Day 2 in London

We were obviously more tired than we realized. I woke about 7:30AM, but was still really tired. I got up and switched the washing machine to dry--yes, I finally figured it out last night, thanks to some advice from the travel forums at fodors.com--those guys always come through! I then went back to bed with the guidebook to read to see today's plan of action....and feel asleep until about 10AM.

We had bought some pastries at Tesco last night and I had a croissant for breakfast and looked at the guidebooks. I think we are going to try the Camden Markets in a little bit. The weather is supposed to be clear until dinner time and then scattered thundershowers. We'll carry the "brolly" to be safe. I hope the weather stays clear until at least 8PM or so. We want to do the Harry Potter walk tonight (with a guide) and I don't know if it might be cancelled if the weather isn't clear.

Random observations:

1. The combo washer/dryer unit is incredibly inefficient. It takes about 8 hours to wash and dry a load of clothes....and then said load is smaller than you could get in any washer I've ever owned--even at 1/2 the normal capacity. I did figure out the dryer, but now wish I hadn't. I guess it's something to do with heat settings, but Eleanor's pink ballet tights are now a tan color. My white slip is also a beige, as is the white elastic on some white camisole tops that Eleanor has. I guess it's a heat thing, but I'm really not sure. I'm scared to dry the blue jeans in there. I think they will get hung to dry, even though that is also inefficient. We might not be able to wear them otherwise though.

2. Eleanor was excited to find Dr. Pepper here in London and that was the soft drink we bought for the flat. It doesn't taste the same as US Dr. Pepper though in my opinion. We are following the European custom of buying the large bottle and refrigerating it. I briefly considered making ice cubes in the ice cube tray with bottled water, but decided I can wait another week for my ice again.

Well, scratch the original plans. We were really lazy this morning. We slept in, ate our pastries and then hung around a little longer before we moved toward showers. On some information from the travel forums, I found out that I could apply for a discount travel card for Eleanor because she is under 15. I did so about the time we got out of school and indicated that we would pick it up at Heathrow. At that time, I was planning on us getting to our flat by tube. When I arranged for the car to pick us up, I asked for an extra half hour to collect the card. However, the flight was half an hour late (probably because Obama was landing or taking off and we couldn't land--we did circle for about 20 minutes) and then it took our luggage a really long time. I didn't want to pay the driver to wait for me--who knows how much that would have cost, so we decided to collect it later. Later was today. When I hopped on the transport website and saw how much cheaper all transportation is for Eleanor with that card (all buses are free and the tube is at child rate--about half), I told her we needed to go and get it. The trip to Heathrow was just under an hour. We took the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow, got the card and then took the tube back into the city.

We decided to go on a guided walk based on the Harry Potter theme offered by London Walks. Eleanor is under 15 so she was free. The cost for me was 7 pounds. We went to the appropriate tube stop and decided to get lunch and sit outside and enjoy it. The rain never materialized today and when you could catch the breeze, it was quite nice (without a breeze, it was beastly humid though!). We grabbed a sandwich at Quizno's and ate in the Victoria Embankment gardens. We then walked along the embankment of the Thames and took a few pictures, used the public loos and then meandered to a spot to watch for the tour guide. We walked an unknown distance. The walk had several stops and gave us a commentary on some of the traditions and themes that JK Rowling drew upon in the HP books, along with a nice walk around. Eleanor took tons of pictures.

After the walk, we were pretty walked out. We took the tube back to our stop (Notting Hill Gate) and it looked like everything was closed--it was after 7PM on a Sunday, so we ended up eating McDonald's for dinner--took it back to the flat to eat it. Wow--7 pounds for a couple of "value" meals (that's $14).

After I finish this report, I believe we will make plans for tomorrow. I need to check the weather first. If it's going to be rainy, we'll make it a museum day. If it's going to be clear, we'll make it a Tower of London day. More later.

Pictures: The tour guide is the gentleman in white; the other is of me and Eleanor taken outside the park.