Enga-land Swings like a pendolem do

Since neither of us had been to London before, we were excited to go. We did a homestay in Chiswick a bit outside of the city center which turned out to be a pretty great little area close to the metro with good restaurants and...Starbucks. I was thrilled. Our first full day there, we met a friend of Brian's, Kingsley, who took us on a walking tour of London with his girlfriend, Ayesha. It was so great to have someone take us around like that to see all the sights. So much quicker than finding our way on our own and we got to see things that aren't just touristy as well. We spent the next day with Kingsley and Ayesha watching the Wimbledon final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer at a pub (I was pulling for Roddick), walking around, and getting dinner. Monday morning, Brian and I got up super early to get in the "queue" for tickets to La Traviata at the Royal Opera House with Renèe Fleming singing Violetta, my favorite opera singer. We had tried to get tickets months before and they were sold out, but thankfully the ROH does the cool thing of holding 67 tickets of every performance to be sold the day of the show, first-come-first-serve. We were able to get good seats at a much better price than the ones we were looking at on e-bay. After getting the tickets, we went shopping for something appropriate to wear and had a lot of fun at Topshop. The opera was wonderful: Renèe sang beautifully, Joseph Calleja was amazing as Alfredo, the ROH was gorgeous and their chorus was incredible. It was such a fun evening. The next day, we toured the Natural History Museum which turned out to be so much cooler than we thought it would be. It’s a massive, beautiful building and each exhibit is incredibly detailed and presented in an entertaining way with interactive features, videos, etc. We could have spent all day there...but....the Harry Potter premiere was that night and there was no way we were skipping it. I'm a bit of a Harry Potter nut and, let's face it, who isn't, because it was jam-packed with people of all ages, not just kids. We read that people started lining up at 10 am the day before. There was also a huge storm that day and everyone who had waited was soaked. We arrived an hour before it started but still managed to get close enough to see the stars (including Jamie Oliver) and JK Rowling. Brian took pics up close and I hung back a bit where I could see better (too short) and also see the huge projector where they were showing the interviews live. It was definitely exciting to be there. Afterward, we had bought tickets to see the film at the Vue theater which was not the same one with the stars but still right there in Leicester Square. We both loved it and had a lot of fun with the whole experience. The next day, we we were on the road again heading to Barcelona. Overall, it was so great to be in a country where people spoke English (although we still sometimes had difficulty understanding their accent and they ours), eat some proper breakfast as well as lots of other great meals, and to see London which is a really cool city. It's definitely a place I'd love to visit again.


The pics are up on Picasa if you'd like to check them out...


Jessica and Brian

Kingsley and Brian

breakfast more than a croissant!

the Natural History Museum

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