London Day 28

Chris and I started out by heading down to Roma's coffee shop at the end of her street for coffee and toast. I purchased my Oyster card for the tube and headed out to Monument. We walked the old route towards work and went through Leadenhall Market, I asked a boot shiner if I could take his photo and was rebuffed...fair enough. Looked through some shops and then kept walking to have a look at the Lloyd's, the London Underwriting Centre which is one of the buildings I used to work in. Also took some shots of Fenchurch Street Station. Everything started to come back to me, things we had done, lunches, pubs, walks etc.

We moved on from here after a light shower (typical rain) towards Bank and the Royal Exchange, OK, I know it sounds crazy but I always thought that the big building with pillars that sits between two roads was the bank of England...wrong, it is the Exchange, Chris and I laughed as we had both gotten it wrong for all these years. We kept walking to St Paul's where we stopped for some yum cha, how I love dumplings, little parcels of joy. Took more photos of St Paul's and surrounds, looked at some more shops and then kept walking towards the west end. Found Dr Johnson's House, he published the first dictionary, I had never walked this way before so it was great to see something new, typical London. Moved on to the Royal Inns of Court and then crossed over and as I looked down a side street saw a sign for Speight's (NZ beer, really good). I got really excited and made Chris stop at a pub called the Southerner and bought Chris and I a beer.

After our refreshment we moved on and walked though the Inner Temple and Middle Temple, some lovely gardens surrounded by buildings which I can only assume have a lot of law related business. We headed towards the Thames and starting walking back to Tower Bridge (the pretty one). Called a couple of old work colleagues and ended up at what used to be our regular Wednesday night pub the Emperor for a few drinks. Giovanni was excited to see us and laid on the hospitality thick and fast. Zarina, Rich and Jeremy turned up and after a relax Chris, Jeremy and I headed out for some Indian just near her house before going home.

I did a solid 14 hour day, 230 photos (Chris laughed because I thought she was taking as many photos as me...she only took 126) Yeah, it became a bit of a laugh. The best part of walking around with Chris is that she does not mind stopping every five minutes for a photo.