This morning, we slept in a bit to let Celeste rest up. After her meds had kicked in, we went out and meandered around Regent Park, which was very near our hotel. Celeste tried making friends with the wildlife we came across. A squirrel scampered up to her, eager to see what kind of treats she offered. He left disappointed, however, SHE left elated because she got to touch a squirrel! We also got to smell the roses that were still blooming around the park. While the trees were rather bare and the leaves were very sparse, the roses were few and far between but what was there smelled just lovely!
On our way to Hyde Park, we found the Sherlock Holmes museum and house on Baker Street. We went to the shop, but not on the tour of the house.
Right next door was the Beatles Store! Obviously we had to go in there too! Celeste was loving all the hoodies she was coming across in her travels LOL
Hyde Park was our next stop, but it was a little ways away from where we were, and Celeste was still feeling a bit run down, so we hopped on another double-decker, I mean, why not?! This one, we even got to sit on the front row up top!
Hyde Park was the park to walk or ride through back in the day (think Jane Austen time lol). It still is a good place to go riding in, apparently, since we were finding all sorts of (fresh) evidence of horses there. After seeing yet another pile of manure, Celeste piped up "Forget picking up after your dogs, people! Clean up after your horses!! Clearly that's a bigger issue here!" Haha, she cracks me up! We found an amusement park "Winter Wonderland" going on, but decided to pass on that one. It was a pretty cold day, so we found a vendor and got some hot chocolate. While we waited on that to get prepped, Chris and Celeste squatted next to the pond and tried to make friends with the swans, using crumbs they found on the ground LOL
We worked our way across the park, following The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk and across the street where we found a few more monuments dedicated to the regiments in the World Wars.
Just a short walk down the road, we came to Buckingham Palace! That was kind of fun to see!
We decided to keep the Harry Potter vibe alive from yesterday, and went in search of Diagon Alley. We kept commenting on how we loved the look of the taxis around here, so we grabbed a pic of one. Then we found a phone booth, and couldn't pass up that photo-op! We also came across a memorial monument for the great fire that spread through London a couple centuries ago.
We followed the maps and excitedly rounded the corner where Diagon Alley and found...
We had to back track slightly to an actual alley-way and then...we found what we were looking for!
We enjoyed dinner here and then browsed through multiple book shops and started back to the hotel to rest up before enjoying the fireworks bringing in the new year!
We set alarms just in case we all fell asleep, and then we got up and dressed warm, looked out the window at the Winter Wonderland (from the park) and noticed a few early fireworks going on.
We went to the sidewalk near Regent Park and counted down to bring in 2025! This was what Celeste had been waiting for! Even with feeling yucky she couldn't help but prance down the street!
