The downside of a day in London

Now how much fun can it really be in London when there are 50 years separating the three people travelling together.

It is not like we are running one of the professional walking tours -- we have to stop and figure out where we are and how far it is to the next tube or statue or even Tesco.

"Duncan, just give me one smile and then we will get that Italian ice-cream

I have my paper map.

Rebecca has her electronic map.

And Duncan just has the urge to keep going forward.

No stopping.

Just drive ahead and get this over with.

We had all begun with an initial fear of getting separated from one another.

Duncan and I are vulnerable, having lost each other in Covent Garden. 

... Duncan and the Gherkin ...

Rebecca, Duncan and I  had a practise with cell phones before we left the house, Duncan calling and Rebecca picking up the phone.

We are not the only ones who should have been practising.

In the market Rebecca saw the following.

"You and Dad are going here without us next week?"

There was a dark man walking down the market lane, a little girl high on his shoulders.

Rebecca heard the man say to the little girl, “Your mother is going to be very sad. She will be crying and crying and looking for you. She is sad you are lost. I will help you find her. What is your mummy’s name.”

The little girl said, “Mummy”.

No said the man, what is your mother’s name.

“Mummy.”

He gave up his original strategy of finding out the mom's name and began to stop some of the black women in the market and ask if they knew whose little girl this was.

 ...21 Lime Street ..

There is an unusual archeological dig close to the Thames -- at 21 Lime Street. Rebecca and I were bending down low, looking through the cracks in the fence.
The site is reminiscent of the digs I was seeing in Rome last year. Duncan was more interested in swinging on the entry gate to the Leaden Market.

Hard to blame him. That looked like a lot of fun to me as well.

Arta