Wednesday, June 22, 2011

6/16/11

Today we woke up bright and early, only slightly grumpy not to be sleeping in (mostly me, I guess) but nonetheless excited for a thrilling day of adventuring in London. We had a tasty breakfast with Susie and her mother (who come in to take care of Kit, who is outrageously cute by the way) and hopped on a bus with Sam as he went to work. After dropping off our luggage at his office, we were ready to explore downtown London!

Unfortunately, no sooner had we stepped out into the streets of London than it started pouring. But no amount of rain could quench our spirit. We started at a little coffee place that Anne Marie knew called Monmouth, then went across the street to Borough Market, a really awesome open-air market. We got some breakfast and some snacks for later at the airport, as well as a delicious beef pasty.

We then wandered up the Thames to the Tate Modern, where I realized that I was still really tired from the sleepless red-eye. I forced myself to enjoy the art nonetheless, which was actually really amazing. We considered taking the Tate boat up the Thames to Tate Britain, but decided we'd have more time for such things on the return journey.

It eventually dried up, and we spent most of the afternoon walking the Thames and seeing the sights. We walked through St. James Park, saw Parliament, considered getting on the London Eye... and eventually found ourselves at the National Gallery. It's been a long time since I've been to London, so I'm not sure if I've already seen them, but I really enjoyed the beautiful art at the National Gallery.

We finally grabbed some dinner at a neat little pub, where we split a meat pie and got a free beer (woo London!), and said goodbye to Sam. After an hour long trip through the underground to Heathrow, we were ready to go to Africa.

Our flight out of Heathrow was at 9, with Ethiopian Airlines. I'd just like to say here that while we were worried about the comfort/service/safety of an African airline compared with US airlines, Ethiopian Air was WAY better than Delta! More leg room, better service, and neither crashed. I wish Ethiopian Air was in the US!

Getting excited for Uganda....

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