04-14-22 Our Last Day in London

We got a lot done today. The weather keeps improving—just in time for us to leave.

We leave for home tomorrow (Friday). To get back into the U.S., we must have a negative COVID test. We had an appointment for 9:20 this morning. I was quite surprised at how busy the testing site was. We got in and out in just minutes and received our test results in less than an hour. We all tested negative / not detected, which is a good thing.

We spent a little time at the Airbnb before heading to Marble Arch and Hyde Park. It was nice enough out that we walked there and back. It was about a mile each way and it gave us a chance to look at all the stores / shops on Baker Street, and some on Oxford Street.  There was a lot of work going on in Hyde Park at the corner by the Marble Arch. The park was green, greener than I would have expected at this time of year. There were a number of people lazing about on the grass. All-in-all, it was very pleasant.

Abby knows something about Speaker’s Corner, so we walked over there. There was only one speaker today and he had signs and a loudspeaker. He did not attract a crowd. Several police cars are stationed nearby, just in case.

On the way back to the Airbnb we stopped for a little snack. From the way Abby devoured her sandwich, you would think we had forgotten to feed her for several days. Despite what she may say, we did remember to feed her from time to time.

The last big event on our trip schedule was high tea at the Fortnum and Mason Jubilee Tea Room on the fourth floor of the famous department store. We got to the store a few minutes early and explored the multitude of teas and tea-related goods they offer.

The high tea was quite an experience. You will see in the pictures that we were served a variety of foods; sandwiches, scones, desserts and so on. And, of course, tea. We all chose a different kind of tea and my Smokey Earl Grey, was good enough to make me think about having tea more often. I had thought that perhaps the high tea might be a formal, snobby affair, but it was not. We had a great time figuring out what was what going on and what the food was and which pieces of silverware to use. It looked to us like everyone in the room was having a good time and, like us, were taking lots of pictures.

I should mention that we took time to explore a couple of bookstores after the tea.

The high tea was a good way to wrap up our experiences in London. I am sure Abby will remember it for a long time and we will too.

We are nearly packed for our journey home. Getting from here to Heathrow may be an adventure because we will have to schlep our luggage through a Tube station to get to Paddington for the train.

I think most of the pictures on the pictures page now have captions.

Here is Abby’s contribution for today…

Today was really fun! We walked around a bit (shocking, I know) and went to Speaker’s Corner.  It was really pretty. I thought I saw a raven, but Nana insisted it was a crow. Grandpa said that it was a black bird and that’s all he knew. I know in my heart that it was a raven, no matter what Nana says. After that, we went back to the flat and rested a little bit. I absolutely demolished a sandwich, just in time to go to afternoon tea. We got there a bit early so I could look at teas and teapots. I found a lot of tasty-smelling teas and some cute teapots. After that, we headed up to go to the tea place. It was quite fancy, and I immediately noticed how many darn types of tea they had! I had a lot of trouble deciding, but I eventually went with black tea with a hint of peach. I really like fruity teas, and it was my first time trying black tea. I liked it a lot! I purchased a tin to take with me. Their desserts were good too. My favorite one was the little swan. I felt very guilty eating it, since it was so cute and well-made. The jelly tart thingy wasn’t my favorite, but I don’t like jelly much. The purple mousse also wasn’t super tasty in my opinion, either. It was too bitter for my liking. The tall red thing was really tasty, but the shell was too hard for me. I liked the insides though, it was filled with cream and raspberry jam. I thought the rose petal and the chocolate top was a nice touch, and was very tasty as well. The loaf-looking item was also pretty good. It tasted a bit like gingerbread, but not at the same time. It left me a little bit confused, but I liked it and had another slice. I tried scones for the first time, too. I had mine with lemon curd (oh how I adore lemon curd, I could eat it by the spoonful) and jam. I thought they were too dry for my liking, but I fixed that problem by putting a copious amount of lemon curd on it. Did I mention how much I love lemon curd? I had a great time there, although I ate way too many sweets. I haven’t gotten a stomachache from them though, so that’s good. Even if I do though, it was absolutely worth it for those delicious snacks. I’m sad this is basically our last day. It went by so quickly! I’m going to miss going around England with Nana and Grandpa, but I’ll be happy to be back home.

We added just a few pictures to the pictures page.

Below is a map that shows our outings for today.