[Thursday] We did go to the Mall and so did everyone else. How hard can it be to find a tea kettle in London? Many devices to make coffee but most department stores had no kettles at all; the ones they did have didn’t come close to the one we had destroyed. Astonishingly, I was excited to see an Ikea, but it turned out to be a store-front “Order and Collect” outlet with computer terminals and almost nothing else. We still couldn’t find it on-line to order and didn’t want to come back in two days to collect anyway.

The weather outside is chilly and damp (what did you expect?) and dark (about 10 degrees further north than Minneapolis.) The temperature inside is chilly. We didn’t bring enough layers for sleeping. When the British say serve beer at room temperature, they don’t mean 72° (or I should say 22°.)

Doré is being a trooper but we are doing a lot of walking, which is exhausting. Most of the tube station have many steps, a few have escalators (which are terrifying,) and occasionally an elevator, I mean lift. The natives are a little confusing. We have never had to stand on a bus or train, no matter how crowded, but on the sidewalks, store aisles, and tube hallways, we are consistently cut-off and jostled. And there seems to be no consensus on rather to walk on the right or left. I expected more structure. Where do they think they are? Australia?

Tomorrow, back to be tourists.