Bday & Mayflower

Two more full days and this day happen to be Becky’s birthday as well. The day was another gorgeous spring day. My morning walk was so beautiful and full of rays of sunshine coming through all the trees in Kensington Gardens. I got Becky her flat white with oak milk and her favorite pain aux raisin.

She spent the morning running a couple final errands and I did some work and pre-packing. Then we went out to have our final lunch meal at The Stanhope Arms pub. Not the greatest, but the nearest pub to the Daniel House and a place we went many times for a quick meal. This was one of those days. We came back to watch videos the students had done for their British Heritage and Culture class. Tom taught the class, and the students did videos of different monuments from WWII around London. I really believe many students have a new perspective on WWII and a better appreciation of how to react to war in general. I think they now know it is not as simple of right and wrong, but there are many layers to war. Even creating monuments are not simple.

After the presentations Becky and I slowly made our way down to Rotherhithe area. We were here a couple of weeks ago, after our wonderful walk through the auto tunnel under the Thames. We were looking for the Mayflower pub. We found it and enjoyed the food and atmosphere so much that Becky made a reservation for us to have her birthday dinner here. As I dug into the area a bit more, it turns out this was a very important port area of the city and is the actual place that the Pilgrams set sail from the dock that was connected the pub back in 1620. The pub was actually called The Spread Eagle back in the 1500’s when it first opened and was its name in 1620.

One of the reasons Becky wanted to have dinner here is that it had a second-floor dining area that looked out at the Thames. Though the windowsill was full of books and misc. items it still was a nice view. The meal was wonderful and very relaxing. It was also nice to sit and talk about ending our time in London and all that we learned and what was coming up next on our travels. We also had a very early seating time and were able to enjoy a very quiet meal before the crowds started to show up.

The ride back to the Daniel House was a bit bittersweet and we both began to realize that this would most likely be our last tube ride in London. Way back in January we were just figuring out how to get around on the tube and as we wrapped up this last ride, I realized how comfortable riding the tube had become. We arrived at the Glouster Road tube stop and slowly moved our way up and out of the station. Then made the walk back to the Daniel House. We have done this very routine countless times since January and the fact that the Daniel House is so close to this station is one of the things that made this whole London experience so wonderful. A five-minute walk to Glouster Road and you were on your way to just about anywhere you needed to get to. It was very good evening and a bit sad at the same time.