London Daze

Today is our last full day in London. We have been unable to post because there is no internet in our hotel. Friday after we arrived, we went on to the Holywell Music Co. (the harp store) and then to the Tate Modern where we saw a wonderful show on cities and had a tapas dinner. We then walked from Blackfriars all the way down to Big Ben along the Thames and it was a wonderful evening.

Saturday, we hooked up with Lissa and Cordelia again and it poured for most of the day. We hoofed it to Oxford Market, then onto the National Portrait Gallery. We then went to the Methodist Center for a very inexpensive and great meal, and back to the hotel for a rest. Lissa and Kathy Lovin went to Regent's Park for a Shakespeare play (which was rained out) and I took the harpists to the Ghost Walk of London which started at St. Paul's Cathedral and wended through the streets of old London City - very scary and well done by our guide. We went on to an Indian feast at the nearby Masala before retiring.

Today, the news of the Glasgow terror and the other recent developments hangs heavy in the air, but there is a block party in Earl's Court (our neighborhood), the Concert for Diana is tonight at Wembley Stadium, the Wimbledon tennis championships continue, and it's the first day London is banning smoking in public places. Our first trip today was with Lissa and Cordelia for a walk up Sloane Street where we bid them goodbye before they left for New York. We continued on to Buckingham Palace to see a very busy and not too interesting changing of the guard. We went on to have a light lunch and some of us continued to a Punk Art exhibit at the Barbicon, with another group going up Oxford St. shopping. We reconnected at a Bangladesh Festival in Regent's Park which had fabulous food and beautiful clothing and jewelry. Just now the teams are tired and resting before we find some food for our last dinner in London.

Susie