London Stretch

Alas we are clearly on vacation, and our blog posting lacks consistency--have you ever seen a vacation blog that was consistent? Alas--I will try to catch up. Today was a very wonderful day, and that is what I want to tell you about, but alas--it will come. First we remember back to London. 

After happening upon a beautiful farmers market a short walk away from our place and stocking the fridge with greens, cheeses, breads, and farm fresh raspberries, we ventured to the Portrait Gallery. Highlights for me were Queen Elizabeth the first, Maggie Smith, and this fellow: Thomas Cranmer, who wrote the Anglican prayer book. I snuck a photo... Living on the edge, yes? We also saw Shakespeare and Robert Burns, and King Henry VIII.

Andrew has this little project going where he picks up a Magic card in each city we stay in-- this has ended up in a few adventures already, but this one was the most memorable. We found the location of the shop, but it had moved. They provided us with directions, so we set out by foot. First direction was to go through the graffiti tunnel.

It was a neat thing to walk through, snap a few photos, and know that it will never again look quite as we saw it in that moment.

We walked through a bit of Lambeth, and the area included a number of religious themed mosaics along the way. I especially enjoyed this one:

We found the shop, but it was closed, therefore we got to find it again another day. We walked past Lambeth Palace on our way home. Here is the door knocker ONLY for guests of the Archbishop, or a few other certain people. I suppose it was tempting, but we think he was at a conference elsewhere that weekend.

After we arrived back at the apartment with sore feet, we went for fish and chips with Nigel and Laura at the pub on the corner, Tommyfield. The fish was a whole fillet in a little batter. Yummm! We had wanted to watch the World Cup game, but the seats on the other side of the screen were all taken--so we had great conversation instead. We are all in a period of transition right now, without any fixed addresses, and encountering upcoming new adventures. It was great to be with good friends.