Museums...Rain and Asleep on the bus... Alternate Title: Day 2

Greetings from London....day 2.

So today started with lots of rain. Apparently they were calling for Southern England to get up to 50mm of rain. Boy did we get it. We were very lucky today to sleep in quite a bit (9am) and then start to get ready for our day. I love our Airbnb, we bought groceries last night and had breakfast here in the morning. (BTW 4 pints of semi-skim milk is only £1!) so we ate breakfast and headed into Central London (and not down-town...apparently that is a North American term). We decided to hit the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, lucky for us our bus went straight there, no changing or anything! Now I was planning a guerilla style attack of the gallery (especially since it was raining and where do all the tourists go? To the free gallery...sigh) OK...so Renaissance wing here we come. I got to see some of my favourite paintings.

A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling

We ended up going through the whole gallery! I couldn't believe it, neither did my feet! lol So we decided to head for lunch and picked a place called Byron, a nice hamburger joint. The string fries were great and they had some nice cider too. Our waiter spoke like Ali G....it was strange. LOL

Old Smokey burger

So after a filling lunch we decide to head back to the apartment. Our phones were dying (still not sure why)...so we hop back on the bus and head back, except that it is hot in the bus, which makes us very sleepy...enough to miss our stop by 2 stops. Sigh...ok well we will walk back, then the heavens opened up and well it poured...Nothing would stop this...I was soaked (even with Mel's rain coat - thanks btw) and umbrellas. We were dripping. So thank goodness we were going back anyway. So we dry off, get warm, eat some dinner (yay groceries) and head back out to the National Portrait gallery. With a whole Tudor section Woo hoo! except it was a full out bust. :( They had like 20 paintings and none of the ones I wanted to see...no Elizabeth I, no Jane Grey, nada. VERY BIG SAD FACE HERE. They had a huge exhibition back in the spring and not even a book on it. :( :( :(

M&M Super store

So we wandered around a bit and saw they had a Nickelodeon shop...so we went to go see the Bubble Guppies merchandise for Olivia...we have gifties! :) Then we went to the M&M shop...that place is crazy big. Bought too much chocolate! lol All in my favourite colours...

We then went for a small snack before heading to a movie. :) It is raining, and yucky for walking around and we have no Olivia to worry about, so 9:45pm show here we come. we saw inside out at Leicester Square's Empire theatre, opening night in the UK, 3D and the biggest IMAX screen I had ever seen! It was insane. Jeff got us some wine and beer...and we watched a good movie. Yes I cried like a baby. lol

As I write this it is 1:30am...time for bed. we have an early start, catching the train to visit the Clark's. :) So have a great night everyone, and I will try an post tomorrow, but if I don't I will on Sunday. The trip is already going too fast. :P

Night!
~Erin