This touring is hard work! This morning we needed to be up early as there were plenty of things to do. We were rather reluctant risers after our big night.

We had our last English breakfast in the pub and then drove off towards Heathrow. It was certainly a fleeting visit to Wales. We moved quickly along the motorways and arrived at Heathrow to return the hire car having driven 1246 miles (2005 km) in our Seat Alhambra. Most of this driving had been on country roads with narrow lanes and many beautiful arched tree tunnels.
We caught a London cab into the city by early afternoon, having missed morning tea and lunch. After booking in we headed off to find Kings Cross – St Pancras Station for lunch and to investigate where we needed to be in the morning. Aunty Jean and Merady ate a quick lunch before they headed off on a whirlwind tour of the essential London sights. We found an appropriately huge escalator whilst negotiating the Underground. We walked across Green Park towards Buckingham Palace. People were sitting out in the sun everywhere enjoying another taste of summer weather. Some had hired deck chairs and were more comfortably reposed.

At Buckingham Palace the Union Jack flag was flying, telling us that Queen Elizabeth was not in residence. This may explain why we were not invited in for tea... We walked through Hyde Park and up the Mall to Trafalgar Square. We had been doing quite a lot of walking by then and so we decided it was time for a break. We went into the British Art Gallery restaurant and managed to find High Tea – we hadn’t planned such a thing, but it was fortuitous! Poor Nanna missed out. After eating what we could and packing up the remainder, we went into the Gallery to see the Constables and Monets. Even though Merady had looked at The Hay Wain so many times as a child, she still managed to find something new in the painting today. There is a lady dipping her hand into the water in the background.

We walked (yes, more walking) down Whitehall, past Downing Street to Westminster. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We walked on to Westminster Bridge and took some more photos.

By this time we had decided it had been a very big day so we made our way back to our hotel to rest.