London

We started the day by hopping on the "Big Bus" and riding to Harrod's. 

Since they had enjoyed the Egyptian displays at the British Museum, I had to show the girls the Egyptian escalator. Even after multiple visits, it still impresses. Also, it's nice to know that the ownership of the pieces on display is not disputed. (And yes, I do know that the stuff in Harrod's is not authentic!)

We bought lots of Harrod's chocolate for gifts.

 

From Harrod's, it's a short walk to the Natural History Museum. Some eye-catching sights en route:

St Saviour's Church

This window display in a shop called Divertimenti

This window was so appealing that we went inside. Fortunately, when you know you need to pack your bags to get on the plane, it is easy to resist purchasing anything. Otherwise, this shop would have been quite tempting.

The Museum of Natural History

This museum is in an amazing building and features a suspended skeleton of a blue whale.

The museum itself is kind of old-school, very much like the museums of my youth with a lot of stuffed animals that look like stuffed animals, but the girls enjoyed it. 

Something I found kind of sad was that a lot of the mammal displays had signs apologizing for the poor condition of the animals, because they had been stored improperly and had become discoloured or faded.

When Zoe's dad was little, he absolutely loved these souvenir penny machines, so when we saw this, we had to get one for him.

When we finished at the museum, it was getting close to time for our Harry Potter walking tour. Zoe, a true Potterhead, was looking forward to this!

The tour started at Leadenhall Market, just steps from the Monument. Our family loves the Monument, so since we were early, I thought we could use this time to make the climb. However, I had forgotten that the Monument is closed from 1:00-2:00 pm. Since our tour would start at 2:30, we wouldn't have enough time.

I thought maybe we could make our way back here after the tour.

I had read a little bit about Leadenhall Market, but it was not quite as impressive as I expected. It is quite small and part of it was walled off for construction. It is beautiful, however, and we felt quite safe knowing there were 6 or 7 of these heavily armed police officers standing by. Not -- if anything, their presence was slightly alarming, especially after they explained that they were there because there was a lot of drinking underway.

  

We met up with our tour guide, with whom Zoe had an instant connection, and four young women from Texas and Sydney, and the tour began. This was my first time to go on a guided tour. Although I read the first three Harry Potter books when they first came out, I am by no means a fan, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, Zoe's obvious pleasure in seeing places from the films helped me to enjoy it too. The tour was quite long and it was getting a little cold, but every time I asked her if she wanted to go, she said no.

Some of the places were old haunts of Charles Dickens, so that was interesting, and I always take pleasure in interesting architecture.

We had some excellent views of St. Paul's, and the guide took us to a newly constructed reflecting pool, off in a small garden. This would have been easy to miss, so I appreciated having it pointed out.

A van with police horses is not an everyday sight.

The tour guide pointed out this pub as featuring in the first Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie.

We also walked past the Globe Theatre and the Golden Hind.

The tour ended near here, in Borough Market, next to a train track that shows up in one of the Harry Potter movies (you'll have to ask Zoe for the details!)

By now it was dark and I was a little bewildered. Although I had glanced at the tour route, somehow, I hadn't expected to end up on the south side of the Thames. (I know, I should have paid more attention.)

I had originally thought we might go back to the Monument and climb up for a view of London after dark, but the girls were tired and cold. We started out walking back to the hotel, which was only about a kilometer away, but as I couldn't figure out how to get up onto the bridge, I finally decided we would just take the underground. 

A couple of train changes and we were back at the Tower Hill station. A quick trip to a little Tesco for supper fare, and back to the hotel.