Day SixOur day with the group started at 9am, although our morning always started earlier to give us enough time for the three of us to get ready and have breakfast. Part of the tour price is breakfast each morning which was the Full English Breakfast: eggs, sausage or a ham-like bacon, lemon butter mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and baked beans! There were also cold cuts, fresh rolls and pastry. While not the breakfast we would usually have at home, it was a hearty start to each busy day which helped us "Keep Calm and Carry On!"
Gillian took us exploring before our planned stops at the British Library and the British Museum. First we went to King's Cross Station. For those of us Muggles it wouldn't be much more than a lovely train station. The wizards, however, know it is the magic platform 9 3/4 where you get transported to Harry Potter's Hogwarts School. There were several teenagers in our group that were huge Potter fans, so they were thrilled with this stop. We were then led to St. Pancras International Station. A couple in our group planned to take the Eurostar train to Paris after the tour so Gillian was showing them where they would need to come catch the train. The rest of the group benefited too, as we not only learned where to catch the train should we ever need to (which we will be doing this summer!) but we also got to enjoy the beautiful station. The British Library was fascinating. It was filled with Shakespeare, Austen, Da Vinci and the Fab Four! It seemed so personal to see their handwriting on these original documents. We were then off to the British Museum. This museum holds so much history, it was overwhelming! Luckily, Gillian guided us through the centuries with interesting stories and lots of humor. Among the notable things we saw was the Rosetta Stone. However the most interesting thing was in one of the last rooms Gillian took us to, the Elgin Marbles. These marble sculptures were taken from the Parthenon in Greece. Gillian shared with us a mythology story that some historians feel is represented in the statues. Rebecca had just finished studying mythology in school, but seeing these staues in person and hearing the story brought to life the mythology in a way that sitting in a classroom could never have. The rest of the afternoon was free time until the group would meet for our farewell dinner. Our trio grabbed a quick lunch at the British Museum before setting off to the National Portrait Gallery which had a special exhibit of portraits of the Queen in honor of the Jubilee celebration. This was our favorite part. We used Rick's advice from the guidebook to tour the rest of the museum. With just a few hours left in London we decided to make a quick visit to Harrods. While we didn't really want to shop, we had read in the guidebook it was a must see for the old fashioned food halls. Too bad that hundreds of others were visiting Harrods at the same time, as it was so busy you couldn't even walk around, much less see anything. We happened to wander by the Princess Di memorial, and did find our way to the food halls but that was about all we could take. We wanted to rest a bit before our last dinner! Donna, however, spent her resting time painting. It has become her tradition to give our guide a thank you watercolor of something special from the tour. Our final dinner was at a very quaint restaurant named the Ebury Wine Bar. Dinner was on the more gourmet side so Gillian had made special arrangements so Rebecca and other teens could have a teenager-friendly meal! We laughed with our table mates and toasted to a BRILLIANT week in London! Back at the hotel we said our goodbyes to Gillian, in hopes that our paths will cross again! |
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