Part 2 - British Museum and Walkabout

Hallloooooo Londontown!

Welp, our first real day(9/9/15) in London was great. Here's how it went down...

We started out the day with breakfast over at The Blackbird pub. I ordered the Blackbird breakfast which consisted of two eggs, two sausages, two pieces of streaky bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomato, hash browns, toast and butter. Deanna got the vegetarian English breakfast which was nearly the same without the meat. Deanna got an English breakfast tea and I got an Americano. This breakfast was delicious and the coffee was perfect. I was craving some good coffee. 

Deanna and her English Breakfast tea

The Blackbird Breakfast. YUM

Americano

After breakfast we went down into Earls Court UNDERGROUND to get on the tube. We bought an Oyster pass and loaded some money on them. We then went over to our platform and waited for the train. 

Earls Court Station

Stand to the right!

The train we were on was not too crowded, but we did have to stand. There was a good amount of room on the train, but no seats available. We stood in the back of the car while we watched folks coming and going for a few stops until we hit our stop at Holborn Station. The particular train we were on was very short and my head was about 2 inches from the highest point of the ceiling. I didn't get a picture because I was trying to play it cool. 

We have really begun to notice how busy London is as a whole. What a bustling city. People walk fast and with purpose. A few times we were ran into or bumped in a way that we'd almost expect an apology, but they just kept on going. I wouldn't consider it rude, but that it's just accepted that bumps and grazes occur in the goings on around the Tube and City streets. Almost everywhere we have gone there have been lots of people. I'm sure there are slower neighborhoods, but from what we've seen London is very busy. It feels faster than San Francisco and a lot more crowded. 

We arrived at Holborn and went upstairs following all signs toward the British Museum. It was a short walk from the tube station. The British Museum is FREE. How awesome is that? It's free to see all of these amazing artifacts and ancient discoveries. Some of the highlights of the day were seeing the Rosetta Stone, Mummies and the actual statues from the top portion of the Parthenon. Being in the presence of such old items with so much history is incredible. We put in a few hours of the museum and were ready to leave when we finally called it. We didn't even get through half of it. We did the Ancient Egypt exhibit, Ancient Greece, The Enlightenment exhibit and another one about life/death. Also, a lot of statues have their male parts knocked off. I got a pic of one that was still there to preserve it for eternity before someone takes a whack at it and breaks that one off too. 

British Museum

British Museum Inside

US

This is THE Rosetta Stone

The tiny thorn in the middle is supposedly from Jesus' Crown of Thorns. 

Swords

Deanna and a Sarcophagus 

Sarcophagus Cover

Marbles of Elgin from the Parthenon

Easter Island Head

Not THE Cleopatra

Cleopatra's Tomb

"Gebelein Man" found in Gebelein, Egypt, Predynastic period, around 3500 BC

Non broken Penis Statue. A rare find. 

After we left the museum we decided to go find a restaurant/pub that was named Princess Louise and recommended by someone to try. As we tried to make our way over there we got turned around a little here and there. 

One thing London does is put maps up here and there telling you how far you have to walk from where you are to the surrounding areas. This is very cool, but also confusing at times if you don't know that they are giving you the map with the perspective pointing in the way you are literally looking. It took me a couple maps to realize that. I usually expect a map to show North on top and then I work from there to go where I want. I don't know, it just got me slightly confused every time I went from looking at Google Maps to looking at those maps. 

We made it over to Princess Louise and went in for a pint of their Organic Ale that they had on tap. The food wasn't what we wanted at the moment, so we just had the drink and went on our way. 

Penny Farthing!

PINTS!

We walked in the direction of the River Thames and stopped here and there to view the menus of many places. The closer we got to the Theater district and the Royal Opera House we saw a huge increase in men in suits at pubs. Clearly happy hour was afoot. It was crazy to see how many guys in suits were all gathering at the pubs in that area. We hadn't really seen anyone that dressed up until today at happy hour. We walked down Newton Street, Drury Lane, Bow Street and saw lots of theatres and the Royal Opera House. 

Royal Opera House

The Library and Museum of Freemasonry

We stopped in at a pub called Marquess of Anglesey for drinks and food. Deanna ordered the chicken pie dish and wine. Her dish was pretty good but it was not a true pie. It was a chicken casserole type dish with a puff pastry on top. Kind of a let down since we were expecting a pie. I ordered fish and chips and a Peroni on draft. These fish and chips were a bit greasier than the last ones I had, but the mashed peas on this dish were actually better than the last. I was going to try the Steak and Ale pie, but I didn't want to try it at this place. I'll try it later at another pub I'm sure. A lot of pubs expect you to order any food and drinks when you come in at the bar, then go sit down. This does make it easier when you want to leave and don't get stuck waiting on your check. 

After we ate we walked down Wellington to the Strand and followed that over to Trafalgar square. What a busy scene that was with tons of people taking photos and milling about. There were two street performers doing the dumb floating trick in front of the National Gallery. One was Yoda and one was some sort of Skeletor knock off. We didn't hang out long because we are planning to hit this museum on Friday. 

National Gallery. More later!

We continued to wander along The Mall toward Buckingham Palace. It was very cool seeing the palace. We saw a couple of the Queen's Guard soldiers behind the fences and a few armed police with MP5 machine guns. The Guard used to stand out in front of the gates but were recently moved behind them to prevent lone wolf terrorist attacks on them. 

Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace

Gates to Buckingham Palace

Queen's Royal Guard

We were pretty wiped at this point so we got on the tube and headed back to Earls Court to our flat. I called for some Sushi Takeaway (That means 'to go' here) and went to grab that for a late night snack.

Tomorrow Brighton.


Our full photo album is located here
(Many more photos and we'll be posting on facebook in one large album later):
https://goo.gl/photos/rRMpDJXDXoF5QsS98

Part 1 - Traveling to London

Hello Everyone, Deanna and Mack here. (Mack typing)

Shuttle to SFO

We left San Francisco last night after a quick drive down to SFO. It was hard saying goodbye to our little DonkeyCat Nima. She is happily living in ignorance in her Donkeystan cave/hidey hole. (forgive all the nicknames we have for our cat.) We set her up with a daily caretaker from Kristin's Kitty Care, so she's in good hands. 

A good tip when leaving your car anywhere for long periods of time is to take a pic of the parking garage. Then when you get back your chances of finding your car are much higher. 

Level 4!

After we settled in at SFO we had our final meal and some drinks before takeoff. 

Mimosa and Irish Coffee

Bye SF!

Fires in the California Central Valley

We flew United to Houston, Texas. Deanna had the window and I had the middle seat. I typically go for the aisle seat and now I remember why. It was a very uncomfortable trip flying to Texas. I had an older lady next to me that decided the armrest was all hers and that she could lean over onto it. So I tried to give her room and in turn made myself more uncomfortable. Oh well, but my back hurts because of it. 

When we were in Houston we had about a 4 hour layover. We killed time by having lunch at a place called Rocket & Rye. After lunch we took advantage of my United Club passes and went to the United Club lounge to relax. We got to enjoy complimentary beer and wine and a variety of snacks. What a nice way to relax and wait for the next leg of our journey. 

United Club Lounging

We loaded into the 787 Dreamliner en route to London around 6:30pm. After a slight mechanical delay we were on our way down the runway. Again I was in the middle and I gave Deanna the window. This may change on our way back. Neither of us could sleep then entire 8 hour+ trip to London. It was rough. The highlight of the flight was when we were flying over Toronto and saw the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) flashing out the plane window on the horizon. We saw it for about an hour or so along the top of the cloud line. It was gorgeous. It wasn't as bright or defined as some I've seen online. I tried to take a photo, but it wasn't very clear. On the flight we had the vegetable curry meal from United. It wasn't bad. 

Flying to London from Houston on the 787

Indian Meal in Flight

Sunrise from the Atlantic (a bit blurry)

Hello London Countryside!

We touched down at London Heathrow Airport around 9am or so. We got in the long customs line and waited while we all shuffled our way up to the customs agents. No issues and we were through the processing area pretty fast. We hit the ATM and got some local money then walked over to grab our bags and find a cab. 

Long Live the Queen

Oh yah, we setup a cam to check in on Nima... here she is, doing what she does best. Sleeping!

Meow! Nima Sleeping

At this point we could have taken the tube to our flat in Earls Court, but I didn't feel like learning the tube system right at the start of our time in town. So we took a cab that wasn't very cheap (around 55£) but was very convenient. The cab we were in was pretty neat compared to US cabs. It was a van type of cab with a very new interior. I'm not sure which brand it was because there are a variety of them. You can't talk to the driver through the glass separation wall unless you use the intercom system. Also, it was funny to see everyone driving on the wrong side of the road. Even though I've seen it in movies and TV, it's even more interesting in person. I'm glad I'm not renting a car while here. 

We rented an apartment (flat) through AirBnB's website. The instructions from our host said to get our keys from this lady at a restaurant near our flat. After getting dropped off I went into the restaurant and asked for the person by name and she delivered our keys. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt, just much simpler. lol.

The view out of our front room window

Kitchen

The view down part of our street. (more to come)

Living Room of our Flat

Our flat is located up 3 flights of stairs with no elevator (lift) to help you lug your bags up to your home. We got in, checked out all the amenities and decided to get some food and then come back and take a nap. We were so exhausted from not sleeping on the plane that we had to take a nap to try to get our cycles in order for traveling around during the day. We walked down the block through our neighborhood to a pub called The Prince of Teck where we would have our lunch.

For lunch I had the fish and chips (fries) with a pea mash and a pint of San Miguel beer. Deanna ordered the BLT and beer as well. The food here was good. I liked the fish a lot. The batter stuck to the fish body well and it was crispy and cooked through perfectly. The chips I felt could have been more crispy, but had okay flavor. Deanna enjoyed her BLT and I can confirm it was good by the bite I had. My only complaint is that someone decided to smoke near the doorway and their smoke kept drifting into the restaurant for us to enjoy with my meal. I already noticed how many more people were smoking though, so I suppose we should begin to get use to it. 

BLT

Fish and Chips

After we ate we walked around a little bit more then went back and napped for a few hours. After naps we rested a bit more and then went to dinner.

We decided to try the Japanese chain restaurant Wagamama which is nearly right across from our flat. I ordered the Fried Shrimp appetizer and a Pork Ramen. Deanna ordered the Chicken Ramen. Both soups were very good. The broths were not as salty and seasoned as i'm used to in SF, but the ingredients seemed fresh and executed well. The shrimp was butterflied, breaded and fried and served with a side of sweet chili sauce for dipping. 

Shrimp!

Wagamam Pork Ramen

That's it for the day. Also, plenty of phone booths still exist on the streets. Some are for wifi I guess. 

Phone booth anyone?

We'll try to post updates of our wandering about adventures. Tomorrow we plan to hit up a museum and walk around near Big Ben, The London Eye, and a lot of touristy things. 

We'll be publishing all of our photos at the end on Picasa and Facebook. To see them as we go, click on the Picasa link at the bottom.
More soon, 

Deanna and Mack

Our full photo album is located here:
https://goo.gl/photos/rRMpDJXDXoF5QsS98