Yes, it’s true: we actually had quite a lovely, sunny day today. That was great since we spent a while walking through Regent’s Park and all over town.

Today was earmarked for the Sherlock Holmes museum. We got there a bit early, and in wandering around managed to get ourselves into Regent’s Park. It was absolutely beautiful! We spent nearly an hour walking around looking at the flowers and gardens and everything.

Just one of the many, many lovely flower beds in Regent’s Park.

We did finally make it to the Holmes museum, though, which was pretty cool. Of course, the “real” 221B Baker Street is in the middle of this huge bank building, so the museum’s a little way up the street. It was pretty convincing, though, and a lot of it reminded me of the television shows. They had a lot of old Victoriana and some convincing displays of various Sherlockian characters from the stories. The fun part was “Dr. Watson” who was there and spoke with us for a while. He actually knows both Chuck AND Jerry and has visited both in the U.S.—it’s a really small world…

Me and Dr. Watson in Holmes’ study.

Since it was nearby, we also visited Madame Tussaud’s. It was expensive—£20 each—but was kinda fun. I can hardly remember my first visit here way back in ’84. It was almost uncanny how real some of the figures were. We had fun getting our pictures taken with all the different characters. Oh yeah—damn all the French: there was a display with President Bush and Tony Blair where you could stand a get your photo done. Some idiot French teenager thought he was so funny standing between them and giving each the finger…

Perhaps the closest I’ll ever get to the Royal Family…

…or two of history’s greatest generals.

I must admit that it was fairly exhausting. The fact that my left knee has quit functioning properly wasn’t much help, either. We had to stop back at the hotel for a bit and recharge some batteries in the cameras (not to mention my batteries), and then it was off for stop number “two”, the Tate Modern museum. It’s an incredible building, though I must say that I wasn’t too keen on most of the “art”. Don’t get me wrong—I really like much modern art (especially minimalist stuff like Mondrian and Rothko), but a lot of the stuff there was just plain weird. We had lunch at the cafe on the top floor with spectacular views over the city.

Tate Modern and the Millennium (or “Wobbly”) Bridge.

I then optimistically suggested we go do some shopping on Oxford Street. We did so, and by the time we finally got back to the hotel, I felt like a lame horse needing to be put down. I think that maybe I’ll have to see the doctor when I get back—or is this merely what I have to look forward to in my old age? Had a nice dinner at Pizza Express (hmmm…I detect an Italian theme…) and then in bed for a refreshing sleep (yes, I actually slept pretty much the entire night, so I’m getting over the jet lag quicker than I’d thought).

Right now, we’re on our way to Nottingham; more later…