Loving London

This weekend was all about London - perhaps the most popular destination yet during our time in Europe in terms of crowd appeal.  We also lucked out with some mild fall weather, a bonus since the daily Dutch rainy mornings continue.  We wandered through popular sites like the British Museum and the Tower Bridge, took in a performance of Scrooge at the Palladium Theater, feasted on everything from spicy Indian food to wonderfully cozy afternoon tea, and just enjoyed the amazing diversity of sights, sounds, and the juxtaposition of new and old in this amazingly diverse city.  Here are a few postcards below...

Big Ben & Houses of Parliament across the Thames River

Skating next to the Tower of London - it rained just before we skated, so if you look closely, you'll see the wake Frans' skates left.  Falling was a very wet proposition, but our winter loving kids enjoyed the first skate of the season.

One of the many spectacular views from the giant ferris wheel, the London Eye.

Rose stands at the foot of the London Eye.

Ellen & Erzo with the Tower Bridge in the background.  Before it was built in the late 1800s, London bridge was the ONLY way to cross the Thames in London.  And of course, it kept falling down...

Standing on Regents Street with the ubiquitous double decker bus in the background.

Holiday lights were up around town.  This display on Oxford Street was one of the oddest Christmas displays we've ever seen.  The lights are sponsored by Marmite Gold (maker of the yeasty smelling, strong flavored Marmite).  Thus, the displays featured pictures of Santa and Elves either "loving" marmite and eating it up or "hating" it and spitting it out.  Vomiting elves & green Santa?  Hmmmmm...

Rose & Frans in front of an impressive 60 foot tall totem pole from British Columbia, now standing in the British Museum.. In the section on ancient civilizations, we saw a beautiful marble statue of Venus that once stood in Ostia Antica where we visited just a few weeks ago when in Rome.  So that's where all those missing statues ended up....  The sculptures and displays from ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt are as stunning as they are controversial.