The Long Goodbye

Our time in London has almost ended.  

We decided to spend Sunday morning on a London Walk exploring Hampstead.  As the Northern line was closed between Bank and Hampstead that made getting there a bit of an adventure and something I don't think we could have done two or three months ago.  I used the Transport for London Journey Planner to map out our route - DLR to Canary Wharf; Jubilee Line to Swiss Cottage, a bus to Hampstead.  We did it!

Hampstead is a visually interesting and posh area of London. Lots of painters, actors, and musicians have resided in Hampstead at some point in their lives. Boy George, Jamie Oliver, John Constable, George Romney, Daphne du Maurier, and John Galsworthy to name just a few.  

Okay - think back to your childhood...

Do you recognize this home?

It was featured in the 1964 movie "Mary Poppins".

There are lots of quirky houses in Hampstead.

And views - lots of views down across London.

It seems that there is always a vista to gaze upon.

There are lots of great Georgian homes.

Almost every home has a historic plaque of some sort.

So many different styles of architecture.

The American singer, Paul Robeson lived in this house.

Doors, and windows, and gates, and chimneys and tiles.

We even walked the littlest bit of Hampstead Heath.

Hampstead had this great Queen Victoria mail box.

Since London is all about the Thames River, we decided to spend the afternoon on the water.  We took a ferry ride from the London Eye down to Greenwich.

The water is a great way to take one last look at the many landmarks unique to London.

The bridges, St. Paul's, the railway stations, the Shard, the Monument,  the Gherkin, Canary Wharf, the Globe Theatre, the Houses of Parliament, and the Tate.  They are all visible from the river.

We decided to have dinner at Wren's Landing and were amused to find this sand sculpture of Catherine and William and baby George! 

We had a very nice meal.  Our starter of melted Camembert cheese with honey, garlic, and rosemary was divine!  I decided to try an English tradition - the Sunday Roast.  I had pork with potatoes and Yorkshire pudding.  My Mom had a steak.  All was very good.

Then the mundane reality of leaving intruded on our nice day and we spent two hours packing up our things.  I was so hot and tired and stressed by then end of that I took a long hot shower to recover.  We have two more bags than we started with - no surprise really after three months here.

Tomorrow --- what to do on the last day - I have a couple of ideas.