Monday, October 22: Last Minute Cramming

Liam decided he wanted a quiet day in the flat to himself so Colin and I took off to see whatever we could see over the next few hours. We started at the National Portrait Gallery where Colin was gracious enough to humour me while I roamed the three galleries in which I was most interested. i.e. Tudor, Jacobean and Victorian portraits. Colin was fascinated by the marble busts and had me read out the names and occupations of every bust we encountered. There are usually at least two in every room and sometimes as many as two thousand. Okay, not that many but it felt like it when trying to read the names and look at portraits. We only stayed about forty-five minutes but that was plenty of time to hit the highlights I wanted to see.

Next we popped around the corner to the cafe at Trafalgar Square where we stopped for a mocha and scone. Oh the clotted cream! We couldn't fail to notice the gigantic animatronic model of Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins and a jumbotron playing football highlights right in front of Nelson's column. Something just doesn't seem right about that. But just after Colin had enough of climbing up and down the lions (it was rather cold), they began filming something with the crowd where the show's host explained football, quizzed people for prizes and they demonstrated the animatron. I cannot tell you how odd it is to hear a football play called in a British accent. The host noticed Colin, but was unable to quiz him for a prize because of camera angles (we're in the long shots) so he came over afterwards and gave Colin an NFL International Series commemorative baseball hat. Cool! That was the first of Colin's freebies today. When he stopped at a souvenir kiosk on our way out of Trafalgar Square, the gentleman was so amused by Colin he tossed in three free postcards with the teddy bear.

We next wandered over to Covent Garden passing through the Actor's Church (St. Paul's Covent Garden) on the way. Colin wanted to stop and watch a juggler/comedian's act that was really quite funny. Then we picked up a few souvenirs at the market and trudged on to find a pub for lunch. We ended up at Duke's at The Wellington. Very slow service but we passed the time arranging the condiment bottles and cutlery into replicas of the Tower of London, Warwick Castle, Canary Wharf, etc. We both had the sausages and mash with my version being the vegetarian option. Oh my! I want to take home a crate of whatever these were. Best vegetarian fake meat I've ever had.

We waddled down to The Strand and stopped for a bit at Somerset House where Colin had to peek into another gift shop and had fun climbing up and down off of columns and steps. We passed through King's College London where my darling shopaholic had to at least buy a pencil at the college bookshop. I was heading towards Temple where I hoped to stumble upon the ruins of the temple to Mithras the bus driver pointed out two weeks ago. No such luck, but I did get to see the church founded by the Knights Templar for which this region really gets its name. I'm glad we wandered down there because we got to see the Royal Courts of Justice and it is really a beautiful building. Not that I ever want to see the inside mind you.

Our meanderings towards a Tube stop took us right to the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. Colin wanted to poke his head in to see it, but declined the admittance fee to tour the entire church. I didn't mind as I was ready to get back as we were now getting a bit of a mizzle. (mist and drizzle) We exited through the church gardens, hopped on the underground and brought a snack back to Liam who didn't look like he had moved from his chair since we left. In fact, I don't think he ever changed out of his pajamas.

On Tuesday we begin the arduous task of packing and may look for the animatronic Jason Taylor at Canary Wharf for Liam when we go out for lunch because there is absolutely nothing to eat in the flat.