London 2023 - Day 7 / London

Steps today: 22 662 / 14.94km

Finally an overcast day! Thank God.  The weather has been great, however we are dressed and prepared for 13C so before noon and after 4 it's terrific! But between noon and 4 I am despondent. It goes all the way up to 23 - 25C and it's just too much for me in the sun.

We started the day with another walk through Kensington Garden and Hyde Park, and stopped for breakfast at the Italian Gardens Café. You can't tell from this picture because there is nothing in it to provide a sense of scale, but it's the largest Raisin Danish I have ever seen! It's about the size of an open hand, if not bigger.

We admired the Peter Pan Statue - I've seen it before of course, but not sure I've ever notice all the details in the back. If I have, I forgot.

The Italian Gardens are always beautiful

The plan for the morning was to go to the British Museum, specifically to see the Lindow Man which I keep missing on each visit. We walked along Brook and Marlborough Streets most of the way instead of Oxford just for a change of scenery, and then reached The Flying Horse Pub just as it opened at 11.

I experimented with lemon gin this time in my G&T because at home I make them with Tanqueray Rangpur Lime gin and it's terrific.  This was not. It tasted like sweet lemon candy. I regretted my choice.

We arrived at the Museum just before noon and I baulked when I saw the line-up. Forget it. I know I could have booked a slot in advance, but I hate doing that. I like to be more flexible but I suppose if I ever finally want to see Pete Marsh (Lindow Man's cheeky nickname) I'll just have to relent and do it.

Instead of this, we ducked into a Coin Shop for a while which is like a candy store for Frank, he's a numismatist and was totally in his element. 

Thanks to London being such an international city, lunch was at a Swiss Restaurant that has been on my list for 2 or 3 trips now but I've never made it. Good thing we showed up "early" because we got the last table without a rez and the front room filled up fast! I was lucky to get a shot while it was still empty.

It was a great lunch, despite all the English people massacring the Swiss words on the menu LOL

Needless to say, lunch was heavy and filling! So I felt like I was in slow motion afterwards, in addition Frank's limp-ache was bothering him so we didn't do much!

We poked into a church and took a few snaps. Beautiful stained glass windows...

But I was a zombie. There was an incredibly cute garden café nearby, so I stopped in for a shot of caffeine. Such a beautiful little spot, minus the part where that woman you can see sitting in front of the little hut got mad at me and yelled out: "You're not getting me in that picture are you?"

The picture would have been better without her pissy face in it anyway, but now it's just part of the story! ha!

I ran into the pharmacy to buy some Voltarin for Frank's leg, and then we went to the Foundling Museum which was on my to-see-and-do list.  Interesting, but it was too hot in there and we so so so so dead after that lunch that we didn't linger for long and just grazed the surface of the exhibits.

We were completely spent after this so we got on the tube and went to the hotel for a rest. I didn't even make it that far - I feel asleep on the tube!

Somehow, Lord only knows how, after our rest (about an hour or so) we decided to go out for supper and went to our local Caffé Concerto. Are you surprised?  How I made the food fit I will never know, but I am glad we did it because this was the BEST egg salad sandwich I have ever had in my life!

There was no more sight seeing after this (it was around 6ish when we were done), we were The Walking Dead and happy to be back in the room by 7.

Sometime in mid September, I pulled a muscle in my back. Upper back, slightly to the right. Now it's been a few weeks since this day so I am not quite sure exactly when it started, but must have done something to aggravated it again somehow because as I was helping Frank with the Voltarin on his ankle, I got an excruciating back spasm that completely immobilized me. I was crying out in pain and fell to the floor between the beds, biting down on the blankets to keep from screaming. I have never experienced anything like this before. I don't remember if my back was bothering me during the day or not, but I will never forget this explosion of pain. This must be what it's like to get tazed. 

The contractions went on sporadically all evening, lasting less than 15 seconds at a time, but left me feeling so vulnerable for a repeat. The pain would wrap around to my front and I could feel my side muscles rippling.  I swear for a moment I wondered if I was having a heart attack. 

It was a pretty shitty end to the day!

Day 7 Map: