Around Town

What a week! I didn't realize just how much of London I had left unexplored, but we've been busy everyday and have had a wonderful time reconnecting with this fantastic city. For the rest of last weekend, we just relaxed and didn't get up to much. On Saturday night, we met up with Annabel again, and walked around Covent Garden after dinner and on Sunday, Annabel took us out to St. Alban's, which is just north of the city, to see her town and new condo. The rest of the week, however, was just go-go-go.

Before we left, Robin had found online a package called The London Pass. For a certain fee, you are allowed into a long list of London attractions over a certain period of time. We bought a 3-day pass, thinking that we might save a few pounds. Well, it was actually worth it just for the first day, and everything else was basically free after that.

On Monday morning, we started off with a Thames river cruise that took us from Big Ben and parliament to 'Bankside', with is where they recently reconstructed Shakespeare's old theatre, The Globe. We took the tour, where we watched an actor audition for the role of Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing. While we didn't think that HE was right for that role, we do hope to come back to see the production. It used to cost the people of London a penny to see a performance five hundred years ago, which works out basically to £5 by today's standards. Tickets, then, for the performances here are only £5 ($10).

After the globe, we walked across the recently constructed Millenium footbridge, which takes you across the river to St. Paul's cathedral. We climbed the 450-500 steps to the very top, for a fantastic view of the city, and thoroughly enjoyed walking around one of Britain's most beautiful churches. It was then only a short bus ride to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, two of Britain's most recognizable landmarks. Oddly enough, there seemed to be a rather macabre theme running through our tour today. Just as a point of interest, apparently the men behind the creation of The Globe, St. Paul's, and Tower Bridge all died before their resepective completions. Just a piece of useless knowledge for you should you ever need it.

On Tuesday, we took the train out to Hampton court; Henry VIII's palace, which had been used as a royal residence until about 250 years ago. We walked the grounds, and took the tours, and pictured what it must have been like to hold feasts in the great hall. Afterwards, we went for dinner, and then found a pub that was showing the Chelsea vs. Everton football (soccer) match. I've been following the premier league since shortly after the last World Cup, and have taken a bit of a liking to Chelsea FC, despite how uncoothe some might say that is. The important thing is, my team won :-P

Following up on my (our) team's win, we went on a tour of the stadium's facilities on Wednesday and can't wait to catch a game live. Tickets for premier league matches are quite pricey and are hard to come by, so we'll probably wait until after we start working before we get any. We spent the rest of the day walking around and visiting museums (including the museum of Tea and Coffee, and the Tate Modern) and enjoying Cream Tea (pot of tea, scones with clotted cream and jam, and cake) before collapsing back in our hotel room and watching a few hours of British tele.

All in all we saw a ton of amazing sights and have lots of pictures to share. Just click here. And here is a video tour of our small hotel room: