Wrapping it all up

I sit here, my final night in London. I think I'm finally to the point where I feel like I'm ready to come home. I've had an amazing run, got some perfect pictures, and made some fantastic memories. It's time to be in my own bed once again, using my own shower once again, paying for things in dollars once again. Little things that make me grateful to have a home to come home to.
These last three days have been incredible in London. On Monday, we grabbed some breakfast and I did my laundry (clean clothes are such a necessary luxury). We went down and looked at the “Britain at War” museum, but I didn't really want to pay 9£ for it. Noah was a really good sport and came with me to the Tower of London where we did the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) tour. It was fun, and we learned a lot about the history of London- a good overview. In addition to that, we got to walk through a room and see the Crown Jewels. Noah and I joked:
“Look down at your ring.
Now look at mine.
Now back to yours.
Now back at mine.
Sadly, your ring is not 530 carats. But it could be...”
I wanted to meet up with Steve Peris at this organ recital he'd said he was going to. We got there 20 minutes late, and the church was already locked up. I think we may have gotten the time wrong or something. We had authentic Fish and Chips for lunch. It was super greasy, but tasted pretty good. If I have to eat fish, that's how I'd choose to do it :)
We decided to head over and get our free boat tour of the Thames, so we got in line for that. I bought a thing of milk on the way, and so I drank that while I was standing in line. We've had absolutely perfect weather here (Monday was bright and sunny), but standing in the sun, on a pier, waiting for a boat to come is not the best time to down 2 pints of milk. Needless to say- I didn't enjoy the boat tour as much as I could have :/
We headed up to the British Museum next. As it was described to me “At one point, the British Empire was everywhere, and they took all the cool stuff from that time, and put it in one museum”. That was pretty much it exactly. We saw the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian statues and Greek columns, Chinese jade and Assyrian tablets. It was a really great glimpse around the world.
At that point we came home and got ready for the theatre- we went to see Les Miserables that evening. We went to the Queen's Theatre, and sat down to enjoy the show. We had some German high school students sitting behind us, which was kind of cool. Until the show started, and they didn't stop talking in German. For the entire show. The show itself was incredible. Noah and I agreed that Marius had a bit to much “warble” in his voice for our liking, but everyone else had phenomenal voices. I've only ever seen Les Mis as performed by Westwood high school earlier this spring, and had just assumed that some of the show had been cut and simplified a ton for high school theater, but (as far as I could tell) apart from the rotating stage (which I LOVED!) the show was exactly the same as what I saw here on West End. Impressive.
Tuesday was quite the adventure. We went to the Science museum first thing, which was good because as we left at noon, the line was out the door and around the corner- so many little kids with the summer free. We went to exhibits on steam power (of interest to Chemical engineers), the progress of medicine (for someone thinking about pharmaceuticals, interesting), the history of plastics (a huge branch of chemical engineering), and the history of telephony (just interesting in general).
So, in Tempe, I signed up for Zipcars, this company that lets you just rent a car (gas and insurance included in) by the hour. I noticed a while ago that they'd expanded to London. And thus the idea was hatched “why not drive through London?” Now, driving in London is stupid. You can get anywhere around the center of the city faster with public transportation than you could with your own vehicle. So I had to get more creative- where could I take a car?
To the TEMPLE!
That's right, I got a reservation for 5 hours for a Mini Cooper from the train station at Waterloo, to drive out to the London temple (about 10 miles out of the city). What an absolutely brainless, stupid, dangerous, challenging, awesome idea! :)
The Mini was unfortunately broken, so we had to get a free upgrade to a BMW 318 (I know, major bummer right?) Noah sat in the passenger seat on the left side of the car and navigated, and I sat in the right seat behind the steering wheel and pretended to be able to drive on English roads.

It was, without a doubt, divine protection that kept us from any major accident.

I have to put “major” in there as a qualifier. I did a really good job at staying in the left lane (so hard!) and turning and everything. At one point though, I drifted just a bit to the left and my passenger-side mirror clipped the mirror of a car parked on the side of the road. It broke our mirror, but that was it. I called and reported it to Zipcar, got everything squared away, and then we continued on to the temple.
The London temple is incredible! I mean the temple itself is huge, but the grounds are breath-taking! There are green rolling hills and open meadows, glens and ponds, paths and bridges. I wandered around just thoroughly enjoying the light English rain that was falling all around. We didn't have enough time for a session, so we didn't get to go in to the Celestial room, but the rest of the temple was still wonderful.
I did really good driving home as well. At one point, I was going 65 mph. In 3rd gear. My truck might be able to do that in 4th, but probably would have to shift by then to 5th. We were in a really nice car. I tried to do my best taking care of it and driving right back to the spot. I thought we had it, no problem. Until we got lost coming back in to town. I think at one point, we were planning on taking a street from a roundabout that was one-way no entry (PS- roundabouts got the opposite direction in England. BLOWS my mind!) so we all of a sudden were driving over the London Bridge. Whoops :) We did get the car returned, just in time to get to rush across the city to watch “Love Never Dies”.
Andrew Lloyd Webber waited 24 years to release the sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera” and my dad has been listening to the music to the show since it came out. He was at least a little bit jealous as I informed him one of my Eurotrip stops was “Love Never Dies”. And that I'd be seeing it with the original London cast.
The show was really good. It's set at coney island- so it's a lot gaudier and more vaudeville than Phantom, but it was amazing. We saw the understudy for Raoul, but other than that, we got the original cast, and they did fantastic. Weber has still got it.
This morning, Noah and I decided to split up. He went back to the science center and I had some shopping and touring that I wanted to do. I went first to Leiscester square to see if there were any good matinee shows on sale, there weren't, so I headed over to Covent Garden. I wanted to visit the infamous market that they have there. I was actually quite disappointed. There were only a dozen or so stalls set up, and they were either shirts and whatever, or really high-end boutiques. I only bought a couple of small things.
My next stop was through Green Park to St. James' place to see a bit of the “Changing of the Guard”. It was insanely crowded there, so I didn't stay. I went and caught a tube and rode the line as far as I could. I came up looking for somewhere that I could get a Cornish Pasty for lunch. To my surprise, there was a stand right at the exit to the underground. It was really good (see the uploaded picture).
I then went and met up with the free walking tour of London (same group that did the ones I'd enjoyed in Berlin and Paris). Giles was my guide this time, and he was pretty good. The tour wasn't nearly as good as the Berlin or Paris ones, but I think that that was because London is so much biger and spread out that you just can't walk and see it all. So we focused on “royal” London, which was still cool. He told us about a pigeon-eating pelican, about various break-ins to Buckingham Palace, but my favorite story was the best method that the city of London found to clear the pigeons out of Trafalgar square- They feed the pigeons and lace the food with pigeon-contraceptives. Apparently, the pigeon population has dropped greatly :)
I came home and took a nap (those walking-tours will drain you!). Our plan was to head off the the Royal Albert Music Hall and see a Proms concert. In checking the dress code, Noah noticed that I'd originally looked at the wrong Wednesday, and that they was no concert tonight. Plan B- download a free audiotour of St. Paul's Cathedral. We got that all lined up, and then walked over there to find out it was already closed for the evening. :(
Plan C... Shopping! We went and got some dinner and did a bit of souvenir shopping on Oxford street. By the time that was wrapping up, the sun was just starting to set, so Noah and I headed over to the Tower Bridge and watched the light fade and the city light up. This could have been a really romantic trip if I had been traveling with a wife in stead of an old missionary companion. It's been really good though. We spent a while reminiscing and talking about the trip, and then decided to head home so he could pack. He flies out at 8 tomorrow, I have until 2:30, so I'll pack tomorrow.
Well, this may be my final blog from Europe. It's been good while it's lasted! Hope you feel the same :)