... for the Weekend

Since a lot of the touristy and such things around London close at 5:30, the whole working 9-5 thing has really put a dent in much of explorations around London. As such though, it has forced me to make the most of my weekends and to get creative in finding things to do after work (besides writing that lovely 60-page research paper that I'm choosing not to think about).

After work, I've found a few things to do here and there. Our program does "film nights" once a week where we've been working our way through the Sherlock series, and although I've seen them before, I don't say no to free pizza and watching Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in action. My first week a coworker gave me 2 tickets that he could no longer use to see the Lumineers, which was awesome because I had wanted to go but it was sold out. Although it wasn't the deepest set list, it was really lively and they were good performers. Another night Dylan found this cello quartet performance at the National Gallery. It was really cool because they actually held the show in one of the gallery rooms, and the musicians chose the music so each piece matched a work of art in the room. I want to try to go to more of those performances in the future. And this week, Dylan and I got tickets to go see Louis CK (comedian) in the O2 arena, which is massive. There were around 12,000 people there. It is moments like that in which I truly appreciate public transportation, the efficiency of shuttling people out in hundreds at a time every minute or two on the tube is worlds away from 12,000 cars sitting in traffic.

My first post-work weekend I got to do some sight-seeing again. That morning we got up and went to Borough Market for lunch. For all of you foodies (foodies?) out there, it is heavenly. Senses overwhelmed by all the tasty foods whose smells blend together in perfection. Yumm. After we made our bellies happy, we hopped across the river to go see the Tower of London. The highlight of course is seeing the Crown Jewels, although personally, I thought the extravagant 55" long gold punch bowl was more my cup of tea and would make a lovely addition to my apartment in St. Louis.

There were random actors throughout the Tower

Tower Bridge from the Tower of London (coincidentally you can also see Tower Bridge from the windows in my office building)

I work just down the street from here!

Here's where to go if you're planning a Moriarti-styled breakin to the Crown Jewels

The Imperial State Crown

Guess who?

Oh hey there

That night we enjoyed some of our delicious Borough Market purchases by having a fancy wine and cheese and crackers and jams and breads and meats and chocolates night. Yummm.

Keepin' it classy

The next weekend our program planned a day-trip to Hampton Court Palace, palace of Henry VIII and his 6 wives. It was lovely. We toured through the apartments and through the gardens.

The front entrance

Central courtyard

Pretty ceilings

Casual stairway

My favorite part was wandering through the gardens. Although it wasn't exactly the height of Spring flowers or anything, it was still absolutely lovely.

These reminded me of our old house on Lipscomb

Girls day at the Palace

There was a maze in the gardens

I don't know, why not?

Reppin' DSP

And now, for your viewing pleasure, you can see why I'm considering retracting my statements from my post on Bruges about swans being fairytale-esque. This is my lovely interaction with a swan at the Hampton Court Palace Gardens:

FYI it's considered treason to kill a swan as they're property of the queen.... in case you were curious.