The day started with breakfast again. Adam headed off to his last day at the conference. I stayed behind to pack everything up so that we were out of the room by 11:00. After everything was packed up, I purchased our tickets to see Wicked this week in London. Neither of us have seen it, and I just read the book this year (he had read it previously).

I headed out the back path again to take the river walk, and passed the horses on the way. One of them was closer to the fence, so I picked some clicked my tongue to try and get his attention (boy, did I feel like an idiot begging for his attention).

 

 

 

Off to the center of town I go again. I headed to the Church again, with plans to climb the tower. I’m glad that I did.

 

 

 

I next headed to the Museum of the History of Science. This encompassed a large old building, with three floors. The top floor was a lot of mathematics-based items from various cultures through the last few centuries. These primarily included abacuses, measuring devices, some of the first globes, and various telescopes for astrology and astronomy. A lot of this was over my head, and definitely not in my wheelhouse or interest groups. The middle/main floor was a kind of smattering of items. The basement level had things that I was more interested in. I saw some remnants of the original mould sample used to create penicillin back in the 1930s/1940s. I learned about the “P patrol” that collected urine from patients and ran it back to the labs to salvage any penicillin that could be re-used for the next patients (gross). There were other old medical devices, including some of the first surgical tools, an old breast pump, a stomach pump, and old wooden stethoscopes. I took some pictures, but none seemed blog-worthy; they were more or less quick snaps.

After this, I headed to find some lunch. I discovered Cafe Creme down the street.

 

 

I met up with Adam after this, as he was finally finished with his conference (yay for officially being on vacation!), and we headed out to find him some food. He chose some grab-and-go grub from a place that prides itself on organics and making everything fresh in-house throughout the day to keep their shelves stocked. I had some mac & cheese there as well (I can have two lunches, right?), because I was drawn in by the addition of pancetta and cauliflower. It was quite good! Adam said his food was also pretty good; a sandwich for lunch, and a salad for later.

 

 

After this I got an Oxford University sweatshirt (I need to make sure I live up to the title of “tourist”), and we headed back to the hotel. We claimed our suitcases, and grabbed a cab to the bus station at Gloucester Green again. Back to London we go!

 

 

The bus ride was nearly a full three hours. Naturally, we made the poor choice of heading to London during rush hour. Once we hit our stop, we caught a cab to our hotel. We actually got a full little apartment, and it was cheaper than the standard rooms! We’re pretty sure it’s because you have to walk (literally) to the opposite face of the same block (so all the way around to the back side) to get to our apartment. However, we have a little dual-function washer/dryer unit, a fridge, and a microwave. AND A/C!!! I’m so excited about A/C. Now I can have COLD diet coke, and we can actually plan to bring leftovers home as well as stock some small snacks…time to save a little money on the food around here.

Adam is off gathering asian food for us for dinner. He decided to give the tube a shot for transport, since it was a 2 minute ride, or a 15 minute walk. He told me he got there fine, but went the wrong way at first. Oops… I didn’t go with because I’m hangry and grumpy and decided to spare him the torture of dealing with my mood while we tried to navigate the public transportation system for the first time. On the up side, I finished this entire blog post in the time he’s been gone!

Total steps: 14,741

 

ttfn

Emily and Adam