Gabe's Study Abroad Blog: London! (Updated Monday)

Sorry for the gigantic lack of posts. The last few weeks of term were crazy. I had to do 5 important essays- over 10,000 words of writing. I also had lots of planning and researching to take care of for my trip to London. But that's over now, and I am in the first of my 5 weeks of spring break. I am in London for about the first 10 days with my dad. Already we've seen and done an incredible amount.

Immediately after lecture on Friday afternoon I boarded a southbound train to London, and got into King's Cross around 7pm. My dad was waiting for me there, after arriving on a flight that morning. We jumped onto the tube immediately (no small order with my large suitcase) and after one transfer and about 15 minutes we were into the center of London. Our hotel is right across the street from St. Pauls Cathedral- a great location.

As I said, we've already seen and done tons in these first few days. We've also taken lots of pictures, and I'll let those do most of the talking below.

We started off yesterday morning with a full English breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

With that kind of fuel, we felt ready to tackle St. Paul's Cathedral and it's 500 steps. The Cathedral really was awe-inspiring. It's the only domed cathedral in Britain, and also the largest domed building in the world after St. Peters in Rome. It's hard to get a good picture of the cathedral- because it's so big- but we took some nice ones of the view from the top.

(The front of the Cathedral)

(The view from the top- note the London Eye)

(Posing at the top)

After the cathedral we crossed the millennium footbridge, and went into the Tate Modern. It's a fabulous museum, housed in an old power plant building and chock full of modern art.

(The Bridge, with the museum in the background)

(In the giant Turbine Hall of the Tate, we could not take pictures in the actual galleries)

We ate lunch at Nando's, a famous Portuguese chicken restaurant. I'd heard alot about it, and people said we had to go there. It didn't disappoint; it was very good. I ordered my food 'medium' rather than 'hot' or 'extreme', and it was still very spicy.

After a bit of a rest in the hotel, we walked along the riverfront to Waterloo train station, where we caught a train to Walton-on-Thames- a nice quiet suburb about 30 mins train from London.

(View of London Eye, Westminster Palace and Big Ben on walk to station)

(The Walton-on-Thames Station)

It was here that we meet some Norwegian relatives that my Grandpa helped us connect with through his great family tree work over the past years. We met Solveig and Bent Christian, as well as their three children: Benedicte, Nils Christian and Carl Oscar. They are from Norway, but have lived in the U.K. the past 9 years. They welcomed us (basically strangers to them) into their home and even served us a traditional Norwegian Christmas Dinner, all homemade by Solveig.

(Everyone at Dinner)

It was great meeting members of our extended family, and hanging out in their house, talking, and sharing good food and drink. We sampled cured reindeer meat (which really was great!) and the Christmas dinner was amazing. It was a really great night, and we look forward to welcoming them to our home if they're ever in Southern California.

(Solveig and Bent Christian, looking over the train schedule to help us get back to London)

We took the train back to London, and enjoyed some great night scenes as we walked along the river back to our hotel.

Today we also had a packed day, and went to many more major sites around London. But as it's very late and I'm very tired, I'll have to tell you about that later, hopefully tomorrow. I'll be back with more photos and updates soon.

Update: More pictures from dinner with the relatives, courtesy of Solveig.