower Hill. It turned out to be a comedy of errors for the two guys driving the boat, and I wasn't too happy being on water again - especially after we crashed head-on into Blackfriars pier (they left a chunk of boat behind!).

But, it did have it's up-side (apart from me getting to land, having not drowned) - as we got off at Tower Hill they began opening the Tower Bridge, which I'd never seen before! (pic right)

It was a totally excellent day, great weather, great company - and I want to bring London home with me....