Liberty lavender

We’ve just walked in. Perfect coordination with all the transport home - just over 3 hours!

A morning spent in St Paul’s Cathedral after checking out and stowing our luggage with the concierge at the hotel just across the street.


It was a pleasant experience until, of course, Chris wanted to go up the dome. It has to be done says he.  The indoor ‘Whispering’ gallery is closed but the Stone Gallery at the base of the cupola can be reached by steps. Great views over the roof tops including our hotels roof restaurant.
The Golden gallery is at the top of the cupola. We set off but after two short flights of metal steps we came to expanded metal spiral staircases. That was enough, Chris had a bad experience with expanded metal working at the top of Drax power station many years ago so we didn’t go any further thankfully. Still had wobbly legs when we got down!
A coffee sitting outside Temple Bar set us up for a trip to the West End. ( Much warmer today but dull)
We didn’t want to shop but just to see the Christmas lights and visit Liberty’s. It’s a must like visiting Jenners in Edinburgh. It’s worth going just for the fabulous building and equally fabulous Liberty fabrics. ( Daughter Grace would have gone mad!)
In Jenners at the moment* I’m sure there will be a huge Christmas tree going up through the galleries but not so here. As you can see there was a very colourful balloon, the blip is taken at three levels of the 4 galleries. From above and below as well as straight on. Didn’t buy anything but a treat to see the beautiful fabric covered furniture amongst many other expensive things.

Finished off with a cheese scone and a cuppa in John Lewis. Interesting to see that the cafe had the same problems as the store in Leeds, not enough staff to provide hot food.

Time to head back to the hotel for our bags and then head to Kings Cross. It’s been a brilliant visit and now it’s time for a rest except we seem to have a bust weekend ahead too. Might be something to do with Christmas!

Our last visit to London was in March 2020, just days after we were in Lockdown, hope we’re not going to see the same thing again!


* Just heard Jenners  is closed undergoing a four year refurbishment