Last Call for London

Today was Everyone Does Their Own Thing Day, which was pretty sorely needed- at least by me. You have to keep in mind that I come from a very small family, so the largest group I’ve ever tried to do something this complicated with is like six people. This is almost double that. It was definitely a needed stress-relief for us to go our own way for a day.Nathan and I took the opportunity to sleep in (another thing which was sorely needed), then grabbed a light breakfast and caught the tube over to Waterloo. From there we took my uncle’s suggestion and hopped on a Thames Clipper (a commuter boat) for a truly delightful (and brisk) cruise down the Thames.

(Can you believe the sunshine??)

What a wonderful way to see the city!

I was laughing because we started going really fast, and the wind felt good.)

Nathan got some awesome shots of the Tower Bridge (which, to be shamefully honest, I had thought was London Bridge, which had led to me singing under my breath, alternating between Fergie and the classic nursery rhyme). It was pretty awesome to look up at that and imagine back in the day when it was basically like a gigantic market way... (again keeping in mind my London Bride delusion)

(Tower Bridge, not London.)

(Note the way it did not fall as we passed beneath it.)

We road all the way down to Greenwich (pronounced “Grennitch”, for the uninitiated) where the National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory are both located. It was a lovely place- lots of green lawns and trees scattered about the university. We stopped in at the King’s Arms to have lunch (savory duck wraps, which were just okay) then humped it up the incredibly steep hill to the observatory. It was filled with amazing astronomical gear, and I wished we’d had more time, but we didn’t. What little time we did have we used to indulge ourselves by straddling the Prime Meridian before easing our way back down the hill and into the Maritime Museum.

(This is some sort of Super Power for sure...)

We only got to see a tiny fraction of it (specifically Nate wanted to see Nelson’s uniform: the one he died in, with the bullet hole), but part of what we saw was a gorgeous restoration of a WWI memorial stained glass dome.

(The original was destroyed in a terrorist attack in the 90's- they used what was left as a basis for rebuilding it)

We got back to London proper by riding the DLR (light rail) and the tube again (I could seriously get used to that kind of public transport. So convenient.) and then walked the few remaining blocks to the British Museum.

(Great Court of the British Museum)

Wow.

It. Was. Awesome. And we only managed to see a fraction of a fraction: the Rosetta Stone, an exhibition on money, some Greek and Roman statues, and a bunch of Egyptian mummies. While we were there we ran into Nathan’s dad, Don, who mentioned they had all agreed to meet up on the steps at closing. We were in the museum for maybe an hour before our bodies just gave out, so we headed outside to sit on the steps and wait for everyone else. Turned out Don and Barbara were already there, so we chatted about our individual days, and people-watched.

(Oh you know what this is. That's right.)

Speaking of people-watching, I have to say that I’ve never seen such a city for that activity! Especially for the sub-activity of fashion-watching. I've been taking such glee in the extremes I've seen here- from extremely attractive to extremely absurd... Really, London is such an international melting pot that anything you imagine you’ll probably see. I’ve heard as many people speaking German and French as I have English, and probably more “foreign” accents than British.

The whole of today was wonderful, but also exceptionally frustrating- I kept saying, “We just don’t have enough time here!” and it’s so true. I feel like you’d need a week just to begin addressing the British Museum alone, let alone all the other things we’d like to do. Not to mention everything we’re not even getting to glance at, since we’re leaving in the morning. ::sigh:: But Nathan promised that when we come back we can have a greater emphasis on museums…

Once everyone trickled out of the museum, we made the ill-advised decision to go as a group back to the hotel. Cue cat-herding. But we did all eventually make it (although not always on the same trains, which actually I thought was a good idea since it was rush hour, but when people got separated it wasn’t on purpose… whoops) and then headed out to find the Lebanese restaurant Nate and I had seen on one of our walks. We found it and it was delicious (pitas stuffed with chicken shawarma, hummus, garlic sauce, lettuce, and tomatoes), then walked back to the hotel- and managed to get separated again. Cats cats cats, I tell you.

Now Nate and I are going to read a little, and then head to bed early to try and squeeze in one last London adventure before we leave the city…