Christmas in London (Part 1)

This year, Alex and I headed to London to celebrate Christmas with his mother and brother. We had a lovely time, and I owe you some pictures!

Our first couple days were spent in London, catching up on our favorite sites. We started off visiting Portobello Road in an attempt to stay awake/do away with jetlag in one fell swoop. It didn't work exactly, but it was a nice try.


We did NOT sleep well on our flight. That there was a restless 10-12 year old boy sitting behind us on the plane, unintentionally (I hope) kicking our seats for most of the flight did not help. So this trip will go down in the record books as one of the worst adjustments to the London timezone that we've ever experienced. :(

Alex, trying to look awake

My amusement with the short, squat trees all over London kept me awake for a while. Check them out! They're...well, um...different. Weird! To use Dartmouth pong vocabulary, these are Christmas shrubs, not Christmas trees. Heck, they are basically Christmas two-cup!

Christmas shrubbery

After a great Iranian dinner and a lackluster night of sleep, we spent our second day in London at one of my favorite museums: the British Museum. The contents of the museum are amazing, if a bit controversial, and the architecture of the main atrium alone is worth the visit.


The rest of the building isn't too shabby either.


There was a really nice exhibit on Babylon, which we enjoyed.

Alex and I, about to learn about Babylon

And I truly enjoyed the contemporary art on display among the artifacts, especially since Graham was with us to explain it all. I mean, without him, I would have no idea why there is a 24 karat gold sculpture of Kate Moss in contortions near the Greek and Roman sculpture. Hmm. I'm still not sure that I do, but it was cool all the same.


The Egyptian artifacts are amazing.


And they have the Rosetta Stone. THE Rosetta Stone. Wow.


And these are beautiful, I believe they are pre-Columbian? I think. I need to visit Central and South America so I can learn to identify some of this stuff! I'll add that to the list, I suppose...


More pictures later. This post is looooooooooooooo-ong. :)