One last day in London

I've been  visiting friends  in Wiltshire for the last 5 days. I don't have any photos as Malmesbury is a small town and the visit was more about reconnecting  with them than about sightseeing.  I did have  a great time though and got to visit lots of coffee  shops and  restaurants in the area.

I headed back to London one day before my flight to meet up with my friend Kris  for the day.   We did a scavenger hunt that started at South Kensington underground station and took us through some fascinating  back streets in the area.  

About midway we ended up near the Albert Hall, so we decided to stop in there for lunch.

After finishing the scavenger  hunt we went to Harrods and had coffee in the roasters there before  heading back to Paddington and saying  goodbye.  Then I caught the train to Heathrow where I am staying the night in the hotel  at terminal  2 before  flying  home tomorrow. 

This is the end of my blog entries  for this trip, but I'm heading to Barcelona  in March, so check back in again  then

A wet New Year's Day

We went to Leicester Square this morning to see Gladiator  2 at the cinema.   The idea was that when we came out it would be the right time to walk to Charing  Cross to see the New Year's Day parade passing.

Unforunately, it was a wet day.  By the time we got to  Charing Cross the only the back end of the parade was passing and most of it was up by Westminster.  I guess the participants  were marching fast to try and get out of the rain.  Even  so the crowd was about 3 or 4 deep, and being short all Becky and I could see were the tops of some banners going past.

We walked down to Fleet Street to try and go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub for lunch.

But the kitchen was closed because it was New Year's Day so they  weren't doing food. We ended up at Ye Olde London  pub near St Paul's instead. 

It was a wet and cold day, so we decided to go back to the hotel for the evening and warm up, especially  since becky was heading back to Heathrow  the next day.

New Year's Eve

This morning  we took a quick look around the V&A. It seemed a shame not to pop in when  we were staying  right opposite 

 In the afternoon we went  to the Ritz for afternoon tea. 

The Palm Court was beautifully  decorated and the staff were very attentive.

It's a  good  thing this was going to be our only meal of the day as were pogged, and  ended up having to  take some of the cakes and scones back to the hotel  in a doggy bag.

We headed back to the hotel to change, and then walked over to the Natural History Museum at 9pm for the New Year's Eve party

There were lots of activities  going on like a band in the main hall, a barn dance and a silent  disco in other halls and we even  played Dino bingo.  Some of the ground floor galleries were open, so after seeing the New Year in with a drink in the main hall,  we went around the Wildlife  Photographer of the Year  display in one of the galleries,  before  heading back to the hotel.