Lovely London

It's hard to believe that I am closing in on the end of my first week in London. Scott met me at the train station in London on June 26...our five year anniversary! I regret that I don't have any pictures of the actual day. I was quite tired, and too ecstatic to see Scott to worry about getting just the right picture. Scott took me to (ironically) a wonderful local authentic Italian restaurant called Ziani's in Chelsea, where we are staying. It was so authentic that the staff spoke Italian to each other, and for a minute I was trying to remember all the Italian I had just used the day before. The food was fantastic, and the place was cozy and romantic. I'll have to take a picture of it for the blog later. Our anniversary was perfect, and I can't imagine how it could have possibly been better!

We continued our celebration over the weekend with some site seeing, that I do have pictures of. We started our Saturday site-seeing around lunch time. Here Scott is finishing what's left of our order of fish and chips. Like most things I've eaten so far on this trip...sooo good!

We then headed to the Natural History Museum (duh). This is the museum where Scott is doing his research, but that doesn't mean he has time to actually see the museum. I took a picture with the lion...rwar. (Must...not make...joke...about school!)

The Natural History Museum is in a beautiful building and the exhibits are great, and quite kid friendly. When we were there it was really crowded with families -- lots and lots of kids.

Next we headed out to see the essential sites of London. This is me in front of the statue that's in front of Buckingham Palace. Just chillin.

Next, Westminster Abby. Unfortunately we didn't get to go inside. We arrived just 15 minutes after they closed. We are planning to go back on Saturday.

Parliament! Soooo cool!

On Sunday, we went with the Kirksys (people we are staying with) to the only Church of Christ in London. Of course the message was given by someone Harding affiliated, Charles Ganus. C of C people are everywhere! We went to lunch with him at a great Chinese place where I had some roast duck with rice (very good!). Then we headed over to the British Museum where I got my picture taken with the Rosetta Stone! That was one great weekend of site-seeing!
On Monday, Scott went back to work at the museum witch means I was left to my own devices. This means that I consumed as much art as I could possibly handle! I have discovered that art museums are just about the only thing that I actually enjoy doing all by myself. I can gaze at a work of art as long as I want to, and I can read everything about them without worrying if I am boring anyone that might have ventured to come with me. As long as the museum has a cafe, I can literally spend all day in a museum that I really like. The Victoria and Albert Museum is one of those, and I spent Monday and Tuesday afternoon there. Below is one of my favorite pieces. The cabinet is decorated with Mosaic! The gold is painted, but the details of the flowers, ribbons and such are not. They are different kids of stone cut in the exact shape needed for the picture. Again, apart from the gold, all the colors in the decoration are the colors of the natural stone! The affect is not captured properly in this photo, but it was so amazing that I decided it was blog worthy.

They also had a great modern/contemporary art exhibit that I also enjoyed immensely. This is my favorite piece from that exhibit. It is actually the design for two tables combined into one, an end table and a longer traditional table. The design for the end table is most visible on the end closest to you in the picture. Can you see it? The longer table design is one the longer less visible side in this picture. Just a really cool way of combining traditional and contemporary design!

In the middle of the museum they have a great court yard with a little cafe, a wading pool and beautiful blooming hydrangeas. I enjoyed a lovely avocado sandwich out here.

When I was done with the V & A on Tuesday afternoon, I met Debi, our hostess, and Carol, a friend of hers, for tea at the Chelsea Physic Garden, around the corner from Debi's house. It is the oldest botanical garden in London, established in the 1600s! In this picture I am having my proper English tea with scones, clotted cream and some kind of strawberry spread. I put milk in my tea and everything. There are two more pictures below this one from the garden. It was beautiful, peaceful, and so interesting.

I have no idea what this plant is, but it looks cool!

London is treating us well, and it's nice to stay long enough in one place to know where things are. Today the Kirksy's left to go back to Houston, so Scott and I are on our own here for a while. Hope all of you are doing well!