Tuesday... Two-Day.

Today was a soaking... wet... day.

The cloud coverage is just a BEAST here. I can't tell what time of day it is by looking at the sky. East End and West End mean nothing to me. London would be much prettier with some sunshine.

Speaking of sunshine, we started off the day at the Tower of London, which was built in the 1000s AD. Notably, this is the site where King Henry VIII's two wives (of 6), Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, lost their heads. Anne Boleyn's various accused lovers also were imprisoned and beheaded here. (Ironically, Anne Boleyn also stayed in the Tower of London prior to her coronation.)

Louis, the giant, meet Christina, the midget

Louis and I are in SAVE mode. So in lieu of taking the guided tour inside the tower, we spent awhile walking around the grounds, and then reading up in the gift shop in terms of the history and notable names of the place. Also, since we were meeting my family here (who DID take the guided tour), we got some tidbits from them as well.

Pretty

Louis has a HUGE head.

Next, we made a gametime decision to go to an inside destination.

One second, though .... Back to the rain.

It has been pretty rainy since we arrived, but only slightly so... Ed calls it spitting rain. Today it was supposed to be the day the clouds broke the most. We all thought that meant the clouds would break for about half an hour, but we were wrong. It rained ALL DAY. It was also a constant get-under-your-jacket rain so Louis and I had no choice to but to buy some umbrellas. We popped into H&M for £4.99 umbrellas (appx. $10) because the convenience stores somehow thought umbrellas were worth £16.99 (appx. $34). Sheesh... expensive.

Funny story, yesterday Bac Oanh was talking to the director at Jenn's church, and it was raining. She was talking right outside the church office door and then turned to talk to Bac Hung, and the umbrella shook when she said something (or gestured). All the rain on her umbrella jumped off directly into the director's face. REALLY funny. Bac Oanh walked on and never noticed.

Anyway, back to our inside destination... We took a trip to HARROD's today. The store was VERY nice and well-maintained (NOT like Macy's on 34th in NY) and very pricey, but not as big and grand as we had heard (and thought) it would be. We finished the 5 or 6 floors in less than two hours... WHILE still managing to sit in all the comfy chairs in the home and decorating section.

My favorite floor was by far the first floor, there were SO MANY food rooms. Fromagerie, patisserie, a meat room (grr... SO tough!), confectionery, seafood bars. WE DID NOT BUY ANYTHING. I almost convinced Louis to get over his fear of raw oysters with me at an oyster bar, but the guys behind the counter ignored us for about 5 minutes and we took it as a sign to not pay £16 ($32) for 5 oysters. Mmmm... I love oysters so much, though!

Louis's favorite floor was the fifth floor, where all the "grown-up toys" are. That means sports and athletic gear. There was a red mini-Hummer golf cart. There was also this one toy that I can only describe as a turbo jet-pack, which Lou will just have to describe himself sometime later.

There was also a Fossil Room (can't remember the floor), which had huge gems and stones (of the amethyst and quartz variety, not diamonds) available to buy for a mere £11,000. I think we did touch all the gems in the room so all the rich buyers will have a Christina-or-Lou invisible fingerprint as an additional souvenir.

We definitely miss our families!

Love, The Pink and Red Team.