lara simmons

With only 3 miles to go today, we were feeling good, so we took a short detour to ride the new Elizabeth Line from St. Pancras to Farringdon and then onto Green Park.  The only other place we saw full barriers was at the Westminster tube station (the one closest to Parliament), but all of the Elizabeth line stations seemed to have them. That and AC!  Back to Green Park for Day 4.  A quick stop at Buckingham Palace, where we just happened upon the changing of the guard.  The changing of the guard at Buck Palace.  The Mall that leads to - or in this case away from - Buckingham Palace.  Trafalgar Square.  Piccadilly Circus - London’s Times Square.  London’s China Town. Sadly Lee Ho Fook’s no longer exists, but on the plus side, we spotted no werewolves. However, Mark does claim to have seen a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vick’s.  Covent Garden. Where we hit 26.2 miles and turned off the Garmin. Mission #1 accomplished.    ...

Taking what we learned on Day 2 with us into Day 3, we got a slower start this morning and took things a bit easier - only 6 miles (plus that pesky 0.2) walked today. Starting at our hotel, we made our way towards “the flat” in the City of Westminster where Mark lived from 1991-1994. Happening upon a few things along the way… This is either the Houston Church or the Euston Church, two churches right next door to each other that look confusingly similar. At first we thought “Houston” was a typo for Euston, but nope, there are two of them. If you know which one this is, let us know.  The Telecom Tower.  The flat in New Cavendish St where Mark once lived thanks to Sister Christine.  Turns out Mark is not the only VIP to have lived in the flat. Wilkie Collins, father of the police procedural, was born here in 1824.  Dry British wit on display at the local coffee house.  A thumb drive of tech bros (our made-up collective pronoun of the day - to see more fabulous coll...

Yep, we did 9 miles today and it was a bit much in the summer heat. Round about mile 8 the wheels came off the bus and we had to make some adjustments, but we ended the day strong - and even went for a short walk later that evening after dinner.  The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel at Kings Cross/St. Pancras station, our new home base.  A beautiful old hotel that was once a gem for rail travelers, in the 80’s it was run-down and full of rats, but has been nicely redone and is a great place to stay in central London if you’re splurging on a vacation.  Our first destination for Day 2 was the Barbican, but we saw a few interesting things along the way…. Cool old London building with a black cab just happening by. An old horse trough repurposed as a flower bed.  The Barbican, an area of the city that was bombed during WWII was reimagined as an arts and cultural center. Originally not embraced for its brutalist architecture, it’s grown on Londoners in the past forty-some ye...