London

I have Board meeting in London Monday. The Company has invited "Partners" to come on this trip and get to know the other Board members and spouses. This was an alien concept to me, so when the Company asked me if I would be bringing a "partner" I did not know if they wanted me to invite a client, a supplier, or my spouse!

I waited to see what other Board members would say.

Happily, they meant spouse.

So we set off for London, and will be visiting Paris on this trip as well.


We start all our international trips in the Continental Presidents Club. Not sure how that will change with the United merger, I guess we will just have to see.

It is a good place to unwind. My good nephew Quinn drove us to the airport, and will be picking us up. Our good friend Linda will be taking care of the animals, and the house. And she live there, so don't think about going there to rob us. She is a real Texan, and is no doubt armed. You are forewarned!


This was a 777 with the new lie flat beds. Nice! This is the first time that I was actually able to lie flat on them. We both slept most of the way here.

Our hotel is The Arch just north of the Marble Arch underground (Tube!) stop. It is small, but seems quite nice. We are on the First (that  means second) floor.



We wandered about this part of the city to stay awake and to buy a metro pass. We are just on the cusp of the either just paying for our tickets or buying a seven day pass. Since I am working one day, we bought Doreen a seven day pass, and I just loaded up my Oyster card with pounds. We walked over to the Marylebone (look at that word. What do you think the \genesis is?)  train station.

We walked through Regent's Park afterward, and saw this flock of herons. (Herons, not egrets) They had a rookery nearby.

The park is very pretty, but I think it would have been nicer in a couple of weeks. The daffodils were blooming, but not much else.




Well, the apple trees were blooming, too.


From Regent's Park we took the tube to London Bridge. Some friends of ours told us about this gourmet food market on Borough High Street that is open on Saturdays. This was a good way to stay awake! (Thanks, Richard and Jim)



The market was amazing, and PACKED! It looked like you could get just about any sort of food there. (Even Mexican food)

There was plenty of fish. One place had Fish Soup that looked excellent, but we didn't get any.

Lots of sausages and pig parts. You could even buy pig heads:

But we didn't get any of those either.

We got Pastys:

Sort of like meat turnovers. They are Welsh or Cornish in origin, the miners use to take them underground. They would say hot all day.

Meat, potatoes, other root vegetables with brown gravy. Delicious!



As I said, plenty of fish. Here was a batch of fresh cod (the fish that changed the world)

and other, less important fishes.


And, of course, Italian Cheese.

Here is the Southwark Cathedral. The market surrounds this building, and probably has for over 1,400 years. There have been religious ceremonies on this cite since 606 AD!

Finally, we walked across London Bridge.

and then came back to the hotel for a well deserved nap.