London, England, United Kingdom
I got up at 7:30 am when my alarm rang but I was still a bit tired. Jill was already downstairs and had eaten breakfast but she had laid out the cereal and coffee for me to have. We chatted during breakfast and then I headed off to meet Leigh at the St Paul's Cathedral tube station. Jill gave me pretty specific instructions on how to get there....if I had only absorbed them carefully.
It took me a little whle to find the correct bus stop in Hampstead. Luckily it was the same number 46 bus as the one I had caught to get to Jill's. When I got off at the end, I wasn't sure it was near the real St Paul's but the driver reassured me and I thought I could see the dome in the distance. I found St Paul's and then looked for the tube station. It was a rather longer walk along the sidewalk to get there than I anticipated. I looked around for Leigh, but didn't see her immediately so I walked off toward St Paul's, circled it from the rear and took a few photos before coming back and sitting on a bench near the entrance to the tube stop.
After a short time, Leigh appeared. But she may have been there already. It was great to see her! Our last encounter was the Antarctica trip that she had talked me into (for which I was very grateful) and before that we had been on two other tours (Central America and North Ethiopia).
When I planned my trip of Wales and Scotland with Marilynn, I found that it was less expensive to fly to London than directly to Cardiff. Marilynn's trip was originally planned for 2020 and I was only going to join her for the Wales part but I was going to visit Leigh in Bristol prior and Isle of Man after Wales. As I replanned the trip, I emailed Leigh and she suggested that she meet me in London after I arrived. She asked what I wanted to do. I was happy to let her guide me (i.e., make all the decisions) except I did want to go to St Paul's Cathedral because I had missed it on an earlier visit because it was closed when I was there. Leigh graciously agreed and her prior visits helped us make the most of our time there.
We debated about doing the St Paul's tour, but the long line I had seen before was now gone and we decided to go in. They offered us a choice of tours - free with entrance fee- so I opted for the shorter one - only an hour I think or was it half an hour? It was just about the right amount of time and the guide was quite good. We learned about the different churches built on the site, including one earlier one that had been bigger and taller but had burned down. After the tour, we clibed up to the tower viewing platform. Leigh had thought we could do the whispering gallery which went aroiud the inside of the dome. That would have been great too but it was not offered. We also walked around the rear side part - I can't exactly remember why now. Leigh took me down a side street to get the iconic view of the cathedral framed by the narrow street's buildings.
Oh, oh, my memory is fading. We were a bit hungry at this point and were debating what to do. I think we found something informal to tide us over but it was substantial enough that we really didn't need anything more.
Then Leigh led me to the Borough Market where we walked around and looked at the various foods and products. I loved the market of course but there wasn't that much really exciting besides a tropical fruit stand where Leigh bought a bunch of different fruits and I bought 4 rambutans but was disappointed when I shared them with Jill and they were not as sweet and juicy as the ones in Indonesia. Who would have guessed.... I still enjoyed going there and always love to see stacks of shiny fruits and vegetables.
I don't remember what else we did, but it was close to 6 pm when Leigh left to go back to Bristol and I caught the bus back to Jill's. I walked around the block to get to the proper bus stop to catch the 46 bus but then managed fairly well getting off the bus and up the street to Jill's place. She was not expecting me back until 10 pm so she had already eaten dinner and I had been hoping to take her out for dinner in appreciation of her hospitality. I ate some more of her bread and cheese and shared the rambutan and headed for an early bedtime but it was actually already close to 11 pm (London time).
2025-05-22