Driving in London

Driving in London on a Saturday in November is not for the faint-hearted.

We had intended to drive to North London, to Muswell Hill, and drop me and the car at a friend's house for a day of scrapbooking. Well, I was going to do the scrapbooking really, the car had planned to just sit there and rest. Jamie was then to take the tube to Christchurch in Mayfair to drop Grace off for an all day christian youth event and then go on a walking tour of central London with Jack.

But we hadn't reckoned on Christmas shopping traffic. After 2 hours stuck in jams we changed directions and went straight (ha!) to Mayfair instead. This gave us a nice scenic tour of central London.

Stuff we saw, that we hadn't planned on seeing, included: -

trendy Higate Hill and past the cemetary where Karl Marx is buried,
busy Kentish Town,
beautiful posh Belgravia,
past the barricaded streets, with armed british police (I still can't cope with that sight on London streets), outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square,
past a hundred gorgeous, historic churches
and the Central London Mosque with its gleaming golden dome in Regents Park,
across Oxford Street where the whole world was shopping,
Hyde Park Corner, which is a large, horrifically busy roundabout, (I keep telling Jamie the only way to navigage it is to shut your eyes and put your foot down, but he says now we have *children* we can't do that any more,)
and at last to Mayfair where the church we were headed to was parked between luxury apartment blocks.

Grace was in tears at this point, anxious enough about the day already, but now worried we were late. Jamie took her inside and handed her over to friends of ours and she seemed a little happier. Then we darted (taking a hour) back through the Christmas shopping traffic to North London where Wendrie must have thought we'd fogotten her because I was now 3 hours late. Sigh. I found her busily wrapping advent gifts at her scrapping station in their dining room. A warm welcome. I settled down to scrap for the first time in about 9 months and Jamie took Jack back to central London for their trek.
Jack, without his NEW coat (he'd better not have lost THAT one) at Westminster Abbey. Jamie impressed Jack with his intimate knowledge of London and, inside the Abbey, Jack impressed Jamie with some facts about well known historical figures. So, he IS learning something!
Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery in the background. Where is that coat?
On the embankment of the Thames across the river from the London Eye. Is it still the largest ferris wheel in the world? Not sure. I'm still wondering about that coat.
At the Cenotaph where a week ago the Queen and PM laid wreaths on Remembrance Sunday. Still no sign of the coat.
Jamie with some sort of abnormal growth on his ear.

Oh OK, it's Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament. By the way, did you know that Big Ben is the nickname for the largest bell inside the clocktower and not the clock itself?

Jamie and Jack sure saw a lot of London in a couple of hours. They came back to Muswell Hill, we drove back to Mayfair and then the journey home. We spent about 7 hours total in the car, mostly stationary it seemed, so was it worth it?

Well, when we picked up Grace she was buzzing with excitement at her day. She'd had a reunion with friends, had some great Bible teaching, gone shopping in Mayfair, had pizza for lunch and made it through a stressful social occasion. So that was a thumbs up for her.

Jamie and Jack had some intensive time together doing the tourist thing and some male bonding.

I did two whole pages of scrapbooking (hmmm) and had a lovely, social, entertaining time chatting with one of my friends I'd not seen in months.

So, yes. It was a terrific day in London!
And the coat made it home. I just checked.