I woke up this morning at 6 am…my guys were tired, so I let them sleep til 7:30 am. We were all ready and out the door by 9 am. This has not been part of my plan, I usually want to be out seeing the sights much earlier, but I also don’t want two grumpy guys on my hands.
After we ate, we jumped on the tube and went to the Tower of London. Tons of people there, but not overwhelming. I’m definitely glad that I purchased our tickets online ahead of time…it saved a long wait. We were able to go straight to the entrance and bypass all those poor souls in the ticket queue.
On my 2004 trip, the Tower of London got short-changed because we packed too much into one day, so I was eager to see it again and spend as much time as I wanted there. I had always wanted to do the Beefeater tour, as I’ve heard they’re funny and have lots of great stories, however, the one that was beginning when we arrived was just too crowded. I hate being herded around like cattle, so we decided to do it on our own. I usually like to follow Rick Steves’ guided tours of different sights…and this year I had them all on my iPhone. I reached into my purse and guess where my iPhone was…back in the hotel room! Alas, poor Mike and Matt missed out on my guided tour of the Tower of London! Of course, I managed to throw out many tidbits of trivia that I had in my brain…but they did not seem as impressed as I thought they should be. Matthew actually behaved as if he already knew everything I was telling him…it was quite annoying.
We left the Tower around noon and headed over to Trafalgar Square. When we exited the tube station, it was raining. Guess where our umbrellas were...back in our hotel room! Luckily, we weren't far from our destination...The National Gallery. Yes, it is an art museum, but I promised the boys that I only wanted to see the Impressionist rooms...I think they liked it as much as I did.
When we left The National Gallery, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, so we stopped for some photo ops around the fountain and the giant lions. Then we jumped on the tube to go to the meeting place for the Beatles walking tour. At this point, my feet were getting sore. Mike and I were wishing we could skip this, but it was the one thing Matt wanted to do.We needed cash, so we found an ATM and attempted to get money out with our previously raved about Capital One Money Market ATM card...but it said we had insufficient funds! I assumed it was a mistake, had Mike use our credit union card (we had split our travel funds between these two accounts), and vowed to call and get it straightened out when we got back to the room...where my phone was.
Mike and Matt were hungry, so we popped into Burger King and then met the group for the Beatles tour. The group was a little larger than I had hoped, but we trudged forward, walking (with increasingly sore feet) from sight to sight. Then the rain returned...with a vengeance! I had a jacket to hold over my head, but Matt & Mike had to use my shopping bags. About an hour into the 2 1/4 hour tour...we were all cold, wet, and achy. I asked Matt if he would be okay with us leaving the tour, hopping on the tube, and going to Abbey Road ourselves...then we could beat the crowd and get a photo of him crossing the road with no one else around. His feet were sore also, so he jumped on that idea.
We arrived at Abbey Road and there were a few people around, but we were able to get the shot...not exactly how he wanted it...but there is actually quite a bit of traffic on that street...it's like people live there or something. We left just as our tour group arrived...it was great to be able to just jump on the tube and go back to the room.
Got back to the room and I called Capital One and got some very disappointing news. They said that since my account is less than thirty days old, they put a ten business day hold on all my deposits. I could hear nothing but 'NO ACCESS TO MONEY!' My head started spinning, I felt nauseous. I got very upset and started crying on the phone, but incredibly, I was not rude. The bottom line is that there is nothing they could do, I would have to wait for the hold to be lifted on August 11th. Once I got off the phone and calmed down, I realized that we would be okay. We have money in another bank account and credit cards in case of an emergency. I'm so glad that I took the advice I read on the Rick Steves' site to have a back-up account. While I'm not happy with Cap 1, there's nothing I can do now...I would just advice others to set up the account more than thirty days before leaving...you really can't beat the exchange rate with no fees.
Well, I got myself together and we went to a pub called Shakespeares Head for dinner. Then I wanted to go to Harrod's for some shopping therapy. Matt didn't want to go, so we let him stay back at the hotel alone...a pretty big step for me.
Harrod's wasn't as fun as the last time I was there. Everything is just soooo expensive. What actually surprised me was the number of Muslims in the store. Now, I know that London has a large Muslim population, but I didn't realize that they all shopped at Harrod's. It was very strange. It almost seemed like a Muslim singles hang-out. Groups of men standing around looking at groups of women chatting and shopping in various stages of Muslim dress. I wanted to take a picture, but thought it would be rude. I would really love to know what the various stages of dress mean...there were women dressed 'normally' with colorful head coverings all the way to women dressed in all black burkas (sp?) with even their faces covered, and there was everything in between. Most had make-up on and expensive purses...in fact, most were shopping for purses. I just would like to know what the rules are...I'm so nosy that way.
Anyway, it was an exhausting day, both physically and emotionally. I truly was ready for bed when we got back from Harrod's.
Haha! Matt is so cute!
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