It was us! The London Zoo is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. Hard to imagine it’s been in existence almost as long as the USA. Things are OLD over there!

We picked a crazy-hot day to skip church and go to the zoo. Church would have been much cooler. I wore one of my new linen dresses, hoping it would help me stay cooler, but I overheated anyway. The longer we stayed, the hotter it got, until I finally had to surrender.

BUT, the zoo is super nice, and the exhibits are modern and clean. They have all the animals a person could expect to see at a zoo, including lions, tigers, gorillas, monkeys, reptiles, etc. Their penguin exhibit was fun, too. A large gift shop–air-conditioned, thank goodness–attracts visitors on the way out with all kinds of merchandise and even ice cream treats. I had two by the time we left, but not from the gift shop. Trisha brought me one while I sat waiting for her, and one I got from an ice cream truck when we exited the zoo.

Luckily, there were water bottle refilling stations all over the place, and I took advantage of those. There was also an air-conditioned restroom that I didn’t want to leave. I felt sorry for all the babies in strollers that were being hauled around the zoo in the heat, but I guess they’re more resilient than they look with their little red faces.

We’d caught a red city bus to get to the zoo, and we caught it again to return to the train station which would take us back to the hotel. Though the bus wasn’t cool, the train was, so I felt better by the time we’d reached our neighborhood of Bayswater located in the City of Westminster. Greater London contains 32 boroughs–Kensington, Chelsea, Camden, and Greenwich, to name a few. Such a big city…

After trying unsuccessfully to get a meal at a pub on the way to the hotel–and after stopping at a souvenir shop–we ended up resting the rest of the day. The pubs were either not air-conditioned or packed full of soccer fans watching on TV, and no one would make room for us at their table or sofa.

Back at the hotel, we crashed and later had sourdough bread and Walker Shortbread cookies for dinner. I got over 17 thousand steps that day!

I hope you enjoyed my recap of our day at the London Zoo. Stay tuned for the Churchill War Rooms…

Until next time, cheerio!

XOXO