runlindsayrun

Day Thirteen

We had kind of an emotional goodbye with Ron and Lal last night. They were hugging us goodbye, and then kind of out of the blue said that this would probably be the last time they'd ever see us, so they were so glad they'd had a chance to get to know us. Right away, I started thinking they were wrong, that we'd see them again soon. But they're not coming to Canada, and who knows when we'll be back. They might be right. But this idea of having family so far away - who you only see once or twice in your lifetime, if you're lucky - is very strange for me.

When we got back to the city, we went to go see the Cenetaph where the queen had hosted a Remembrance Day ceremony earlier that day. We also walked down to Westminster Abbey to see the Field of Remembrance. That was intense. There were still so many people in both places, paying their respects. The lawn of Westminster Abbey was literally covered in tiny wooden crosses and poppies, and reading some of the inscriptions from the families made me cry. I'm really glad we went.

Which brings us to our last 'real' day of vacation. We got up to get ready, and when I got out of the shower, I noticed that Geoff was gone - but he'd left a note. A few minutes later, we appeared with breakfast and Starbucks from down the street. So sweet. We took the coffee and hit the town...

One of the amazing things about London this time is that was fall there. Autumn is my absolute favourite season, and I feel like I got to experience it twice this year - once here and once there. We went for a walk through Hyde Park so I could enjoy all the leaves changing colour. It was so beautiful. We walked past the Diana memorial fountain, which was interesting. I avoided millions of pigeons and other birds (shudder).

From there, a scheduled stop to buy tea at Harrods - plus, I wanted to walk through their Christmas department (which was practically a whole floor of the store). Amazing. Now THAT's how you do Christmas. And while I was in the store, I swear I heard a choir of angels singing... Not at this epic shrine of consumerism. But at their LUXURY TOILETS. The cleanest, most pleasant washroom experience I had on this entire trip, I kid you not. We used some NASTY facilities in Greece... And this was like having God apologize for all the icky washrooms we'd been forced to use over the past two weeks.

Which brings me to another side-note: What's up with Europeans and their lack of standardization? I had a heck of a time having to re-figure out every single washroom stall doorknob / lock and flushing mechanism. Because they were ALL DIFFERENT. Anyway. I'm sure it made me a better person, or somthing. But gosh, I felt dumb!

In the afternoon, we split up for a while. Geoff had an out-of-the-way store and a (shudder again) Star Wars exhibition that he wanted to check out. Lindsay wanted to have tea outside near the Tower of London and visit Shark Week at the aquarium. We both had a great time :)

And then in the evening, another London date night. We went for an amazing dinner in the theatre district, then went to go see the stage production of Mary Poppins. I was like a six year old at Christmas. It was awesome. They even incorporated all these special effects to make her able to 'magically' clean up a room or empty out her carpet bag - and fly, of course.

It was a perfect ending to our incredible, perfect trip.

Labels: London, My Life, The Boy, Travel

posted by Lindsay @ 9:30 AM