London!

Hey guys!

So, I have to admit. I think I may have failed you in the picture-taking realm while in London, particularly after all of the photos from York. But let me explain! We spent a lot of the time in galleries (first the National Gallery, then the Portrait Gallery), which was awesome, but which didn't allow pictures. Also, the camera has a tendency to turn on at the slightest provocation, which means I think it spent most of Saturday running its battery down, so when I pulled it out to take pictures of the set at Wicked, poof, off it turned (and it happened to be the one day I wasn't carrying a spare). But here follow the few pictures I got:

After a miserable bus ride over Friday night (eight hours on a us so cramped I couldn't sit straight in the seat and my knees were still pressing into the back of the seat in front of me, not to mention the unpleasant odour of toilet and the inability to sleep well sitting up...) we pulled into London well before sunrise Saturday morning.

But the walk to the Strand Palace Hotel near Trafalgar Square was lovely. It took me past the Victoria train station, past Buckingham Palace and through the Park (okay, then I got lost upon arrival at the Square and ended up spending forty minutes hunting through a maze of streets before calling the hotel and asking directions).

After rendezvous with Grandmother and a big breakfast of sausage roll and toast (come one, I hadn't eaten for twelve hours, and I'd been awake since the service stop at three that morning), out we went to the National Gallery.

Here's Lord Nelson, standing guard of the priceless trove inside the gallery:

And across the street (where we attended a Sunday service of orthodox proportions), the famous Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (the choir is fantastic):

Some more pictures of the National Gallery:

And of Trafalgar Square:

(Here I'll pause and tell you about the delicious goat cheese and spinach tart, sparkling elderflower juice and bakewell tart I had for lunch...)

Like I said, the picture taking, not so much. So I'll tell you, instead. We went to Wicked that afternoon, which is every bit as wonderful as every raving review you've ever read about it says it is. Then, for dinner, duck breast and a special version of trifle involving custard, white chocolate, whipped cream, mixed berry pudding and sponge cake (only 50% traditional but 100% wonderful).

Sunday was, as I said, an incredibly long service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields (but who's going to pass up church at a famous location?), and then to the Portrait Gallery, which, in addition to displaying stunning portraits, is a fascinating walk through history, and lunch at the Portrait Gallery restaurant, which vaunts a stunning view of London (and delicious game pheasant and berry crumble).

After lunch, we took an afternoon amble through Convent Garden (in fact, an open-air shopping center) and managed to meet a paleontologist who formerly taught at UT!

For dinner, it was Italian food - mushroom and goat cheese ravioli and one of the most delicious tiramisus I've ever had, and then to bed!

The bus ride home Monday was uneventful (however, unfortunately 10 hours during which I found out I can read in busses no better than in cars), but the pre-dawn walk before it was as lovely as the one two days before.

And there's a London weekend in a nutshell!