Last Weekend in London

This was my last weekend in London. My last chance to dodge weekend Tube works. My last chance to be crushed by the gaggle of Oxford Street shoppers on Saturday afternoon. My last chance to watch The X Factor on Saturday evening.

Needless to say, some of these "lasts" are more heartbreaking than others. What it really turned out to be was a weekend of catching up on things I've meant to do for three months but never got around to doing.

Friday Deb and I headed over to the Christmas village in Hyde Park. There was a big ferris wheel and, an ice skating rink, kid's rides, a Christmas-themed haunted house, and numerous little holiday shops. When riding the wheel, we could see the London Eye and Big Ben, meaning we were looking wheel-to-wheel.

Saturday I headed over to Paddington Station to see the place where the famous bear was supposedly dropped off. Then, the afternoon slipped away into two museums: The Science Museum, which I'd never before visited, and the Natural History Museum, which was just worth stopping by to see some things that had been overlooked last time. I won't bore you with too many specific exhibits, but I saw a partially built model of the world's oldest design for a computer (adding machine). It's enormous, and its being built for an American Museum in the Science Museum here in London.

Today Deb and I checked out the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace. Pre-ceremony rain almost washed out our chances of seeing anything, but it stopped and we got to crane our necks over a crowd to see two guards march out and take the place of two other guards after witnessing a group of guards march in. They weren't even wearing red because their winter coats were gray. It was a little lackluster in comparison to the changing of the guard in Stockholm.

On the way home we walked by speaker's corner for the last time. The Christian speaker was explaining why Muslims are wrong to riot over the naming of a teddy bear. Across from him, the Muslim speaker was explaining why the Christian speaker was wrong. I'll certainly miss walking through the park on Sunday afternoons.

Sorry I kept this short and choppy, but tomorrow we take the Eurostar to Paris for the first and last time. The train leaves at 6:30 AM, so I need time for sleep.