Last day in London from Oxford

Dear All,
Long time no blog! We have been staying in quality hotels but there is no computer access. The Botanica tour is fantastic. Only two other couples, a UK blue badged guide and a botanical expert- a gardener from Diggers Heronswood and originally from London. This is like being on a grand tour of old. The other passengers are lovely people so all is well.
Didn't get a chance to complete the blog of our last day in London so that is tonight's effort. We set off early aiming to cram much into our last day. Took our usual C3 bus from Earl's Court. On route was distracted by a couple of Op shops but no treasures to be found. On the way home the previous evening had seen the Saatchi Gallery known for its avant garde works. We visited this soon after it opened. It was such a bright spacious gallery and though some works were challenging we both really enjoyed the experience. Afterwards we took the bus to Westminster Abbey for a mid day communion service as we missed out on the previous evening's Evensong. There was no singing but it was a lovely simple service. We spotted one of the de Carteret graves, a seven year old son of one of Roger's famous relatives who was an advisor to the King. We were asked to leave and join the queue for tourists and pay to have a longer viewing with an audio tour. Once again our Senior cards came in handy. We whizzed around the Abbey as we had much else to do but Roger found his graves of interest. We then had lunch at The National Gallery of London and spent time with paintings from the 18th century and beyond. There were many exciting works particularly the Romantics, Impressionists and Post Impressionists. We then bussed to St.Paul's where we went on a longish walk to the Barbicon Centre to see The Surrealist House an exhibition that showed the spaces important to Surrealists and their predecessors and followers. It included film, paintings drawings and sculpture including many well known works. It was unsettling but well worth booking the tickets. To complete our evening we heard a performance of Haydn's 'Creation' at St.Paul's. Our seats were a long way back but the sound was wonderful and just being in the Cathedral was thrilling. We caught the No 11 bus to World's end. We were amazed that this bus went as far as St.Paul's as it made our travels easy. Caught C3 bus to complete our journey back to our hotel. We then packed preparing for our early start to commence our tour in the morning.
We were delighted with our sojourn in London.

All the best
Jo and Rog



Jo and Rog