Ed and Laurel visit London, or, Dry Days in London, part 1

Yesterday we arrived in London for a 3-night visit.  I have never been to London.  I visited Laurel in Manchester at least 5 times between 2012 and 2014, always on direct flights between PHL and MAN.  We always talked about squeezing in a visit to London, but it never happened.  I have visited other places in the UK (Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool) but always as part of postdoc lab exploratory visits.  Now that I've moved to the country it was high time to pay a visit to the metropolis.  We got really lucky with the weather: forecast calls for warm, sunny days and clear skies.  A bit like when I visited Seattle and had nothing but sunshine and heat.

We arrived around noon and checked in immediately at the apartment we booked through Air BnB (a large, sunny place in the Bloomsbury neighborhood) and the host gave us a quick tour of the neighborhood.  We walked through several pretty squares and gardens (my favorite in this area was St. Georges Gardens), picked up lunch at Fork and ate it in Tavistock Square, on a bench near the Ghandi statue.

Tavistock Square, Ed's on the second bench from the left.

Next: Russell Square, a quick stop at the British Museum, which was completely full of French schoolchildren, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, another place I lusted for during my bout of cerebral trypanosomiasis.

Onwards to Covent Garden, where I started to feel some sun fatigue.  Ice water, apple juice and a short rest later, we resumed our trek to the Thames, but after that I had to use Laurel's compact umbrella as a parasol.  Somerset House, my first view of the Thames, Victoria Embankment Gardens, Whitehall: now we were really In London.

A wood mouse we saw in Victoria Embankment Gardens

We zigzagged up to Trafalgar Square and down to Westminster and came to rest on a bench in Victoria Tower Gardens overlooking the river.

Edwardus in front of monumental gate

Laurel in Trafalgar Square

The levitators of Trafalgar Square. From right (back to front): levitating Yoda, levitating silver man, levitating witch, levitating silver man, Yoda on a smoke break

The clear blue skies and evening light made all the famous buildings look especially beautiful.  We felt very lucky to be there.

Laurel in front of a clock tower

Both of us!

We made reservations for dinner (Great Queen Street), where we were able to enjoy our dinner in the lingering evening light.  Both meals we had that day were excellent, would highly recommend.  Back home and straight to bed, full and exhausted.