Day 13 - Quinlan Great UK Adventure

Back in London

We dropped the bike back off in Woking in the morning and headed back into London.

Big shout-out to RoadTrip MotorCycle Rental. The bike was great and the people there couldn't have been nicer.

Since we had a little time on our hands after we checked back into the hotel,

we headed back to Buckingham Palace to see if we could see the full Changing of the Guard. 

This day we weren't disappointed by the weather.

It's always fun to actually be somewhere when big current events happen - and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was kind enough to resign while we were standing in front of Buckingham Palace.

The next stop was up on the Edgware Road and the flat I lived in most of my stay in London.

Back in 1986, what is now a Halal supermarket was a 7-Eleven. What is now a Ladbrokes was a women's lingerie store. We lived above the lingerie store. It was easy to describe to people where we lived when we needed to give out directions. 

The area, of course, had changed drastically. 

The Edgware Road Tube station, which was about 2 blocks from our flat, was rebuilt and modernized  after a terrorist bombing nearly destroyed it in 2005. 

There were suddenly really tall, impressive buildings across the street.

Some things hadn't changed. The Church Street Market was still just around the corner.

And the Green Man pub still had the same old charm that it has had for more than a century and a half.

A walk down Oxford Street completed everything on the Must See list.

We spent the evening saying good-bye to some of our favorite places. 

Amy Adams was still out in front of her Theater, signing autographs when we walked by. By then we'd seen so many impressive sights, we didn't even stop to watch.

After walking by it ten times a day for five days, we finally ventured into St. Martin's' of the Field Church.  This was another of my favorite, peaceful, places in the city.

We stopped one more time at the Princess of Wales. 

While we'd kind of become regulars during our stay a week ago, we were surprised to find the pub really crowded on this night. When we asked the bartender why, she just said "Wimbledon" and shifted her eyes to a tall, very fit man standing at the end of the bar, surrounded by a lot of people.

We believe this was Novak Djokovic, having a night off with friends. He went on to win the men's singles tournament a few days later. 

As always, it was hard to say goodbye to all our new friends, but we promised to come back again for a a pint soon.