A pretty fantastic day

Since I was so very tired on Thursday and I didn't have any meetings scheduled at the Museum for Friday, I gave myself a day to recharge.  It turned out to be a pretty fantastic day.

First of all, the weather was marvelous.  Everyone assures me that the weather usually sucks, but when I was in London last summer, it was gorgeous every day until the very end.  So far it's been sunny or brightly overcast more often than rainy.

I slept in, which was a great idea.  I headed off for the Tower of London, which I've heard is worth the insane 15# entry price.  It was.




I'm where the history happened.



Inside the tower, you can get a free tour from a beefeater (aka Yeoman Guard) and mine was especially good.  Also, during the tour, a private tour guide nearby was using a microphone, so our Yeoman asked a nearby Yeoman to "take care of it."  I would hate to have been the d-bag who gets chewed out by a freaking beefeater.  I looked over in time to see the tour guide sheepishly remove his headset.  Ha.





After kicking around the fortress (which the beefeater emphasized was NOT A PRISON but a palace/fortress in which people were often held against their will), I was done with history for the day and made for the primary egress.

I took the Thames side walkway toward the Tate Modern.  My plan was to walk in that basic direction and cross the river at some point.  It was a nice aimless walk.



Note to self: take a different route home after dark.

After a stroll in the gorgeous weather, I found myself at the Tate Modern.


Thanks to a recommendation from a trusted friend, I went specifically to check out the Turbine Hall, which is amazing.  First picture from the bottom up, second from the top down.

I hung out in the room for quite awhile, but eventually, I figured I ought to check out some art as long as I was there.  Not long after, I tweeted the following: "Perhaps i could learn to appreciate modern art if i didn't have to wade through all These goddamned hispters to see it."


This picture is me deciding that today is not the day to learn to appreciate modern art.  So I left.  Yay for free museums! (See how strained and irritated I look?  That's b/c of the hipsters.)   



Wandered along the South Bank until I found this lovely little Italian place.  I had a big plate of mussels in white wine garlic cream sauce.  'Nuff said.



At night, the South Bank is lit with marvelous blue and white xmas lights in the trees.  It is indescribable, and definitely unphotographable.  Of course, I tried anyway.



Walked very slowly along that path, pausing at various benches to appreciate the evening, then crossed back to the north side of the river.  This is me on the bridge.  This camera is a game day player.


That's all.  Friday was pretty much fantastic.