London Final

Today (being Tuesday) we got out and about around 10:30 and immediately headed to Hampstead (we were trying to do the Heath and the Tower of London today, a plan that got almost immediately scrapped when we realized how much time we wanted to spend in Hampstead). Got there around 11:30-12 and stopped at a Pizza Express for food. Pizza Express, for those who don't know, is a CHAIN restaurant.

Does that look like chain restaurant food to y'all? Cause it's not what I think of when I think chain food.

Finished up a lovely meal there, gave our compliments to the chef and then headed out in the general direction of the Heath... and got sidetracked.



How does one NOT get sidetracked by things/places/areas that look like this? We walked around the area, just kind of wandering - finding gorgeous houses and friendly 'guard' dogs. Headed in the general approximate direction that we knew the Heath was - AND found it!

The one cloud in the sky at that moment. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it :) This is from a bench we found about 45 minutes into the Heath - we stretched out on it, and the ground and basked in the sun for 30 minutes or so.

Eventually roused ourselves out of our sun-induced stupor and hiked our way back out of the Heath - by a different path - and walked by a carnival that was being set up. On our way back to the tube station we walked by some more gorgeous houses, one of which was - at least externally - perfect.

It's that white one on the far end there - absolutely gorgeous garden, trellises, fwah.

Got back on the tube and headed to Leicester Square because, like Hampstead, the Higlofti had mentioned awesome things about a particular alleyway and we wanted to visit! On the tube on the way there I'd been texting my dad about money and what we were up to, and he told me his request for presents.

Cheap. Tacky. Packable. Royal wedding related.

Sooooo I stopped at a little shop or two and got some things... but just in case he is reading this nowish I will not be saying/describing what they are until he has appreciated them.

Also got some presents for the rest of the family, and then OH HEY LOOK a bookstore.

Lost about an hour in the bookstore... maybe closer to 2 hours. Got a few books... cause you know... They were right there! Then Ari and I realized we were hungry and I'd seen a Carluccios on the corner (another recommended place) and with the wonderful gift of 50lbs for a dinner (from my Daddeh) we sat down for a lovely and somewhat extravagant meal.


That's only some of the food :D. Being that both Ari and I are great readers - and we had just come from a bookstore - we had a reading dinner. Earlier in the trip (Bath) we'd observed two guys that seemed to be friends eating breakfast at adjacent tables instead of across one table from each other. We speculated as to why and then promptly forgot about it until this night when we both wanted to sit on the bench side of the table... so we did. (Our way made a liiiiittle more sense as we pushed the tables together but the general concept is the same). We read and ate dinner - sharing tidbits of the stories as they struck us and had a grand time.

Headed home after the meal, and both Ari and I took baths and generally hung about the room for a little before we headed downstairs to check in via the internet for our flight(s) the next day and to post here... Sadly about 5 minutes after we got down there the internet broke. The manager got very flustered (he couldn't check anyone in) and we got to listen to him on the phone with everyone and sundry trying to fix it - which didn't happen. We went back up to our rooms pretty quickly. Then, the EPIC PACKING OF EPICNESS - aka, CRAM EVERYTHING IN. Ari went first, for which we have a video that will make it to the internet someday, and then I packed. Impressively, she had come to England with 3 bags, and I had come with 2. She left with 2, and I left with 2... all of them better packed. Took a shower, and went to sleep for our last night in England.