London Friday, Last day of our trip!

After all that we had done the days before, we decided to get down to breakfast, and then sleep a bit more before we headed out. Breakfast ends at 9am so we made it about 8:45 and were back to sleep asap! We finally got out and about around 11:30 and used the tube to get us to the area of the famous Beetles walkway...Abbey Road. It was funny on our way there, as we were walking down the street a man went to pass us and pointed across the way a bit and said "It's over there." We laughed. He said, "You are looking for Abbey Road, right?" We said "Yes, how did you guess?" He said that he lives in the area, and that all of us tourists just look the same. We all laughed and we thanked him. It was interesting that the crosswalk is just an every-day normal place. No vendors, no tourist shops, nothing but a crosswalk with flashing yellow lights on the sides so that the traffic will stop for foot-traffic. There were a dozen or so tourists trying to take the famous "walking across the street" pictures. We felt bad for the poor locals who have to cross this way every day. People walking, and stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures. I'm sure it gets annoying! Just past the walkway is the Abby Road Studios with a high fence and  gate and signs that make it clear that it is not a public building. The base of the fence has a big concrete wall that is painted white. Covering the white paint is the graffiti of hundreds of fans who have passed this way. We found our favorite spot and wrote a dedication to Emma that reads "In honor of Malt 2012" (for those who are reading this, Emma is also known as Malt in our house :) We took pictures to document the event! On our walk back to the tube station we picked up a couple of leaves out of the piles and piles all over the sidewalks and of course an "Abbey Road" pin at the subway station gift shop.

 This family must have tried to get the perfect picture 10 times! Poor locals!

 This is the flashing caution light at the crosswalk...cute!

 The wall in front of Abbey Road Studios...

 This was the best part of the wall, a column on the far right of the property.

 Ashley was freaking out a little about this big spider. He wanted to eat her.

 We wished Emma could have been there with us! It would have meant so much to her!

 We love yer Malt!

        After a short tube ride we got out on one end of Hide Park and had a nice stroll through the park. With the huge trees and fall leaves, it was really pretty. Our feet were really hurting, so unfortunately it wasn't as amazing as it could have been, but it was still nice. WE stopped and had a snack of carrot "batons" humous dip, and cucumber-mint dip that we bought at the grocery store before we left that morning. Yummm! At the other side of the park was Buckingham Palace! It was picture perfect with the wind blowing the Queens flag just right!

Those were realllly big trees!!

        We hadn't planned on it, but as we continued our walk we found the Hard Rock Cafe and gift shop. I was sooooo tempted to buy Phil a T-shirt, but just couldn't justify the 20pounds at this point. Sorry babe :( Once again, we had fun just looking and leaving with our few pounds still in our wallet!

 We laughed pretty good at the sign in the window that reads

"NO DRUGS OR NUCLEAR WEAPONS ALLOWED INSIDE"

        We had seen a few people around with M&M's bags and asked where it was, jumped on a bus and went to that area, which is the Piccadilly Circus. We both love this area. I think I mentioned it before, but it has a lot of theaters, shops, and places to eat all around a big round-a-bout and the streets extending off of it. We just had to find the M&M store with a specific gift in mind for our M&M collecting wonderful neighbor friend! The store was HUGE! 4 stories of everything you could imagine! Although we were starving at this point and the smell of chocolate was teasing us the whole time we wandered we held back and didn't pay the ridiculous price for M&M's there. We found the perfect gift and again left with our wallets (mostly) in tact! Whew! Dodged that bullet!
      

  After all of our scouting for sweatshirts we hadn't picked them up yet and had at some point found a store that told us they would sell them to us for 2 for 30 pounds. We went in every store we came across trying to remember that store and never found it! We finally made a last ditch effort at a shop by the station by our hotel and got a pretty good deal. We both got the ones we wanted and were finally ready to head back to the hotel and call it a night. All of this traveling, and walking, and sightseeing really wears us out! We stopped for some yummy sandwiches and hot soup and a "Pret A Manger" which is a healthy eatery that is found on almost every block it seems! We had to be up early (6:30) to be ready for our shuttle to take us to the airpot at 8 so we were both asleep by 8:00. Such a good thing to get a good night's sleep!