Europe 2016...first stop London...Day Four

For our last day in London we started off our day at The Camden Market.  This was quite an adventure!  We got there early, before it opened and had some time to walk around the area and see some very interesting stores as you can tell from the backgrounds of some of the pictures.  As we approached one of the markets, the one you see pictured above, we came upon The Mad Hatter having a tea party.  Of course, we joined him and proceeded to have quite the photo shoot.  He was amazing and it was so much fun.  The third picture with him was obviously a selfie that he took and we have now coined that style of selfie "Mad Hatter Style."  Harriet had half a cup, literally, half of a cup.  I'm disappointed that none of these pictures show it, it was really funny. 

I have so many more pictures of the markets (there are lots of them) but they somehow didn't make it to Google Plus (where I have to upload them first).  I'll add more Camden Market pictures later.  For now, you will have to be satisfied with my descriptions and a picture of the Indian Chicken Tikka Masala wrap that I had for lunch.  The first market we went into was a labyrinth of little stalls selling t-shirts and purses and souvenirs.  I thought this was the Camden Market that everyone talks about and although we all found something to buy here, I was disappointed.  Then we moved on down the street and found the REAL Camden Market.  It is huge and is inside and outside and has hundreds of booths with everything from tie dye to jewelry to original art, toys, books, and more.  The food court was amazing and completely overwhelming.  It all looked so good and there was food from all over the world.  The whole thing was an amazing and fun experience, if you are ever in London it is a must-see!

From Camden Markets we went to the other extreme and went to Harrod's.  First on our list was to take Cheryl to see the very odd Princess Diana memorial.  Then to the toy department and a few stops for photo ops along the way.  After Harrod's, we went back to our hotel to clean ourselves up because we had a special date for a Royal High Tea!

In this picture above, Grace is taking a "Mad Hatter Selfie."  :0)  Since this was a Royal Tea in honor of the Queen's birthday, we were all offered champagne to celebrate including the kids.  When I mentioned that they were all underage, our waitress indicated that that was no concern of hers.  So, the girls had champagne, I told them not to drink their whole glass.  No problem for Grace as she promptly spilled hers.  She got a few sips first though.  We had more sandwiches and desserts than we could eat but we certainly tried.  It was delightful and posh and fancy and one of the highlights of our time in London. 

After tea, Cheryl, Joe, and I rented some bikes and went on a bike ride through the same route we had walked the night before.  The rest of our group stayed behind to rest and pack.  We had such a great time on these bikes.  We only had to spend a little bit of time on a real road which was good.  Right as we started I got us going on the wrong side of the road, totally forgetting that they drive on the wrong side of the road in London and therefore we should also bike on the wrong side of the road.  Thankfully we made it to the park and bike paths pretty quickly.  We went all the way around St. James Park, through Green Park again and into Hyde Park.  We took a totally different route through Hyde Park this time and it was so fun.  There were lots of other bikers, many Londoners, but also just as many tourists.  Nobody knew which side of the bike path they should be on and that made for some interesting passes.  :0)

In London, and many other European countries, it is not uncommon to have to pay to pee.  Thank goodness we had some pence.  We actually used our last pence to pay to pee in the park.  Below, our converse featured in some cool, artsy photography. 

And with that....we said goodbye to London!  It was a whirlwind few days but we managed to do almost every single thing on our very ambitious list!