A Taste of London, Part 1

The days between July 26 and August 1 consisted of my younger sister Jessie, my friend Graham, and myself being straight-up tourists in London. It was strange to walk off my Virgin Air flight from Nairobi straight into the bustle and beauty of London, but we had a great time. In summary, here's a taste of what we did in the first couple of days. I'll add more about the rest of the London visit later, as well as our short trip to Canterbury (where I am now). Tomorrow evening we set off on our two-week-long cruise through Scandinavia, Estonia, Germany, and the turning-around point of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Sunday, 27 July
-Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Cathedral. We saw the graves of James Prescott Joule, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin - it was pretty exciting my chemistry-major self. We also attended the Choral Evensong service at St. Margaret's.
-St. James's Park - lots of people-watching. We also saw the biggest monster of a dog I've ever seen, which we discovered was a Newfoundland.

Big Ben

Iraq War protest, about one block from Big Ben.

St. Margaret's Cathedral

Monday, 28 July
-Kensington Park
-Princess Diana Memorial Playground
-Kensington Palace and "The Last Debutantes" Exhibit
-Serpentine Gallery (modern art gallery right in the middle of Kensington Park)
-Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
-Spam-A-Lot at the Palace Theatre (it was great!)

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain


Spam-A-Lot!

Tuesday, 29 July
-Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Probably the most touristy thing ever, but great fun nonetheless. -Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum
-Buckingham Palace (from the outside, of course... we're not that special)

Jessie and I with Tom Cruise, the wax version.

I was pretty excited to see wax-Shrek.

Buckingham Palace