We had a really fun day. :)
We all three took the tube together to Oxford Circus, then Bob went south on Regent with Claire to Hamley's, while I went west on Oxford to Selfridge's.
It was nice to have a bit of time to myself.
Then we met up and had lunch at the funky and delicious Prince Regent in Marylebone.
Everything was pretty quiet ... many Londoners have cleared out for the Olympics.
After lunch, Claire and I wandered around Marylebone Village while Bob went and saw the Churchill War Rooms.
Marylebone is surrounded by some very loud and hectic streets such as Oxford Street and Baker Street, but as soon as you turn onto Marylebone High Street, the sound drops down, and you're in a village. It's so lovely.
Charles Dickens lived in a house in Marylebone, and wrote six of his principal works there.
I'd like to live there myself, but my cursory inspection of the Marylebone real estate market suggests that everything is a trillion bazillion gajillion dollars.
Which is too bad, because I've heard Matthew Macfadyen hangs out in Marylebone sometimes.
This evening, we went to the Olympic Women's Volleyball Quarterfinals at Earl's Court. The U.S. played the Dominican Republic.
The ticket office couldn't find our original volleyball tickets when Bob went to pick them up last week, and so they had to give us tickets for a different game. They felt bad about this, and upgraded our seats. It turned out GREAT, because we got to see the U.S. play, and we were in the second row!
So don't feel bad, ticket office.
Volleyball is such an exciting sport to watch, and there were plenty of times the scores were close enough to make it even more exciting.
As I mentioned before, the atmosphere is just really festive ... people from all over the world coming together to cheer on their teams.
After the game, we took the Tube over to Westminster to say goodbye properly to London.
That white glow below is Horse Guards ... we could see the beach volleyball game going on inside it.
Goodbye, London.
You are magical and we love you.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.