Heading Home

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With our flight home not scheduled until the afternoon, Kevin and I wanted to get up early in order to get in one last bit of sightseeing before making our way back home. We started walking to this place we had gotten a recommendation for breakfast called Bill's on Kensington High Street. As we cut through a neighborhood, we found a bike rental stand and had the great idea to rent bikes for the morning for our sightseeing. With our newly rented bikes, we rode the rest of the way to Bill's for breakfast. With our stomachs filled and bodies warmed up with coffee, we rode our rental bikes through the cool crisp morning towards nearby Kensington Park. The park was peaceful at this early morning hour as we rode through the park where the leaves had begun to change into their fall colors. Other than the ocassional early morning jogger and the groups of girls walking back home in last night's outfits after a night of clubbing, we had the park mostly to ourselves to enjoy. We had a quick stop at Kensington Palace and the Prince Albert Memorial before making our way back onto the main road, through the Wellington Arch towards Buckingham Palace. Now amongst hundreds of other tourists, we took our obligatory photos, soaked in the scene, and took a moment to let it sink in that we were at the home of the British Royal Family. Continuing on through The Mall, we rode under Admiralty Arch towards Trafalgar Square. We ditched our bikes for a moment as we walked around checking out the famous lions and trying to figure out what the huge gathering was for that was taking place. We were eventually asked to clear the area as the gathering seemed to be some sort of sea cadet ceremony or graduation. As we were leaving, I noticed a new sculpture that was not here the last time I visited back in 2005. The sculpture entitled "Really Good" was a hand giving the thumbs up and humurously resembled a oddly shaped butt plug. Instead of trying to fit in one more London landmark, we decided it was best to return our bikes, have a bite to eat at Pret a Manger, return to the hotel, and eventually make our way to Heathrow Airport for our American Airlines flight back home to Los Angeles.

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Photos

Kensington Gardens
The Prince Albert Memorial