Tuesday 26^th August                                 LONDON

Our last day in London, and we’ve walked for miles and seen so much!

As usual, we slept well (tourist exhaustion can do that for you) and it was just as well, because this morning there was a lot to be done. After breakfast, we continued with yesterday’s chore of the final big sort, toss and pack. In the end, our ports are reasonably within weight (so far) and the op shop pile was about 10kg worth! I’d finished my lot by about quarter past 10, so popped across the road to the ritzy organic deli there, and got us morning tea – Earl Grey fruitcake for Lex and the most delicious hazelnut brownie for me. We also checked out where would be the best place to see London from, and in the end the Shard’s viewing platform won easily, with 17 pound Summer Specials on today. We booked for 3.30 online.

By 11, we were finally ready to head out for the day – first port of call was the Octavia Foundation Op Shop just near South Kensington station. The man there seemed happy to take our two bags of goodies off us. Then we boarded our train to Westminster, and changed there to St Paul’s. We walked out to find that it was raining! Very much needed for London, but a prize pain for us, so we decided it was time for lunch. We were right next to a Japanese restaurant, so had a lovely lunch there, and by the time we came out, the rain was all but gone. We walked right around St Paul’s to admire it from all angles (we’d visited it in 2014), then navigated ourselves to the Barbican area. 

                                                              St Paul's Cathedral

              It was built by Sir Christopher Wren to replace the old St Pauls, which had been 

              destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Here we found some of the city’s walls, dating back to Roman times and with a lot of medieval stone still in them. We also found St Botolph’s without Aldersgate, the church where my gg grandparents, Richard Bowles and Martha Ellis, were married in 1853. It only opens for an hour or so, one day a week, so I was thrilled to be able to see inside.

                        St Botolph's without Aldersgate, the Barbican, c. 1790

                                                   Roman and Medieval London City Walls

                 Interior of St Botolph's. A meeting was about to take place.

           Current entrance to the church through Postman's Park.

After this, we came across another church, St Bartholomew’s the Great, which is the oldest church in London, having survived both the Great Fire and the Blitz. It is an amazing building, and has also featured in a lot of films, such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Shakespeare in Love. Across the road from it is the huge complex of the Smithfield Markets (fish and meat, and only open in the mornings). And across from the markets we found 59 Long Lane, which is a café currently being renovated and not yet reopened. Which is sad – I’d really wanted to have a cup of tea there, because in 1871, the same building was a coffee house run by my GGG Aunt Sarah and her husband John Hopper, and 17-year-old Richard Bowles was working as a waiter. We also walked past St Bart’s hospital, where Richard spent a good deal of time and eventually the poor bloke died of dropsy only 7 months after their marriage. Pa’s father (also Richard) was born posthumously the following January.

                                 St Bartholomew's the Great, oldest surviving church in London

                                                         St Bart's interior

                              59 Long Lane, which was also a coffee house in 1871

                               Smithfield Markets

With this lovely excursion into the Bowles family history finished, we headed for the Shard, roughly a half hour walk over London Bridge (not falling down). The modern London Bridge is an extremely boring and functionally ugly 1960s construction, not a beautifully photogenic one like Tower Bridge. At least we could see Tower Bridge from London Bridge! We could also see the Shard shining ahead of us, because as the Met had promised, the rain had departed and the sun was coming out again. We made sure we knew where the entrance to the viewing platform was, then went looking for afternoon tea. We discovered Hay’s Galleria, which is a modern enclosure (1980s) of Grade 2 listed warehouses and wharves right next to the river, and settled in there. There is a Padel Ball court there at present (which seems to be similar to the Australian Pickle Ball), so kids having lots of holiday fun. It’s a lovely area.

                                          Monument to the Great Fire of London

                View from London Bridge: Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast

                               Lex and the Shard, as seen from London Bridge

                                          Hay's Galleria, on the river front

By 3.15 we made our way back to the Shard entrance, and they let us head on up – first on the elevator to the 32^nd floor, then another one to the 68^th floor. Very fast – my ears popped! From there, we walked up four more flights to the 72^nd floor and the top viewing platform. The sun was mostly out by then, so we had amazing 360-degree views over London. We spent ages happily clicking away and working out where things were. Then we went down to the 69^th floor, which had icons to tell you where things were and the compass points (very handy!) It’s very hard to orientate yourself in the UK, we’ve found – north is never where you think it is. At any rate, it was really worth seeing.

                                           Lex with Tower Bridge in the background

     There are so many bridges over the Thames! St Paul's is on the other bank.

                     The Tower, and Tower Bridge

                                                    Loo with a fabulous view!

By a bit after 4, we were ready to head off, so whizzed back down in the elevators and then to the London Bridge subway station below the building. The train was absolutely packed, so we were glad to get off at Westminster, and change to our line, travel to South Kensington and we were home by 5.

We’ve since had a good rest, popped out to Sainsbury’s for tea, and are contemplating tomorrow’s move to Gatwick – we book out of our apartment in the morning, and have to get ourselves to the Travelodge near the airport there, as we fly out for Dubai on Thursday morning. The great British adventure is nearly over!