Wednesday, August 21, 2019

LONDON THE SECOND TIME AROUND...

What to do when you've been to London before and hit all the main tourist attractions???

We tried to go to the Churchill War Rooms, but it was a very long wait.  So we went to the amazing British Museum (again)!  We also rode the London Eye, which I wouldn't recommend unless you have a discount of some kind (we did).



We ate dinner at a wonderful Turkish restaurant near our hotel.  


 Day two, I was on my own and walked around Kensington Gardens, saw many beautiful flowers, got kicked out of Princess Diana Memorial Playground (you could only go in there if you were with children), and had Afternoon Tea at The Orangery.




 I also shopped at nearby Portobello Road and got  some goodies, including a shirt from a thrift store!




The next day was church day -  I spent time at two very different churches!  St. Paul's cathedral was pretty amazing.  What i did not know before I went was it is second only in size to St. Peter's in Rome.  The architect Christopher Wren designed this one and helped rebuild St. Dunstan's.
 Lunch on the street - fried potatoes with all the fixings!

 Monument to the great fire of 1606


 StDunstan's in the East, a former church the city has let turn into a garden.  It had a lot of destruction due to the great fire, then Christopher Wren helped rebuild it.  After the blitz in WWII, it was not repaired but is now a quiet oasis in the city.  





Day 4 I did a lot of walking!  I tried to find a special store but didn't so I shopped a crazy huge cheap store called Primark.  Then I got back on the Tube near my hotel,walked to the Borough Market and had some delicious cheese olive bread and hot chocolate.  There were all kinds of turkish, meditteranean, fish & chips, etc., along with produce.  I also walked through nearby Southwark Cathedral - found out Shakespeare worshipped there and John Harvard was baptized there.   I walked on and saw many neat sights on my way to Tate Modern Art Museum.


A building they call the Walkie Talkie!


 Shakespeare's Globe Theatre - rebuilt by a nice American
Tate Modern Art Museum
Picasso!
 Street art



We went to a business dinner and this is the dress I bought for the occasion!

Last morning we found the hot chocolate place I was wanting to go to - SAID 1923. AMAZING.



After the hot chocolate, we checked out of our hotel and moved to a hotel right beside the airport.  We toured Kew Garden, which had some really interesting architectural things, and had a Chihuly exhibit there!  I loved it.  We also ate at a wonderful little cottage place outside the garden called The Original Maids of Honor, that had been recommended by a woman from the dinner the night before.  







It was a great end to the trip!  Thankful to get to spend some time exploring the world outside the US!