Day 8: Return

On Saturday morning, we took the Tube to Westminster Abbey. We were there before it opened, so we walked around on the grounds a bit.

Here is the impressive exterior:

We noticed during our trip that there were precious few garbage cans around. In fact, one of the reasons we decided we couldn't get take-out (take-away) coffee from any of the shops is that it was extremely difficult to find a place to dispose of the empty cup! I say this as a prelude to the next pictures, where people lined their garbage up along the wall of this national treasure:After waiting a while, we decided that we didn't want to go in and would rather wander around London. Rose had visited the inside on her trip the previous year, and we had gone to a concert there the previous Sunday. It would have been very crowded and we wanted the memories of our last day in London to be more pleasant.

As we started walking, we saw Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell and not the clock):

The fact that drivers in Great Britain drive on the other side of the road did not affect us too much as we were not driving. However, it was very nice that the city paints reminders at crossings.

Off we went, once again, to St. Martin-in-the-Fields and its restaurant in the crypt, for coffee and snacks:We started doing the Whitehall Walk, outlined in our guidebook, since it started where we were at Trafalgar Square and passed some interesting things we'd like to see.

Unfortunately it started raining, sometimes quite heavily. Also, it was the day for the Lord Mayor's Show, which was interesting to see, but meant that many of the attractions along the way were closed.

People waiting for the parade:
I tried to get a photo of a double-decker bus, like the one we'd been on the previous day, but was not quick enough. You can just see the end in the far left of the picture:

We passed a building that had famous Londoners on its side. I took this one because my dad is such a huge Gilbert and Sullivan fan. I no longer remember what church this was, but it was probably closed. Also, you can see all of the people waiting for the parade. We did catch part of the parade, but I didn't get any pictures. Then it started raining harder, and we didn't stick around!Another church, I believe it's St. Bride's, but my photo cuts off its most defining feature: the steeple. We toured the inside and bought sandwiches from the people there.

Outside St. Bride's, Brian experimented with the camera to take a picture of tiny sprouts:

I had really hoped to be able to visit Temple Church, built in medieval times by the Templars. Our guidebook noted that it had mysterious hours, but indicated that it should be open during the time we were there. Unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case, so all I could get was a picture of the outside, which turned out rather dark:I think Brian might be sad that the trip is coming to an end:We hopped on the Tube, avoiding the worst of the rain, and got back to our apartment. We had packed most of our stuff before we left for the day, but had hoped to grab up some snacks we had left behind.

Unfortunately, the cleaning person was already there, so we grabbed our bags and headed downstairs to the pub that's on the ground floor of the apartment. We ate lunch; luckily we weren't in any hurry since it took about an hour to get our food, and they apparently didn't hear Brian's order. But the cider was delicious!

We got back on the Tube and made it to Heathrow Airport in plenty of time. We ate a little more there, and soon we were on the plane back home.

As always, we had a wonderful trip and can't wait until we take our next one!