London!

We left Edinburgh on a Sunday and arrived in London about an hour later.  London is: crazy, hectic, AMAZING, overwhelming and full of life.  It was everything I dreamed it would be.  We stayed just a few blocks from Buckingham Palace so we were able to walk by a few times.  Liz & Phil were in Australia so we didn't stop for tea.  

Green Park across from the palace - see the tiny black mark on the center of the photo? This is a woman walking her dog.    That's how HUGE the oak trees were.

Living out my life long dream - visiting the British Museum.

Rosetta Stone - one of the few things actually enclosed in glass.

Assyrian lions who guarded the palace - a little over 9 feet tall.

I found this funny.  Read the plaque - notice the bottom line.

Yeah that's about this creepy guy.  All I could say was "at least my God isn't in a museum"

Pieces of the Parthenon placed back together in a very large room.  The museum holds most of the original sculptures of the building while Greece retains a small percent.  

So it seems gross but this is sort of fascinating.  This is the Lindow Man.  He died roughly between  in 2 AD and 119 AD and was in his 20's.  They found him in a peat bog in northwest England in the 80's.  He's mostly intact and retains his hair and teeth.  They're not sure if he was murdered or used as sacrifice.  Really shows how wild life was then...

One of my favorite things we saw at the museum - The Lewis Chessmen.  Scotland has half while England retains the other half.  They were found in a Scottish cave by two boys in the 1800s in a small carved box.  When they opened it they discovered intricately carved chessmen made from walrus ivory.  They're fantastic.

My sweet traveling partner required real Chinese food.  I'm not a huge fan but I said I would as long as it was in Chinatown.  We had the best I've ever had in my life!

Big Ben - note the ugly fence? Yeah, protesters are dumb.

We ended our walk for the day by wandering past Westminster Abbey.