Last Day in London

Today, I boarded my last train to London, for this trip at least.  I had plans to meet up with a couple of friends from high school for dinner, so I decided to take advantage of the day and go and wander the city that I have fallen in love with over the past year.

I first went to Camden Market because I had bought a dress there a couple of weeks ago, and so loved it that I decided I might as well go back and get more!  I have always really enjoyed street market shopping and this was no different!  Unfortunately, my shopping trip may have been a bit too successful! :)

I then took the tube to Covent Garden, one of my absolute favorite spots of London!  There is a market here, loads of restaurants with outdoor seating and frequent street performers.  This is also where Eliza Doolittle met Henry Higgans, and I always enjoy visualizing that scene when I'm there.





I continued my stroll towards Trafalgar Square which sits in front of the National Gallery and looks out towards Big Ben.  It is a great spot to just sit, enjoy the people watching and take in the atmosphere of such an energetic city.



I'm not sure if you heard, but there was some big news here about a little guy this week... Prince George came into the world on Monday and the country has been absolutely buzzing with excitement.  His parents debuted him on Tuesday, already acting like natural parents and beaming with pride!  What a beautiful child and what an exciting time for the monarchy!  On Monday, to announce his birth, a small sign was put in front of Buckingham Palace announcing that he was healthy, weighing in at 8 lbs 6 oz and born at 4:24pm.  I decided while I was in London, I might as well walk to Buckingham Palace and see if there were any more signs of his birth there.  I must admit that I was terribly disappointed.  Of course the palace was as immaculate as always, but there were absolutely no signs announcing this exciting occasion, nor were there flowers or blue bows or anything on the palace gates.  I guess all of those things are a bit tacky, but I still expected some sort of sign.


I had just a little bit of time to kill before meeting up with my friends, and decided that I was in the area of a museum that I had wanted to go to, so I headed on to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I was very overwhelmed, not only because of the mere size of the museum, but because there was a special event on, and there were people and loud music everywhere I turned - not really the museum experience I was expecting!


I met up with two dear friends, David and Leslie, whom I graduated high school with.  Indian Springs School is a small high school in Birmingham, in fact our graduating class was only 49, and yet we seem to have all spread our wings and spread out around the world.  Another friend had actually been in London earlier in the week and another lives there but was out of town.  What a small, small world it is! 
  

I went to see Leslie in Oxford a few months ago and as you can probably tell by the shiny ring on her finger, she is now staying here indefinitely.  David lives in LA as a writer for the Game of Thrones.  They are currently filming in Belfast, and so he popped over to London for the weekend.  It was so much fun hearing about all of what goes on behind the scenes at a set!


I've been saying lots of goodbyes lately, and I must admit, they are terribly difficult.  Although I was saying goodbye to London, it was so much fun to get to say hello to some great friends!  It was a wonderful way to spend my last Friday here in England.

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