Life in the West End: Regular day

I woke up today with plans to meet Grace (friend from school) at Buckingham Palace at 11am. Since I wasn't due at work until 3, I figured I would wake myself up early so I could do some other sightseeing and things beforehand.

As I was getting ready to leave, I realized that I needed to do laundry and go grocery shopping. Normally I put off my laundry for as long as possible...but it was the efficient idea of going shopping while my clothes were in the dryer, and the knowledge that the laundry room would be deserted that early in the morning, that made me change my mind.

With my flat on the 3rd floor, the laundry room in the basement, and making multiple trips with clothing or groceries in hand, I was pretty much exhausted by the time it was all over. Laundry = my weekly workout. Glad I got that out of the way!

I then walked down to Buckingham Palace, and was able to stop on the way at The National Gallery. I'll probably be going back multiple times. Possibly dozens of times, since Museums are really the only thing you can do here for free. For today I just wanted to find my favorite Van Gogh piece (I know, I know, everyone has a favorite Van Gogh...sooo cliche). And I did.

You can see it on the web here:

http://tinyurl.com/9qkmd

And since everyone is crowded around "Sunflowers", you can stand and look at it in peace (I have a slightly less-cliche Van Gogh favorite, yipee).

I then went to catch the changing of the guards, except I really underestimated the amount of people there, and there was no way I was going to find Grace. So I just sat and watched from a distance, and marveled at how many tourists there are in London.

I then remembered that I had a meeting with a travel agent, and ended up having to leave, with my hopes of catching up with my fellow American permanently crushed.

I will assume that we've all seen Breakfast at Tiffany's (if not...shame on you). Well today I had coffee with Cartier, Leviev, Chatilla, de Grisogone, Chopard, etc. while walking up Old/New Bond Street. I had been there earlier with Sue, but everything was shut, so the jewels were all put away. I liked it better with the jewelry out. Sisters - we must take a stroll here. Rocks for Jessica and shoes for Emily.

I met with the travel agent only to decide that we needed another appointment. So no news there. Hopefully Paris on the 24th, though. We'll see...

Pictures from today: