Day Four - Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Did I mention we only have six full days in London? I have been away for 36 years, lived here for six months and I only have six days. Which means forget sleep and see the sights. Fortunately Madelyn and Gary are with me.
So still struggling with jetlag (and finding the time to write this blog which is why the published dates are so screwy) the three of us got up before the sun and hit the streets of London to walk three miles to St. Paul's Cathedral to tour the church and climb the galleries to see the sights of London.
Traveling with Madelyn is the best. She finds great food stops. On our way to St. Paul's she found Gail's (like Starbucks but so much better) where we fueled up on lattes and pastries. We hoofed it there in record time and grabbed the audio tour to learn about Sir Christopher Wren's architectural masterpiece.
The church is breathtaking both the main floor and the crypt where many legendary Englishmen and women were buried. Interestingly, they have added video to the artwork a nod to the 21st century along with commentary on the state of civilians with God and the Church.
Madelyn discovered the 520-step staircase that allows both spectacular interior views of the cathedral and if you so choose to keep climbing, vertigo inducing views of London from the almost tallest roof point of St. Paul's. After checking out the views and as we descended the stairs and hurried through the cafe and gift shop no truer words were uttered by the staff which proclaimed, "today is going to be a total shit show." (Likely because it was December 23 and the Church was closing to visitors for the next few days but still prepping for the upcoming Christmas services. And with that we ran to catch up with Ben, Charlie and our tour guide Gary who was to lead us on a Secret Food Tour of Borough Market. 
Borough Market 36 years ago was a wholesale market and completely out of my consciousness as a student. Now it is a food lovers paradise that instead of being torn down has been converted into a food hall and British like farmer's market. Here our guide Gary spewed a multitude of facts he served up from Google and jumped the lines to get us "traditional" English food fare which included a fried egg sandwich with H&M sauce, fish and chips with mashed peas, sausage rolls and mead wine.
Every adventure with my family has ups and downs that include issues that extend beyond my inability to master technology. A significant down happened when Ben and I squeezed onto a crowded bench in a small tent in the Market to enjoy our fish and chips. A lady with THREE kids needed to find a place to sit and eat her food. So, Ben moved over to give her space that was really nonexistent for three people. Unfortunately, he moved next to the cup of scalding hot black tea I was drinking so it poured onto my leg searing my skin. The pain forced me to jump up and fall on my butt almost pulling down the makeshift fish and chips tent with me. It was one of the most painful and embarrassing moments I had this year. What was worse was I screamed at Ben and the lady taking the space bench could not care less. Welcome to travel at the holidays in Europe.
We ended our adventure at a traditional pub where tour guide Gary gave us traditional English cheeses and toffee pudding with clotted cream. This was similar to a dessert we had a Bob Bob Ricards and equally delicious. Sadly, I had closely booked our tour of the Tower of London (remember I only had six days and everything closes from December 24-December 26) so we sprinted through the crowds of London to get to our 2:30 pm time slot. Again, not my finest behavior as my family was almost flattened by the thick street crowds as we ran to the Tower along the river Thames. But we made it at 2:29 pm.
The Tower of London was one thing I do remember touring 36 years ago. And as I walked the prison grounds looking at the armor of the knights, the crown jewels of the aristocracy and the walls and rooms of the fortress I thought this visit was no better than the last one three decades ago. Overwhelming, laborious and just not that interesting. As the sun set and our weariness continued, we were determined to see one more sight.
So, off the Tate Modern we went. There were some very eclectic modern collections to see, but the group was tired, hungry and perplexed on the merits of the art. We left to collect our prepurchased dinner at Sainsbury's market. We bought kits of premade food as we feared the Airbnb would be lacking proper cooking utensils to create a proper Christmas dinner.
Sainsbury's was insane! Of course, it was so close to Christmas everyone needed to shop. In addition to gathering our Christmas dinner and breakfast we got our dinner for the evening and marched back to 137 Fentimen Road.
After dinner we surprisingly rallied and went in search of the neighborhood pub. We strolled in and found a pub quiz happening! And even better a team needed our help. So we stayed until the pub closed we drank multiple pints of Guinness and cider and managed to come in dead last for the quiz game. It was a really fun night.
