It All Ends...

Today we finally got to see the last Harry Potter movie!!!  But I will get to that later. 

We spent much of today visiting some of the most iconic sites around London.  The day started with a guided tour of Westminster Abbey...where a small wedding recently took place (that was what our tour guide kept saying :). 

Our Blue Badge Guide, Kevin

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey has an immense presence in British history.  It is where all of the coronations have taken place in England since Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.  Brian, our Blue Badge Guide, walked us through the coronation ceremony and even shared with us some of the things that have gone wrong in previous ceremonies!  We visited the tomb of the unknown solider, the burial places of Charles Dickens, Issac Newton, Handel, and Charles Darwin, and the memorials to Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and the poets of World War I.  It was unbelievable that so many brilliant people were buried and memorialized in one single place!  My favorite story of the day was learning that Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I (the daughters of King Henry VIII) were buried in the same tomb in Westminster Abbey, even though they loathed each other.

After we left Westminster Abbey we had a picnic lunch in Trafalgar Square...

Picnic Lunch with Zane with Trafalgar Square

and attended a concert in St. Martin-in-the-Fields.  The concert was performed by a trio--a piano, a flute, and an oboe.  I used to play the oboe in high school, I never sounded like the woman playing today. ; )  It was beautiful and a perfect rest before we headed off to our next stop...the London Eye!

 

St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Our last scheduled event for the day was a trip on the London Eye.  The views available to us from the observation pods were amazing! 

Me in front of the London Eye

Zane posing with Parliament on the London Eye

We were all so excited for the views but were surprised when the group that got in the pod after us was a wedding party!  The couple exchanged vows right there on the London Eye! 


After the London Eye a group of us ventured off to Notting Hill to see the final installment of the Harry Potter movies! One of the girls in the program found this amazing little theatre that was showing the movie.  It was a historical theatre so only had 2 screens, both with balcony seats available.  The movie, of course, was perfect but made better by the fact that I am in London and seeing the movie in such a historical setting! Throughout the movie I laughed and I cried.  And when it was all over I had a great group to discuss it with!  

Harry Potter Friends!