Help one another

I helped four different people today. One older woman ran and then jumped on to a train. I jumped up and gave her my seat, such a simple thing, but she was quite thankful. Later, a young guy near Tower Bridge was looking for London Bridge, I didn't even need my phone and I was able to help point him in the right direction. Which is similar to my third experience where a young woman was looking for a specific tube station. She was about 3 blocks away and it was easy to show her on my phone how to get there. In all three instances, I had my situational awareness hat on and I noticed people around me smile as I helped. I think it's in the air. Oh, the fourth person was actually two people. They were trying to take a selfie of Big Ben and the Eye, I asked if they'd like me to take it and again they were so thankful. I guess I've come a long way from being the lost boy with a strangle hold on my phone for help.

There was a lot of tube track maintenance today. I walked for an hour to get to the Tower of London. I arrived 3 minutes before a tour started by pure luck. The tour guide was great. He told many stories and had a great British sense of humor. I especially enjoyed the Crown Jewels and the White Tower. The tower has ancient weapons and gear used to protect the tower.

Entrance to Crown Jewels inside Tower of London

During my long walk, I touched the Monument for the first time. The monument marks where they think the tragic and devastating fire of 1666 started. It's similar to the Washington monument in that you can climb to the top and get a great view, but I didn't climb up today.

World book day? I saw one sign that talked about world book day and I think that's the event everyone is dressed up for! Let me google it...

I finished the day at Trafalgar Square with a free London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) concert. I was an hour early so I walked right up to the front row. I met the guy next to me, he had come down from Scotland just for the concert. Nice guy, retired and traveling after losing his wife to cancer 3 years ago.

As soon as the concert started the crowd chanted "sit down" because the whole front row was standing up. I sat down but most others didn't :( It caused quite a little tension. The tension sparked after the first song, a group of anti-Putin protestors jumped up waving Ukraine flags and booing the Russian soloist :( Security handled it quickly and the crowd cheered as the protestors were literally dragged off. I was about 5 feet from them and on high alert. My quick observation was that they weren't violent and I was lucky to be right.

Romeo and Juliet was the closing piece and it was captivating. Most of the front row had sat down and peace had been restored. I loved it.

What a series of fleeting moments.