Massive London Update

Wow, what an incredible city. The amount of stuff we've done since my last update on Sunday is ridiculous. I couldn't possibly do a day by day breakdown, but I'll do my best to get you up to speed with what we've done, as well as show some of our best pictures from the last few days.

We moved into our new apartment on Monday, the place where we're spending the remaining nights of our trip, through Sunday. It's on the 6th (and top) floor of an old Victorian Building in Upper Holloway. It's about 15 minutes by Subway from central London. It's in a more residential neighborhood, with lots of small shops and restaurants. Because we're on the top floor we've got an amazing panoramic view of the city, and we can see the London Eye, St. Paul's and even Big Ben. However, as it's an old Victorian building, there is no elevator. We've tried counting the steps several times, and the general consensus is 101. Now that's not too bad empty handed, but on the day we moved in with our very heavy bags it was less than pleasant, to say the least.

(Me in my new blogging spot at the kitchen table)

(Sunset from apartment window)

While we haven't seen everything in London yet, we decided the time was ripe for some small excursions out of the city. On Tuesday we took a boat down the Thames to Greenwich. The ride itself was amazing, with many historic and picturesque sights along the river.

In Greenwich, we walked through some splendid parks on the way up the hill to the Royal Observatory. This is the home of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) as well as the Prime Meridian of the World- longitude 0"0".

(The Tower Bridge)

(The Observatory)

(Dad on the World's Prime Meridian)

(Me on the top of the hill with View of London in the Background)

On Wednesday, we embarked on another excursion, this time a bit further- to Windsor. Windsor, the home of the Royal Family's Windsor Castle is about a 50 minute journey via train from London. We ate lunch in a pub, and then hiked up the hill to the 1,000 year old vacation home of the Royals. It was worth the journey. Far more spectacular than Buckingham Palace, the castle was resplendent, even on a cold and wet day. We spent a few hours wandering around the castle and grounds, carefully avoiding the Queen's Guard who will supposedly march right over/through any tourists who don't move out of the way.

(Main tower of Castle)

(One of the guards)

(The 'Long Walk'- the path from the castle through the grounds)

After we'd seen enough of the castle, we made our way back through town and across the river to Eton. In the town of Eton is the famous Eton College. Founded by George VI in 1440, Eton College has produced 18 Prime Ministers, as well as many other famous alumni. The campus and grounds are closed to the public, unless you pay an exorbitant fee for the tour, but we managed to sneak around.

(The Thames, from the Eton Bridge)

(Swans in the Thames, between Windsor and Eton)

(Some of Eton College)

(Tree Blossoms on Eton's Campus)

We've also seen more stuff in London too though. Earlier this week we went down to Piccadilly Circus during the nighttime, and that really was a sight. There was a ridiculous amount of lights, cars, taxis and noise. It was like Times Square, just not as vertical.

And this morning we saw Westminster Abbey. Also around one thousand years old, the cathedral was truly amazing. It was enormous on the inside, and highly ornate in its' decorations. It is the site of Coronation, wedding, funeral and burial for most of England's Monarch's of the last Millennium. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but we took many of the splendid grounds and exterior.





After seeing the abbey we walked up to the British Museum. We spent nearly the entire afternoon inside, but we could have spent days. It has almost half a million artifacts, from nearly every continent. Some of the items were too old to really comprehend. We saw the Rosetta Stone, mummies, Roman artifacts and much more.

(The Front of the Museum)

(Me with the famous Rosetta Stone)

(Dad with some Egyptian Gods)

That's it for now. We are starting to slow down, with less things planned for this weekend after our whirlwind tour so far. Tomorrow we are taking a tour of the Emirates Stadium- home of Arsenal FC. On Saturday evening we are seeing England play Slovakia in an international soccer match, in Wembley Stadium- England's 90,000 seat home stadium.

Although it may seem like I'm posting loads of pictures, there are really way more I'd like to put up. The internet here is really slow though, and it takes me a few hours for each of these posts. I'll post more pictures next week.