London Day 7, the end

A little late, I know.  You get back home and real life starts to grab hold.  This will be the last post on our London trip.

Kiri and I woke to day 7 with a melancholy feeling that this was indeed our last day in London.  We headed over to our morning coffee shop and started asking each other what we wanted to do for our last day.  Somewhere between the first bite of my breakfast sandwich and the last sip of my latte we had decided to go check out the Notting Hill street fair that is held each Saturday afternoon.  So we jumped on the subway and headed over.  Coming out of the tube station there were signs that directed you where to head.  We followed the crowds.

We had no idea it would be this large.  There were _tons!_ of people there and it seemed to just keep going.

Kiri's nephew had asked that we bring back a pocket watch from London.  We thought that was going to be a hard request to keep, but one of the first booths we ran across had plenty.  And they were all high quality watches...cough...cough.  Don't look too hard at that horses mouth!!!

Sometimes you had to look over peoples shoulders just to see the merchandise.

As with any street fair there were plenty of food booths.  I think these ladies were making fruit crepes.

This place just kept going.  It was amazing.  If you have a strong desire to shop, you should make a effort to visit this event.

We spent a couple of hours drifting up and down the various booths.  You could find just about anything here.

This guy was outside a pub selling hamburgers.  They smelled delicious!

Kiri and I were craving pizza though..and there just happened to be another vendor nearby that looked delicious.

We shared a pizza and a spinach filled pastry.

We could have spent the entire day at Notting Hill but we decided to move on.  Kiri had a destination she wanted to visit, but on the way there I wanted to make a small stop.

If you're going to be anywhere on Baker Street, you just have to stop and visit Sherlock Holmes.

Unfortunately he wasn't home, but we snapped a couple photos of his flat.  Maybe we'll catch him next time:)  He was probably out solving an important crime.

Kiri had wanted to visit the Museum of London to understand the history of the town we had just spent the last week enjoying.

The museum was quite good!  They broke London down into it's various time frames and each small exhibit gave you examples of what was going on at that time.

One of the big events you keep hearing about, as you visit different sites in town, is the Great London fire of 1666.  This was a huge turning point in making the modern London that we know today.  I didn't know they had used gunpowder to try to stop the advance.  Pretty interesting.

We spent a few hours at the museum and afterwards we were pretty hungry.  We started making our way east to find a pub.

I had read about this pub in Yelp.  It was supposed to be pretty good.  It was close to our final event of the evening, and it was built under a train line.  Every time the train went over the entire building shook.  It was great!

Every evening there are guided "Jack the Ripper" tours that you can join.  We had kept meaning to make one earlier on in the week but alas, it never happened.  Well now was the perfect time!  So we met outside the "Tower Hill" subway station and waited for the tour guides to show up.  Maybe pints before a walking tour wasn't the greatest idea.  Wait here while I go find a bathroom:)

Soon our tour guide Simon was leading us out into the city to describe the events of Jack the Ripper and possible suspects.

While many of the older portions of London were destroyed by the bombings of World War II, there were still a few buildings that were standing in the summer of 1888.

Simon did a great job of describing what the city was like in the east end of London.  When the murders took place, and how the police handled the problem.  It was if we were headed back in time and you didn't what could be hiding around the corner.

Did you hear something?

The tour ended at the Ten Bells pub, a location famous for being linked to two of Jack the Rippers victims.  It gets its name from the church located right next by.  The church used to have ten bells in its steeple.  I believe this pub was shown in the movie "From Hell" with Johnny Depp.

The tour group broke up,  Kiri and I really enjoyed it.  Simon had mentioned that there was another famous pub nearby that was also associated with Jack the Ripper called the White Hart.  He gave us some directions but Kiri and I got turned around on the way there.  We soon found ourselves on a deserted road in the middle of London with no one in sight.  It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.  Kiri says I was trying to get her killed.  I snapped this quick photo and then we luckily found a tube entrance and ducked inside before getting mugged.  I think the picture turned out pretty neat:)

And then it happened.  On the way back to the hotel the London weather finally opened up.  We were out picking up a few souvenirs for relatives and I snapped a couple of pictures of people running for cover.  What a great way to end a London trip!

My attention wasn't directed at those two ladies at all.  I'm not even sure how they ended up in the picture.

 The next morning Kiri and I caught a car to the airport thus ending our vacation.  We had a blast and look forward to visiting again.

Thanks to everyone who has followed along! Take care!