Last Night In London

Today was a fantastic day in London- the rain held off until I came out at High Street Kensington tube station after the blogger dinner, and it was warm all day.

We started off with a walk towards the Earls' Court to see if a longer walk was worth avoiding a change of tube trains to go to Heathrow tomorrow with all the luggage. The result was a resounding yes. Along the way, a funny thing happened: we met a nice lady walking her beautiful golden retriever, and made small talk with her as we walked, until her dog pressed her to a faster pace than our leisurely stroll. She excused herself, and I kept wondering why she looked vaguely familiar to me. At the Earls' Court Road, I suggested to Austin that while we were in the neighbourhood, could we go down to Logan Place, where Freddie Mercury lived, just to see the house again, and we took a quick turn to do so. Up ahead of us, the same lady and her retriever turned into the Mercury house as we were coming up to the first gated door, and it hit me that we had been chatting with his longtime girlfriend Mary Austin, who inherited the house and his estate after he passed away. No wonder she had looked vaguely familiar.
We took a stroll through my beloved Brompton Cemetery and took some pictures of the Victorian stone statues and the overly-friendly squirrels. I love the peacefulness of the walk across the gravestones- I know that sounds strange, but it's quite a beautiful walk.



We headed towards the Embankment area and went to visit the Temple Church, built in the 1100s for the Knights Templar and made famous by DaVinci Code. We had quite the history lesson from the curator. We then took another leisurely stroll to the Wesminster Abbey, which I hadn't visited in a long time, and for the first time I became very aware of the tourist throngs. It was enjoyable still, though. Took the tube back to the hotel and had a late lunch and an even later swim, and then went off for the blogger dinner at As Greek As It Gets.
Marietta can certainly choose a good restaurant, and we had a fabulous time together. Marc and Jill were sweet and funny, as were James and Jonathan, and I just adore Marietta for making all these arrangements to meet up with me and make this London stop so fantastic.

I've got to go pack now, as we fly out to Berlin tomorrow. Wednesday night, I am meeting some of the German Who fans at a pub pre-show and then getting my Who fix!!!! I hope everyone's doing well out there!