WARNING! Lot’s of photos today. I can’t help it. It was a good photo day!
The first thing I notice here is that there is no autumn color. In fact, all the trees are quite green and the leaves remain on the trees. Unusual for a city so far north of New York. I hear the the greyness is oppressive at this time of year but we had a 24 hour rainy period surrounded by lots of sunshine which is fine by me. In fact yesterday was beautiful! Around 58 degrees and sunny as opposed to back home where it snowed!
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| London on Nov 12. Everything is so green! |
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| Yeah, I know, roses in November. It’s like that in London. |
Off to the British Museum. What can I say other than – awesome. So much history, my head spins. Just magnificent. A reminder of back home was the statue of a cymbal player.
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| Yeah, yeah, but it’s really about the fact that he’s playing cymbals. Note to self: send band uniform to the British Museum. |
Alright, enough with the culture. Off to the London Eye! On the walk there we passed many wonderful London sights.
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| James, you have to see this store! |
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| Just another London Pub. If you can make it through the garden! |
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| I love the look of London streets |
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| Near the London Eye |
Best part of the Eye – they have senior discounts! God, I love retirement! So, this was really worth it. It’s amazing and the views are glorious. I couldn’t stop taking photos! It just get’s better and better. And, maybe because it’s November, but there was no waiting. Really great experience!
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| Walking bridge across Thames and Waterloo Station. The BT Tower way in the background is in our neighboorhood |
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| Parliament, Big Ben with Westminster Abbey behind |
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| Buckingham Palace and St James Park |
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| The Happy Couple |
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| This thing is really big! |
Then the walk back across the Thames to Waterloo Station and the Underground ride home provided more photo opportunities.
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| Crossing the Thames. London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben |
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| Two birds Ted and I picked up on the bridge |
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| More Parliament.. |
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| Outside Waterloo Station |
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| Final shot of Big Ben (I promise) |
But after sunset things continued to get even better because we had a dinner date with founding Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band member Rajat Gupta.
Raj was a Nassau County kid who wanted to continue his marching band experience in college. So he advocated to start a marching band and the university listened. And the band was created during Raj’s final semester at Stony Brook. He played with us that semester and he remains an inspiration to all of us who knew him. He now works in London and has a wonderful and charming girl friend, Numa (soon to be an M.D.) who was able to join us for dinner. This was certainly a highlight of our trip. We finished off the day with Raj and Numa joining us back at our great penthouse apartment.
