Day 6: London, England

We tried our hardest to get going earlier, but beyond walking streets with closed stores and taking pictures outside, there's nothing to do before 10. We walked through Chinatown (nothing open yet), then down regent street to Picadilly Circus (their times square equivalent) and down Oxford street (a major shopping street). It was mostly interesting seeing everyone going to work. A enormous variety of people from low-end labor jobs, to the highest-end government and financial jobs (in lovely navy suits with camel breifcases and beautiful umbrellas). We turned around at the BBC building and walked back east to the British Museum. We stopped in Patisserie Valerie for an Americano in a quaint section to soak up the last sun rays of the day before rain came in the afternoon. Saying the British Museum is enormous is a bit of an understatement. You really do need a plan of attack, which despite my intentions, I never really got to. So we started at the top- to have a few moments of quiet since the rest of the museum is a complete bombardment of tourist and school groups. We made our way down until 12 when we decided to grab some lunch at a little cafe called Salt and Pepper a couple blocks away. Just enough space from the museum for a little respite. Then we returned to the museum to finish the main ground floor with the major attractions of the rosetta stone, the mummies, and my personal favorite section- ancient Assyria. We finally finished walking the entire museum (we may have missed one or two rooms of course) and then walked to a Montrose (a much larger grocery store) and then back to the flat in the rain to rest our legs. We both did a little workout to feel halfway human again and ate some fresh food before heading back down to Picadilly Circus to peruse the shops. We visited the Fortum and Mason Tea Salon and suddenly I feel quite at home. They have 4 beautiful floors of fabulous teas, desserts, meats, cheeses, produce, flowers, home goods, handbags, silver, china, everything beautiful in the world. We meander the streets and window shop until my feet can't do it anymore and we get back on the tube to return another day.Read more