London Sightseeing

Surprisingly, in spite of everything that has gone on in the past two weeks, we have still had time to do a little bit of sight seeing. For Jason's studio class he went on a walking tour of the city and Anna and I went with him. We walked all over the place for about four hours! It was an architectural tour so we saw and talked about things that other people might not find as interesting (like 1960's buildings) but it was pretty cool. We started at St. Paul's cathedral and walked around the area around it before going in. The inside of the cathedral was amazing so of course they wouldn't let you take pictures in it. So of course Jason took a couple surreptitiously. They were getting ready for a chorale concert so we couldn't go up to all the really cool paintings but oh well, you could kind of see them from the roped off area. I think Anna really like the cathedral because that was when she decided it was time to do some loud talking. It was reverberating off of the rafters.

St. Paul's Cathedral

From there we talked about more buildings that were very interesting to the people on tour but probably not to anyone who is not either an architect of married to one. We did see the remains of the old Roman wall. They had a glass plaque type thing that had an etching of what the wall looked like in its day.

Roman City Wall with ancient shops on inner wall surface

Then more random buildings before going over to the Gherkin. This is the big, glas building that looks like a bullet. We sat and talked about it for a while. The guide even pulled a piece of chalk out of his pocket and drew on the sidewalk to help explain things. The best part of that was watching the people who were walking by watch him. There were a coupld of people who stopped and listened for a while. Next to that was the Lloyd's of London building where the chalk came out again.

Lloyds of London

Then we walked down to the river and saw the Tower of London and the bridge. For some reason I thought it would be more like just a tower and less like a castle. It was cool though and looked like a castle out of a book. I guess that's why the books have them like that. Then it was over to an old dock that has been turned into an up scale marina for yachts where we ended and ate.

Tower of London

It was quite a trek and we were all tired after it. Anna did really well the whole time. Everyone was impressed. I enjoyed seeing things that I wouldn't have otherwise and learning about things that I wouldn't have thought interesting. One thing that strikes me about London is that you're walking along in a city and suddenly there is a 16th century church just nestled inbetween two modern office buildings.

Gherkin with 16th c. church

As we were walking through the marina to where we ate, we passed an Indian restaurant. It smelled so good and I realized how much I miss Indian food. I couldn't believe it had only been a week since we were in India. I'm going to have to do some serious Indian cooking.

In other sightseeing, Anna and I have been to the British Museum three times now. It's great because it's free and huge. So we take a little bit of time and see everything in a room or two and spend about an hour. After that it gets less interesting (museum overload) and we leave to come back another day. Plus it's right by Jason's school.

Anna at British Museum

We also found a really cool park that is a little old for Anna but we still have fun on the swings. When we were there the other day we saw Kate Hudson with her son. At first I wasn't sure if it was her (she had on sumglasses and a hat) but then she talked and her voice totally gave her away. I didn't hav a camera of any kind and I didn't want to bother her when she was playing with her son but I did occasionally watch her on the sly.