The forecast this morning was for rain but the sun is shining, plus it is lovely to be naughty and have a little pig out at the buffet breakfast in the Dining Room at the Peninsular Excelsior, quite a busy little hotel.

Today we are tackling the long walk to the Tower Bridge, being Sunday Trafalgar Square was nice and quiet, so was the walk down The Strand, into Fleet Street the financial district. Stopped at the Royal Court of Justice, what stories that building could tell. Lots of new buildings in this part of town, the original banks are still here.

In the distance we can hear the bells of either St Pauls’ Cathedral or St Clements, stopped to look at St Pauls’ like many other tourists including the passing coaches. We are only half way there and need a rest, changed directions for a shortcut and walked along the Thames Pathway with views of the buildings on the other side of the river and the tallest building in the UK the Shard a 95 storey skyscraper referred to as the shard of glass. Too tired to walk anymore we stopped near the London Bridge and took photos including one of the HMS Belfast permanently anchored nearby.

When it was built, Tower Bridge was the largest and most sophisticated bascule (see-saw) bridge ever completed and was operated by hydraulics, using steam to power the enormous pumping engines. The energy created was stored in six massive accumulators, as soon as power was required to lift the Bridge, it was always readily available. The accumulators fed the driving engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum angle of 86 degrees. Today, the bascules are still operated by hydraulic power, but since 1976 they have been driven by oil and electricity rather than steam.

From Cannon Street we caught the underground train to Charing Cross and thankfully there was a lady on board who showed us where to change trains, so many underground tunnels to the different platforms it is a maze. The Ticket Collector at Cannon Street didn’t tell us about changing trains we would have ended up at Richmond where ever that is.

While having lunch at Pret A Manger near Trafalgar Square we decided to stay another night in London, so we booked another night, before tackling The Mall to Buckingham Palace like many other tourists, pity we didn’t cycle like some it would have been a lot quicker. Still a lovely walk by St James Park and Green Park to first see the Victoria Memorial statue at the front of the palace then the palace itself. I wonder if the Queen was there looking out on all the silly people looking in. A beautiful floral garden on either side of Victoria Memorial with a water feature around it.

With directions it was a long walk up Constitutional Hill by Buckingham Palace and Green Park through the Wellington Arch and Australian Memorial to Hyde Park and Speakers Hill where people get up on a box and speak their mind on whatever. Today everyone was talking religion or about the Muslims or Taliban, Richard was going to have a talk till he saw all the people and cameras plus police who carted people off in handcuffs who preached terrorism.

Hyde Park is a beautiful very large park with a lake and we decided tomorrow we will hike bikes and cycle round St James and Hyde Park, and at the moment we are slowly walking back to the hotel through Mayfair the posh area (US Embassy is here plus others), down New Bond Street where all the top label shops are. Richard got a surprise when he went into a shoe shop the 50% sale was down to £300 a pair. Looking at the clothes I wouldn’t buy any of them, plus the guys in suits at the door put you off, they are good security guards.

Once we were back to Piccadilly Circus we knew we were close to the hotel, a cuppa and good rest our feet are killing us from all the walking we have done today plus I need to wash some clothes seeing we are staying another night.

Our lovely sunny day has vanished, it is now overcast and the drizzle of rain has set in, as we go to Chinatown for a late Dim Sim dinner before calling it a night to watch TV.