Day 2 February 28th London

We slept well and got up a little later than usual - probably an effect of our stressful end to yesterday's journey. 

By the time we had our ample breakfast we felt much better and ready for another day although the weather did not look too promising.  It was steady rain and so we decided to the Victoria shopping mall to buy some last minute holiday shopping requirements.  We 

Westminster Cathedral

did this, had a coffee at Costa 

Christine at 85 Ashley Gardens

and returned to the hotel

to deposit the goods and get our full waterproof gear.  We then had a brief walk finding Westminster Cathedral and 85 Ashley Gardens which was Christine's initial nursing home when she started training.  It now looks as if it is a smart office for a local company.  A bit of nostalgia which filled up the latter part of the morning. 

 

We had arranged to meet niece Roz for lunch at Victoria station.  We admired the smart clock outside the station as we returned. We duly met Roz and because of the inclement weather we decided to eat at one of the many restaurants within the confines of the concourse.  We chose Prezzos and all had an acceptable meal.  We chatted and updated each other on our different situations including hearing about Roz's recent visit to sister Jenny and Connor in Durham.  We spent just over two hours together and look forward to meeting again sometime soon.



Victoria station clock

It had almost stopped raining by

Buckingham Palace

 this time

and so Christine and I decided to go for a walk to view some of the famous local sites. We walked down the road to Buckingham Palace then past St James Park down the Mall to Trafalgar Square.  All very grey and not quite raining.  We continued down Whitehall  to

Parliament Square and then down Victoria Street to the hotel.  No demonstrations or other large activities were taking place.  

St James Park

When we arrived back we had

Nelson on his column

 a cup of tea and discussed the evening eating arrangements.

 

 

We decided to get some sandwiches (having had a large breakfast and a good lunch) and stay in.

Whitehall guard

 We duly did this and are now planning to watch an old episode of Vera which is showing tonight on ITV.