Farewell Richmond

Final day and night in Richmond; which is bittersweet. On Sunday, I am traveling on the Eurostar train to Paris and I am both nervous and excited.

My day has been action packed and started with a visit to Madam Tussauds; something I wanted to see before leaving London.

What I will say is it is hugely popular and it is best to book tickets online and go early. It is also something where you need a minimum of two people to take photos of each other with the wax works. Selfies are ok, but not quite the same. You are also fighting others to get photos and I think I missed several people I wanted to take photos of or with.

The other place I wanted to see was Buckingham Palace which was great. There were a lot of people there though so I think I probably inadvertently photo bombed a lot of people.

I had a burger and fries at Byron across from Holborn Underground station.

Then I met Cate and we had 'Cream Tea' at Patisserie Valerie which was lovely. In New Zealand, we refer to this as 'High Tea' or 'Devon-shire Tea'. Also, in England clotted cream is used versus whipped cream.

Then we went to the British Museum which was incredible. We started with the ancient civilizations and moved through the centuries. Compared to the Auckland Museum there is just so much to see; it is incredible and we barely even scratched the surface.

The part that blew me away were the pieces from the Parthenon in Greece. Honestly, having studied this at school and university it made me incredibly emotional. I thought that I would never get to see this and to be so close to it is just amazing.

Then we went for a beautiful meal at a Spanish Tapa's restaurant in Covent Garden called Salvador and Amanda to finish the day off.  

 

Then we bid each other a fond farewell at Leicester Square Underground. I know what we will see each other again and it will not take 15 years.

Feeling a little sad (at having to say goodbye to Cate), tired and elated and very full! ❤