So.. about the posts.

Well its been a pretty fast paced few days... and sadly with little internet available and even less time to type up posts and such. We are in Paris now... and have internet at the hotel. So hopefully we'll get the posts caught back up and with some pictures included. We did actually get back to the hotel this evening really early and had the intent to start typing... then we both feel asleep for about 5 hours. Thankfully the little store down the street was open still when we got up and so we made a slightly better version of a hodgepodge dinner than we did last time. Anyway, off to bed so that we can start again tomorrow nice and early. Adios.

No internets tonight or tomorrow...

Hotel we are at doesn't have the internets. I'll see if I can type up the missing posts and get them posted tomorrow when we hit wifi, but no promises. Today we are in Edinburgh, tomorrow we are off to find Highland Moo Cows in the lowlands as I'm not sure we'll have the time to get all the way up to the highlands. Tomorrow night we are back in Edinburgh and the next morning off to the Lake District.

Of books, and cheese and mummies, too.

London, Day One: Rainy....

DEAR CHARLEY:—

Does it not seem strange that I am here in London? I can hardly tell what to write about first. I stand at the door of our hotel and look at the crowds in the streets, and then at old King Charles, at Charing Cross, directly across the road, and when I think that this is the old city where Wat Tyler figured, and Whittington was lord mayor, and Lady Jane Grey was beheaded, and where the Tower is still to be seen, I am half beside myself, and want to do nothing but roam about for a good month to come. I have read so much concerning London.... (Letter Four, Young Americans Abroad, 1852)

Even mid-nineteenth century Americans had the initial awed reaction of being in London for the first time. So many of the cliched landmarks most of us know are located there; some of these places live up to their fame, others not so much.

We took a morning train from Stevanage (where we were staying with Vrinda and family) to Kingscross station, which was only about a 25 minute trip. While taking the tube into London would have been cheaper, the train was faster and, heck, we don't get to take trains places very much :)

From here we went to the British Library to see their rare books and manuscripts that are on display. They had the original handwritten copy of Jane Eyre and Jane Austens reading glasses, along with illuminated manuscripts, maps, some of da Vinci's papers, early religious texts, etc. Evan even got to see a special exhibit about Science Fiction literature, which I think he enjoyed.

Next we headed to Borough Market...omg...we would move to London just for that place. Its basically a giant farmers/food stall/butchers/pastries market in an area sorrounded by restaruants and shops. Seriously, this place is a foodies dream. We had a duck sandwhich and thai fish curry for lunch and picked up some chocolate, bought cheese (Glouschester, cheddar, a blue and a sheep's milk) from Neil's Yard Dairy and got drinks from an Italian coffee shop that seemed entirely staffed by Italians and made one heck of a good espresso. We could have spent hours here!

Wandered next to the Thames a bit and saw the outside of the Tower of London (didn't feel like paying the entrance fee) and saw and touched a section of the orginial Roman wall that surrounded Londinium and enclosed medieval London. There is something really awesome about making contact with a peice of something that old, something that saw all the changes London has gone through.

British Museum: interesting, pretty, but still a museum. I think I (Andrea) had some sort of magic vision of this place in my mind from childhood, but while cool, it is, in all reality, a really big museum. Saw the Rosetta Stone, some mummies, Sutton Hoo items, etc. and headed out to Oxford Circus to do some clothes shopping. I picked up a bright pink dress and a super short darker pink dress I have to wear tights under, lol. Meanwhile, British sizing for clothes is different then ours (which I knew), but it does nothing for a girl's ego after she loses 23 pounds!

From there we headed back to Vrindas, planning to return the next day.

London, Day two: Rainy again.....

Off again on the train to London, this time to see the Victoria and Albert Museum, Camden Town and Covent Garden.
.
After taking the tube from Kingscross to Convent Garden, we hit a pub for food and drinks, and most importantly, to avoid the soaking rain. The place was crowded, but after the rain started hitting really hard it became standing room only.

Covent Garden is neat, largely expensive stores, random stalls selling the typical clothing, tourist stuff and old women's jewelry, and food places. We didn't stay for long here and headed off to the Victoria and Albert museum to check out furniture, clothing, random items of historical value. I really wanted to see the historic fashion exhibit, but its being remodelled until Spring 2012...sad Andi :( Meanwhile, they have whole sections of rooms, house fronts, staircases, etc. from medieval and tudor homes, pretty cool.

We went off to Camden Town, a popular college/teen/goth/punk hangout. We had a yummy mocha, some curry and jerk chicken and wandered around the stores. Apparently we missed some sort of large antique area, which we found out after we got back to Vrinda's, but oh well, that can be for the next trip.

We had a slight adventure getting off track on the tube back to Kingscross, but found our way there and headed home for the evening.

Next post: Scarborough

Because we missed our station, we are doing a post one stop out of order.

So this is a post to say that we are skipping a post about Tintagel and Cornwall, which we will get to tomorrow after we've got the big camera downloaded to the tablet. Cause a post without pics is hardly a post at all.