London Calling

One evening last week, Houston and I took the train to London so Houston could run in a relay race with some friends. Good fun and Houston did fine. I brought my knitting and sat on a ledge across from the Parliament and Big Ben and watched the runners.







It was just past 8:00 p.m. when the runners finished so we took off to see some sights. We passed the front of the Parliament building on our way to find some yummy ethnic food.



But first stopped in here for a beer and a glass of wine.


Dali's sculptures along the South Bank in London.






The London Eye is an observation wheel, a slow moving wheel that allows visitors to walk into a capsule, and see the sights of the city from 445 feet. 3.5 million people rode the Eye last year.



I think it resembles a very large bicycle wheel.











Not sure if these are old bridge pillars or new ones, but we liked the sculpture look of them, almost like a Cristo exhibit.






Stopped by the Tate Modern 15 minutes before closing time so had to really scurry through. Whipped through the shop and bought a rainbow colored bracelet because I hardly have any jewelry.



This encampment was across from the Parliament. The 'Face of the Enemy' looked like 'Mr. Bill' from SNL decades ago.



We were looking for Thai food, but after passing a dozen Indian places, we finally ended up at a Moroccan restaurant. With the melodic music drawing us in, we were led down some candle lit steps, into a low lit series of small rooms, with hookahs on tables and sweet scented smoke filling the air. The tables were low, as were the chairs. Poor Houston, hurting from the run, folded himself into a tiny space, grimacing as his legs had to bend in ways they didn't want to. I just sat there, being hypnotized by the music, drumming on the table to the beat. As we were about to order, the music went up many decibels and we just pointed to what we wanted. (good thing because we couldn't pronounce the dishes anyway)
The music was extremely loud so as to announce the belly dancer. Houston's attitude improved dramatically!