Two Americans in London

...Cue "Our Love is Here to Stay"... oh, wait. That's Paris.

At the end of my crazy good week, it got a little crazier and a whole lot better. I managed to get Friday off of work, so I was able to meet Scott at the airport when he got in. We took the long Tube ride back into the city, and of course it was all grey and raining. We had some lunch and got him all checked in, but we didn't do much that day because he was so jet-lagged. On Saturday we got up and walked through Westminster--through St. James Park and by the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, up Whitehall to Trafalgar and then up to Leicester Square. We also took a nice long walk through Hyde Park that afternoon, and I made salmon for dinner, which was quite yummy.

On Sunday we took one of the program day trips to Leeds Castle (see above) and Canterbury, and Amanda went too. The castle was nice, and Canterbury was OK (we did see the cathedral--think Canterbury Tales). But the problem with two-destination trips is that it makes it hard to do much worthwhile in either place. But it was a nice trip, with very pretty cherry trees and pretty nice weather. We tried to do the London Eye when we got back, but it was way too busy, so we went out to a nice Indian restaurant near Southwark (pronounced SUTH-uk).

On Monday morning we went out for a nice breakfast and then went to the London Zoo, which is on the far side of Regent's Park. We saw the new gorilla exhibit and a couple of other cool ones, including an okapi! (I found this exciting, and Katie might agree if she reads this. Don't be concerned if you are not excited by this.) It was a really nice zoo for it's space, but zoos always make me kinda sad, and an urban zoo especially so. We were looking at one of the duck exhibits and there was a kid there saying, "Mum, it wants to get out. It wants to get out." which made it so much more sad even. But it was a good visit, and the weather was gorgeous. We walked over to Camden Market for lunch, and then I had to get to class.

After class I met Scott at the London Eye, and we had Wonder Waffles for a snack before we got on. It was a nice trip round, and the sunset was pretty, even with the haze. We went to Fulham for dinner at Gormet Burger Kitchen (not as good as the burger in Caterbury, according to Scott).

I had to work Tuesday through Thursday that week (Good Friday is a bank holiday), so Scott found things to do while I was in the office. On Wednesday he came to meet me for lunch and we went to a very nice thai resaurant/pool hall down the street. That night we managed to get student standby tickets to see Les Mis, which was really great. On Thursday Scott met me at the office after work and we hung out in the Shoreditch area for dinner and all.

On Good Friday we went out to Greenwich, which is where the observatory is that marks the Prime Meridian and the center of all the world's time zones. We took the tube out to Canary Wharf (the Charlotte-esque skyline in the background there), and then the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Greenwich. The observatory part is absolutely gorgeous, and the observator grounds were packed with people. There are beautiful views of the whole city from the top, and there's a museum with a lot of the original old telescopes. We had lunch at this cute organic cafe, and we did some shopping at the market, where I got a skirt for 5 pounds and we bought a whole box of assorted Turkish delight, which I love.

That afternoon we met Amanda and St. Paul's for the Good Friday liturgy, which was read and sung beautifully by the cathedral choir. We tried to go to a play that night, but they were all too full or too expensive, so we had dinner in Chinatown instead. The Prestige was playing at Prince Charles Cinema (the Leicester Square version of the $1.50 theatre), and we both really wanted to see it. So it was almost the perfect day.

On Saturday we went to Alexandra Palace in North London and visted Abbey Road to take the obligatory street pictures. In between we stopped in Putney to watch the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge. There were several thousand people lined up along the Thames, and it was all for the roughly 30 seconds you could see the boats go by, but it was really exciting. We ended the week with a fancy schmancy dinner on Kensington Church Road, which was a whole lot of fun and very tasty. Scott had to fly out on Sunday afternoon, but it had been a really great week, and we knew we had a much shorter span of time before seeing each other again, so it wasn't too awful. We did get to spend Easter Morning together, and the girls (Amanda and Petra) and I did get to cook Easter dinner together, which was really nice. We had Thai chicken, garlic mashed potatos, green beans and jello, which might not be entirely traditional, but which was entirely yummy. More yummyness to follow. Cheers!