London - Downtime

Up to this point, we had done a serious amount of walking and a calm day was in order. Granted, the calm day was still a fair amount of walking, but at least we got to sit and eat a bit.

The entire cafe was scooter themed. I don't know why it was scooter themed, but I loved it.

I was told that the cat in the cafe was not a sanitary issue because he was actually an employee.

Looking back through photos from the day, it actually looks like this might have been the day we decided to finally get caught up on all of our local cuisine.

The curry in London really is as good as people say.

With satiated appetites, we made our way across the bridge to Buckingham palace.

One of us said "Fuckingham Palace" and neither of us could keep a straight face for the rest of the afternoon.

After a brief detour to 10 Downing Street to see where the real governing happens, we meandered around the historic sights and government buildings. I was so shocked to see that Scotland Yard was actually in London that I forgot to take a picture.

My notes say this is Lambeth Palace, but I'm not sure that's right.

The locals love it when you call it WestMINISTER Abby.

Another Nerdy Tangent

Anyone who came to our house in the years leading up to this trip was forced to watch at least four episodes of any Mitchell and Webb sketch show. There were entire conversations that my wife and I would have that were just us quoting (or misquoting) our favorite sketches. Hell, here I am in 2025 writing about this and I just referenced the Bigger Spoon sketch this week in a work meeting.

So, naturally, we had to find a place to recreate one of our favorites.

A+ for my wife's performance. C- for my camera work.

The National Gallery

Our downtime, if you can even call it that, was rounded out with the most English of experiences, afternoon tea – both a drink and the most important meal of the day.