London Day 3

Jenn

For our final day in London, the most important thing we had to do was transfer our belongings and ourselves to the hotel where our tour will be starting tomorrow morning. We enjoyed another great breakfast with fellow B&Bers and then took a cab to the West End of London. We checked in just fine and headed out for our final afternoon/evening. I ended up doing the London Eye on my own as mom was a bit worried about her back and having to stand in line and then sit with no back support for 45-60 minutes. This huge wheel was built as a gift for the millennium and was such a huge hit they made it a permanent part of the London skyline. Today it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. The views from this highest point in London are incredible. It was great to do this on the last day because then the landscape made sense to me and I actually knew what I was looking at/for!

Next we traveled to St. Paul’s Cathedral where mom wandered around and enjoyed the history and architecture. I let her know that an Evensong Service was being held that evening and so we decided to kill some time and wait to experience it. The entire service, which was focused on two Psalms, was sung by the choir, half of which were young boys. They were incredible and to hear such angelic voices in this beautiful location was just spectacular. I think we were both happy we stayed for the event.

Our final stop for the trip was a visit to Knightsbridge and Harrods. Mom went from excited to awed to overwhelmed in a short period of time! We enjoyed a nice dinner in Harrod’s Café, complete with scones and clotted cream for mom. She got a real sense of this place everyone raves about including the ugly bags that she says Bill would call duck crap green. I explained that they were as iconic as a blue Tiffany’s bag and she was shocked because she found them so ugly! A quick detour because our tube station was closed and we were back at the hotel to rest and prepare for the big day tomorrow-we cross the English Channel and head to Belgium.

Sue

Had a great breakfast, met one couple from Singapore. He is Australian and had been in the military there. There was a sister from Brazil living in Italy with her husband and kids. Her brother flew out from Brazil and they were vacationing together. There were two other women from Australia though not related. One was here for Red Cross training, getting ready to go to Afghanistan - very interesting conversation.

I haven’t mentioned the English breakfasts they serve. We have fresh fruit, eggs our way, bacon and sausage, toast and BEANS. I had never heard of that but they are actually like our baked beans out of a can. They are served on the side by the eggs J

We checked out of the B&B and got to the hotel to meet up with the Cosmos tour group. We then found the nearest Tube station (how silly of me, Jenn found it!) and I just blindly walk where she leads, bless her heart! We hit the London Eye first and Jenn had a great view of the whole city of London. I watched from below. Then we headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral. As you know, this is where Diana and Charles were married, the queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee and again, so much history. The beauty was unbelievable with mosaic ceilings and stained glass windows. The best part was the 5:00 Evening song service. This was a true service with prayers but they had the boys and men’s choir singing “a capella” during the whole service. It resonated throughout the whole cathedral and it was just angelic. It brought tears to my eyes and gave me chills.

After that, we headed to Harrods. I was again overwhelmed with how big it is – a whole city block with everything and anything you could want, including a fresh grocery dep’t. We hadn’t had dinner so we went to one of the 23 restaurants in the store. For dessert, I ordered scones with clotted milk and jam (I saw Samantha Brown do this in Cornwall, England so I just HAD to try it!). Clotted milk is like cream that looks like butter with no sugar. Do NOT eat it without jam! The combination though was quite yummy, thank you Samantha!

Now we’re back at the hotel without wireless service in our room so this won’t be posted for a bit. Who knows how the service will be tomorrow in Brussels? Talk to you then!