Walking walking and more walking

Slept in a bit yesterday. Woke up around 10 and met the kids for breakfast at this french street cafe. The service was horrible and the food was weird. Kids had slimy salmon and I had grilled cheese with egg on it which was cut into 4 triangles pieces as if I was a toddler. Bizarre. Half way through our breakfast the rain started. Fortunately we were under a covered awning.  From there we went our separate ways. Jeff and I hopped on the tube to the Victoria and Albert museum. Jeff of course wanted to go straight to the photography section which was quite nice. We saw one of his photos (my favorite actually) in the show. That made him happy/proud. From there we went to the paintings exhibit. My favorite. There were some very impressive pieces. After several hours we were all museumed out. By this time the rain had subsided and we headed out by foot to Harrods. One word to describe Harrods - Amazing! To call this place a large department store really doesn't give it justice. We were both impressed by the Egyptian escalators, the open food forum, the Ferrari's and the vastness of the place. We ate lunch at a charmless restaurant on the 5th floor but the food was good. We then perused the food forum area where were checked out all kinds of meats, fresh fish, cheeses and ate some yummy chocolates. From Harrods it was off to our first walking tour courtesy of our London Access book. We headed off to Westminster and saw Buckingham Palace (pictured above) and Prince Charles's house. It was really fun watching the guards parade back and fourth and at Prince Charles's residence Jeff spoke to one of them and they of course didn't budge. From there it was a walk by Hyde Park past several interesting monuments. Then we took a walk through St. James Place (the name automatically made me think of monopoly) where we saw the square, some very pretty government buildings, churches and some super posh gentleman's clubs. By this time our dogs were barking and I needed a rest so we headed into a pub for a pint and some chips. From the time we left the kids till the pint it was six and a half hours of walking and touring around. The pint and chips revived us and we were able to make it back to the hotel. We rested and showered briefly and headed out to an Indian place for dinner which Jeff found in the book. The service was something unlike anything I have ever seen. To call the wait staff Rude would the the understatement of the century. We both agreed the food was really good but by the time the meal was over it was so uncomfortable that I just wanted to take my purse and run out of there. Jeff said never again.