It's a girl

Not sure if you heard but the the royal baby was born today. A girl. We walked over to Buckingham Palace to see the birth announcement.

After a full day of sightseeing, we spent the afternoon in a pub with my friend Giles.  He lives in California but is originally from London and was here to see his Mum on his way home from Tel Aviv. Ah, the busy life of a Google engineer.

I have a new favorite drink.  Not sure what it is called. I just held up the sign when I wanted another.

It's official Butch loves London.  His only disappointment was not being able to get close to the palace guards like in that I Love Lucy episode.  Admit it. You know the one.

We fly home tomorrow so this is my last post unless something interesting happens.

Mind the Gap

A full day of sightseeing today: Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Bunker, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and a boat ride on the Thames river.

I made Butch tour all of Westminster Abbey with the hope that he'd stop saying "The Westminster Abbey Dog Show."  I keep telling him there is an abbey and there is a dog show; 2 separate things. As we were walking away from the church, he leans over and says "that was really interesting but where are the dogs?"

The Churchill bunker is not something I'd seen before.  It is essentially a time capsule of the command center for WWII.  Highly recommended.

The weather held out. We were worried it was going to rain all day.

We are currently just resting up at the hotel before heading back out to see more sights.  

Hey, look kids, there's Parliament

We left rainy and cold Paris on the train this morning.  Highly recommend the train for traveling between the 2 cities. Fast and easy.  The entire trip is 2 hrs and 20 mins with only 20 mins of it underground.

Here's Butch enjoying some lunch on the train

We started off our sightseeing at the Royal Mews.  It is my favorite thing in all of London. Here I am in front of the Golden Coach.  It weighs four tons and they need 8 horses to pull it.

They have a new modern coach that was added since I was here last.  It has a built-in camera hidden in the crown on the top, hydraulic suspension, climate control, electric windows, LED lanterns but looks like one of the old coaches.  It is pulled by 6 horses.  

From the Royal Mews, we saw Buckingham Palace, walked the Birdcage Walk, saw Big Ben and Parliament, walked up Whitehall Street, saw 10 Downing Street and stopped in the Savoy Hotel.  I've been collecting cocktail books lately and the Savoy Hotel was selling a pop-up cocktail book.  A pop-up book! Full of cocktail recipes!

We stopped for a snack in a pub on Whitehall. Poor Butch. He is already spoiled by the French food. My response to his "this burger is lousy" was a simple "Welcome to England."

We are off to my favorite pub, the Bag O'Nails,  tonight.  The food is not great but the crowd is usually entertaining.

Other interesting things we saw on the trip: a charging station at Gare Du Nord where you have to pedal a bike to get a charge.