Day 2 Friday 15th May 2009 Our First Day in England

Day 2. Friday 15th May 2009 Our First Day in London.
We awoke around 7am to a rainy day. While Fay prepared herself to meet the world outside I sat at my computer to catch up with this diary. My desk over looked a three track commuter railway; many people laden trains passed sometimes at the rate of five a minute. They glided silently past thanks to our rooms double glazed windows. After a hearty breakfast we left the hotel to explore London. The rain had stopped; the day was brighter although cloudy. We headed in the general direction of the river Thames which was nearby. Soon we discovered a sign which read “Tower of London” I scanned the horizon for the tower but could not see one. 100 meters on we discovered a large castle. I then found a small tower like structure with a green spire. This I thought was the tower of London; I was disappointed at its size. The castle was a big attraction with many people lining up to view the interior. I later discovered that this castle was the Tower of London. Whilst walking around the perimeter castle we discovered a French patisserie with lovely fresh looking food. I fancied a bread roll filled with chicken, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise; it was priced at £4,50. I would have bought it if I had not converted the price back to $NZ12.85. People would need high salaries to live here. I am going to have to leave my calculator back at the hotel! Wandering on by the river Thames we came to a wharf. I asked a longhaired Englishman about his big Bull Mastiff dog. On finding out that we did not come from America as he thought (heaven forbid) but NZ we could not stop him talking. Firstly he said NZ was not doing enough to stop the Japanese from killing off all the whales in the ocean and told me what we should be doing about it. Then he shifted to how young English people did not like the French, (his say so) and finally he said we should take a tour boat ride. After about a half an hour we took the boat mainly to take our leave of him. His advice was right; we had a comfortable and very interesting ride; I took many photos. About a ¼hour boat travel beyond Greenwich we passed through the largest moving dam in the world. It is called the Thames barrier. It is a series of iron or concrete structures embedded in the river bed. Each structure has two large wheels one on each side about 6metres in diameter (my guess) to which is attached an iron or reinforced concrete plate between two wheels for the full diameter of the wheel. When the dam is open for ships to pass through the plate rests on the river bed; when it is closed the wheel turns so that the plate is perpendicular thus damming the river. Our riverboat guide said the dam had saved the city of London from flooding 142 times since it was built. The dam is closed when the spring tides occur; the tide can rise as much as 9meters. Our highest tides in Auckland reach 3.6 meters under normal atmospheric pressures. We then cruised back up the river to Westminster just short of the Parliament buildings. We passed under Tower Bridge, saw it open to let a large sailing vessel through, London Bridge and about ten other bridges. We returned to where we had boarded the boat and went ashore by St Katherine Lock. I was curious and went to explore the lock. I was amazed at what we found. Hidden behind tall buildings was an inner-city marina surrounded by many tall apartment buildings, shops and restaurants. There were many colourful flowers in the gardens; the boats were small to very large ocean going launches, yachts and sailing ships. The water was blue (not like the muddy river) and at permanent high tide; the boats travelled via the lock to the river. Fay was feeling cold so we went into a shop for a warm-up. It turned out to be a men and woman’s clothes store. Fay bought a stylish and warm jacket; she was happy to be warm again. Dinner and bed; a good day ended.
To be fair I did find a filled roll for ½ the price of the one above, although it was not of the same quality,