David and Julia's Living Book

London

Sightseeing and Visiting Relatives

Monday, December 17, 2007

It was very cold in Hackney.

We made it to jolly old London town after 10 hours of sitting on a Virgin Atlantic flight. If you have been reading my website updates, you know how much I dislike these long flights, so there isn't much more to say about that now. Julia and I failed to do two things on this flight, which I will make sure we do on the next long flight: get up, walk, and stretch as much as possible, and drink as much water as possible. Because we neglected these, Julia ended up with swollen ankles, and I became very dehydrated. Also, the two glasses of wine we had at the San Francisco airport didn't help. I guess the third lesson is: don't drink before or during a long flight.

We decided to save money by not taking a cab from the airport to Julia's brother's home in East London. We purchased a London Oyster Card, which saves money when using the Tube, trains, and buses in London. I highly recommend using this card when traveling around London, as it turns a £4 trip into a less than £2 trip. It took us the better part of two hours to get to our destination, and we were extremely jet-lagged. But it cost us under £6, relatively inexpensive. The only real difficulty we had was carrying our three bags up and down several sets of London Tube stairs. The London Tube system doesn't seem to be handicap-ready—probably because it was built a long time ago. The bright side was the kindness of Londoners: so many people offered to help us carry our three big bags up multiple flights of stairs. We eventually made it to Julia's brother's home in East London, walked the neighborhood, and then collapsed into unconsciousness until the next morning.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Here is a picture of Julia as we made our way to the Tube station. Did I mention it was very cold in England?

After waking up from a deep sleep, Julia and I hit the pavement for the local Tube station and headed to the British Museum. As the next part of our trip is Egypt, we thought it wise to brush up on our very limited knowledge of Egypt by visiting the Egyptian exhibition at the museum. This was well worth the effort, as it's always a pleasure to visit the British Museum, and they have an excellent collection of Egyptian artifacts—even though there is some contention over who actually owns them.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Here is a shot of the hazy London skyline.

We couldn't get into the First Emperor exhibition at the British Museum yesterday, so we made the effort to return today. We got up at 5:00 a.m., which was easy as we were still jet-lagged, and got in line (queue for my English friends) in front of the museum at 8:45 a.m. Each day, they sell 500 tickets for the exhibition at the museum, and we were able to secure two. This was truly a worthwhile exhibition, as we got to stand face to face with the soldiers of the Terracotta Army.

Here we all are, freezing in the London December evening. But you can see that the locals are more resistant to the cold than us tourists. There was ice skating going on behind us—how appropriate.

We went on to the London Eye this day. After several days of very overcast skies, we finally got a sunny day. But just because the sun came out didn't mean it got any warmer; on the contrary, it got colder—but the sky was kind of blue. The air was very heavy with haze, so we saw some interesting views of the London skyline in the brownish haze.

Both Julia and I have been having a lot of trouble with jet lag. Try as we might, we seem unable to switch time zones.

We met up with Julia's Dad, John, and his wife, Jean. They took us on a quick tour of Covent Garden, followed by a quick dinner before heading off to the opera.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Here is a picture of Sacha eating his rice at lunch. Holly and Alex, I think we need to get Clair and Sacha together at some point, as they are both so cute.

We had a mission today: to purchase our Japan Rail Passes for the Japanese part of our trip. These passes provide a more affordable way to access the rail system in Japan. We had to trek to lower Regent Street at Piccadilly to do this, which meant using the Tube and walking in the brisk December morning air of London. Lenka and Sacha joined Julia and me on this trek. Sacha is Lenka's lovely 2-year-old son and Julia's nephew. We stopped for lunch, where Sacha was so well-behaved—he is an extremely cute boy.

Here is a shot of Lenka, Sacha, and Julia at Nelson's Column.

After lunch, Lenka and Sacha walked with us to Nelson's Column and then returned home. Julia and I continued on to visit the Tower of London.

Thank you, Lenka, for letting us stay with you and for spending time with us.

I have been to London many times over the years, but I had never visited the Tower of London before; it's really worth the effort to see. It's the home of the Crown Jewels, which were amazing, but also a castle right in London, which is worth visiting in its own right.

Here I am, looking very happy and penitent, at the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge is in the background, in case you hadn't noticed.

Friday, December 21, 2007

We had a quiet day today. We got up late and just walked through the park near where we were staying. It was still very cold, but the park was full of birds living on partially frozen lakes—very lovely. Julia's mom, Mary, called us while we were walking in the park and mentioned that it was notorious for East London gangsters walking their Pit Bulls there. We thought this was a funny observation and dismissed it, until we came across "East London gangsters walking their Pit Bulls!"

Here is a photo of the partially frozen lake.

We ate at Gordon Ramsay's Maze restaurant this evening in London. For those of you who don't know, Gordon Ramsay is an English chef with a TV series called *Kitchen Nightmares*. Julia and I became avid watchers of his show, so we couldn't miss the opportunity to taste his food—especially after all the criticisms he's made of other restaurants on his show. Joining us for dinner were Charles, Lenka, Paul, Wendy, and myself. I was having such a good time, I forgot to take a photo.

We are off to Canterbury next.