Sunny and -2 this morning.  We decide to go shopping and walking instead of a day trip. We walked across Waterloo Bridge to the south bank.

The air was hazy so looking towards the west, everything was fuzzy.

We went to the shopping area at the Oxo Tower where we found a really good jewellery store that specialized in British designed silver jewellery. Scott was in his souvenir ring hunting element. The shop, called D’argent Gallery, is on the upper level walkway.

From there, we walked to Tate Modern which required a detour because part of the south bank Queen’s Walk was under renovation. We approached the gallery from a perspective we hadn’t seen before.

We had a bit of lunch in the 7th floor restaurant. We’ve been to this restaurant for snacks or lunch every time we’ve been to London. For the first time, we got a window table.

After we stopped at the Globe Theatre, which has been another place too cold to try to experience. They had Christmas events, but it just did not seem like much fun to stand outside in these temperatures. Apparently, there’s a weather warning for tomorrow. Maybe we won’t be able to fly. Somehow that seems to create a lot less anxiety for me than when weather was threatening to keep us from getting here.

We walked from the Globe across the Millenium Bridge. St. Paul’s looked fabulous in the afternoon light.

We walked back to the flat where we started getting things organized to pack up to leave tomorrow. Taking Allie’s stuff is going to be part of the challenge.

St. Paul’s is lit up. The terrace looks like it would be great in good weather. The food was not the best we’ve had this vacation but it was not the main reason to eat here. Unfortunately, we had a particularly snotty sommelier who criticised Scott’s wine choice. Amazing this guy keeps his job when the wines at this restaurant are so expensive. It’s a very eclectic clientele here. Women who were in sultry little black dresses and another in an Abercrombie and Fitch hoody with blue jeans. My Prada trousers and Michael Kors cashmere cardigan seemed safely middle of the road but still well under dressed compared to many. British women certainly seem to like to dress up when they go out.  My dining companions were, of course, stylish.

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We’re now back at the flat needing to pack our bags for our departure tomorrow. I am looking forward to getting back home where our bathroom has a stopper in the bathroom sink. I’ve been using a paper towel to keep my contact lenses from washing down the sink. After 30 some years of contact lens wearing without losing lenses, I’ve lost an amazing number of lenses recently and three on vacation, which leaves me trying to look around with one eye or wearing my glasses which have lenses which are not up to date. And I don’t even want to talk about the fact that I once packed what I thought was an extra pair of lenses which turned out to be an empty container.

Holiday days go fast, but these seemed to have whipped by.  Luckily, for me, I’m planning to meet up with Allie in late February.  So unless we are delayed here by the anticipated snow, it’s bye for now. Here’s a photo of our walk back to the flat this evening.