We headed to London today. 10 years ago, almost exactly, Elizabeth and I ate an ice-cream in a cafe in Harrods (did you all know the “s” is not possessive?). She was 6 months pregnant with our first child, Isabel, and we talked of coming back someday with our child(ren). So today we did! It was a wonderful day in many ways. The kids loved it; the toy section of Harrods is amazing and we came away having only bought two Formula 1 Hot Wheels cars (go Lewis Hamilton!) and a couple of keychains.
We were going to head across Hyde Park and pick up a bus tour but came across waves of people heading up to Kensington Road-Knightsbridge Road. It turns out that the Tour de France was in London! Who knew? I always thought the Tour de France took place in…France! It was great to see and we took a few snap shots (and saw a number of bobbies) but it kept us from seeing many of the prime sites in London.
On the way to London we were able to listen to The Now Show! One of my favorite BBC Radio programs that sadly has been removed from their pocast rotation. Of course this weekly news comedy programme (“News Of the Week” get it?) had a good amount on the terrorist attempts of the last week. The best bit was the observation that the reason the terrorists failed because they failed to take into consideration the fact that Glaswegians will always take an opportunity to punch people, even if they are on fire.
One of my favorite pictures is below. We were coming back to our car, parked near Harrods, and as we passed this superstore of superstores a crowd was gathered just outside, near the Underground exit. We were a little worried until I noticed a flash of red. Everyone was staring and taking pictures of a Bugatti Veyron. (One young American girl was even using an iPhone!) The best part? The parking ticket on the window.