A Relaxing Day in London

Riding the double-decker! A real highlight of the day for Clara. :-) We were on our way to Oxford St for some shopping. We spent some quality time at Primark, a clothing store know for it's insane deals, like men's dress shirts for $4 GBP, shoes for $3 GBP. Clara spent some of her money and left with an outfit and 2 pairs of shoes.

After shopping, we all met up with Alison, another friend in London, for lunch, and then explored Hyde Park (after discovering the Natural History Museum was closed). Our first stop was a Frank Gehry temporary exhibit in the park. It definitely appealed to my architectural tastes...

From there we meandered along the Serpentine, Clara found some blackberries worth eating (on the wrong side of the fence of course), and we spent some time at the Princess Diana memorial.

In usual Temer fashion, we were not content to call it a day yet! We said goodbye to Alison, hailed a cab, and met up with Andrew, Katherine, and their good friend Catherine in the Marylebone neighborhood. We ate at a place called Giraffe, know for its family friendly dishes from around the world....
....and also know for it's crazy long-necked plastic colored giraffes that usually come in their cocktails, but were provided on request for Clara's entertainment. Which quickly became OUR entertainment as well!

So that was yesterday..today was a bit more relaxing yet..a visit out to Thorpe Bay (an hour outside of London by train) to visit Mum's other cousin, Mary, and her husband Nick. We had a nice time with them, having drinks, catching up, eating a great meal, and then training back home.
It was also Clara's first chance to ride the Tube! The Maida Vale stop is closest to A&K's place. By our return trip Clara was reading the Tube map and counting stops like a pro!
Mary, Clara, Nick, Katherine & Andrew gathered round the table for dinner. It's been 11 years since I'd visited them, and it was really nice to catch up!

More to come..Clara and I have the next two days on our own (alas, everyone else here has to work...) to explore London.

Cheers