London

It has been over 10 years since I've been to London.  We were able to spend the better part of today seeing some sights in London.  I was impressed by the history and depressed by the prices.  Even traveling on a corporate expense report, you feel guilty paying $10 for two small scoops of ice cream, $50 for a basic dinner, $12 to ride the subway, $300 for a hotel, etc.  To take a cab to the airport tomorrow would be $100 (I'm going to give the Tube a try).  We were treated to a traditional gloomy day in the morning.  It rained steady for several hours before giving way to some sunshine in the afternoon.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon.

View of the Tower Bridge from on our water taxi ride up the Thames.

US Flag flying over the embassy.  There was more security at the embassy than any other place we saw.  You get the impression that some people don't like us.

Harrod's - I was more impressed with Harrod's than any other site we saw.  I couldn't afford to shop there (with the exception of the $10 scoop of gelato), but they had almost anything you could conceive of purchasing right down to a $10,000 bottle of wine and a $3,000 toy Lamborghini.

Flag flying of the US embessay - my second favorite tourist site.

Buckingham palace in the rain.  Neither Will nor Kate would come to the door when we knocked.

I've never seen more Rolls Royce, Bentleys  and Mazerattis in my life.  There is no shortage of luxury vehicles in London, including this nice vehicle that I purchased and will carry on the plane with me so that Tyson has something to drive when he turns 16.

The London Eye and the old County Hall. If you have really good eyesite you can see a McDonalds at the base of the County Hall building.  We ate lunch there because our conscious wouldn't allow us to have another $50 meal.

Big Ben and Parliament.

York, England

Its fun to be back in England visting our office in York.  We arrived on Sunday and have been there through today.  With familiarity I'm beginning to enjoy the culture and history much more.  My comfort still doesn't extend to driving on the left side of the roads so I stick to cabs. 

Some pictures from my first few days here.

This is the view from my hotel room.

Walking back to our hotel after dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant in York.

I looked for Matt in the race, but didn't see him.