Wet.

It is 10 a.m. on Friday morning and I'm here at Jeff's apartment. It is raining pretty hard out there right now so I'm going to wait a few before I head to the Prime Meridian in Greenwich to get the official time. Speaking of that Jeff said daylight savings time either ends this weekend or next. I hope it is this weekend because it will extend my stay in France by an hour. We are leaving tonight on the Eurostar train for the 2.5 hour trip to Paris. We have a hotel there for two nights and come back here on Sunday afternoon. I want to go to Normandy but Jeff doesn't want to do all the extra traveling (and paying) so we'll probably just stay in Paris. I'll get Normandy next time when I make my brother come with me. I'll just slip him a mickey before the plane takes off and before you know it we'll be in Paris. Maybe I'll do it next summer if Jeff stays here longer than 3 months.

I've been busy walking around London this week. The Underground is very easy to navigate but they have frequent signal problems that shut down various lines. On Tuesday I visited the Tower of London and got a great tour led by one of the Beefeaters and I told him to lay off the red meat because it's bad for his colon. After that I hit the Tower Bridge and the Monument. The 311 steps to the top of the Monument was good practice for the Sears Tower climb next month. Too bad the Sears is almost 7 times as tall. On Wednesday I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (actually the second half of it). It is an overrated experience. Too many people, the building isn't impressive, and the guards look just like the witches guards on The Wizard of Oz, which I found pretty amusing. No flying monkeys though. Next was "Big Ben kids, Parliament" and Westminster Abbey. Much more impressive buildings. After that I rode the London Eye and took a cruise on the Thames. Both were very enjoyable but expensive. Everything here is expensive. The cruise and glorified ferris wheel cost 23 lbs which is about $40. I could go to Six Flags for that price. Yesterday I went to the Wimbledon Tennis museum and had lunch at their cafe. It was a nice museum but small. It was raining and Centre Court was under construction so I skipped the tour. My feet were hurting pretty good by then so I headed to the cinema near Jeff's place and saw The Departed for the cut rate matinee price of 6.5 lbs or about $12. Good thing it was an excellent movie. Well, it looks like the rain has eased so I'm heading out. The good thing about the rain here is that it keeps the humidity up unlike back home where the dry fall/winter air makes my skin crack and itch. Take care.