Monday was back to work for me (unfortunately). So while the others were out touring, shopping and relaxing, I was back at work stuck in meetings and my emails. So my view of days 4 onward in London is slightly different from what everyone else might have experienced.
Monday was the day that we all started doing different things though. M & O took a train down to my parents who live in the New Forest. For those of you who don’t follow UK news, the UK trains have been a disaster recently. After numerous years, some bright spark decided he could improve the train timetable and so changed it. That resulted in major issues across almost all train lines in the UK. One train that was meant to go to Reading ended up in Birmingham (not kidding) … driver said he got lost! About a month ago I took a train down to my parents and what usually takes 1.5 hours ended up taking 3.5 hours. Fortunately M & O didn’t have that problem and their train journey down seemed to go without a problem.
S, K & C went to the British Museum. If you’re ever in London it is one the museums you should definitely go and visit. Entrance is free and you get to see all the treasures that the British have managed to plunder in their various colonies in one place. They regularly change their displays and apparently have 10 times of what you see on display, stored in the back rooms not on display. A guidebook is essential otherwise you get lost in the detail and miss the important items. A lot of artifacts and displays link to Biblical times. The best way is to use Through the British Museum with the Bible by Brian Edwards (https://www.dayone.co.uk/products/through-the-british-museum-with-the-bible).
I did manage to do something I hadn’t done yet and that was go up the Shard. I had a client dinner and we ate in the Obelix restaurant (https://www.the-shard.com/restaurants/oblix/). The views are incredible (though I was with clients so unfortunately didn’t take any pictures); the price even more incredible (fortunately the company paid).
On Tuesday M & O went with my parents to Hope Cove on the south coast of England. Only thing we got from them were a few selfies and lots of photos of the food they ate. I am assuming they had a good time down there with my parents.
It was the last day in London for S, K & C. S & K took a boat that goes under the London Zoo (again no other details or photos so you’ll have to ask them directly if you want to know more). They all seemed to also do some last-minute shopping including K buying a Kitchen Aid to take back (a fraction of the price of what she would have paid in SA). Early evening they had to head for the airport – taxi to Paddington station and then train to Heathrow. Their flight left 9:40pm and was pretty much on time.
Finally H and I were alone …
P, H, C, S, K, M & O (because she supported Djokovic)