St. Paul's Cathedral and Wimbledon Tennis Club

On Thursday Dec. 22nd, we tried to get on the Internet in the morning in our room at the hotel and it was down. It had been wonky since the day we arrived. We had called the front desk several times about it and they did what they could. On this particular morning before leaving for the day Frankie mentioned to the hotel manager that it was out again. The manager apologized, said she would look into it, and gave us vouchers for a free full English breakfast at the hotel restaurant! SA-WEET! It was a 13 pound ($20) value for each of us and it was good!

Sausage, tomato, bacon (although it looked more like ham to us), mushrooms, eggs, juice and coffee!

That got us off our timeline for the day but it was worth it! After eating we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which we could see from the front door of our hotel.

It was beautiful, expensive and I couldn't take pictures inside. Boo! I don't like being told not to take pictures!  There was an audio guide including in the price of the ticket and it was interesting.  They had a short prayer every hour and they also offered communion at one point. We decided to climb the 530 stairs to go to the very top.

I took some pictures on the way up!  Take that no-pictures-people!

It was worth the climb.  It was beautiful! Frankie thought he was going to die but I was very proud of him for doing it and making it! We actually climbed much more than then quoted 530 steps because there were steps to get in the front door, there were steps to climb back up from the crypt and so on. Check out these views of London!

The London Eye from St. Paul's Cathedral

The financial district from St. Paul's Cathedral

Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Tate Modern Museum, and  Millennium Bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral

Once we were done with St. Paul's Cathedral we took a taxi, because Frankie wanted to, from there to the Tower of London. The cab driver told us about the Texas Legation. Before Texas became an official state of the United States they had an embassy in Washington DC, Paris, and London. How did we not know about this??  Born and raised Texans, how shameful! He gave us the address to where it was, but we never made it over there.  If you would like to see the plaque marking the spot, you can see it at the Texasfirsthand website.

When we got to London Tower we were told that the tour we wanted to go on would take almost 3 hours, but the place was going to close in about 2 hours.

As pretty as it looked we decided to go to Wimbledon Tennis Museum instead and come back to the Tower tomorrow. We got all the way to the Wimbledon Tube stop, then to the right bus stop and waited and waited and waited for the bus.  We were starting to get worried that would not have enough time to actually see the museum so we gave up and took a taxi to Wimbledon. Frankie was happy!

Frankie LOVED Wimbledon and he got to see Centre Court.  He grew up watching the Wimbledon championship matches and really likes tennis, playing all the way through high school and even coaching it for a few years recently.  I enjoyed going there too and I am not that into tennis.

This is Centre Court where the finals are played.  There were no lines painted because it was winter.

There was also no worn places in the grass either, they were growing it!

Check out the oldest racquet on the right!

Women's tennis outfits use to weigh almost 11 pounds!

So that is why!!

Rafael Nadal's Signature

Maria Sharapova's Signature

Pete Sampras' Signature

John McEnroe's signature

Frankie found some new friends!

They took me in too!  We are all going to Wimbledon together!

I am trying to bite the Champion plate like Nadal does....glass got in the way.

Frankie trying to kiss the Champion cup!

I found out when we were done visiting Wimbledon that I took almost 100 pictures while there for Frankie.  You are lucky I narrowed it down to the few I posted!  Afterwards, we ate some fish and chips before getting on the tube to come back to the hotel.

We could have had Pukka-Pies, but was not sure what it was!  We asked and the guy at the counter said it
was some kind of meat pie.  I think I will stick with fish and chips!  Especially because I wasn't not
sure if it was puke-a, puck-a, or pook-a pies and none of those words sound appetizing!

When we got back to the hotel we washed clothes in a European washer/dryer.  The hotel offered this service for free and it was our first experience with this type of washer/dryer combination. It took us a second or so to figure out which one was the washer (bottom) and which was the dryer (top). Frankie almost ripped the door off the dryer trying to open it when all we had to do was push that little orange button.

We found out after 4 days of being at the hotel that they offered free coffee drinks (lattes, cappuccinos, etc.) in the hotel lounge! That made me look forward to the next couple of days!  I hope you are looking forward to them as well!  Until then!