(Post) Birthday Treat

Alex's birthday was earlier this week, but he didn't really want a party this year, so we decided to do some stuff together uptown. I suggested lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which seemed like a fun thing. I've never been to one, nor, of course, has Alex.  Here we are - the lines can be notoriously long (you can't book) but we got there around 12 and there was no queue at all - perhaps because it was February and cold...

The walls are covered in memorabilia, which was great fun to look around. And of course, there was good music playing (and videos).  The food was nice, too - solid American type cuisine, but well done. 

We had some chicken wings - spicy, but nice and then he had a burger (no photo)

while I had a pulled pork sandwich and the World's Largest Onion Rings.

There was Oreo Cheesecake for dessert (his, though I ate a few bites).

We had a good look around at all the rock memorabilia both where we were sitting and in the Vault - the little museum area below where the shop is.  They have a truly huge collection of stuff - guitars, outfits, other instruments, and all kinds of other bits and pieces - good fun for the rock fan.

This amused me - that Jon Anderson from Yes had donated a harp. Only Yes...

We were sitting right next to a display of Who stuff, so I got to see it all up close and personal.

This is downstairs in the Vault.

After the Hard Rock Cafe, we caught a bus up to Oxford Street, as we wanted to go to the big HMV shop. We had tickets to the London Dungeon later, but not until 4pm, so we had some time to kill. We were very full from lunch, too, so we needed a bit of a walk.   This seagull amused me - on top of a flag pole at Marble Arch...

Once in Oxford Street, Alex spotted a giant panda and of course had to go have his photo taken with it - there's still a fair amount of small boy in my little pre-teen...

Of course, there was at least one crane, though I had a hard time getting a photo of anything else with the crane until a bit later...

After Oxford Street (and a walk down the top of Regent Street, where we ran into our neighbours, also out for a day in town), we walked over past Liberty (I didn't drag him inside)

...and into Carnaby Street, which is always fun to walk through. 

(Carnaby Street selfie in progress - when asked if he was going to SnapChat it, I was promptly corrected - it was going on Instagram later. Excuse me!)

We then walked through Soho

And found a crane!

And down into Trafalgar Square - well, around the edge of it, then down past Charing Cross

 and over the bridge to the South Bank

...where we went to the Dungeons (no photos allowed inside past the entrance queue where I took this charming one - and anyway, it would have been too dark). 

Once we were done there, it was beginning to get dark, and the London Eye was all lit up - lovely!