We are badly lacking in quality sleep and waking at 3.00am is not helpful.
Off to the centre of London by tube from Bayswater after morning tea in a local cafe, to Covent Gardens a lively area slightly west of Trafalgar Square.
Some very tuneful opera singing on the lower ground open area attracted a crowd and after listening for a short time we looked around the shops and market area.
Lunch in a French open air restaurant, some more opera and we then left that area moving up Charring Cross Rd to Oxford St.
By now the temperatures had risen to around 22-24 but out of the sun it felt cool due to the wind so we stayed on the sunny side.
Oxford St is a glorified Queen St full of retail but feeling a little shabby.
We then turned down Regent St which though still retail presented a higher quality of shops and a far nicer feel - we only stopped at one shop, Hamleys, the oldest toy shop (allegedly) in the World.
We veered off Regent onto Fortnum & Mason, a London institution since 1707 renowned for its food hampers, gifts and homeware where we had a relaxing break over afternoon tea.
What we have noticed in London is the “discretionary” service charge ranging anywhere between 10-20% applied in all restaurants and high end cafes. With the poor exchange rate, the generally higher cost of meals the service charge you pay on say a GPB50 meal is around $12 - a reasonably generous tip in most situations particularly if the food and/or service was below par.
With Wimbledon being on a bakery has got quite creative.
We returned to the Leicester Square/West End area and ambled around taking in the atmosphere before an early dinner at the only Burmese restaurant we have ever seen and then onto the Prince of Wales Theatre for a performance of The Book of Mormon an irreverent look at the Mormon Church and perhaps the best musical we have been to.
The tube system had two shattered oldies back in the apartment around 40 minutes after the end of the show to end another enjoyable day.
The crowds in London are as bad as anything we have experienced in our travels and the number of times you hear a language other than English is quite staggering
Some random photos taken today
