Just a few random thoughts

In no particular order, here are some of my thoughts after a few days here in London:

I love the tube! It is so well organized and the signing is fabulous. I do find that when things get busy, it's every man for himself and I need to be just as aggressive as everyone else when it comes to the scrambling. I tend to try to be polite and let someone go in front of me, and the next thing I know, 5 people have swarmed in. And sometimes I'm invisible. This morning an old woman sat on me in the Tube and she wasn't even aware of it.

I love the languages and the accents I hear all around me.  In the restaurants, walking down the street, in the Tube.  Everywhere.  Today I heard two people talking in a language I couldn't begin to identify. And the fashion. Some crazy stuff!

Tech talk: There are two iPhone apps that are awesome and I recommend you use when you're here. (And I plan to use in Paris, TZ.  You might want to check them out.) One is CityMapper. This one allows you to search for the best route and method for getting from Point A to Point B. Just put in your starting point (and you can even establish what your "home" is) and where you want to go, and it will tell you how long it would take to walk, take the Tube, or the bus AND which bus or metro line to use. The other part of is that you can search while you are connected to WiFi, save the information, and then call it up when you away from WiFi. And once your are on the street, you can call up the route map, find your current location with a blue dot, and walk to your destination. It uses the GPS ability within the phone but does not use data. I've had my data turned off since I got here, and this works perfectly. CityMapper is available for several cities including London and Paris. The other app that I've used is CityMaps2Go.  This is a map you can download before you come or when you are on WiFi and then use on the go without WiFi or data. It's great for just figuring out where you are which is always a problem when working from a paper map. I've only used these two apps for getting around since we arrived and have stopped carrying my map altogether.

Don't trust the weather forecast. It keeps changing every time we look at it, and thankfully, we've had better weather than the websites have predicted.

More later.