Last day in London

22 June
This morning Gordon and I actually managed to eat breakfast together at Alhambra. I'm going to miss those English breakfasts - they give a great start to the day, and are so substantial that there's not much need for lunch.
The nice people at Alhambra allowed us to leave our bags there for the day while we went out and about. The receptionist also reduced our charges by removing our reservation from Booking.com and making it directly through the hotel. I've almost forgiven her for charging us for the night we weren't there!
We caught a train from Paddington Station out to a suburb called Hanwell, where Gordon's mum's family was brought up. Actually, we were caught out, and managed to miss the Hanwell stop, which meant we had to wait for a train going back to Hanwell. After a pleasant walk, we came apon Rectory Cottage, which has now been divided into two dwellings. There were four cars outside, but it turned out that no one was home. Across the road was a very old church whose sign outside declared they'd been worshipping Jesus there for more than 1000 years. The church yard was rather overgrown, with ivy creeping over many of the headstones, but it was a lovely peaceful place to wander around.
In meandering around the local area, we came across a very basic cafe, where I enjoyed a cheesy baked potato, and Gordon a cheese sandwich. As we returned to Hanwell station, we were just in time to hear our train departing, so we had to wait 29 minutes for the next one - not our day for getting trains right.
Around mid afternoon we scheduled in a visit to the British Museum. What an amazing place! It's a bit overwhelming really, being surrounded by so much antiquity - exhibits from one or two thousand years BC up till today; in fact, over 6 million objects! After about 30 minutes of trying to use the audio tour of highlights of the museum, we completely lost our way, and Gordon decided it was time for an afternoon snooze at the park over the road. So I continued on alone, and found some fascinating stuff, including a gorgeous gold miniature sculpture which showcased a thorn said to be taken from the crown of thorns Jesus had worn. Among other items was a floor mosaic from the fourth century AD, probably one of the first physical depictions of Christ.
I caught up with Gordon and relaxed over a moccachino in the cafe in the park - what a lovely setting. Gordon had been watching a group of people from some nearby workplace playing touch rugby together.
Our next stop was Piccadilly Circus where we met up with Paul, a nephew of Jennifer's (the cousin of Gordon's we'd visited at Bath), and had a drink with him at a very trendy bar - ultra modern furnishings and disco balls - you get the picture. We chatted together for 1 1/2 hours or so, and enjoyed Paul's easy-going, sociable personality.
We grabbed a salad at King's Cross station before picking up our bags from Alhambra. We wrestled those heavy suitcases along bumpy pavements, up and down stairs, in and out of trains, until we got to Custom House Hotel, near London City Airport, ready for an early start the next day. The much more spacious room with its own bathroom was a blessing after the cramped condiditons of Alhambra.