My Final Days In London

On Wednesday I met Ashley at her hotel and we took the tube to the City, or the Square Mile district. This is an area of London located near the Tower Bridge and the Thames, and is almost exclusively known for business and banking. Along the way, we walked past the Bank of England and Lloyd's. We grabbed lunch at at Leadenhall Market, which is essentially a bustling food court with stalls and restaurants. Most of the people eating there worked at the surrounding banks, and were dressed up in suits and ties.

We found a Mexican place similar to Chipotle and it was a nice change from paninis and pasta. After eating we walked a short distance to the 1666 monument. This is a massive ionic column dedicated in remembrance of the Great Fire of London  and you could walk up inside it.

From there we walked to the Tower of London; we didn't go inside but sat by the Thames and got a good view of the London Bridge. I had ridden several of London's double decker buses already but they were all of the newer variety and so we boarded old bus no. 15 towards Oxford Street. This was one of the few routes that are still serviced by the old-style buses and it was definitely a cool experience.

We went stopped in at a department store called House of Frazier and then visited a massive toy superstore called Hamley's. They were 5 floors containing every single type of toy imaginable, with model trains, legos, remote controlled helicopters, Lord of the Rings memorabilia and much more. It was much nicer than Toys R Us, that's for sure.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at Regent's park, though in a different part of Queen Anne's Gardens. This area was even prettier than the part I first visited and I felt like it was a perfect end to a great day.


Ashley and her family left the next day for Germany, and I spent the greater part of the morning catching up on journaling and updating my blog. I then took the tube to Victoria Station in order to purchase an advance train ticket to Gatwick Airport. From there, I went back to the Imperial War Museum. Ashley and I had spent several hours there when we visited before, but even so there were a great many exhibits that I was not able to walk through and so I spent several more hours looking at the espionage and Holocaust Memorial sections (which in my mind it was even better the the Holocaust museum in D.C.)


Around 3 o'clock, I took the tube to a McDonald's by the Tottenham Court Road stop, where I spent a good while catching up on a mountain of emails.


From there I walked a short distance to the British Museum. Yes, I had already visited this museum once before too, but there were so many awesome displays it was impossible to see everything in one visit. Upon reflection, I think that this museum may have been one of my favorites. It reminded me a little bit of the movie, Night At The Museum, and the artifacts contained there were some of the coolest I have ever seen (the Rosetta stone, ancient jade buddhas, Egyptian mummies - you get the idea).


That night I finished Robinson Crusoe and started Little Women.