London Report 7 – Fin

Well, yesterday was both fun and strange. We got on the bus as planned after I finished the last post, but it didn't take us to Westminster as I'd thought, but to Waterloo Station (across the Thames from Westminster Abbey / Parliament / Big Ben). No problem, we just hopped the tube from the station and got out. Had a nice time walking around Parliament, to small park along the river next to it, passing by an old tower (Jewel Tower) that we didn't even know was there, then walked around Westminster Abbey and then on towards Victoria Station (catching another bus on the way). We walked around for a bit in our 'old stomping grounds', which was pretty fun as the memories had started to fade a bit. Plus the area has changed a lot (new buildings, and some old ones torn down).

After that, we took the tube to the Chancery Lane stop to try and walk down to Ye Olde Meter, a pub that was closed earlier in the week. We arrive down the little alley to the cute old building, and guess what? For a second time the pub was closed, this time, for the entire bank holiday weekend (re-opening the day after we leave). Figures. This means the pub was only open for 2 days during our trip. Urgh.

What was more odd was how virtually everything in the area was closed down. We'd noticed the big shopping areas (Oxford Street, and the areas around Piccadilly Circus) were packed with Saturday shoppers. The area a bit east however was a virtual ghost town. We did however find a couple pubs to check out, another from our list (after quite a bit of walking around) was the Olde Cheshire Cheese, which was really cute and very old (it says rebuilt after the great fire of 1666) and has been on the spot through 15 monarchs. Pretty neat spot. It was another Samuel Smith's pub, so all it had were their beers, but I had the excellent Extra Stout again. 🙂

After that we walked and walked, hitting another couple pubs on Fleet Street (one was the Tipperary, the first Irish pub in England, established in the early 1700's) and another spot, The George, where we watched a bit of a Rugby match. After that we walked and walked some more, through the Covent Garden area, and then through Soho, stopping at a few pubs along the way. Eventually we caught another bus towards home and had dinner at a pub around the corner from the hotel called the Allsop Arms, before ending our night at The Globe.

Today we got up, got some coffee and breakfast at the Costa Coffee near our hotel before going and doing some shopping near Piccadilly (along Regents Street), including a visit to the fantastic 5-story toy store Hamleys. After picking out a couple things we headed back to our hotel to drop things off, come to the internet cafe, and check in online with our airline. We've got all that done now, boarding passes and all, and tomorrow we fly home. We're going to go walk up to Abbey Road now though, see the famous spot where the beatles recorded (and walked across the street). And then hang out somewhere for our final evening, get up, finish packing, take the tube to Heathrow and fly home. Probably won't write between now and then, so see you all later. Wish us luck!