July 4: Americans in the UK

We “celebrated” the 4th of July (shhh, our Independence Day from Great Britain) here in London. The special moments were:

Seeing Benjamin Franklin’s house. It had red, white, and blue balloons for the day.

Seeing George Washington’s statue (a bit unceremonious for the day) in front of the National Gallery.

And eating at our beloved and dearly missed Chipotle restaurant!

Here’s a summary of our day…

We had a great day filled with walking and getting our bearings. We took the Tube to the city center (only 20 minutes) with a walkabout starting at St. Paul’s Cathedral,

tourist info office, the Millennial Bridge,

Thames river walk (north bank), Egyptian obelisk, the Benjamin Franklin house (above), Trafalgar Square,

St. Martins in the Fields, Edith Cavell memorial (You need to check out her story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)

theater street, Chipotle, I bought an 1806 map of Africa at Storey’s LTD.,

M & M World,

Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Cath Kidston designer store, coffee at Cafe’ Nero, The Green Park, Buckingham Palace (the standing of the guard!),

the Canada Memorial back in The Green Park, and the Tube back to Shepherd’s Bush. After a rest, we headed the three blocks over to Westfield Mall by the Tube stop for dinner and browsing. Wow! This is an upscale mall!

We started the day at St. Pauls and ended our ventures at s’AINT Westfield Mall of Commerce. Scott and I closed the day reflecting on the impacts of this mall on society, a community, the economy, and the soul. Will we “sell” ourselves out?

It was a day of history, beauty, and great reflections (thoughtful AND ancient building facades on new buildings).

With blessings,

Beth