Last day in London

Buckingham Palace

By London Day Three, I had only one more precious day to spend in the city, and still so much to tick off my list. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all.

I did manage to drag myself to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guard, where there was a lot of marching guards and drumming and brass bands playing. The crowds were intense and there were barriers aplenty, making it difficult to get close to the action. Perhaps more excitingly, in the park near the palace (I believe it has ‘James’ somewhere in its name. These are the things I need to check and then edit later) I experienced my second squirrel sighting. This time it came right up to me, almost as though begging for food. I almost had a meltdown on the spot.

It was an astoundingly hot and humid day. By the time I’d walked back from Buckingham Palace to the nearest Underground station through a park – not a long walk, I should point out – I was almost dying from the heat in a T shirt and jeans. I never expected London to be so hot.

I’d decided to set aside most of the day for shopping: something I’d done relatively little of while in London so far. There was no way I was leaving the city without a thorough bout of shopping. Shopping centre chain Westfield has built one centre in London near Shepherd’s Bush, concentrating a lot of shops I wanted to investigate into one easy location. Plus it was probably air conditioned. Bonus.

It was almost comforting to walk into somewhere with a familiar feel, and I happily browsed for most of the afternoon in Topshop, H&M, Zara, Republic, Paperchase, and several other stores, leaving with some clothes and a scrapbook for filling with paper souvenirs from my travels.

I knew a visit to London wasn’t complete without seeing Hyde Park, so on my way back to the B&B I strolled through some of the parklands. They’re absolutely massive and it was great to wander through such an extensive park in the middle of a city. The humidity and my shopping bags made it a slightly less than comfortable walk, but I’m still glad I didn’t go straight back to the B&B.

There were still many things I wanted to do that were on my list: go to the Camden and Portobello Road markets, go inside St Paul’s and climb to the top, spend more time in the Natural History museum, have a picnic (not just a walk) in Hyde Park, visit Harrods, perhaps have a high tea…there simply wasn’t enough time. That evening I was due to meet up with my next Contiki tour group, to meet my fellow travelers and tour manager before departing the next morning.

I arrived at the hotel to meet some of the people I’d be spending my next nine days with. And I was very surprised. The vast majority of the group consisted of girls around my age from Australia. In fact, the next day I was to learn that there were only about seven guys on the tour (out of 49 people), and Aussies outnumbered all other nationalities combined. It was a dramatic change from the Europe tour, where there was more diversity and I met people from all walks of life.

It was great to be around people again after feeling lonely in London, and comforting to get to know a few people over dinner and drinks before the tour had even begun.