We meet Clare and Amy for lunch in a kind of Italian tapas restaurant where we order several small plates to share.

After lunch, we head to the Wyndham Theatre where we’ll watch the matinée performance of ‘No Man’s Land’. The play is about two elderly litterateurs in the 1970s who come across each other and only realize later – when they’re not drunk for a change – that they know each other from the past. For us, it’s not about the play but the two main actors: Patrick Stewart (known e.g. as Captain Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Ian McKellen (known e.g. as wizard Gandalf from Lord of the Rings). Both of them are exceptionally gifted Shakespeare theatre actors and also good friends in private. It’s a privilege to watch them both and how they interact on stage.

Independently from us, Amy had bought a ticket for the same performance so where here together while Clare spends the two hours in the National Gallery. After the theatre, we meet again and stroll to Covent Garden where we have cake at Ladurée. They ran out of Eclaires (how could they!) but the vanilla flan cake I get instead is exactly my thing as well. Gabi orders three of their famous macarons.

From cake we go to dinner. We stroll in the general direction of Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, there’s no free table at the Sherlock Holmes Pub so we enter Prezzo a bit further down the road.

Now, it’s time for the last good-byes. We’re on our own now in London – apart from the eight million Londoners of course.