I've got a new theory -- slow goodbye's are harder. While we've liked our stay in London, it isn't something we'd envision coming back to for a number of years (we imagine it being an easy place to visit when we're older and, among other things, less tolerant of change and inconveniences). Having said that, we've both been conscious today of leaving London, for a long time. And, it's had an effect -- we're a bit sad to be going...
As a housekeeping note, the apartment's clothes washer is very small. I think (I'm serious here) 2 pairs of jeans are sufficient to fill it. And, since it's a combination washer/dryer, a load of laundry commits the machine for 3-4 hours. And, on top of that, clothes come out wrinkled, so for shirts we have to time laundry loads so that we're home when the machine finishes. OK, a long preamble to say that Maxine's been managing the machine and our timing. We brought enough clothes on our trip to last us the next 10 days, when we'll be in hotel rooms and without laundry facilities. So, one of the themes of the day is laundry.
What we've got in mind for the day is sort of a long goodbye, sights and places we've liked. We head over to the Design Museum on the south side. We'd read that their restaurant, the Blueprint Cafe has Thames River views, and they have a reasonably priced prix fixe menu. It's a new place to view the city for both of us, and a new place to go to.
At noon, we're just about the only people in the restaurant. But, that means we get a window view, looking out over the Thames, just as we'd hoped. We can see the Canary Wharf redevelopment for the first time in London. The area all around us is redevelopment. We like the new sights and experiences.
After lunch we walk along the water, heading towards Borough Market. Very pleasant in London now that the weather's changed in our favor (after a month of bundling up and always having at least an umbrella in a pocket). Along the way, very good views of the Tower Bridge. We ask a number of people to take our picture with it in the background -- we're shopping for a photo of the 2 of us for our annual holiday card. Everyone is surprisingly helpful. OK, maybe it isn't a surprise, but it does feel good.
At Borough we do a last walk through and pick up some things to complement our planned dinner of scraps left over in the apartment. Cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy (multiple samples to decide from first). We've already got our Marathon coffee from their Seven Dials location. We stop at the Market Porter for one last beer/pub event. We'd read that they used the Market Porter as a set for one of the Harry Potter movies. We have our usual half pints, an Oxford Ales Marshmellow, and a Black Adder. The bartender obviously gets way too many tourists and is impatient and shallow with his explanation when I try to ask about the beers. "It's an ale". Yeah, thanks...
Dinner at home then a last last walk as a goodbye to London. We walk the few steps from our street, Cheval Place, through the semi-secret alleyway, and onto Brompton. Immediately to our left is Harrods, lit up for the evening as it always is. Yes, just a department store and a very touristy one at that, but I feel a possessiveness -- it's our Harrods now after seeing it a hundred times over the last 29 days. We walk the other direction down to the South Kensington tube stop. We've got 5 pounds each tied up in our deposits on the Oyster cards. We turn them in and my pocket feels unusually empty. It still has the plastic wallet in it that they'd given us with the Oyster cards, but I know we no longer have the freedom to stop at any bus stop and get on to some place, purposeful or just wandering London. We'd used the card to save the 10 minute walk to the apartment, but this time we have to do it on foot. Past the V&A Museum, and we're home to finish packing for the morning.
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