Day two-monday: first impressions and a full day on my feet!

We were both stiff upon awaking this morning, Jim saying that the bed was too soft but my thought was that it was carrying the heavy suitcases up and down all the stairs at the Tube.
It promised rain, and there was to be a 24 hr strike of the Tube workers at 5 PM today so we changed our itinerary. In the morning we went to the National Gallery and spent 3 hrs looking at great works of art. I noticed right away that I'm not used to being on my feet and sanding and walking on hard floors....but we saw several Cezannes, Monets, 1 Rembrandt, and 1 Vermeer
Lunch was at a Pret a Mange, a lovely shop with very nice, healthy food choices. I had a middle eastern salad and Jim had a tuna and egg salad. I've noticed that so far the food choices feature healthy food and we have been very pleased so far. It's not going to be hard to eat healthily.
Then off via the Tube to the British Library, where Jim was in heaven--as there was an exhibit of maps, quite extensive and nicely done. We spent an hour on that one exhibit. Then, on the upper floor, they have Treasures of the Library, and it was wonderful. Originals of the magna carta, Gutenberg bible, Alice in Wonderland, original musical scores from Beethoven to Handel, handwritten lyrics of a few Beatles songs, Audebon's bird folios, an early copy of Beowulf, and more. Spent a couple of hours.
To avoid the shut down on the tube, we took a taxi back to the hotel.
Went to a pub for a few 1/2 pints and stayed to eat fish and chips, with the ubiquitous peas. Quite nice and we felt very relaxed indeed. Jim had a Pim's (english style) and a Crabbie, which is an alcoholic Ginger beer. I stayed with ales and had and Admans and an Old Peculiar.
First impressions of London are that this is a eery multicultural city, and it seems large and typically city-like, but without the rushing, pushing energy oF New York. Not as dirty, no graffiti that I saw (though I did see a lot of graffiti yesterday from the train into the
city). If you had enough money, it would be a good city to live in, but it does seem that it would be very expensive to live here.
So the day is done and we're feeling very tired and content. A bit of Telly and then off to bed.

Day one. The trip

All travel should be dull, because the alternative is that it be exciting, a much less wished for alternative. Our trip, by that standard was dull, as nothing went wrong. Tiny airplane seats, poor sleep on the eight hour flight, long lines at customs, and a long, long trek to the hotel, involving a 36 pound cost for the express train from Heathrow to Paddington, where I purchased the first souvenier, a small Paddington bear for my granddaughter. Then the tube from Paddington, which involved many steps down and up with our two small and two large suitcases. The public transport does not lend itself to accommodating the handicapped traveler and we saw no one on crutches or in a wheelchair..they must all travel by taxi.
We arrived at our hotel around 2:30 pm local time, having left our home in NC almost 24 hrs previously.
The Morgan hotel is a tiny hotel with low ceilings, narrow stairways, and very small rooms. But it's clean, we get a full English breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, and toast), along with coffee or tea, juice, cereals, and yogurt. Lovely.
Supper was at a noodle shop called Wakamama, and it was great. I had saisen noodle soup with tofu, sprouts, mushrooms, pea pods, zucchini in a lovely broth. Jim had a curry noodle dish with prawns. He had a drink of apple juice and cucumber pulp---very odd, but ok.
Early to bed with several episodes of waking and deliberately deciding to sleep again.
All in all, glad to be here. They speak my language!!