I walked to Ponders End Bus stop and waited for the 307 bus to Oakwood Station even before the sun began to rise. I caught the Picadilly line at Oakwood and rode it for an hour to get all the way trough London and out to Heathrow Airport. Once at Heathrow, I met David at Terminal 3 and then we headed all the way back to Oakwood station – it was a long journey especially for someone who had just gotten of an airline flight.
After re grouping at Ted Lewis and having lunch, we headed out again back to Oakwood station, and back into Central London. We got off at Leicester Square and walked to the National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery houses some of the most famous portraitures of British figures. The top level had works of all the Queens and important political figures; some 20 feet tall. The second floor housed more modern paintings of Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tony Blair and JK Rowling. My most favourite painting of the collection was a fish eye view of Prince Harry, William, The Queen and relatives relaxing in a room at Buckingham palace that was about 25 feet tall, it was incredibly impressive.
We then walked to Trafalger square where crews were setting up for an art day that is taking place on Sunday. They will have live music, painting lessons and other art related activities. We continued our walking tour of London, using only a “London A-Z” map guide” and walked the stretch to Buckingham Palace ( I felt like a local taking David to all of the attractions, but I have only been here for a week and a day, so I am most unfamiliar with the layout of the city still – it was actually a miracle that we didn’t get lost.
From Buckingham Palace we walked along Regent’s Park where there was a beautiful lake with Pelicans on rocks and people walking their dogs. I noticed some of the massive trees were beginning to lose their golden leaves. It was a beautiful sight: black cabs driving by, people walking their dogs, and leaves falling in downtown London. We turned the corner, and Big Ben appeared above us, we walked across the Thames to the London Eye – the Farris wheel that was put up to celebrate the millennium, but will be most likely a permanent addition to the London skyline (the same is true for the Eiffel tower, it was only meant to stay up for a short time.) We walked back across the bridge where there were vendors selling everything from small quacking puppets to delicious smelling roasted almonds.
We headed back towards Westminster Abbey and rode the underground back home (both David and I dozed off a little on the journey home.) As soon as we arrived home, we hit the sack at 9 pm.
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