One short Day... and a Half

So Wednesday we took a taxi over to the National Gallery for it's 9:30 opening. We followed Rick Steves' advice and made our way chronologically through the exhibits. It is a very nice art museum and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. One thing that made it more meaningful was that we have all read Looking At Pictures over the last few months so in many of the galleries we were able to view and discuss specific paintings.

After that we went around the corner and found the University of Notre Dame London campus. They have summer and graduate programs there. Nice building (used to be a Cambridge/Oxford club of some sort).

Then we got in another cab and headed to Harrods. Yah, it is big and yah they have almost everything. Really it is beyond huge. We were hungry so we munched on a few baked products on the steps outside the Food Hall before heading back into the fray. C bought a bear for 75p and promptly named it Harrod.

Another cab back to the Inn. Rest time. Then we attempted the British Museum. OK Harrods is huge but this place is ginormous. Have any of you been in it? It defines overwhelming. Sensory overload-a-matic.

We did look at the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles (parts of the Parthenon) and a bunch of really cool Assyrian carved wall panels from way, way back.

Other than that we kinda did the dazed and confused wandering thing that sometimes happens when you are tired and it is hot and there are thousands of people and millions of Greek pots and Egyptian mummies and relics of one sort or another in all directions.

At least we can say we've been there.

Food here has been working out pretty well. The Inn we are staying in allows us to use their dining room and dishes, etc. so we've mostly been eating a big breakfast here and snacking when we get hungry, then eating a late lunch and a light dinner. Dinner has mostly come from the Tesco Express or the Sainsbury's down the road a bit. Makes it easier on all of us not to have to negotiate a restaurant and I think we've been able to eat more healthily this way. Plus with the heat we just don't want a big hot cooked meal. So we do ciabatta bread and cheese, hummous, salads, fruit, yogurt, that sort of thing. And always dessert. (Oh, we did get 3 large pizzas from Pizza Hut once. Yummy.)

So today we slept in and headed out a bit later than usual to view the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It worked out pretty well, a lot of horses and Men in Red, and bands playing and Men Shouting and Tourists Running Around and such. We staked out our spot on the Queen Victoria Memorial.

A lot of photos were taken. E said it was boring.

After all the hoopla was over (well, a wee bit before it was all over since we were getting kinda hot and itchy) we walked through St. James Park to Westminster Abbey. The line to get in wasn't very long which was nice. OK so basically this building is a gigantic tomb. As my father-in-law put it so aptly, way too many dead kings and queens. I think after visiting so many cathedrals and churches that are actually places of worship and some sort of community/church life, it was a little odd to visit this place. But as we explained to the kids, at least now we can say we've been there (well, I've now been there twice). Cultural capital and all.

Another taxi ride home. We are getting quite good at the taxi thing. It's really the easiest way to get around with 5 of us and since most of our rides are within a fairly small area it's not too expensive.

After a rest we headed out again... I won't go into details, suffice to say we THOUGHT we were going to redeem our voucher for a cruise (see previous post about broken down catamaran) but that was not to be. Instead we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and sat in on the evensong service. (I know, kind of a misnomer, but it made sense to us at the time.)

This Cathedral I think is the most beautiful building (inside) that I've ever seen. It's just stunning. I totally liked it.

Tomorrow, if all goes as planned (which as we know doesn't always happen), we will visit the Tower of London and take a boat cruise to Greenwich to see what we can see. (See above mention of aforementioned broken down catamaran and voucher that still isn't redeemed.)

So now to the title of this post... one short day and half and then Saturday mid-day we get on a plane and head back home... that place that there is no place like. Home, that is.