London - Day 7 - Sunday

Sunday, our last day! The week has just flown by. On our last big vacation together (the Mediterranean cruise), C, D and I learned to really appreciate the few "days at sea" we'd have between ports. We decided that on our next trip we'll be sure to build in some "days at sea" for rest and recovery, whether we're on a cruise or not!

Our first stop of the morning was up in Bloomsbury and the British Museum (free!) where we saw the famous Rosetta Stone, the key to decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics. I really enjoyed seeing the many Egyptian artifacts and, after having visited the Acropolis of Athens two years ago, it was gratifying to see many of the objects from there as well. Part of me thinks these objects should be back in their native countries but part of me is glad that they're available for lots of folks to see elsewhere. I may never make it to Egypt but I appreciate getting to see some of these amazing items.

We would have loved to stay longer and explored the place some more but by this point in the week we were really on brain overload. We'd read that the best way to visit the museum is in several shorter visits and that's great advice. It's just too bad it's not near a lot of other tourist sites - or even all that convenient to the tube!

We popped into a tourist shop just opposite the museum and D was overwhelmed by the amount of Holmes-related items they had. Naturally she had to have one of everything. Well, ok, not everything but she did threaten me if I found any more Holmes stores as she'd have no money left!

We stopped for lunch at Pizza Express which has a lot more than pizza. It had been recommended by a couple of my British co-workers and we were quite pleased with it.

Afterwards, we split up with C and I heading down south to the Imperial War Museum. Quite interesting and they had full sized tanks and planes in the museum. Meanwhile, A & D were shopping and following up on some Sherlock Holmes stops that we'd missed on our self-guided tour on Wednesday.

We all met back up at the hotel in the early evening and decided to visit our local, the Stanhope Arms, for dinner as they advertised "the best fish & chips" (something we noticed a LOT of places laid claim to!). They were actually quite good and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner before coming back to the room to pack.

I can't believe the week is over already! We're going to be sure we're up in plenty of time tomorrow to take the tube back to Heathrow. A's flight is a bit after ours - and from a different terminal - but she'll ride with us so we can help her with her luggage. Then it's back to Chicago where C will get to head home and D and I will catch our connecting flights.

Another wonderful trip with the girls....where are we gonna go next? Stay tuned!