One Time in London...

Whew...after years and years--ok, weeks and weeks.......ok, two weeks--without regular internet

It has finally come!!

That means I have a lot of catching up to do.

I'll start with Old London! I was there for two days, which wasn't nearly enough time to fulfill my lifelong dream of seeing this beautiful British--aye, world--city. It really is spectacular. There is so much to do and see. Nearly all of the museums in the city are free, which is a darned good thing considering how much everything else costs. The pound, mates, is worth far too much...its a bit depressing when they only trade you twenty-two of them for $40...but, alas, it was worth every last penny...

I was in the first group of students to arrive in this fair city, at 5:00am local time, which gave me nearly two whole days to explore! I rode the Tube

I went to the British Museum. My guidebook, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, said to make sure you see three things. The Elgin Marbles (with Nicole and Angie admiring their ancient Greek beauty)

Check. The Rosetta Stone

Check. And the Egyptian Mummies (the largest collection outside of Egypt no less)

Check. The British Museum is ginormous, but I'm glad we hit the highlights.

We also went to the Tower of London (where the Crown Jewels are kept), but I think the cost of admission is the value of the jewels themselves. So we walked down tower bridge (one of my favorite pictures I took)

That night after drinks...as in, the program gave us--a bunch of 18-20 somethings--a free drink in our hotel that night: Welcome to Europe kids! (just wait, it gets better in Austria) We went to see a play, 39 Steps, in the West End. It was good, and pretty cool to check off "show in London's West End" from my bucket list.

The next day was a whirl-wind tour of London by bus. I'm sure you are quite capable of googling pictures of Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral (also amazing!), the Royal Albert Hall, the Houses of Parliament, etc. Although, here's a picture I like of St. Paul's--just for kicks

That afternoon a few of us went back to Westminster Abbey for the full tour. That was also a bucket list-er. It was amazing! Lots of famous dead guys there--Handel, TS Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth I...it goes on...

Aaaaaaand....it will be where William and Kate get married in April. And where every coronation occurs. And where NT Wright was Canon Theologian....

Okay, sorry if I lost you there for a bit...Sometimes the nerd in me takes over--ok, like 95% of the time..

But that night, we wandered around a bit and found China Town--that was pretty cool as it was around the time of the Chinese New Year

Well, those two days were wonderful, but not nearly enough to satisfy. London, fear not, I shall return!

I've been in Austria since February 6, but those posts will follow!

Tschüss!