And here we are just minutes after boarding! I was so not happy! I'm only smiling because my mom trained me to smile when a camera is around. I am six years older than my sister so when she was a baby and we were getting joint pictures taken, my mom would tell me to start smiling as soon as the photographer came in the room and just keep smiling until we were done. That way, as soon as Jen gave the photographer a facial expression that was decent, he could just snap it. The consequences of this are that at times, like in this picture, even though I look happy, I'm really not enjoying myself. Those little free ponchos just are not worth anything. I had rain blowing in the neck hole and in both sleeves. It was also dripping down off the hood into my face!
TMT took pity on me and sent me downstairs for the rest of the tour. Even though I couldn't see as much or hear the guide as well, it was worth it to be warm and dry. TMT continued to ride around on the top level like a crazy person for most of the tour.
We got several pictures like this one of TMT by himself. I guess he wanted to take pictures of what he saw and I had told him at the beginning of the trip that I didn't want a bunch of pictures of buildings without us in front of them. Thus - the "take your own photo" style of photography.
We ate lunch at this pub, the Bag o' Nails, which was near Buckinham Palace. The food was less than stellar, but we accomplished another of TMT's goals for the vacation - to eat at a real English pub - with our visit to this fine establishment. He got a burger and I got a chicken sandwich. There were nachos on the menu, but I wasn't so sure about the quality of nachos in London period, much less at a pub. I saw another lady who got them, and it was pretty clear that I made the wrong choice for my meal. Oh well , I obviously didn't starve - I just hate to waste a meal when I'm in a new city!
Our next stop was Buckingham Palace. Here we are in front of the palace. In the past couple of years, the palace has been open to the public for tours during August and September, when Queen Elizabeth lives at one of her other castles. Maybe the one in Scotland?? I was super excited to hear about this because I have a strange fascination with British royalty. I was totally on top of getting us tickets to do this tour. Even the tickets were fancy; they were embossed, which I love. On the tour, we got to see the State Rooms, which include several galleries, receiving rooms, and the Throne Room. This year, the ballroom was set up as it would be for a state dinner. I absolutely loved this part! I love parties - the china and crystal and silver and the planning and preparation. So it was super fun to see all the fancy stuff they use for such a special dinner. 
We had initially planned to hit the British Museum next, but we were too tired to do anything else educational, so we hit Harrods instead. This store just amazes me. It is so huge and has such a wide variety of things to buy. Although I browsed through $7000 dresses and $1000 shoes, we spent most of our time in the food halls - this being due to my love of grocery stores. Whenever I go to a new city, I like to visit their grocery stores and see what kind of stuff they sell. I do this in places like Tulsa too - it's not limited just to exotic locations. I so wish we had a food shop like this in NWA - the closest thing we have is the new market in the gas station at Pinnacle Promenade!
We headed back to Nottinghill for dinner at Osteria Basilico. I had read about this restaurant ahead of time, and it was pretty good. I didn't love what I got, but I think was due more to a bad pick on my part than the quality of the food. This place had an atmostphere like a big family dinner. The tables were pretty close together and there were several big groups in the restaurant that night, so it was a fun and loud experience. 
We got eggplant parmesan for our appetizer, which was disappointing because it was cold in the middle. The flavor was good, but cold eggplant is just yucky! TMT got his old standby - pepperoni pizza. I didn't get a picture of it, but he says it was pretty good. I initially ordered some kind of tortellini with cream sauce, but they were out of it. I switched to fettucini with veal ragout. It was good, but after I ate the whole plate, I decided it was a little too rich for me. I'm not a big meat-eater, so I probably would have enjoyed a less meaty dish more. However, it did look really pretty on the plate, and now I know that I probably shouldn't spend my time trying out a ragout recipe at home.
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