21 April 2007

London - Day 7 - 17 April

the following is from my journal:

I am trying to eat a croissant while I write. Is there a tidy way to eat a croissant?! I am really dying to turn the TV on and hear more about what happened at VA Tech but Jonny is still sleeping. Oh, forget it, it's 9:30, I'm turning it on!

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Our last day in London was very low key -- I think we are both ready to be home.

We went to Bunhill Fields Cemetery this morning. I had read about it -- it started as a plague cemetery and then was sort of a cemetery for Non-conformists. It was very beautiful.


And I am so glad we went today. The weather had turned very cool at last, so the sky was very grey but there were such beautiful trees and flowers -- daffodils and lupines and cherry trees... It was comforting somehow, peaceful, to be there with so much tragedy on our minds. My heart just breaks for all of those families back home.


After the cemetery, we walked to Brick Lane to find another place I had read about, the 24 hour Brick Lane Beigel Bake. That place was awesome! I got a bagel with cream cheese for 70p. Jonny and I are terrible because as soon as we finished our bagels, we got right back in line. (I was actually still eating mine in line -- so pathetic!) Mmmm...

We took a train to St. Paul's and crossed the Thames to explore a bit more on the south bank. We went back to the Tate Modern (the scene of our ridiculous fight!) and wandered around for awhile in there. The building is amazing, but most of the art in there just left me feeling confused. I felt like I wasn't "in" on the joke, or something. Maybe I just don't "get" Modern Art. How is a canvas with a single, straight cut in it art? How is a big canvas painted solid orange art? It's orange. It's big. You could hang it on your wall. Is it art? I didn't feel anything looking at it. I just looked at it and I walked away and I thought, "Wow. That person bought a lot of orange paint to cover that big canvas. They must like the color orange or something."

So I left the Tate feeling pretty stupid and completely lacking in artistic sensibilities, which was sad because I had really wanted to go there -- and we went to see the new Globe theatre and the site of the old Rose theatre. (Disappointing -- there is just a plaque on the side of an office building that says "site of the Rose Theatre." No wonder it took us forever to find!)

Then we walked to a fantastic Spanish tapas restaurant Jonny had read about. So we finally had our tapas! And we had the best sangria. Which I had never had before. Which I now love. Jonathan drank most of it, and he got a little rosy cheeked and silly.

Jonathan: I'm so glad you like sangria. Um, sorry, I drank it all.

Then we had profiteroles for dessert -- cream puffs covered in cream, chocolate sauce and then whipped cream too -- with delicious cappuccino and then stuffed -- absolutely stuffed -- and satisfied, we took the tube back to our hotel.

Now we are just packing and watching tv and eating crisps. It's nice to really, really relax finally.

I cannot wait to see my babies! I doubt I will sleep a wink all night...

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