Sunday, Jan 1
- Moved our luggage to Mayflower Hotel at Earl's Court
- Ate a crappy Chinese lunch (The Chinese food I had at the restaurant in our airport hotel the night before was the best I've ever had.)
- Natural History Museum (amazing animal exhibits, felt guilty for going there without Livy because she would have LOVED it, missed Livy more because of how much she would have LOVED it, boring minerals compared to Tellus Museum, okay evolution section that gave us many things to look up, awesome volcanoes, earthquakes, and tectonic plates section (must learn more about the continents and their movement patterns)
- ate delicious Indian food by myself while reading new Rick Riordan book
Monday, Jan 2
Aaron and I split up today. He went to the Museum of Science and loved it. Better than Museum of Science and Industry or Smithsonian, he says. I did the following:
- Return visit to the National Portrait Gallery to see Victorians through contemporary
- Lunch at the cafe in the NPG
- Walked around the Westminster area, across several bridges and along the Thames
- Return visit to Westminster Abbey, went to special prayer service in Edward the Confessor's Shrine (which is usually closed to the public), heard Evensong in the Abbey
- Walked from Abbey to our hotel (a pretty long walk), which was brisk and cool. London is a beautiful city at night.
- Met an ecomonics PhD student from Hungary who walked with me the last 10 or 15 minutes of the walk home. She is staying in London a few days by herself. Made me want to do solitary travel.
- Met Aaron at the hotel and had Lebanese food for dinner. Too much lamb, but delicious lemony sauces.
