London 2

This past weekend, we took the train down to the big city (London) for a proper date night and to cover some more touristy stuff.  One of my best friends from college, Dan Fox, bought us a gift certificate to a fancy steakhouse right on the Thames river so that was our excuse for the trip.

Fox, Thanks for the gift certificate!

We took the train right after work and headed straight for the restaurant after dropping our bags.  The restaurant was amazing: great view, great service, and the best steak I’ve had in ages.

Great View at Dinner

mmm…. Steak

STEAK

Tower Bridge at Night

In the interest of saving money, we stayed in a youth hostel near the train station.  We had a private room but shared bathroom.  It wasn’t too bad for the price.  Although the breakfast was pretty awful; generic cereal and bread were the only food options.  Yum.

We skipped the boring breakfast and made our way to the British Museum.  The British Museum is completely free and contains historical stuff from all over the world.  You could spend days in this place so we opted for the quick 1.5 hour long Rick Steves audio tour to guide us through the highlights of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Assyria.

British Museum

Big Marble Scarab.

Egyptians really like cats

Sand preserved bodies better than coffins.  Interesting fact

Lots of the Parthenon is actually here in the British Museum

Really interesting Greek pottery

Next up, we got some lunch at a pub and headed for another top London attraction:  St. Paul’s Cathedral.  This famous cathedral is the 2nd largest church in Europe, behind St. Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome.  It’s well known for it’s humongous dome, which was the tallest structure in London up until 1962.

Great British Pic: big red bus, London taxi cab, and St. Paul’s Cathedral

Working on my ninja skills at St. Paul’s

There were no pictures allowed inside the building, but I snuck one on the way up to the top of the dome.  This one was taken in the hall of whispers.

Overhead shot of St. Paul’s taken from the Hall of Whispers

On the way up

Made it to the top!

Good Shot of Cloudy London

After we got done at the church, it was dark outside so we headed over to Regent street to check out the Christmas lights.  Everyone else in the UK must have had the same idea because it was insanely crowded.  You could barely move.  It was really annoying but we braved the crowds and made our way down the crowded streets all the way to Piccadilly Circus.  A toy store was even blowing fake snow from the rooftops so it really felt like Christmas.

Merry Christmas! Sponsored by Marmite

In case you were wondering, Marmite is a by-product of beer brewing.  It’s a sticky dark brown, salty paste that you apparently eat on toast……..  Another amazing UK foodstuff.

That’s all for this short trip to London.  Adios.