One last day in London town...

Our taxi ride to Park Lane took us through some London streets we had not seen before. We met Auntie Muriel who had come into London to join us for our last night. We had an excellent dinner at a great little restaurant in Shepherd's Market, a quaint little square just behind our hotel. Lots of eating, drinking and talking about all we had seen and done since we left her on the previous Monday. And we had not been the only ones who had been busy. This was Auntie Muriel's second trip to London in two days.

The next morning we all had breakfast in the hotel and then ventured out to do a final bit of sightseeing. We had a walk down Carnaby St in the district of Soho. We only wandered a few of the streets in the 'Carnaby' area but did find the wonderful Soho mural and the very old Shakespeare's Head pub. We caught a bus a bit further down the road and hopped out once more to have a look at the grand old Burlington Arcade. This was the world's first shopping arcade, opened in 1819 to great acclaim and now recognised as a historic and architectural masterpiece. It was great to window shop but the budget would have had a major blow out if we had tried to shop there. Maybe one day when our numbers come up.

With our checkout time looming we all returned to the hotel and said our farewells to Auntie Muriel. It had been such a wonderful week with her and the family which I will remember always.

Once the luggage was safely stored Bill & I decided that we had time for a quick walk before we needed to get to the airport and so we wandered along the streets until we ended up in the West End. From there we hopped on a bus to take us to the one Landmark neither of us had visited yet. Yes, Buckingham Palace. How could we not have a look. Passing the Royal Mews on the way, we popped in to have a look at the Queen's Gallery, but did not make it past all the tourists in the gift shop. Last time we were there the guards were very still but this time we were in time to see them doing a couple of marches back and forth. Not sure if it was for a reason or just to keep the blood flowing but it did add a bit of interest for the many tourists taking photos. From there we walked through St James Park back to the hotel, collected our luggage and caught an old London cab to Paddington station were we could catch a train direct to Heathrow. This time with no stairs.

A couple of hours at the airport went pretty quick and in no time at all we were up, up & away on route to Singapore with a 2 hour stopover in Dubai. Both legs of the trip were very smooth and in no time at all we were coming in to land for 3 more days of fun & adventure.

As long as we could wake up in the morning.............