Day 18 - London

We're ending our trip where we started, in jolly old London. We had a busy day, first catching the light rail out to Greenwich. This is where the Cutty Sark, Naval College, Royal Observatory, and Prime Meridian are located. This area of London is absolutely beautiful! We didn't tour the Cutty Sark, but it was neat to see from the outside. Alaine mentioned that it had been rebuilt several times due to fire, even recently. After grabbing some coffee, we hiked up to the Observatory. Along the way, we passed an Olympic construction site for the equestrian events! When I see it on tv in a month, I can say I was there!

The Observatory is really a great place to visit if you have any interest in time, astronomy, or science in general. Even though it's "touristy," I stood on both sides of the Prime Meridian today and was at 0.00.00 longitude! VERY cool! The exhibits were great and we saw the 4 iterations of the first time-keeping devices for ships, a very important thing back in the day. There was also an octagonal room where early astronomers (including Sir Isaac Newton) would come to star gaze. On the Prime Meridian is a telescope that points to true north; the panels above open via a very simple turning mechanism so the sky can be seen.

We then had lunch by the Thames before catching a really big and fast water taxi that took us up river to the Tower of London. The boat ride was fantastic and we even got to go under Tower Bridge. The Tower of London was a great historical stop as it not only houses the Crown Jewels, but it is also the place where much of Britain's less-than-proud history took place. Many Britons were imprisoned here and some royalty lost their heads. Even the Romans occupied this space at one point. The Crown Jewels were quite impressive and no Donna, I wasn't able to snag a bobble for you. The reinforced glass was a bit of an obstacle!

We quickly caught a taxi which whizzed us to our next stop, St. Paul's Cathedral. The admission price was high and I was prohibited from taking photos, but it was still a great church to see. This is considered to be the "people's church" in London. It was designed by Christopher Wren after the great fire in the mid 1600s. Our Capitol building was no doubt influenced by the design of St. Paul's. The mosaic ceilings were amazing and glittered in the light. Appropriately, just as I was about to light a candle in memory of Mom, the priest spoke over the loudspeaker and asked for prayers for the departed.

Next up was Covent Garden to do some last minute gift shopping. After about 2 hours (and some ice cream) we headed to My Old Dutch which was the restaurant we first ate in 18 days ago. Surprisingly, packing went really well this evening and we're all ready for our flight to Chicago tomorrow (I get to be on a Boeing 777 this time!).

This has been an absolutely wonderful trip; truly life-changing. I cannot thank Alaine and my other travel buddies enough! I also want to thank all my family and friends who kept up with the blog...it was really rewarding to get your feedback!

For the last time from Jolly Old...cheers!