After arriving back in London, I stored my luggage in St. Pancras (the train station), that way I didn't have to lug it all around London. I knew that this would be one of my last chances to be alone in London, so I went and walked to my favorite places. I went to Shepard's Bush to look for fabric for my quilt (I still needed some to represent London and Wales). While I was over there, I stopped for dinner at Byron's at Westview (the same place the Avenger's Premiere was at) and I looked around the mall a bit to kill time.
After that, I went back to St. Pancras to pick up my luggage and headed to church, where I would be going home with a friend to spend the night. I went home with AI and we talked all sorts of nerdy things and then when KB finally came home. She let me sleep in her bed while she slept on the couch while her beau slept on the floor. By the time I woke up, she was already gone, but I left a little goodbye/thank you note on KB's bed and left for the train station that would take me to Heathrow where I would meet my family (mainly dad, MH and JH).
We went and dropped our luggage off at the hotel, and then left for Watford Junction, to catch the bus to Harry Potter Studio Tours!
By the time we were done at the Studio Tours, it was around 7:00 and jet lag was finally starting to hit the rest of my family, and all of them fell asleep on the train back to the hotel.
Sleepyhead! I took pictures of everyone, but I'm sure JH won't mind me posting his picture!
We had a bit of trouble trying to find somewhere to eat, since most of the places were closed by the time we got anywhere close to being back in London. But we made our way over to the Notting Hill Fish House to have dinner so that JH and MH could have their first taste of true fish and chips, London style. At that point we were all pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.
The next morning, dad and I were up and eating breakfast, ready to start the day, but JH and MH decided to sleep in. (I guess dad had suffered jet lag enough that he had no problem shaking off its clutches) We took off to Borough Market to get some Mayfield cheese and a chocolate chip cookie for me. We then biked our way to Camden Markets, I wanted to show dad the other sorts of items that they sold (jewelry, shirts, tasty food, old vinyls, etc.)
We got some tasty Danish Pancakes with Nutella, strawberries and bananas and at that point I was really full. So I was glad that we had the opportunity to bike back and forth. We biked back to the hotel and decided to try our luck at waking JH and MH up.
Thankfully we managed this time and decided to bike/walk around some of the more touristy spots of London. We biked past Big Ben and the Eye and continued down the Thames until we reached the London bridge and decided to continue to walk. We walked past Borough Market, where I showed them that they had missed out on the glory of the market and the food. And then we decided to find a pub to sit at so that we could watch the FA cup final (Arsenal vs. Ashton Villa). Let me tell you, while I love being at the actual match and being in that atmosphere, I enjoyed being in the pub. It was a different atmosphere, but there was still the same excitement to be had.
We biked around some more, until we headed back to the hotel we were staying at and crashed for the night. The next morning (May 31) was Sunday, so we had breakfast at the hotel, and then made our way to church. After church, we went back to the hotel, changed, checked out from the hotel, left our bags with the front desk and went to bike around London some more.
This time we biked through Hyde Park, Green Park, around Buckingham Palace, down the Mall and to Trafalgar Square where we stopped in the National Gallery and browsed around looking at pictures (I don't think JH and MH were all that impressed), but I was finally able to show dad "Sunflowers" by Van Gogh.
It was then time for dinner, which we had at Byron at Leicester Square. (I know, I'm absolutely obsessed with this restaurant!) JH accidentally spilled ketchup all over his red shirt when he shook the bottle (Thankfully, there wasn't much damage done). But both JH and MH agreed that these were the best onion rings that they had had in their entire life (I love converting people to Byron).
It was time to say goodbye to London, we went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and headed to Stansted Airport, where we would be staying in a hotel close by so that we could take an early flight to Basel Switzerland!
