Despite the rainy weather, Yiota and I ventured into London for a Friday of sight seeing.  We had decided to just walk around the city to see the sights and save all the tours, museums, etc. until the weather gets colder.  Even though I had seen all of the places we had on our itinerary at least once before, I really enjoyed seeing everything again (and taking some photos for you).  We began our day a little later than planned because someone slept through her alarm--I won't mention any names, but I will say it was not me!  We made our way into London on the Tube which was a lovely ride until about 20 minutes into it when a group of loud school children got on and disrupted our peaceful dozing.  We were able to lose the field trip at Baker Street when we switched to the Circle Line (whew) to reach our final destination of the Tower Hill Station.  Once above ground in the gray drizzle we saw the Tower of London and crossed the Tower Bridge to the southern side of the River Thames.  By that time it had begun to really rain and we found ourselves unknowingly entering Borough Market.  If you remember from last week's London trip, we made a stop there to check it out then.  Well, what I didn't mention last week was that when we arrived at the Market we were all getting very hungry and cranky--and that is exactly what happened again this Friday!  We made our escape from the Market and continued our walk along the River Thames and happened upon a Greek restuarant just in time.  Yiota is from the Greek part of Cyprus, speaks Greek, and lit up when we she saw the Greek food!  So, into The Real Greek Souvlaki & Bar we went for some incredibly tasty chicken souvlaki and chips (french fries) while the rain continued to fall heavily from the sky outside.  After waiting out the heavy rain, we ventured back out and saw the London Bridge (which, as you can see from my photos, is just a plain, boring bridge) and the Globe theater.  The rain then let up as the wind picked up and we began our walk across the Millennium Bridge singing Natasha Bedingfield's song "Unwritten" (Feel the rain on your skin. . .).  The Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that spans the River Thames from the Tate Modern Museum almost to St. Paul's Cathedral.  We then checked out St. Paul's before hopping back on the Tube to St. James's Park Station.  Emerging above ground, we walked through a bit more rain to Buckingham Palace.  Both other times I have seen Buckingham Palace were on sunny days so the guards were in their regular "red coats."  I didn't know that on rainy days they wear gray raincoats instead, but apparently they do!  We then wandered over to see Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye.  As you can see, by the time we made it back to the river the sky was a brilliant blue instead of dull and gray.  It was then back to the Tube for us to return to Uxbridge.  This week's return trip was much more pleasant than last Friday when we were packed in like sardines.  Yiota was so happy to get back to take off her soaking wet socks.  I think we may have to go shoe shopping to find her better shoes for the rainy weather!  Even with the rain and wind, we had a fun day of sight seeing.  We have a few more places on our list so there may be more photos next Friday--I could get used to this three day weekend feeling!