Émilie

So now my first conscious day in London is coming to a close (I slept for almost the entirety of yesterday minus an AMAZING meal in SOHO at a great vegetarian restaurant), and aside from being exhausted, I’m having a marvelous time.

This morning we took a tour of the Tower of London, and our tour guide was hilarious. He told a lot of specific stories about historical people that really made it possible to imagine yourself there hundreds of years ago. He took every possible opportunity to make fun of Americans, but it was enjoyable. It was so entertaining that I almost forgot about how dreadfully numb my toes were!

Inside the tower we got to see the crown jewels… and damn. That was just crazy! The tour guide told the women to look down at their left hands…. then at the jewels… then back at their hands. One of the scepters held a 530 carat diamond! (No pressure, Michael. )

We really haven’t seen anything that I would classify as beautiful, but I am loving how old everything is! We are tracing the footsteps of history! Robin told us that even one of the tube lines we rode was first used in 1906! I’d never been interested in the history of British royalty, but seeing the places where they’d lived, married, and beheaded one another (yeah, welcome to London) made it much more interesting.

We ate lunch in a classic English pub. The “chips” (=fries) were delicious. Then we popped over to briefly walk around a modern art museum, but we didn’t care for it much, so we left early to get our daily groceries and return home to make dinner in our nice, warm flat. It’s great to be out of the cold!

More soon! Cheerio, loves!