England – Last day in London

May 28

I stayed up too late the night before reading so I didn’t accompany Mike when he woke up at 5:00am and wanted to take more pictures. Actually, Mike hurt his back lifting before we left, and the travels and activity since we’ve been here hasn’t helped it. It bugs him in the night and mornings, so he gets up fairly early.  

When he returned from taking pictures, we went downstairs for breakfast again. We’ve had complimentary continental breakfast with our room all week. It’s good and plentiful, but eating the same cereal and yogurt every morning is getting a little tiresome. (Though, I could eat the fresh bread and cheese for every meal.) Since our room reservation changed when the conference ended, we weren’t sure if we’d still get breakfast. This morning, they told us we didn’t get free breakfast anymore. We were actually relieved because it justified us going out and eating a hot breakfast. But, it was Saturday morning and nothing was open very early, not even coffee shops.  

We hopped a Tube to Kings Cross so I could see the Harry Potter exhibit at Platform 9 3/4. First, we had to find breakfast, so we wandered around that station exit for some time until we found Speedy’s Cafe. Mike had a traditional English breakfast, and I had a vegetarian version. It was a lot of food. Then, we found the Harry Potter exhibit. I wasn’t the only adult to get my picture taken.  

We boarded the Tube again to Leicester Square, where we walked to Trafalgar Square. Dang-the National Museum and National Portrait Museum didn’t open until 10:00am, and we were there around 9:15am. We aren’t ones to wait so we headed south. We noticed something was going on at Buckingham Palace and tried to see what it was but they required tickets to get close. We later learned it was a dress rehearsal for Trooping the Colour to celebrate the Queen’s birthday (which is really in April but they celebrate it in June).  

We found ourselves walking by Parliament again, and we kept going across Westminister Bridge. We walked back to our hotel.  Another four hours of walking.  We spent time in the hotel and went swimming. Swimming felt great. That evening, we wandered around and had two light dinners, not being satisfied with the first. The second place was a gin bar, but it had wine and limited beer and an intimate feeling to the place. We liked it a lot.  

London was fantastic, and we’re excited to move on to northern England tomorrow.