London, Day Three: Flying Solo for the First Time

It's day three here in London and, for the first time, Ann Marie and I hit the town without our familial tour guide because KC had to work today. For the most part we went to areas we'd already visited before but went to see different things and, miraculously, we didn't get lost!

We got a much later start today though because we were both exhausted from staying up far too late the night before. So I woke up around 11 this morning after sleeping like a log all night and we got ready and headed back to Picadilly Circus...then Trafalgar Square. There we grabbed lunch at a little Patisserie called La Roche.


It was very good but, unfortunately, my lunch gave me pretty severe heartburn. Not an unfamiliar happening to me these days but, unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for it this time. So we located what was sort of like a little convenience store and I purchased the equivalent of some TUMS.


The only reason I'm sharing this is because I find anything that's different from what we have in the United States very entertaining. (I should also note that I skipped over a part here...between lunch and getting Rennie we went to this church on Trafalgar Square called St. Martin in the Fields. There are often small classical music concerts held there...we went in hopes of hearing a chamber group rehearse, as you can sometimes do, but sadly no one was there. The acoustics must be amazing. I did not take any pictures because I was distracted by the fact that my stomach was on fire.)

Then we headed over to the National Portrait Gallery and spent quite a bit of time walking around looking at wonderful art from all different time periods. I found the more contemporary stuff particularly enjoyable.

Then we headed back towards the apartment...stopping off at Harrod's on our way there. I was apparently being very lazy today because I didn't take any pictures there either. Sorry. :-p It's essentially a giant, super-fancy department store...which also happens to contain a food market with pretty much anything you could imagine from dim sum to mutton to fresh produce. It was very pretty.

After that we boarded the incredibly crowded tube (we had timed things poorly...it was right around rush hour) and went to the normal-person grocery store near KC's apartment to pick up some items for dinner...which consisted of chicken, potatoes, and asparagus all cooked on the grill. Mmmmm...despite all of the talk about how food in England sucks I haven't had a disappointing meal yet! It could be that KC is being careful to protect us from it though because it seems that he has definitely had some bad experiences.

After dinner we just crashed at the apartment because everyone was extremely tired and we watched Atonement while it poured down rain outside. That movie is incredibly sad. It was kind of cool though because a good deal of it takes place in and around London...so the characters were mentioning and going places that I've now been. KC also informed us that Keira Knightley actually lives in London (at least part of the time). He confessed to us that he's been contemplating for quite some time what he'd say to her if he even met her. Shhhhh...don't tell him I told you.

All in all another great day! It didn't rain at all while we were out and we should have at least a little more good weather this week (fingers crossed). Tomorrow it's off to see the changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace, and the Victoria Albert. I promise I'll take more pictures...I know very well that that's the best part. :)