London1_2018

      I arrived in London yesterday. I came on the Eurostars train.  It only took 2 hours and I gained an hour coming west.  It was @125 euros and fast.  Ernest met me at St. Pancras station and put me in a cab.  There was bumper-to-bumper traffic the whole way and it took 1 1/2 hours and cost a little over 30 pounds.
     My hotel the Hilton Trafalgar Square St. James is beautiful and right on Trafalgar Square.  My room is great.  The breakfast so-so.  Mostly because you have to order hot dishes from a menu and the service,while very polite, is inefficient.
     Ernest came this morning at 11 am and we walked up the Mall to Buckingham Palace.  It is still open to the public and we were able to buy tickets and go right in, so we did.  Great!  It is always wonderful to see thing on person that you have only seen on books. We saw, I think, 16 public rooms.  In the gallery I saw another new Vermeer, - Girl at the Harpsicord.  I saw the Ramsey state portraits of George III and Charlotte. I saw the Winterhalter of Victoria and Albert and their first 4 children.  I also saw the Winterhalter of Vicky.  I saw the portrait of Queen Alexandra that I have seen a thousand times in books.  After we had a coffee in the terrase and then walked around to the Mall and Ernest left and I went for a couple beers at a pub, Halfway II Heaven.  Only 3.90 puond for a pint.  After I came back and got ready for an early dinner.
    I ate at a Lebanese Restaurant in St. Martin's Lane. It was very good but it cost me 40 pounds for a soup, a main dish, a water and 2 glasses of house red.  They added on a 12.5% service charge!!  Now I am back at the hotel bar drinking an equally expensive 1/2 liter of red.  Tomorrow, I am meeting Ernest at the Victoria and Albert Museum at 11.  I don't remeber ever having been there before.