Friday

Still in the rears...yup, in the rears.

Friday morning we hooked up breakfast at the apartment before heading down to the Tower of London. I have a feeling we are going to miss the luxury of living like hipsters in Paris. The apartment has been an awesome spot to just chill and way larger and nicer than any place Jess lived in NYC - so we've been good.

The Tower of London is listed as a "must see" and it was that for sure. It's positioned on the side of the River Thames and has a great view of the Tower Bridge. The Beefeater guide was informational and the guy had a great British sense of humor (like Monty Python...not those horrible Brit shows you see on PBS at night). Inside the Tower is a vast history of well, basically a bunch of killings and family feuds. There is also the famed jewels...and they are pretty, pretty, shinny. The grounds are kept in amazing condition and when they start telling you about the history it's just amazing to think about how much happened within those walls.

After we finished at the Tower, we still had a boat tour left over from the bus tour the day before. Conveniently the boat picked up right outside the Tower and provided great views of the many bridges and history that litters surround the banks of the Thames. It also provided an up close view of the London Eye - which helped me make up my mind that I would not be getting on that thing. Damn.

The boat dropped us off right at Parliament, which was perfect because we had a walking tour that we had downloaded that started on Westminster bridge and ended in Trafalger square.

In the middle of our tour we stopes at the Winston Churchill War Room Museum. This is the exact place that Winston Churchill and his staff orchestrated the British army during WWII. This bunker was incredible in that after the Germans had move on to the Russians and the Brits could breath - there are places in the bunker that are frozen in time as if everyone just stood up, walked away, an tried to forget the 4 hellish years some of them had spent underground.

Few things learned - Winston Churchill didn't give a rats ass. Period. The guy drank champaign for breakfast, wine for lunch, and Whiskey for dinner. He wasn't a great leader outside of war time, but he was definitely in his element during.

After checking out the Prime Ministers digs, which are just down the way, we ended back in Trafalger Square - where the almighty Chicago Bears had landed! It was a glorious sight, but we decided to save the festivities for Saturday, when we where already planning to check it all out.

The rest of the night involved a couple of drinks at the hotel bar (on being a free Apple Martini and for me a glass of VSOP - Winston inspired) and then dinner in the Corner Room at the hotel.

There is a restaurant here with a Michelin star, but we where feeling more like a chilled out evening. Luckily this place was awesome. Highlights of the meal where a fantastic beet starter dish and then main courses of Imberico ham and salmon. Very surprised and delighted (that was direct quote from Jessie!).

One thing that goes without saying, and just doesn't apply to traveling with Jessie, is I would be completely lost without her. She's way better than any iPhone app and much prettier. Using the Tube and only taking the a single cab, we have been navigating this place like pros. My head gets so damn turned around looking and wandering, I've got a vague idea of where we have been or are most of the time. I still have very little idea as to why she is so patient with me, but I love her for it.

Hope this finds you all well. We leave for Paris in the morning, but I'll give you one more day of London before we get to that!