Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Ok, so here's the next installment of my London Saga. Thursday dawned bright. Actually, no, it was cold and rainy, but that's ok. Peggy and I decided to go to St. Paul's cathedral. That place was way cool. Unfortunately, before we could go up into the upper domes, the place shut down! We were able to talk them into giving us a pass for the next day so we could check out what I think turned out to be the best part. But we still enjoyed ourselves. We left St. Paul's in search of food. We found this charming restaurant called Centre Page, where we had a dish called the Tower of London. I wish we would have taken a picture of that! Anyways, we walked across the Millenium Bridge,here's Peggy in front of it-

We checked out the outside of the new Globe Theatre, and peeked inside the Tate Modern (which turned out to be not quite as bad as we imagined. We saw a bunch of Picasso's and some paintings that Peggy recognized, so not a total waste). We walked over to the tube station (turned out to be a bit of a walk) and saw this cover-


Then we headed back toward Mom's for a tour of the Victoria and Albert museum. Holy cow! That museum is crazy! Way too much to see. Kind of like the Smithsonian. No way anyone could possibly see everything in one day, or one week, or even one month. We picked a few things, and learned about them in depth.
Here's the front of the V&A-

Me, trying on a hoop skirt. It is heavier than it looks!

Me, with a corset.

Sherlock Holmes, I presume?


We waited on dinner for Mom, and ended up going to a restaurant down at Piccadilly Square. Very cool. Peggy popped into a souvenir shop and got a bunch of things for her family. Then we headed home and finished up the night watching Singles Ward II on my laptop in Mom's living room.
Friday, Peggy and I decided to finish up at St. Paul's and boy did we have fun walking up the 300-odd steps to as high as they let us (the upper gallery was closed for cleaning).



We enjoyed the view, and also the Whispering Gallery (which was my favorite part. We could whisper secrets to each other-I sang Mary Had a Little Lamb..). Then we went to the V&A for lunch, which was quite good, and we tried clotted cream for the first time. We met Mom, took a bus to watch a movie, had dinner in the "mall" at a place called Nando's, then rode the tube for the rest of the evening. We ended up at Paddington, so Peggy could get a Paddington Bear book. Then we went to King's Cross, where we went to Platform 9 3/4. Finally, after a full day, we headed back home.
Saturday morning was sunny but cool. Peggy and I amused ourselves at Harrod's, then we headed over to Mom's work.
Here's part of the view from Mom's window at work. This is what is called the "Mews". This row of houses used to be where the stables were and all the horses for the horse drawn carriages were kept. Now they are highly sought after housing. Pretty cute, I think!


Sister Taylor told Mom to head to the Airport, so the three of us rushed back to the flat, got Peggy's suitcases, and headed to the tube to the Airport. There was a bit of an accident on the tube; someone had thrown up in the car that we tried to ride in. Eventually, all the people on the train transferred to another one so they could get the mess cleaned up. We got Peggy checked in, then ate lunch at a bagel shop at the airport. We said our goodbyes, and Mom and I headed to Hyde Park for a walk around. We ate a scone with clotted cream and drank hot chocolate, then headed to the church. We decided we wanted to watch one last movie, so we went through the dinosaur exhibit (which was awesome!) at the Natural History museum. We made it early to the show, of course, and relaxed in the lounge area. After the movie, we went to a little Mexicali restaurant we spotted on the way, and headed back to the flat to finish packing. Whew! It was an exhausting day. I fell right asleep, woke up at about 4 am, and the cab was there before 5am. I got to the airport with plenty of time, and had a great plane ride back. I even got bumped up to Economy Plus with 5 extra inches of leg room, b/c my seat cushion kept sliding off my seat...

Anyways, that's about our London journey in a nutshell. If anyone wants to know any more details, let me know. I had a great time, and I think Mom enjoyed having two of her daughters to show off. :)