I guess I should post the rest of our London pics...

Here are the rest of our London pics. (Except the ones I took on my iPhone since our camera died one day.) 

Saturday we took at train down to Lewes. Jess is from there and was kind enough to show us around her home town. 

 It was the perfect English village.

 We visited a 1000 century priory.

 Although it was not reconstructed, we loved seeing the ruins and picturing the great building that was once there. (Can you spot us in the pic above?)

 Then, after the above picture... our camera's battery died.... so I'll fill in the rest of this day w/ iPhone pics later skater. Deal?
Hint: Castle and Beach

Let's skip forward to the next day when we had a fully charged battery again, hooray!
We took a train to Down House, this is where Charles Darwin and his family lived and where he worked for a large part of his life.

 This evolutionary biologist was very excited :)

 (Back of the house, the part that faces the amazing gardens.) We weren't able to take pictures inside, but here is a glimpse, scroll through the pics at the top of the page.

 The green house and "kitchen gardens".

 The Insectivorous plants. Darwin was totally into these.

 Inside the "hot house".

 In the gardens, near the tennis court and archway.

 On the Sandwalk, and path behind the house that Darwin walked several times a day. Many of his ideas were mulled over on these walks.

Next we headed to the Natural History Museum.

 Sweet entrance way - the elevator went through "the center of the earth"!!! dun dun duuuuunnnnn...

 The building was super fancy and the exhibits were very impressive.

 The live leaf cutter ants were my favorite.

For dinner, we visited Piccadilly Circus. (A mini version of Times Square/Broadway).
When we got home from the hotel, we watched Harry Potter 7, and guess what - the picture below of Piccadilly circus is where Harry, Ron and Hermione disapperate to when the death eaters come to the wedding (HP-nerd-alert-Christine!). We both said "We were just there!!!!!!!"

Something about me just loves being in places that are shown on movies/TV, can  you blame me?

These painted people were fun to watch.
This lady came up to get a pic and the cowboy on the left gave her a big smooch on the cheek.

And finally, the view from our apartment in Hounslow.
Gosh! I miss London already!

London Calling

The next day, we went to Westminster Abby in the morning. It was closed to sightseeing for an unknown reason. Bummer news, but the outside was very gorgeous. *Bonus- I can see the inside of it right now on the TV :) Happy Wedding!

We decided to walk to the Natural History Museum, we took a wrong turn, and it took us forever. Once we got there, the line was way too long, so we walked back to Harrods and did a little shopping. We also stopped at M&S for some bottled water, and smart Paul grabbed some delicious cookies for 99p at the check out line. They were amazingly delicious and we bought two more packages during the trip. I'm craving them so so bad.

 (Oh yeah! and I blew up my straightener with the wrong voltage, so wavy hair it is!)

 Inside Harrods.

Outside Harrods, it's a real fancy building.

Tulips at St. James's park.

Then we headed to King's Cross station to meet up with Jess (she was a Post-Doc in the lab Paul works in).
And if your mind works like mine, you might immediately start looking for platforms 9 and 10.

And then you go to Hogwarts of course!

(Although Paul is embarrassed by it, this is one of my favorite moments.)

Jess took us to the Wellcome Trust Collection and the British Museum. Both cool.

Then we went to dinner on Brick Lane. A street filled with Curry restaurants. We filled our stomachs to the brim, but it was so delicious!

On the way back to the train station we saw this awesome goat statue, and the restaurant next to it was called Valerie - so guess what - these pics are for you Valerie Goates!

Welcome to London Towne

One of my favorite moments of London was jumping on the Tube the day I arrived, taking a random train, and getting off at "Westminster" because we had heard of Westminster Abby so that seemed logical.

As we walked out of the Underground, this was the first thing we saw:

I was like WOW! Hello Big Ben!
Who knew it was attached to the Parliament building? I should've looked at that Peter Pan scene more closely!

Same building - other end. 

(Westminster Abby is right next to here, but we actually checked it out another day, because it was already closed). 

We walked around the Parliament Building and checked out the Thames (our English friend Jess was sure to let us know... pronounced TEMS). 

Then crossed the bridge to see the building in all it's glory

We did a great job looking like tourists. 

Here, Paul is finding the perfect guide to London. I just thought he looked awesome surrounded by English pride.

And of course- a red telephone booth photo. :)

(Can you tell the weather was perfect as can be!? No rain! All sun! 70 degrees, or more like 21 degree if you are using correct measurements for that place.)

Our next stop was Trafalgar Square. Where we counted down to the London Olympics...

 

We ate dinner right near here at a place called Garfunkles. For dessert we had sticky toffee pudding with warm custard - an English classic. It was magic on a plate. So delicious. Yum yumm yyyuuuummmmm.

To burn off those extra-consumed calories, we took a walk through St. James' park. (Apparently a royal garden. Fancy.)

 Everything was green and lush and beautiful.

There were all sorts of cool birds in this lake. Oh, and guess what's behind me?

Buckingham Palace in all it's royal glory! I bet today and tomorrow this place is a zoo. 

Next stop: Tower of London. It's an awesome castle from the 1000's just chillin' in Central London. 

 And guess what. Paul totally digs castles.

And I totally dig Paul. And castles. 

freckles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It even has a moat, dudes.

Across from the Castle. Sa-weeeeeeeet.

Next stop, Tower Bridge! 

 *my favorite picture of the trip, maybe- but there are more than 500 so let's not set that in stone.

Hurray for nice light - perfect time of day!

We took a walk along the bridge, just for good measure. (Getting dark!)

 And enjoyed a pretty sunset on our first day in London (together).

I think I'm about worn out with this post. How about you? 

But on a related note, isn't London really awesome?

Come back for more later? Great. 

(Spoiler alert- I ♥ Harry Potter). 

Cheerio!