London Jazz Festival - 4

By this stage, energy levels, and my ability to recall to mind all details of the day, had started to flag.

Breakfast at Pret on Euston Road and then a cab to the north end of Marylebone High Street.

First stop was one of my absolute favourite bookshops, Daunt Books.  It is a rare visit when I depart without having added at least two or three books to my wish-list.

Dodgy looking geezer checking out the window display:

Amanda does like a nice Christmas-themed thriller display:

A stroll down to Oxford Street to check out the furniture department in Marks and Spencer, which we were disappointed to find was no better stocked than the one at Fosse Park.

More walking to Piccadilly, where we visited another favourite bookshop, Hatchards:

More walking, back to the hotel to rest and freshen up and then out to the Tottenham Court Road branch of Honest Burgers:

and then on to Wigmore Street and Wigmore Hall:

Amazing decor and architecture inside:

We were there to see Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson and his band.

Left to right - French pianist Grégory Privat, Lars Danielsson, British guitarist John Parricelli and Swedish drummer Magnus Öström:

With the exception of Öström we had not seen any of this band before.  Seeing Öström again was bittersweet; he was the drummer in the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (EST) until, in 2008, his lifelong friend Svensson died tragically at the age of 44 in a SCUBA-diving accident. We had seen EST many times, and I can still remember the shock of Amanda relaying the news to me from the radio late one night.

Privat, Öström and Danielsson signing autographs after the gig:

Out, and a cab back to the hotel to pack in anticipation of our departure the next morning.

The trains being 'back to normal' we returned via St Pancras.

I have to say that this Eiffel Tower, made of expensive French perfume bottles and standing in place of a Christmas tree, did cause me to think that, when it came to celebrating the birth of the Saviour of mankind, the management at St Pancras couldn't have got it much more wrong if they had tried...

An uneventful journey home, exhausted but happy.