This Week

I'm afraid I've had to wind down some this week in anticipation of my leaving on Saturday.  I have been putting off buying any trinkets and presents until now, but the time has come.

Chuck, Mary's and my friend from Chicago, arrived on Monday morning.  After taking a bit of a nap, he and Mary went on the boat cruise again--without me since I have done it twice already.  Chuck has never been to London, so he needs to see all the spots like St. Paul's, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, etc.  Mary is going to be tour guide for him and I am doing some shopping.

Here's the intersection of Regent Street and Oxford St, the biggest shopping area in London, all dolled up for the wedding.

I won't go into what I bought since many of the people getting the gifts are reading this blog.  Suffice it to say, there are a lot of things to be bought this week with the picture of William and Kate on them.

Tuesday, while Mary and Chuck took the tour bus around the city, I went on another walk.  This one was supposed to be of the interiors of certain old buildings in the city.  Our guide was Jean, one of my favorites.

She had a tough task because, not only was she filling in someone else, but at least two of the places we wanted to see were closed.

Still, there was plenty to look at on the walk, which started at the Tower of London.  I found out that the black turrets on the top of the corners of the White Tower were put there by Christopher Wren in the 17th Century--the tower itself is from the 11th.  Wren seems to have had his hand in almost everything in London--to the city's benefit, I might add.

One of first stops was supposed to be the interior of St. Olave's, a medieval church near Tower Hill.  But it was closed.  We did get a feel for what religion was like back then with this gate.

Charles Dickens called this church St. Ghastly the Grim.  Here's a closer look.

I missed getting the sides of the gate which show skulls on stakes.  Lovely.

We also passed through a new building with these startling statues of horses.  Very impressive.

Across the street was a sidewalk with writing giving names, places, dates, statistics, etc. about the history of London.  You had to be a contortionist to see it all.

Unfortunately, faithful reader, this is where the battery on my camera gave out.  The one picture I wish I could have given you was the view from the sixth floor roof of a building just across the street from St. Paul's.  You could see a  very large chunk of the city from that vantage point.

I met Mary and Chuck near Leicester Square and we went to dinner at a very nice steak house near the theater where we were to see Les Miserables.  I had gotten the seats when I first got to London and unfortunately, they were not great--in the Upper Circle.  We had to lean over to see the stage.  For the second act, we actually went higher up to some empty seats.  Despite that, the show was glorious.  I had never seen it before and was amazed by the production, the singing and the emotion of the show.  We got home at about 11:30 but stayed up til after midnight just talking about the production.

So today Mary and Chuck and I spend their last day here before they are off for France.