Alright back to an update from Heather, though we are falling behind so if we can get the internet figured out Lyle may post tomorrow.

Monday we got up and the plan was to head to Westminster Abbey a church I really wanted to see, for some reason crypts, burial places and cemeteries are fascinating to me… It was pouring rain most of the morning and when we got to Westminster the line up was quite long. Lyle left the decision to me as to whether I actually wanted to see inside, I did but I was cold and wet and had no desire to continue standing in line. 

So, umbrella in hand we set of to find the Queen’s Gallery, the only art gallery we wanted to see in London. The current exhibit is Leonardo Da Vinci: Anatomist and it was absolutely fabulous. The only drawing that I had hoped to see but was not in the collection was the Vitruvian Man, apparently that piece was from a different study or commission. The exhibit came from one folio that Leonardo completed between the late 1400’s and 1510. It was a detailed and fascinating study of the human body done at a time when no one else was working on these ideas. He was centuries ahead of the human population in his thinking, indeed an inspired man in my opinion. Unfortunately the folio sat unpublished until 1900 when work on anatomy had already been advanced by many others. Had these pieces been published at the time of completion or shortly following his death he would have been the father of our understanding on anatomy. Both Lyle and I were fascinated by the exhibit and highly recommend it to anyone who may be in London in the near future.

On the note of recommendations we also recommend the London Pass, it was key to being able to see and do so many things, it was also nice to have that paid for ahead of time J

After we left the Gallery we headed to Harrod’s. I had never been, though I love shopping I am not the type to spend thousands of dollars on a dress or a pair of shoes. The store is massive, 6 floors taking up a few city blocks. I was a little overwhelmed at first, we came into the jewelry department… they had one set on sale for 2 million dollars… I nearly choked. So Lyle’s deal was that I had to buy something from Harrod’s. On the first floor I found a section in jewelry that sold charm bracelets, I had toyed with the idea that it might be nice to pick up a charm in each country and have a pretty bracelet of our honeymoon. They had some really nice charms and I liked the look of the bracelets. I took a brochure and we kept wandering. In the stationary department I found a nice leather pen and it also went on my list of items to contemplate. Wandering through the rest of the store little of the clothing appealed to me and the prices were insane in my opinion. We did find a pet store and the cheapest puppy for sale was 1500 pounds… um no! Anyhow long story shortened I ended up with a pretty silver bracelet and a charm to remind me of England… a silver big ben. It is very pretty and I am rather in love with it, and with my dear husband.

After Harrod’s we had to decide if we were going to see Wicked that evening, as we would need to find tickets. Lyle decided his heart wasn’t set on it so we decided not to go to the theatre that evening. Instead we headed off to find the John Snow pub, this place marks a breakthrough in Public Health knowledge and our ability to keep communities healthy through our understanding of water. I won’t give you the whole story but if you are interested Google John Snow. I got my picture taken with the famous water pump and after checking out the pub we decided against eating there. We found a little bistro around the corner that had wonderful food and we enjoyed a nice meal before calling it an early night.

Tuesday was our last full day in London and the plan was to try and finish all of the places on our list that we hadn’t yet seen, plus have afternoon tea and we had tickets for “The Wizard of Oz” that evening. We started out our morning by heading out to Notting Hill Gate and the Portobello Road market. Notting Hill is a quaint little area and the market, though not fully open during the week was a wonderful area full of antique shops. We found some really neat shops and it is probably a good thing we are only traveling with our backpacks because this helps to limit our purchases. We did end up purchasing two books published in 1783 which was a great find and a lovely addition to our book collection. We also found a locksmith, since Lyle has a love of keys and locks, and got ourselves a couple of interesting looking keys for free as a souvenir of London.

Leaving the market we headed to the Museum of Brands, which took a look at the history of commercialism and advertising from the Victorian era through the 1990’s. It was pretty neat and we had fun identifying earlier versions of products we still know and use. It wasn’t a very large museum but it was very neat.

The next item was afternoon tea, an experience I have wanted for a while… silly I know. The London Pass had an offer for 25% off your bill at a book and tea shop entitled Tea & Tattle, so we headed over there. The tea shop was in the basement and was very cute, and had beautiful hand painted wallpaper. Traditional tea consisted of: your choice of tea, sandwich, scone and cake. Lyle chose: chamomile; brie and grape on brow;, marmalade on his scone and lemon drizzle cake. I had: peppermint tea; cucumber, chive and cream cheese on white; raspberry and vanilla jam on my scone and chocolate cake. The food was lovely J We both thoroughly enjoyed our meals and the cute little place. Again I recommend this place if you are in London.

At this point in the day we realized we would not finish everything on our list, and we were ok with that so we headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral, again my choice and again… huge line. Moving on we walked to the Monument built in remembrance of the great fire on 1666. We climbed all 331 steps and our legs were then Jell-O like, but it offered a great view of the river area. On a related note all of the spiral staircases we have encountered have made me very dizzy.

Our next stop was the All Hallows church by the tower. A place I had discovered on my last trip to London and one that I wanted to share with Lyle. The church itself had to be largely rebuilt after a bombing during the Second World War but sits on a site of an ancient roman home. The site was discovered during the rebuild and was excavated and is now a museum below the church. It has second century Roman sidewalk as well as many pottery pieces found on site from the 1^st and 2^nd century. They have also moved the church records to the museum for display which contain the marriage record of John Quincy Adams… kind of neat.

After this we headed over to Oxford Circus to pick up our theatre tickets. As we were about to leave the theatre to find dinner it started to hail… so we hovered in the entry way for a few minutes until it stopped and then headed into the street. Lyle spotted a Bella Italia, the place we had eaten in Stratford, so we had dinner there. Again the food and service were very good and the meal was reasonably priced. The show was at the London Palladium Theatre, which was a great theatre with really good views. Andrew Lloyd Webber was the producer for this “new” version of the Wizard of Oz. It was very well done and the story line stayed to the original but there were a few extra musical numbers added in. All in all our theatre experiences in London were fabulous!

That ends our last day, I hope you are enjoying our blog, please feel free to give feed back!

Love you all,

H & L