Since today is Sunday and churches are closed for tourism, we go to the Zoo. It wasn't as good as Amsterdam's Artis Zoo but we had to go. Did you know that the world's first aquarium is here? In fact, they coined the word. Combining Aqua and Vivarium the first Aquarium was created in 1838 at the London Zoo. After walking through the Zoo, we walked trough Regent's Park to pick up the tube to go to Regent St to the Apple store. Ryan has found out that you can only access itunes stores for different countries by having a itunes gift card issued in that country and the only place anyone knew of getting a card was the Apple store. We head back to SOHO for some lunch at a little tapas place and then walk down to Buckingham Palace. Ryan is disappointed the guards have their winter grey coats on. I'm sure they'd rather have the Red coats on because its getting rather warm. From here its a couple of hop on/hop off the tube to get back to Russell square but we're getting good at this by now so no big deal. We head to a nearby pub, The Swan, for Sunday Roast Beef complete with Yorkshire pudding and apple pie for desert. Very filling.
 
Ok, last day, big push to finish off everything. Easier said then done! St Paul's opens to the public at 8:30 so we're there right after. Best tour ever is here. They give you ipod touches that are filled with info. Fantastic! And then there is the Cathedral itself. Breathtaking!! Thankfully we can't climb beyond the whisper gallery into the dome because its under renovations but the crypt is open and Ryan is thrilled. Another stop at the cafe, I'm telling you best food ever is in odd places, and we head off to cross the Thames over the Millennium bridge. We arrive at the South side and the Globe theater just in time for the 11am tour. The exhibitions around it were eh but the tour was worth the price of admission. (Especially when on the plane back I watched "Anonymous" which is centered around Shakespeare and The Globe. Very cool to see in the movie where I had just been the day before.) From here we walk along the south bank, by the Clink prison stopping to have lunch in a pub under London Bridge. (I really could write a book, Good food in Odd Places.) We continue walking through Hay's Market and along the HMS Belfast to cross at Tower Bridge to go to the Tower of London. For 20 pounds, I'd have skipped it but historically how could I have kept Ryan from the Crown Jewels, the Ravens and torture chamber? Good to have done it, don't need to do it ever again. Right outside the Tower is a River cruise stop so we grab seats on the boat and cruise down to Westminster to do the London Eye. What better way to finish up a trip then by being able to see where everything is from a bird's eye perspective? I even stood up and walked a little to the edge when we were at the top! Pretty damned incredible for me. A short cab ride back to the hotel and we head to another nearby pub, A friend at hand, because it had a dog as its mascot. Steak and Kidney pie and my last fish and chips for a while and back to get some sleep before we fly out.
 
Our last half day so we decide to walk across the park to the British Museum. More mummies, Roman artifacts and another swing by the Rosetta stone and its time to head back to Paddington to catch the train the Heathrow. Travel is so efficient that we've got plenty of time when we get there so we grab some sushi and relax. Normally, I have a "No sushi in airports" rule (insipered in Newark) but this was very good and fresh. Another 10 1/2 hours on a the plane and we're back in Phoenix. I think the house was all asleep by 8:30pm. I'm not sure because I was out by 8:00pm.

So much more we could have done but you have to leave something for the next trip...