London Day 8

This was our last full day in London and we decided to spent the bulk of it at the British Museum. I'm not quite sure if this was the best idea because Darryl and I were both pretty tired of being tourists and were ready to go home. At the British Museum, you can't help being a tourist. It was completely packed with people--imagine a mob of people around a glass case containing the Rosetta Stone. It took about two or three minutes before the people at the front thinned out enough before we were able to get our look. The British Museum has such an enourmous amount of "stuff" that it was impossible to see it all. We made it through as many rooms as we could, hitting the high points of Egypt, Assyria, and Britain. We went back to the hotel for a nap and afternoon rest before heading out again for dinner. This was the only time it really rained quite hard while we were in London, as we made our way toward Westminster in search of a halfway decent restaurant. We stopped at a very interesting Anglo-American place and had a good dinner, even though it took forever to get the food. By the time we finished dinner we were able to make it to Westminster Abbey just in time for the Easter Vigil service. This was another wonderful experience involving candelight and Eucharist. It was very much an Easter service, which was quite important to us as we would be unable to attend services on Easter Sunday. It was a late night, the service lasting almost two hours, and we made it back to the hotel by 10:15. Actually, it was more like 11:15 as the UK was moving their clocks ahead one hour that night. This meant we had one less hour to sleep before having to be on the train to Gatwick the next morning. We went to bed that evening satisfied that we had a good vacation. I'm not sure I will ever spend that much time in London again. I could see myself going for three or four days, but not a whole week. The pollution was really getting to be by the end and I think I'd like to see more of the countryside the next time I am in England. All in all it was an enjoyable trip.