London Day 1

So, we are back online for 24 hours; We’ve updated 3 posts including this one. Hopefully we can get a post in tomorrow too. We’ve uploaded pictures to flickr for our first day in London.

Today started around 9am. Nicole and I ended up sleeping a bit later than expected but that turned out to be okay because we were both seriously exhausted from the flight and time change. We made it out of our room around 9 and headed to a Tube station to make our way to the London Tower.

Of course, we took the long way to the Tube as I have zero sense of direction. We made our way down the Embankment road along the Thames and into a tube station that dropped us off at Tower Hill.

Exiting the tube we quickly found the London Tower and an unexpected suprise (we hadn’t looked at a map in a while) The London Bridge! We walked up to buy tickets to the Tower of London and found our first treat of the day. Low fat blueberry muffins. Wait, let me rephrase that. The 2nd best blueberry muffin we have ever eaten. Second only to the mythical blueberry muffins we had in Hawaii almost 10 years ago.

2 blueberry muffins and one bottle of juice later we entered the Tower of London. The Tower of Lond was much more than a tower. It was multiple towers, barracks, protective walls, a jail, an armory and a nest of ravens. We were lucky enough to see the King Henry VIII exhibit entitled “Dressed To Kill.” The exhibit featured armor, clothing and weapons all used by King Henry VIII. The collection was comissioned by his son, who was crowned at the age of 9 after King Henry died. We were able to visit the jail to see old grafiti, names and dates of people who were kept prisoner in the Tower. A grass field is still in place where executions took place over 900 hears ago. The White Tower was an armory area displaying cannons, swords and more armor used throughout the Tower’s history.

From the Tower we made our way back up the Tube to Westminster Abbey. Our exit of the tube put us smack dab in the middle of the London Eye, British Parliment, Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey.

We found lunch at a small cafe near the Abbey. Our waiter was a crazy, i mean seriously crazy Italian guy. He asked to take our order 3 times before we had finally decided what we were having, and it only took us about 7 minutes to decide! He ran throughout the sidewalk, restaurant and kitchen like a mad man. Nicole ordered a veggie lasagna and I had a panini. To be frank, the panini was okay, not great, and Nic’s lasagna was amazing. A bowl full of veggies, noodles, sauce and cheese. A small salad, Fanta and a beer accompanied our food and set us back less than $30 (i can’t find the pound key).

Okay, the Abby. From the outside the only word I can use is spectacular. The architecture is beyond description. Large, ornate, grand. Just an absolutely amazing building. The inside, equally amazing, but surprisingly cluttered. Rooms full of entombed kings, queens, philosophers, religious and political people all remembered with grand tombs of gold. We walked through the Abby for over an hour before making our way outside to take pictures of Big Ben and the British Parliament.

Hi, Nicole here! Kevs is getting sleepy! So, after checking out the Eye and Big Ben we decided to walk back to the room as we were, once again, exhausted. I’m not sure how much sleep we’ve gotten thus far, but I am certain it hasn’t been nearly enough. We both laid down to “try to rest our eyes” thinking we MIGHT fall asleep, and setting our alarm in just case. Well, we were both sound asleep within minutes of our heads hitting the pillows. We woke up around six-thirty and headed to the Boxwood Cafe. For those of you that don’t know, Kevin and I are BIG Gordon Ramsey fans and were excited to have the opportunity to eat at one of his restaurants in London. We did some research ahead of time and settled on the Boxwood Cafe. A special thanks is in order to Auntie Martha and Uncle Brian! They were sweet enough to call the cafe a month ago and order a gift certificate for our dinner. It was awesome and greatly appreciated!

Knowing that Gordon has high standards on the show “Hells Kitchen”, Kevin and I had equally high expectations of Boxwood. Amazingly those expectations were exceeded! The location was excellent. The service was flawless. And the meal was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Corn and lobster chowder, crab pasta, spinach and ricotta bake, lamb neck with gnocchi and peas, mixed green salads and fig tart with white chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Plus delicious Innsomething-Gunn beer! Yum!

We perused the Knightsburg area, did a bit of window shopping, and then headed back to our room. Here we are again, exhausted. I’m beginning to see a trend. We’re hoping to sleep it off tonight as it is only midnight! Earliest we’ve gone to bed in a week by far.

Before I wrap this up I want to say that I’m very surprised by the people here in London. Everyone is extremely friendly, kind and helpful. It has been awesome. The city is beautiful and interesting and I can’t wait to explore more tomorrow. Until then, cheerio!

Weather: Sunny, Cloudy, A Little Windy but warm and beautiful: 70 degrees