Day 15 - London

I woke up early and got to know the [extremely expensive] transportation system of London quite well on my way to Harry Potter World.  Afterward, I trekked back to the center of London to enjoy a wonderful day exploring on my own.  I began with The Queen’s Museum exhibit of da Vinci’s anatomical drawings; most of the drawings are exquisitely accurate thanks to his experience in dissections, others are based on popular belief at the time and are splendidly wrong.  I passed Buckingham Palace on my way to St. James Park, where there are fully domesticated wild birds and squirrels.  There were duck and geese of a sort I have never seen before, swans, and pelicans.  The geese and squirrels will eat out of your hand – or at least look at you expectantly.  I took many, many pictures, and hurried over to the London Eye before my camera ran out of battery.  The views were, of course spectacular on every side of the capsule.  Then I realized we were only halfway up and the views just kept getting better.

At the end of the day, I finally met up with Emily, and we began a three-day date.  We wandered London as the sun was setting, and the city slowly came to life.  The London Eye lit up, then the theatre and other buildings, then the bridges, the trees, and the spotlights.  We found a cute restaurant along the river and walked under trees still lit like Christmas.  We sadly said goodbye to the celebrity of a city for the night and took the Tube home.