On The Kerb

Our friends Al and Nancy are in town, staying with us for two nights before heading back to Vancouver after a lovely two-week trip touring around Rome, Venice, and Paris. The three of us met Bob at London Bridge station after school and since we all needed coffee, we took them to nearby Monmouth for a nice cup--actually, they took us, since they spent their freshly withdrawn £ to buy a round of coffee for four. As is typical of Monmouth on sunny afternoons, seating was a bit tight, but we enjoyed our coffee on the curb (spelled kerb here) in front of the shop

before heading to London's sole remaining galleried coaching inn for another round of drinks. Although I would usually show you what the pub looks like at this point, the website photo should do the trick; I'd rather share this photo of Bob and Al enjoying the sunny afternoon in the George Inn courtyard:
We continued our pattern of sitting outdoors, this time eating sandwiches at the base of Millennium Bridge, in front of Tate Modern. Nancy and Al lucked out, with the scheduled tube strike cancelled at the last minute, hot September weather, and not a raindrop in sight:
After going up to the top of Tate Modern so our guests could take in the view, we walked across Millennium Bridge
and wandered through Covent Garden, where we came across this lovely church:
St. Paul's Church, built in 1633, is known as the actors' church because of its association with the theatre community. The pretty garden and church both glowed in the early evening light, and it was a perfect evening for wandering around, which we certainly did, covering Covent Garden, Soho, and some of Oxford Street before settling into a pub dinner. We eventually made our way back to our place to set up Al and Nancy's "bedroom" (i.e. an air mattress in our living room) before turning in at a reasonable hour so that we'd all have enough energy for tomorrow's sightseeing!