Got on the subway and started planning on our remaining time we had left. We realized that we would not have enough time to visit the Maritime Museum, buy souvenirs, get a brief nap, and be on time to meet with James and his wife (Paul's friend) for our evening plans.
We had to scrap something and it ended up being the museum. We have learned that you "can't do it all" and you should save some things to do when you come back for a visit.
Our plan was to head back towards our hotel and stop on the way and do some souvenir shopping at an open street market Paul had researched in Covent Garden.
Our subway ride back to the hotel required us to transfer and it just so happened it was the station where the Dr. Who Tardis was located. So we popped out of the station and took some souvenir photos:
See those Pizza Zone magnets stuck on the Tardis? Of course, the people standing around there thought that we were totally wacky.....but who cares????? we are tourists!!
After the picture opportunity, we hopped on the subway and headed to Covent Garden. We had a slew of souvenirs to buy.
The whole time we had been in London, I kept telling Paul we just had to take an iconic picture next to a London phone booth......after getting off in Covent Garden, we had that opportunity!
Love those phone booths.....and they are seriously all over the city!
We found a souvenir shop where we purchased plates, beer glasses, tote bags, shot glasses and all other kinds of cheesy London souvenirs.
As we were headed back to our hotel, we passed through the open market and ended up with a couple of pictures for ourselves. Love, love, love this painting:
Since we hit the jackpot at the first store for getting souvenirs for Cris, Aaron, Shay, me, Paul, and whomever.....we had time to go to the hotel room and freshen up a little bit and get an itty bitty nap.
We got on the subway and headed to Stratford (about 45 minutes by subway) to meet James and his wife at a casino and have dinner. Dinner for us was very light (mushroom soup for me and a little sandwich for Paul) since we had eaten a late lunch. We really enjoyed talking with them during dinner and then it was time to head into the casino.
I just have to say that it was very difficult to understand some of the games, but we spent a couple of hours there and I actually came out a little ahead on the money.
Around 10:30pm we called it a night since we had to ride the subway back to the hotel and get all packed up for a very very early wake up call in the morning.
We stayed up for about an hour cleaning the room up and cramming everything into our suitcases. We certainly didn't want to do it in the morning, since we had to leave the hotel by 6:30 am to get us to the airport in plenty of time.
We made it with lots of time, got on our flight.......which was 10 hours going home (we were on a slower plane). They fed us, gave us ice cream, and kept us hydrated and entertained the whole way home. We tried to sleep some.....but that's hard on a plane.
Of course, after we landed (about 2:30pm Houston time), we had to go through US Customs -- which was a more tedious process than when we landed in London. Then of course, we couldn't come straight home....we had to stop at the Restaurant Depot and pick up supplies to drop off at Pizza Zone. We finally made it home around 5pm and then it was time for Paul to go to work and me do payroll (yuck).....but the employees really wanted their paychecks.
It was a fun, amazing, and a once in a lifetime trip and I'm so glad I got to do it with my best friend. We had such a great time and I can't wait until we can take our next international trip again.
We even came back with some English money we had to exchange at the bank!
So as another fantastic journey ends.......there's another new adventure waiting on the horizon!
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