Four Weeks in London

Sorry for no pictures with this post. We haven’t been blogging recently because we’ve run into software issues preventing us from uploading photos. Hopefully we’ll get it sorted when we’re back on our home turf but we want to share a list of at least some of the experiences we’ve had this past month. It’s been an amazing stay. We’ve been here long enough that Apple Maps has identified La Gaffe as “Home”. We really did settle in here in Hampstead and did our best to live like a local here. Thank you Amanda for a fabulous orientation. Thank you Lorenzo, Giuseppe, Decca, Alex, and Mateo for making our stay so comfortable

✓ Explore Hampstead Village

✓ Walk through the Heath

✓ Visit a local fun fair

✓ Hear Big Ben chime noon

✓ See (but not ride) The London Eye

✓ Visit Highgate Cemetery – Douglas Adams

✓ Dine at Rules – London’s Oldest Restaurant

✓ Enjoy Steak & Eggs at Coffee Cup in Hampstead

✓ Touch a Roman Wall

✓ Walk on Tower Bridge

✓ British Museum – Rosetta Stone & Elgin Marbles

✓ British Museum – Sutton Hoo

✓ National Gallery – two Vermeer paintings and a new favorite Van Gogh

✓ British Library – the Magna Carta, original lyrics by The Beatles

✓ Tower Church

✓ Westminster Abbey – Aphra Behn, Dickens, Hawking, Darwin, and too many kings and queens to count

✓ Ride a River Bus

✓ Cutty Sark

✓ Royal Observatory

✓ Caryatids at New St Pancras Church

✓ Kings Cross – Platform 9-3/4

✓ Admiral Lord Nelson Monument

✓ Walkers of Whitehall Pub (George)

✓ Taste Bitters Beer

✓ Punting on the River Cam in Cambridge

✓ Visit a 12th Century Church

✓ Walk to a 16th Century Pub

✓ Have tea in a local’s kitchen

✓ 221B Baker Street

✓ Old Cheshire Cheese Pub

✓ Dinner at Rules Restaurant

✓ Yeoman Warner’s Tour at the Tower of London

✓ Dickens Inn at St Katharine’s

✓ Amathus in Hampstead

✓ Clothes Shopping in Hampstead

✓ “SIX” at Vaudeville Theater ( The wives of King Henry VIII each tell their own story.)

✓ Tour Churchill War Rooms

✓ Dine at King William IV Pub

✓ British Museum – Tower Church Tile Victorian G47 14thC G47

✓ British Museum – Viking Sword from Temple Church G41

✓ British Museum – Lindow Man G50

✓ British Museum – Egyptian Mummies G63-64

✓ Proper Fish & Chips at Marquis of Granby Pub

✓ Jive Aces at Ronnie Scott’s

✓ Fish Pie at St George Tavern

✓ State Rooms Tour at Buckingham Palace

✓ St Paul’s Cathedral – Duke of Wellington, Admiral Lord Nelson, Christopher Wren, and lots more

✓ Ham & Eggs and Chios at Ye Olde Watling

✓ Shipping stuff home from UK Post Office in Hampstead

✓ One more Fish & Chips at Coffee Cup in Hampstead

Now we’re nearly packed and ready to depart tomorrow morning after one more Continental Breakfast at La Gaffe. We’ll Uber to Waterloo Station and take the train to Southampton for an overnight before we embark on the Queen Mary 2 for our westbound Transatlantic voyage to New York. Hopefully we’ll visit the Titanic Exhibit at the SeaCity Museum there.

But we already have plans to return next year so we may still be able to experience some of the adventures still on our wishlist.

◦ Cocktails at Winter Garden

◦ Hampton Court

◦ HMS Belfast

◦ Fortnum & Mason est 1707

◦ Statues in Leicester Square

◦ William Smith Map at The Geological Society

◦ Jersey Boys at Trafalgar Theater

◦ Kings Cross – Nigel Gresley Statue

◦ Kings Cross – Ice Well in Canal Museum

◦ Secret London Walking Tour

◦ National Maritime Museum

◦ Museum of London Archeology

◦ The Brunel Museum

◦ Farmers Market – Parliament Hill

◦ Permissive Footpaths