And so it ends….

Ah, my time in London is coming to an end. I started my day with breakfast at the Novotel courtesy of Globus. The breakfast buffet is getting a little boring, as it’s very repetitive – eggs, ham, mushrooms, beans, hashbrowns… Very boring now. After breakfast, I packed my things, checked out, and headed for the tube station at Hammersmith. I now have my massive suitcase, my heavy backpack, my doctor’s bag, my matching purse, and this morning I had my messenger bag as well. I was halfway to the tube station, and taking a break to rest my weary arms, when I realized I had left my purse on the bed in my room. So, I turned around (with all my stuff) and headed back to the hotel. Wayward bag in hand, I chose to take a taxi to my new hotel at Hyde Park - $15p later, I has at the hotel, and being ‘mamed’ to death by the hotel staff.

I left my bags at the hotel, then headed to the National Portrait Gallery at Charings Cross. Admission was free, so I was happy to shell out the $2p for the audio guide, and had a lot of fun (I’m a nerd, remember), going through the galleries with Tudor, Jacobite, Stewart, and Victorian portraits. I was hoping to pick up a museum guide in the shop, but they only had guides relating to specific galleries, so I grabbed one on the Tudor/Jacobite collection (as well as some magnets for my fridge). I had a crappy sandwich at the gallery café, then headed to Richoux for cream tea (again – but yum…).

On my way to Richoux, I almost got caught up in a massive protest against the Afghani/Pakistani (?) war in front of the American embassy. It was a massive crowd, but it was all men – no women anywhere. Continuing on to the restaurant, I was disappointed to see it was packed and there was a line, but the woman behind the counter assured me that it wasn’t going to be a long wait as there were some groups that would be leaving. I still had to wait 20 minutes, but it was totally worth it; a 3 cup pot of tea, 4 mini-cinnamon/raisin scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam? Heaven, I assure you.

After tea, I headed up to Bond Street to find a cash machine as I was completely cash-less, and still needed to figure out how I would be getting to Heathrow tomorrow morning. I was walking up the street, and noticed a plus-sized store (a little odd, for those who know about the plus-sized market). I stopped in for a look – a lot of the clothes weren’t all that great as they relied on wearing tights (which isn’t attractive on plus-sized women), but I found a dress and a blouse. For British pounds, the clothing was reasonably priced – my clothes, plus a necklace, came up to $60p. The guy at the counter surprised me when he asked it I wanted to pay (on my credit card) in pounds or Canadian dollars. I was surprised to be asked so, without thinking, I said Canadian dollars. It wasn’t until he showed me the receipt that I realized I could have made a huge mistake – the company could have given me a shitty exchange rate, but it was, in fact, better than what the bank in Orleans gave me (of course, I don’t know what the actual rate is right now, so maybe I got screwed over in the end).

By this time, I was exhausted – I think the last three weeks have finally caught up with me. I headed back to my hotel, rested for a couple of hours, arranged for a shuttle ride to the airport for tomorrow (for $19p), then had dinner in the hotel restaurant. I sat down at 6:30 and was the only on in the restaurant for the entire time. The food was amazing though – I had the seasonal menu which started off with cream of asparagus soup, the roasted chicken with bacon, roasted asparagus, and a cream mushroom sauce. It was pretentious, but extremely delicious. I get a free breakfast tomorrow with my room fare, but after that, I get to go home! I’m looking forward to crashing on my own couch, sleeping in my own bed, and getting to shower in a full size bath tub! To bed now!