Open House: Sunday

A quick recap before I finish packing and leave for the airport. On Sunday, I set out with many more index cards in my stack than the number of places we could possibly visit. I figured that, if queues were long or took more time than I'd thought to visit, we could skip some and move on to others. The first two stops were non-starters. When we got to the Andaz Hotel, the queue for the Masonic temple inside was already 100 people long. It was supposed to open at 10 am, but the queue didn't begin to move until 10:20. By 10:30, we'd only moved a few feet, so we pushed on to St Helen's Bishopsgate, where the morning service had just begun and we weren't allowed in. After that, we were much more successful and saw seven OH venues:

• St Mary-le-Bow, a small Wren church in Cheapside
• Billingsgate Roman bath and house (archeology under a new building)
• Custom House, just across Lower Thames Street
• After a bus ride to Bermondsey and lunch at Maltby Street Market, we hopped back on the bus to Rotherhithe to see Brunel's shaft, recently fitted with a proper staircase inside. It's the 8th wonder of the world, as we were repeatedly told by the director of the museum during his talk/tout of museum shitknacks. 
• The nearby Old Mortuary, now the Time and Talents Community Centre
• A quick look at Sands Films Picture Library
• Through the tunnel to Wapping to Metropolitan Wharf, where we visited an architectural studio overlooking the river.

We walked along the Ornamental Canal up to London Docks in hopes of seeing Pennington Warehouse, but reached it too late to get in. So, we ended our trek at St Katharine Docks, where we saw the royal barge Gloriana moored. No, we didn't get to go aboard.

Making an early night of it so we both could go back to our Airbnb flats to pack, we had dinner at Mr Fish, the local chippy in Queen's Park, which was quite good. Thanks for treating,  Molly!

Speaking of my Airbnb, it was totally lovely and comfortable. And the location was perfect.

Final stats:

1 pound 85 for egg and avocado on a mini roll

4 quid for lunch

90p for water

85p for coconut macaroon

23303 steps

10.01 miles