A day in London

We made our first pilgrimage to London Saturday. Twelve hours to explore one of the world's greatest cities and what a great city it is! It was sunny and 70, minus a brief rain shower, and we had an absolute amazing time. For a big city, London is very clean and people are polite and nice. We started our trip with a train ride into London Liverpool and hit the streets to go exploring. We walked along the Thames and popped in front of the London Bridge. 

From there we headed to the subway (tubes) and made our way to the British Museum.  It took a bit to find it, but I just about peed my pants when we got there. THE BRITISH MUSEUM. This is bucket list stuff in my world and I was absolutely thrilled to walk in. The museum is huge and beautiful. It contains one of the largest collections of Greek antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone.

After several hours exploring all the rooms, we hit the tube again to head to Piccadilly Circus. Okay, that was kind of disappointing. It was pretty much a giant tourist trap, so we kept moving to Trafalgar Square. On our way there, we spotted the Texas Embassy, a great tex-mex joint in the middle of London. We popped in for lunch and the food was pretty spot on, PLUS, they happened to have a Texas licence plate with the UNT logo, Go Mean Green.



That was alot of fun and we look forward to returning in the future. Right around from the Texas Embassy is Trafalgar Square and it was much more impressive than I had imagined. The bronze lions are huge and the water is beautiful. Although there were alot of people it didn't feel crowded and the weather was perfect to hang around the steps to the London Gallery. After a few pictures and tossing some coins into the fountain, we headed off to the London shopping mecca Harrods.

Harrods is the largest department store in the UK and by far the most amazing store I have ever been in. The single store is over five acres and 1 million square feet. It's expansive, beautifully decorated and a window shoppers paradise. They have every piece of fashion you could imagine, but also have an ice cream parlor, a gourmet grocery store, a Christmas shop (even in August) a room devoted to chocolate and was beyond gorgeous. We did alot of browsing, but did snag a few things and look forward to returning when they decorate the store for the holidays. Apparently it is pretty spectacular. All in all Harrods was by far the most amazing store I have ever been in, plus the customer service is super nice too. Sorry no photos of Harrods, you cannot take pictures inside.

This pretty much wrapped up our day in London. So much more to see, but we are planning a visit again in the Fall to visit the London gallery and see a special Leonardo DaVinci exhibit. More to come.

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

The British Museum

Arrivals and Departures

We finally made it! Six months after learning Matt and I were being relocated to England, the dogs and I safely arrived to Heathrow Airport on August 13th. All humans and canines survived the flight and nobody really had jet lag. Life in a tiny English village, Sproughton, is pretty quiet. We have met several neighbors and I was even recruited to volunteer at the local community shop! We visited our local pub, "The Wild Man" and Scooter and Kaiser discovered what horses are. (I suspect they think they are giant dogs, but at least the barking has stopped).

Our backyard is a wonderful place, with several old trees and English Ivy growing on the fence. It also had some sort of horrible bull needle plant that I pulled up with my hands  and freaked out when they started to burn really bad. Life with air conditioning has not been missed. The temperature has not broken 65 and it is nice to always have the windows open. At one point I thought there were birds living in our 300 year old attic and Matt bravely climbed up there to confirm there is nothing dead or alive. I secretly hoped we fight mind some old papers or something, but it was just insulation.

All in all things are good. The Neills reunited is a great thing and we are slowly completing the process of furnishing the house completely, painting and getting things sorted.  This weekend we are off to do some furniture shopping and check out the Suffolk Chili Festival.