Day 14 - Greetings from London!

Hi all - it feels really good to be back in a country where you can understand what people are saying! We left Split this morning and arrived in the London Gatwick station. Last night was crazy in Split - the Croatian soccer team won their game against Austria, so the Croats went nuts. Nevermind that it was pouring rain and most of the sports bars are outdoors - they were jam packed full of fans in their red and white checkered shirts (what Michael and I have affectionately named their "Round Table Pizza outfits"). So we had our slice of Pizza and Beer and watched the game (our gourmet dining is winding down, along with our money!) It was a mellow sight seeing day for us since the rain was pretty much coming down in buckets. Lucky for us, our apartment was just a few minute walk from the main promenade - the Riva - which is right in front of the Diocletian palace. We did get some domestic chores out of the way. Our apartment was equiped with a washer, so we did laundry and dried it the old fashioned way - hanging on an indoor drying rack. Kind of a pain, but we can't really complain since it was free (or included in the apartment cost, if you really want to get knit picky on the costs). What we found though was that Split was a total deal compared to Dubrovnik. I know I may have mentioned that before, but we were adding things up and couldn't believe what a big difference there was! We probably paid the most for a little bottle of water in Dubrovnik - $22 Kuna, which translates to almost $5 US dollars!!!! That's our bad for not looking at the drink menu before ordering.

Oh - did I mention that Croatia has a ton of cats in its neighborhoods? We saw the cutest little kitties in Dubrovnik, and some cute, though mangy cats in Split. I thought that was interesting. We also saw that they had a movie about a couple of cats and their adventures in Split and thought about how Oliver would probably enjoy it.

Anyway, let me update you about our hotel room situation. We learned from our first stay in London that we would probably have to chip up a little more to get some floor space, so for £5 more, we managed to find a LUXURIOUS ROOM(for London standards that is) in a nice part of town right next to St. Paul's cathedral! Not only that, but they have free internet access too - what a deal! Its pretty close to some key sights, so we are on our way to a historic pub before we head out to the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Toodles for now!