The British Museum

The British Museum is cool...

so we quickly dressed in our sweaters and we were ready to go.

...first entry by ry, so get used to bad humour and be sure that Amy is right beside me giving me looks...

The British Museum is fascinating, it opens your eyes as to the power and size the British Empire once had.

The exteriour of the building is nothing to write home about(it's beautiful but so much of the architecture here is), however, the interiour is absolutely beautiful.

Once in the doors you are blown away by the size and beauty of the main "foyer" (for lack of a better term). Massive walls of white marble, an entire ceiling of sky light and priceless artifacts as decor.

Pick any direction and wander through some of the most precious pieces of history the world has to offer. It quickly became overwhelming and I had to stop taking photo's. Everything in there was beautiful or interesting or both.

There is so much to see, Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Aztec... the list goes on and on of artifacts from other civilizations.

It brings up interesting discussion points, who does this stuff belong to?

England because it was strong enough to obtain it?

The countries of origin because it is their history?

Would it still exist if it hadn't been in the care of a museum of all this time?

Really fascinating thoughts to explore while walking through...

London Sights

After an incredibly eye opening experience in the London rental market, we found a little (keyword LITTLE) flat that we really love. It's in a fantastic neighbourhood and is in a great old building that has these terrific 12 foot ceilings, mouldings, stained glass windows, etc. We have a one-room studio (ie. bedroom, kitchen & table are all in one room), but we have our own shower and washroom and enough room on the floor for a blow-up mattress, so all is good! It's perfect for us, for now anyway and is all part of the experience! We'll post some flat pictures later . . .

We spent our first few days in London exploring and getting settled. We've also managed to connect with some old friends, acquaintances and friends-of-friends which has made for a great intro week and makes it feel even more like home.

Here are some pic's of Trafalger Square . . .







This picture was taken in the Kyoto Gardens, which are a short walk from our new flat.

This is the outside of our new building, on the day we found it!

Sommerset House

The Young Vic Theatre, where we saw our first London play - The Member of the Wedding.

More pictures to come later . . .

Leeds Castle

The day before we moved into London proper, we took a day trip to Leeds Castle, and it is spectacular!! It is known as one of Britain's prettiest castles, and really is beautiful - especially its exteriour and the incredible grounds which include all kinds of gardens, a river, a maze and a vineyard. We had a fantastic time exploring and letting our imaginations fly!

Sidcup

Our first destination was Sidcup - a small and charming town in Kent which, while still technically in 'greater London', is definitely removed from the action! It was great to have a place to call home right off the bat, but a combination of factors including the lack of anything to do after 5 pm, the general ickiness of the shared flat, its location in the middle of a hospital complex and the mouse that moved in, convinced us pretty quickly that it wasn't exactly what we had had in mind for our London experience! We had fun exploring the area nonetheless before braving the London rental market.

Arrival

Well, we arrived safe and sound in the U.K. a couple of weeks ago. We're new to the blogging world, so we apologize for our slow start. Packing was definitely a challenge - trying to consider everything you might want over a whole year - and it didn't take us long to regret our choices as we tried to navigate through the train stations. I think we have definitely learned our lesson about packing lightly!