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Day 29 - Last Day, a grand ride through London - 16.0 miles

    We wanted to end our trip in a special way. The Lonely Planet Cycling Guide to Britain highlighted a Sunday tour of London and we decided that we would make that our last excursion. We went down to breakfast early so we could get a good start. After breakfast we went to the laundry, washed just enough clothes to get us home and then walked the bikes into the bright daylight with blue skies and puffy clouds. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.

    We took the now familiar route through Hyde park to Buckingham Palace and then rode towards Parliament House and Westminster Abbey. We continued south after passing those famous landmarks and crossed the Thames at Lambeth Bridge. We rode along the south bank and soon came to a park filled with mimes and one and two man acts, all performing for free, hoping for the donation of a pound or two from passerbys. We watched a one man unicycle act, mixed with a comedy routine that had the crowd in stitches for about twenty minutes and then continued on towards the Millennium Wheel.

    We had planned to stop and ride the wheel but the lines went on forever and ever. It looked as if we'd have a two to three hour wait, something we weren't prepared to do. We continued on through crowds of people, looking at all of the attractions along the waterfront. The Lonely Planet route called for us to cross at Blackfriars Bridge but we wanted to continue on to the Globe Theater. We rode through more crowds and terraces, lined with shops and attractions until we reached the Globe. We had wanted to actually attend a play at the theater but it would have to be on another visit, our trip was almost over. We looked at the theater for a short while, it looked small and out of place in this modern city of London. In Shakespeare's day it must have dominated this portion of the London skyline.

    We left the waterfront and backtracked to Blackfriar's Bridge, crossed and headed for St. Paul's Cathedral. We found a fairly stout railing to chain our bikes to and went in for a short tour. I had wanted to see Nelson's tomb but couldn't find it. I finally asked and was told that the tombs were below the cathedral but the guide pointed me to a monument to Nelson inside the main chamber of the church. We rode down Fleet Street and the Strand past Australia and India House to the theater district and passed the marquees of plays such as The Lion King as we continued on to Covent Garden.

    Covent Garden was filled with people and entertainers. We stopped and watched a fellow playing folk guitar and then passed by a two man comedy act, the finale of which was one of the two pulling a surgeon's glove over his head and blowing it up with the air from his nose until it popped. We could have spent hours just people watching.

    We continued on through Trafalgar Square. The square was filled with people and a stage had been set up where Irish Folk Dancers were performing in the same costumes seen in the River Dance special. We stopped and watched in the sunshine and then continued on.

    I wanted to detour from the route and circle through Piccadilly Circus. Jeanette could not see the point but followed me just the same. We rode up and into the crowds, stood at the corner of the famous intersection and then turned and rode back to the route outlined in the Lonely Planet guide. 

    We were almost back to Buckingham Palace but Jeanette wanted to continue on to Westminster Church, a church that she and her mother had visited years earlier on their trip to London. The added excursion took us south of Hyde Park and into another shopping area. We stopped and looked at the church, Jeanette noting that it's exterior had been cleaned since her last visit and it now appeared bright and new.    

    We were so far south of Hyde Park that we decided to go around it's west end and circumnavigate it back to our hotel. We rode along the perimeter and joined a group of elderly cyclists out for a Sunday ride for a portion of the way. I found a pathway that seemed to lead to where we wanted to go and we found ourselves on a street lined with embassies, one heavily guarded with police and barricades lining the street in front of it. As we neared we could see the Israeli flag flying in front of the building.

    We continued on, reading the names of the various country plaques mounted on the columns outside the various buildings until we reached the end of the street. We were west of where I had bought the pistachios previously and so we rode into that ethnically rich shopping area just to look before riding back to our hotel.

    We took the bikes into the spare room where they had been stored and I began taking them apart and putting them into their canvas bags, shielding them with cardboard and newspaper that I had collected over the last several days in preparation for the trip home. Once finished packing the bikes, I washed up and we walked across the street to The Mitre, the pub where we had had our first pint, to have our last pint and our last London meal. I had already arranged for our pick up in the morning by shuttle to the airport. the only thing left now was dinner and a night's sleep before our adventure in Great Britain was over.

Total mileage - 16.0

Epilogue - A war child's thoughts about England and the English