Saturday, October 29 is exactly 10 weeks from when we left home. It has been quite a trip with many highs and a few lows. Surprisingly it didn’t seem too long and we could have kept going. After we got to the airport I was ready to just be home. Our flights were uneventful and it was wonderful to sleep in my own bed. We had a fabulous time and I know it won’t be long until I start thinking about the next trip. Okay, I’m already thinking about the possibilities. It won’t be until 2024 because we have a grandson getting ready to make his debut in late March. That’s a big enough adventure for next year!

Friday, October 28 is our final day in London and our final day of the trip. We went back to the Victoria & Albert museum and saw some of what we missed a week ago, then we went to Westminster Abbey. Wow, the history there is hard to wrap my head around.

We finished the day with an Indian dinner around the corner from our apartment. We have had an incredible time on this trip, but all good things must come to an end.

Thursday October 27 we went to Hampton Court Palace. Like the Tower of London it was decorated for Halloween and they had special activities for kids, who are out of school for Half Term break. While the crowds at the Tower were big, things were more manageable at Hampton Court. I’m pretty sure it’s because Hampton Court is further away and not as easy to get to. HCP did not disappoint.

We went for some delicious fish & chips for dinner.

Wednesday, October 26 Wednesday was another jam packed day. We left the apartment at 7:45 to get to the Tower of London. They open at 9:00 and our tickets were for the earliest entry. Only 5 people got in before we did and we went directly to the Crown Jewels. Best decision of the day. By the time we got out of there the line was already forming and half an hour later there were at least a couple of hundred people in line for the rest of the day. The jewel displays are breathtaking. We ended up spending 6.5 hours at the Tower.

We walked from there to St. Dunstan, a church that was bombed during WWII.

We had never seen St. Paul’s Cathedral and it wasn’t too far so we checked it out too. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in.

We ended up back in Chinatown for an early dinner. We had tickets for a play, so we made our way to the Trafalger Square area, where we stopped at a pub across from the theatre for a drink. We saw Jersey Boys. Great music! We got home around 11:00

Tuesday, October 25 we went to the Churchill War Rooms in the morning. It has been interesting on this trip to see so many different aspects of the war efforts during WWII and how they all came together to defeat the Nazi’s.

We had a Westminster walking tour in the afternoon. It was somewhat disrupted because of hovering helicopters and news cameras, etc. The new Prime Minister was now official. The second one on our trip!

Monday, October 24 we took the took the train north to visit Nigel and Carol. I met Nigel on a travel forum many years ago. We were planning our trip to England in 2014 and I asked questions about the Cotswolds. Nigel grew up there and not only was he full of advice, he offered to come one day to show us around. They arrived on the Saturday morning, and by the afternoon they were already talking about returning the next day. They live about 1.5 hours away from where we were staying in Chipping Campden. They were so generous with their time and fun to be with. In 2018 I went to Paris after a visit to Germany and they came to see me there. In 2019 I was back in Germany with Uncle Jack and they came to see me there as well. I spent a day with them, and when we returned to the house where the family was staying we all had dinner together. Now it was our turn to go to them. Jim hadn’t seen them since 2014. They picked us up from the train station and they showed us around their beautiful area and we went on a short canal boat ride. We ended up at their house for tea/coffee and cake. Before we knew it the day had turned into evening and it was time to return to London. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with two very kind people.

Sunday, October 23 we went to Bletchley Park, where the code breakers were based during WWII. We became interested in going there after seeing the movie The Imitation Game. We were able to go into the rooms they used and learned a lot about how things were done in order to win the war.

After we returned to London and had some dinner we went back to the apartment to beat the incoming storm. The skies opened up and the rain was coming down fast. Then the thunder and lightning began and it was very close to us. I enjoyed it since we were safe and dry inside. After the storm ended I took this picture from our living room window.

Saturday, October 22 the forecast was for a dry day, so we took advantage of that. We started with the Portobello Market in Nodding Hill. We bought a little something for our unborn grandson. I can’t wait to meet him!

Then we went to the meeting point for our walking tour, titled In My Life and it included places with Beatles history. It helped make up for missing the Beatles sites in Liverpool.

After the tour we took the tube to Waterloo Station to walk around the Southbank area.

We continued on over the river, past the newly renovated Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben, past the Horse Parade grounds, through St. James Park and more. We saw multiple protests including people wanting to rejoin the EU, more support for Ukraine and a couple I wasn’t able to figure out. Possibly one was against Iran.

We ended up at Old Spitalfields Market and after walking through there, then walked to Brick Lane. We were told it was the place to go for Indian food. Was it ever! There were so many places to choose from. After a very tasty dinner it was time to make it back to our area. We really worked our way around different areas of London. It was a very long day using the tube trains, buses and we still managed to walk 10 miles.

Friday, October 21, a month after our anniversary and we finally celebrated it. We checked out of our hotel and had them hold our luggage since we couldn’t check into our apartment until 2:30. We walked to the apartment to check out the location, then walked to the Museum of Natural History. They hadn’t been open long and the place was swarming with kids. Really noisy kids. Why weren’t they in school? It’s Half Term? School break? Next week too? We will have to keep that in mind when choosing what to do. We stayed at the museum for awhile, but when we couldn’t take it anymore we left and walked a block to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Ah…so quiet. And so much to see. We will definitely need to return.

We stayed until we had to go back to our hotel to pick up the luggage and took it to the apartment. We then went to the store for supplies and unpacked. It was time to change for dinner. I had found a restaurant very close to the theatre where we would be finishing the evening and they had a special pre-theatre menu. Perfect. We had reservations and we enjoyed our 3 course dinners that included Prosecco. We ordered the same things except different desserts. Jim ordered beer and I got his Prosecco and mine.

Now for the highlight of our anniversary celebration, we went to the Victoria Palace Theatre to see Hamilton. We had excellent seats and the play was phenomenal!

It was a truly memorable day and even though it was a month delayed and not what we had originally planned it was very special.

Thursday, October 20 is the last day in France. I will miss it, but I look forward to seeing more of London. With rain in the forecast, there was nothing much to see since it was too late to book the tour bus to show us the sights, and we had to check out of the hotel (they stored our luggage) we strolled around the Westfield Mall that was next to the hotel. We had a light lunch, then went to pick up our luggage and walk the few minutes to the Lille Europe train station. The Eurostar whisked us away to London, where we chose to take an iconic London Taxi to our apartment. It was commute time and we didn’t wanted to have to be on a crowded tube train with our luggage. St. Pancras station is about 5 miles from the apartment and it cost less than our 2 mile taxi ride from our hotel near the Bordeaux airport to the airport to pick up our rental car there. We dropped our stuff off and went to a pub for dinner.