One More

From Top:
That's why they call jail, "The Clink".
Temple Church Detail
Windsor Castle Cannon
The Orangery, Kensington Palace

London

From Top:
Cell, Tower of London
Queen Victoria Statue, Windsor Castle
High Street Kensington Underground Platform
WWII Memorial
Oliver Cromwell Statue, Parliament

Yeah, more London photos

From Top:

St. John's Chapel, Tower of London
Kensington Palace
Hillgate Arms
British Airways Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, double-decker bus
Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Square
St. Paul's Cathedral, Millenium Bridge (taken from boat on River Thames)

Scary Neighborhood

Top: Winston Churchill's house
Bottom Two: Crappy cars in front of Winston Churchill's house. (Between the Aston Martin, Maserati, 3 Porsches and several Mercedes, Range Rovers and BMWs, there was well over 2 million dollars worth of cars on this tiny cul-de-sac).

More London Photos

From Top:
Red Lion Pub, Westminster
Hyde Park Gate, Kensington
Pub Sign, Campden Hill
Yeoman Warder, Tower of London
School kids, Windsor Castle

But wait, there's more...

From Top:
Westminster Abbey
Trafalgar Square
Shakespear's Globe Theatre
Statue on Parliament Building
London City Limit dragon statue

Still more London...

From Top:
Tower of London
Windsor Castle
Big Ben and Parliament
Kensington Palace Garden
Queen Victoria statue, Kensington Palace

More London

Top: Queen's Guard, Windsor Castle
2nd Top: Big Ben from Westminster Bridge
2nd Bottom: St. George's Cathedral, Windsor Castle
Bottom: Round Tower, Windsor Castle

London

Top: Tower Bridge, taken from Tower of London.
Middle: Temple Church (built by Knight's Templar in 12th century).
Bottom: Somerset House. Cool palace off Strand with giant central courtyard. Had it all to ourselves.

London, Day 2

Slept in, which felt great. Headed up the street to a little corner cafe for breakfast, then hopped the Tube to the Tower of London. We followed one of the Yeoman Warders for bit, then went on our own. The place is massive and I can only imagine how miserable the conditions must have been for prisoners. They still torture people there today, making them go up and down the never-ending spiral stairways. I'm still dizzy.

From the Tower, we walked across Tower Bridge and along the Thames. Had lunch at a cool French cafe, then made our way down to the Tate Modern. I could spend a week here alone, but really came for the Rodchenko exhibit (constructivsm and Soviet posters and graphic design). It was pretty awesome to see his cut and paste collages from an inch away. You can see the glue, the white-out and the imperfections of artwork done by hand, not on a Mac. Up on the 5th floor, there were some cool Picassos, Mondrians, and an entire room of gigantic Soviet propaganda posters. That made the visit for me right there.

We hopped on the river shuttle and floated up the Thames toward Parliament. By the time we made it to Westminster Abbey it was closed, which sucked. Got a few photos, then walked around Parliament and Big Ben for the madatory photo ops. We walked up to Trafalgar Square for a few more photos, then back on the Tube to the hotel.

We're meeting Mark and Verena tonight and heading to the Blue Elephant in Fulham for some Thai. Should be great. Tomorrow, strolling along Kensington Palace/Notting Hill Gate in the morning, then getting the local non-tourist insider tour of the "real" London from Mark.

London, Day 1

We booked an earlier connecting flight out of MSP to avoid the bizzard. Got out on time with plenty to spare at Detroit. Board the plane for London then sit on the tarmac for 2.5 hours while they fixed a door. Of course. Got into Heathrow and went to baggage claim, where my suitcase was the first one on the carousel. That never happens. After wandering around trying to find the pickup point for the cab we called, we gave up and took a different service out to Windsor, home of Windsor Castle. Place is ginormous and pretty cool. (I forgot to pack my USB cable for the camera, so until I find a computer store near the hotel, no photos.) They don't allow photos inside, which kind of sucks because the chapel and some other rooms were really cool. In the chapel I was able to find the Knights of the Order of the Garter coat of arms for the Duke of Buckingham, who is like my 15th great grandfather or something like that (if my research is correct). Walked a bit in town and headed back to Heathrow, then to our hotel in Kensington.

Met Mark for some fish & chips, a few proper pints and some Champions League football at the Greyhound Pub. The room with the Man U game on was packed, so we were at a table with the Arsenal match. When Man U scored the place erupted, which was cool, as I was afraid London would be full of haters. I was a bit confused as to how many Arsenal fans were there, considering we were just up the road from Stamford Bridge. Oh well. Good night out, especially with the Red Devils advancing.

So...here's where it got really interesting...

I thought it would be fun before we went to London if I did a little family history research. I knew my mom's maternal grandfather was either English or Irish. So I started looking into the Pickett family. I found a website where someone had already done the homework for a lot of the family. I followed my mother's direct line as far back as I could; to some dude named Zerubbabel Pickett from Kent, England in 1591. That was cool. Then, for some reason I started looking at the wives of my great grandfathers and was amazed to find how far back I could follow the various branches. Suddenly, I'm seeing kings and queens from England, Scotland, Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Holy Roman Empire, Denmark. I followed one branch all the way back to 6 freaking AD. Go to familysearch.org and have some fun exploring your history. Apparently, my great grandfathers knew how to marry up.