Ye Olde Englande, Week 8: A Lot of Goodbyes

So just about two weeks ago, we finally packed up our things for the last time, and left our last London dwelling place and headed to the airport.  Unfortunately the last few days were marked by noteworthy head-colds, first me over the weekend, and then The Wife for a couple days after just as I was getting better.  It put a sort of damper on our final plans, but we still managed to see a few new museums and a kind of boring 3D IMAX movie.  Highlights also included climbing approximately 528 stairs to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (and an equal number of steps down).  We couldn't quite figure out the Whispering Gallery, but the view from the top of the dome was glorious.  Exploring St. Paul's may even have been in my top 3 activities of the entire trip.

 

 But-but-but...  The song!  It said!

We had a quick look at Notting Hill Carnival, but saw nothing really for us there, and the next day we stood for two-plus hours in the yard at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see an actual Shakespearean play, The Comedy of Errors.  It was another high point, it just felt like a scene out of Shakespeare in Love.

 The theatre!!!

Oh, the drama!

Tickets to the standing-only Yard area were only 5 pounds!  Of course then we had to deal with some vulgar German teeny-boppers who chatted the whole time, but I guess that's what happens sometimes when you stand in the commoners' section.

After Julie's last day of wrapping up her work in perfect time, we had one last dinner out with co-worker Caity and saw Abbey Road (which, to my great surprise, was within easy walking distance from our previous residence).

 Love:  All you need is it.

Then we had some issues with online check-in for our flight the next morning.  Evidently when they switched our connecting flight back in July from Chicago to Denver, they canceled my returning flight.  So, with the stress of packing and making sure our bags weren't too heavy, wondering if I was actually going to get on the flight, we felt ready to go home, but still were always aware in the back of our minds that we were actually leaving the UK.  It didn't take long at check-in for them to sort out the mix-up with my ticket, and they even managed to get us seats next to each other for both flights.  I read a lot of Tolkien and Julie read a little Rowling, and after a day and a night of time-traveling, we said hello to the mountains of Salt Lake City (after a minor security kerfuffle at O'Hare...  bleh), had no trouble getting through customs, and just like that, we were on the other side of this London experience.

Also, since we didn't actually take a single picture of all four of us when Kent and Eliza were in town, here's one that Eliza sent me taken on her camera from our ill-fated, but ultimately successful outing to The Phantom of the Opera:

Great friends, great times!

I'm sure Julie is planning to write a little blogpost wrapping up the experience too, but here ends my "weekly" report.  It was amazing!  Thanks, Julie's work!  (Even though they never did get us the paperwork we needed to leave the country...  Disneyland Paris, one day we will visit you!  I promise!)