borrowed pictures

In the village of Grasmere (photo by Tracy R), where I had the most wonderful gingerbread from Sarah Nelson's Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.

Outside the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, where we lifted a pint in memory of Tolkien, Lewis, and other literary giants. It was St Patrick's Day, hence the goofy green balloons over the door. (photo by Paul J via Tracy R)

Finally, STP for the Bongo Pudding Lady

Our last full day in England was spent seeing some more of London. Our T.D., Paul, had to travel back to the north for his grandfather's funeral; while he was away on Saturday we were left in the competent (but not nearly so wonderful) hands of Salvatore. First the entire group went to the Tate Modern, which was better than I thought it would be. I enjoyed having a snack at a table from which I could gaze across the Thames at St Paul's. Then, most of the group wanted to visit the Tower of London so Tracy and I took the four kids who weren't interested in that and went by tube to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I had been wanting to visit for ages. Of course there wasn't time to see all of it, but I enjoyed it very much. Then we met up with the rest of the group at Picadilly Circus. Because we hadn't had time for lunch, I was ravenous! We found a place called Burger Co. and I got the "posh fries" :
Posh Fries 3.35
Fries with sweet chilli & ginger dressing and chunky guacamole Everyone’s favourite

they were yummy!

We left the restaurant and were heading up Regent St so I could catch the train to Watford when I heard my name being called. CB was across the street and beckoned us over. One of the Canadian kids was having a migraine and needed to return to the hotel. We had no way to contact their adults, so Nancy (again, bless her heart) offered to take him back in a taxi. I felt bad about letting her do it but I really didn't want to miss out on my visit to Watford.

With no more problems, I found the correct train and settled down for a peaceful journey with my book. At the station, I was scolded for using a group ticket without being with the group, but was let go and warmly greeted by Mike and Tabitha. Joanne had prepared a lovely roast dinner of chicken, gravy, yorkshire puddings, potatoes, carrots and parsnips. It was fun to snuggle on the sofa with Tabs while watching the end of the first Harry Potter movie with the kids. At dinner, Tabs played a couple of Justin Bieber songs for me, much to Max's disgust. Sweet Joanne even made sticky toffee pudding for dessert. I felt very well-fed indeed! After dinner we had time for a bit of a cuddle with Amanita before Mike drove me back across London to the hotel, which was very kind of him. I think I would have gotten lost trying to find the hotel from the station. An odd thing happened on a road near the hotel; there was a barricade and when Mike stopped the car, a guard came over and swabbed the steering wheel. Then he let us go on. Mike said that he had never before experienced that.

And Then it was Sunday morning and time for us to leave our Canadian friends and T.D. Paul. All the kids and Paul gathered on the stairs at the hotel lobby at 6:30 a.m. for a group picture. Poor Paul, he had only gone to sleep at 3 a.m. after returning very late from the funeral. He nonetheless gathered us onto the bus and delivered us to Heathrow.

Purse-pinching bastard!

After the tour of Bath, our trusty coach took us to our London hotel, the Britannia International at Canary Wharf. This was the nicest hotel yet. It was not in the center of town but was still quite accessible by Docklands Light Rail and the Underground. After check-in, the rest of the group dashed off for a quick fish and chips dinner before going to see Wicked in the West End. I stayed at the hotel to meet up with my pal Lydia. We walked through light rain over to a nearby Indian restaurant, Lime, where we enjoyed catching up over some yummy food:

Wild Duck Shashlik £9.95 Succulent breast of wild duck marinated in a rich and aromatic mixture of exotic spices. Cooked in a clay oven with vegetables, and a lamb dish. We followed that with a shared molten chocolate cake (not Indian, but pretty dang tasty!).

On Friday morning, March 19, local guide Stewie and driver Dell took us on a bus tour of the sights of London. Stewie shared lots of information abotu the various neighborhoods. It was especially interesting to drive around the Wharf area and Wapping and to hear stories of the olde

days.

Then we walked over to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. While I was snapping this wonderful photo, some low-life was pinching my purse from my tote bag! I immediately realized it was gone, but it was already too late to do anything. I immediately called home and woke up hubby to get him to cancel the debit and credit cards.

I had to soldier on for the Globe Theatre tour, which was quite well done. A docent took us through various exercises to help with understanding of Shakespeare's styles and the audience of his time. Unfortunately, I was distracted as my mind was racing through scenarios for replacing my lost IDs. By the time to Globe tour was over, EF had sent an employee named Bruno to take me (and Nancy, bless her heart) to the American Embassy so I could get an emergency passport. Bruno turned out to be French, which explained why we had a lot of trouble understanding him.

The embassy experience was interesting, though unfortunate. Before we could enter the embassy we had to turn over all electronics (phones and cameras) and our bags were scanned as we were metal-detected. After seeing several people behind various windows (and receiving an official scolding), and after Nancy loaned me $100 via credit card, I was issued a passport that would serve to get me home. Bruno then escorted us to the Spice Cellar Restaurant, where we were to meet the group for dinner. Since we were very early, we went across the street to an Illy shop for hot cocoa. Later we met the group for our Indian buffet before going to the West End to see a play, The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre. It was a very funny show and the kids all seemed to enjoy it very much, as did I.

I've been to Bath

Thursday, March 18, was our day in Bath. The coach took us back across the Severn and into the town where we picked up our local guide for a bus tour around Bath, which is a beautiful city. We toured the Roman Bath, the cathedral and dropped in at the Jane Austen Centre. Lunch was a sandwich at The Promenade.