Day 24 - to be completed......completed, finally

Woke up to rain (in England? Who'd have thought), alternating between a heavy drizzle and light downpour - bodes well for fewer people at the zoo - Isabel still keen, sigh! Speaking of Isabel, she now informs me that she has seen a soft-close toilet seat which has (by now annoyingly) been referred to in previous blogs - WHY WASN'T I TOLD!

Caught a bus to the Elephant and Castle (a major round-about and shopping precinct in south London, named (if memory serves me correct) after the pub with the same name) and then tube to somewhere near the zoo. I say 'somewhere near', as signs vaguely pointing in the right direction were plentiful, but lacked a bit in the specificity department - not particularly useful in a place as busy and with as many opportunities to easily take a wrong turn (or even slight deviation), and find one's self horribly lost. Eventually found it through good luck and enquiring of a passing stranger - or rather the good luck of finding a passing stranger who knew how to get there. Still raining (surprise!!), so arrived at the zoo rather bedraggled.

Apparently the London zoo has 16,336 animals. Our initial thoughts were that 16,330 of them would be (not unreasonably) taking shelter. Our fears proved to be rather unfounded, and we ended up having a lovely day; the rain eventually stopped by about 3.30, and there was even a bit of blue sky. For the most part some very well put-together exhibits. One does still get the feeling at times that some of the animals are acting like, well, like caged animals and going completely bonkers - if only there were a better way of preserving and displaying our animal cousins - I suppose open plains zoos are a step in the right direction. It would be nice to think so.

Had a lovely walk back through regent's park (? should that be 'Regent's Park' - one for the pedants to correct) and took the tube to Trafalgar square, as we had half-promised the kids we would do so if we got a chance, as it had been closed the day we went 2 weeks ago (! where has that time gone) to set up for the Paralympics welcome parade. Took the obligatory photos of the kids clambering on the lions under the watchful eyes of the quaintly named Heritage Wardens - Fun Police I imagine some people might refer to them as - but without raising even an eyebrow. Caught the bus back to Dulwich and strolled through whatever park it was to get back to Cheryl's.

Had dinner at an excellent Italian restaurant at Cheryl's suggestion, and the food was superb. It was a lovely way to end our time in London with a very special friend.