Today, after a great sleep, it was sightseeing galore. After breakfast at out beautiful hotel in Notting Hill, we made our way to Westminster Abbey and did the full tour, courtesy of Jeremy Irons' disembodied voice. It was a brilliant experience, and a surprisingly moving one; seeing Newton's memorial, amongst the many others, Poet's corner and the various chapels within the Abbey was surreal. The stunning architecture and history spanning more than a thousand years made this a very special place to visit.
We had a muffin and tea in the Abbey cafe, then made our way to St James' Park, stopping to watch the changing of the horse guard, then following the horses up the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Queenie wasn't allowing tours, so we busied ourselves taking photographs of the courtyard and guards. We visited her gallery at the rear of the palace, and bought a little corgi as a memento.
From the palace we stopped at The Bag O'Nails and had a fish platter and beer/Pimms for lunch, before making our way to Wellington's Arch, which we were delighted to find had a little museum and a lift inside! We went up and took the opportunity to look over the War Memorial and Hyde Park. The plan was to visit St James' Palace, but it was closed, so we traipsed through St James' park, down Regent Street, to Piccadilly Circus. It's a busy intersection, essentially, in the theatre district. We had a little wander around, bought tickets to Derren Brown for Wednesday, and then walked past Whitehall to the National Gallery, where we spent a couple of hours wandering about admiring the (mostly Dutch) paintings. Nelson'd Column was infested with drunk Santa's (we assumed there was a pub crawl) so we made our way back to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament along the Thames.
Back on the tube, we popped back to our room to see where the best curry in our area was, then made our way to Dunbar - a recommended Indian restaurant down the road from the hotel. It was there we had some of the best Indian food I've ever tasted. Tired and stuffed to the gills with Lassie and curry, we staggered back to out hotel to get some much needed rest. Now to organise tomorrow and sleep :)
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