Aaah London, Day 2

I didn't have any specific plans for the day, so I let Hans take the lead.... he chose the bus (maybe a little too much walking from yesterday?)  He had never been to St. Paul's cathedral, so we studied the bus map and figured out a route, and jumped on. East on Cromwell, onto Old Brompton in front of Harrods, up around Hyde Park Corner to Speaker's Corner and off at Marble Arch.

 We had to change buses at Marble Arch, so we took a few pics, man I look old and concerned! The next bus took us down Oxford Street past Bond and through Oxford Circus and down Regents.  It was so fun to see everything on top of the double decker!

 When we got to St. Paul's, we noticed the crowds. Police stationed all around and then bagpipers marched out in formation.  They started playing and it was awesome!  The sound was so loud and echoed off of St Paul's.  After a little investigation, we found out it was a memorial service for a fashion designer named Alexander McQueen that died back in February.  It was fashion week here in London and so I guess family and friends wanted to do it during this time.  Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Campbell and  Kate Moss were all there. I only saw the back of Naomi's head. We also found out that visitors could come back in a few hours and it was only 7 pounds to get in.  What?  Paying to get into a church? Crazy!

 

One interesting fact about St. Paul's is that it was built around 600AD and has been rebuilt 4 times! Maybe that's why they charge, they're still paying for it! 

 We walked across the Millenial foot bridge (the one that gets destroyed in Harry Potter...I had no idea, that's Hans' expertise) to get to the Tate Modern (a little modern art for my artist husband).

 

So The green bridge is a train bridge, but it is blocking the view of London Bridge, but you can see one of it's posts in the water under the arch. And Tower Bridge is just beyond. 

 

 It was fun to walk through the exhibits and have Hans teach me, he is awesome!

 After the gallery, we walked back across the Thames to the St. Paul tube stop and went to Holborn tube stop.  We were searching out an old pancake place I used to love on semester abroad called My Old Dutch. We found it and loved it!  These pancakes without any exaggeration are 20 inches in diameter.... savory and sweet.  Of course my nutella one was divine!

 Then we went on a little shopping detour by Traci and ended up at an amazing mall called Westfield.  We had dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant and were wowed by his lemon ricotta ravioli!
This was a cool truck outside the restaurant, Hans loved how it was restored! Then we had to pop on the tube and get back to our show....

 Being fans of Queen, we couldn't resist We Will Rock You!  The music was fun, the story a bit weird, but still a great night out on London's West End!