Day 1 In London

We are here! The flight felt a little excruciating around the 6th hour when we were trying desperately to sleep. It is amazing how anybody can get some shut eye in such a compact area. I (Amanda) was lucky I was right next to Gabe who took my sprawling in great stride. Im pretty sure I "woke up" (because I don't think I technically achieved what you would call sleep) to my leg tingling and numb on 4 separate occasions. However, sleep issues aside, the flight was uneventful, just the way I like them.

When we finally wrapped up airport business (passport checks, money withdrawals, oyster card purchases…) we caught the tube into the center of the city. Our hostel kindly let us check our packs into their luggage room and after a quick trip to Tescos (picked up bread, brie, a big sack of carrots for cheap, the local sweet and some yogurt) we set out on foot to explore the city. Luckily we brought jackets and scarves because the weather here has been pretty cold, consistently around a brisk 30 degrees, though it feels like significantly less when the wind howls across the Thames right into our faces. Most of the time we ditched the map and just let our curiosity take us wherever it wanted.

We headed roughly northeast and stayed along the Thames River walkways. We stopped at a bunch of small random places and a few big ones.

Our big stops included:

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

The Millennium Bridge

The millennium bridge was extremely pretty. We had views up and down the river and did some planning for our next couple of days while on the bridge. Luckily we were also able to get a woman to take our picture while on the bridge (said woman not pictured).

St Pauls Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral is ridiculous. Massive building with massive statues massively dominating the landscape from every direction you look.

We didn't get to go in because we didn't feel like we would appreciate it as much with our jet-lag ridden brains; however, we are planing on going back to adventure.

and the Tate Modern.

While most of the art was out of our comprehension

we did find a few pieces that really struck a chord.

 The first exhibit was "Dreams and Poetry" which featured a ton of surrealist artists with everything from oil paintings to strange statues. I have to say with the lack of sleep and coffee the art began to freak me (Gabe) out, but it was pretty cool.  It is safe to say that the highlight of the Tate was stumbling upon Monet's "Water Lilies".

It was massive and so beautiful. Any of the replicas that we have seen don't do it justice.

Towards the end of our day we happened uopn the Temple District and saw the Temple Church along with some beautiful gardens.

We took a few minutes to sit and appreciate the beauty that seems to constantly surround us.

It seems crazy that a city can mix the extremely old and the most modern of buildings almost seemlessly.

First day in London done, now we are heading to bed early after a couple chapters in our books and a nice english beer. Stay tuned!