We had a weekend off between our trip to Amsterdam and our trip to Lisbon (post upcoming). We had planned to recuperate at home, but the weather in London was supposed to be perfect for the entire weekend (which never happens), so we decided that we had to take advantage of the sunny weather.
Friday, May 29th
I was sitting in the office after lunch on Friday, I'd already worked some overtime in the week, and the sun was shining brightly over the Thames, and I just had to get out of there. I ended up surprising Jenna by getting home early, so we decided to have dinner in the park. We thought of all the wonderful picnic options. You know, sandwiches, pasta salad, watermelon, cheese and crackers, etc. We decided to buck tradition and instead went the unconventional route and picked up take-out Indian and headed to the park.
Maybe this is a good time to say that Jenna has fallen in love with Indian food since we got here, in particular one dish called Butter Chicken. London is pretty famous for the bland-ness of its traditional food, and the tastiness of its Indian food. Probably something to do with the whole colonization thing, but the city has a large Indian population and the cuisine is incredible. Anyway, we eat it pretty often - about as much as we had Mexican back home.
We headed off to the local park with our take out (luckily we'd brought silverware from home) and enjoyed dinner under the bright sun. Sadly, that's about all we got up to on our Friday night, but we had to get rested up for our tourist day...
Saturday, May 30th
We had decided that with the nice weather, it would be good to hit up some of the tourist spots that we've been putting off for a few months. Our first stop was the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. This is an underground bunker where Churchill lived and managed WWII during the bombings by the Germans. They really idolize Churchill over here, and the museum was pretty interesting . They had a section dedicated to his life and then the rest was set up like it was back in the 40s with the various meeting rooms and living spaces for the top officials of the British government.
After this museum we grabbed some more traditional picnic food (sandwiches) and headed toward St. James' Park. On the way, we happened to be passing by the place where the Royal Horse Guards show off occasionally, and we were there at just the right time.
After watching some military pomp, we headed to the park to eat. St. James' Park was originally a part of the grounds of Buckingham Palace, but is now just another of the city's beautiful public parks. We spent the afternoon enjoying the food, the sun, our books, people watching, and for me, a quick snooze, before heading off for our next museum.
After watching some military pomp, we headed to the park to eat. St. James' Park was originally a part of the grounds of Buckingham Palace, but is now just another of the city's beautiful public parks. We spent the afternoon enjoying the food, the sun, our books, people watching, and for me, a quick snooze, before heading off for our next museum.
Our last major stop for the day was the National Gallery. I guess this would be considered the primary museum in the city, although the British Museum and Tate Modern would possibly have a leg to stand on in an argument. In any case, the National Gallery is in Trafalgar Square in the middle of the city, so I say it wins. It contained mostly art and a few sculptures, and was huge. We focused on the most popular works by the likes of Monet and Van Gogh, but after about 90 minutes decided that we were all museumed out for the day. We spent a while by the fountains in Trafalgar Square trying to soak up the last rays of the sun.
In an effort to save a little money (to pay for our summer of travelling), we headed back home for an evening of homemade dinner and a movie.
Sunday, May 30th
After church (we've finally found one that we really enjoy, East Hill Baptist), we again decided that we needed to spend the day outdoors. As we were coming home, it was sunny and warm for the 3rd day in a row, so we stopped at the store to pick up a few things and get back out to the park. We decided on a light lunch - bread, meat, grapes and cheese, and a big jug of Crystal Light (and maybe some cookies for dessert). We spent a while in the park, but as the day wore on the clouds started to roll in and it got a bit windy. As a result, we ended up heading home a little earlier than planned.
It was a great way to spend the weekend off. We didn't spend hardly any money (since the museums here are free), we were outdoors more than we were in, and we got to see some new things in Europe without leaving the city!
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