Living London

The company that manages the property we are staying at decided they needed to immediately address the floor issues in the bathroom, so this morning after church, Josh and I moved our stuff from our flat to another flat two floors up.  It is basically the exact same set up and it didn't take very long to switch flats.  Now, I have a chicken roasting in the oven (it smells soooo good) and we are spending the afternoon relaxing.

Our first look at St. Paul's Cathedral

Yesterday, Josh and I set out to explore some of the parts of London we had not been to yet.  We started in Islington, which isn't a new area for us, but I wanted to stop by a Christmas craft market that was set up on one of the side streets.  There were not as many crafters as I was hoping for and really didn't see anything that thrilled me.  There were only about 20 booths, so we went through pretty quickly.  We decided to start walking south from Angel tube station.  Our first big "find" was stumbling across St. Paul's cathedral.  It was immense!

St. Paul's Cathedral

There has been a church on the St. Paul's Cathedral sight since 604 AD.  The current cathedral was built between 1675 and 1710.  This was the sight of the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981.

Josh and I only stepped inside for a few minutes.  You have to pay 14.50 pounds (about $22.50 US) to enter the church during visiting hours (services/masses are free).

The church was also the site of hundreds of Occupy London tents.  Somehow we didn't get any pictures, but the tents were all over the place.  They even had a little donated "grocery" store for the occupants.

Royal House of Justice.

 Josh and I continued our walk and came upon the High Court of Justice.  It is another large beautiful building that dates back to the 1870's.  Near here I also found a Twining of London store.  It was the most narrow, long store I have ever been in!  I don't think it was more than 8 feet wide!  Of course, I had to buy a few tea samples.  I had one this morning that tasted and smelled like rose.  Not bad actually...

Josh and I at Somerset House.

 We continued along "The Strand" and found an ice skating park at the Somerset House.  It was such a festive atmosphere!  Josh and I grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and watched people skate as the sun set.

Trafalgar Square at Christmas.

We then made our way to Trafalgar Square, where there were carolers singing Christmas songs.  The National Gallery is in the background.  Josh and I went into the Gallery and walked around admiring the artwork for about an hour.  

By this point, Josh and I had been wandering around London for five hours.  We were exhausted!  So we hopped on the closest tube and headed back to our flat.

This next week, we are expecting to look at a few more flats that are close to the Angel Building (Josh's office).  I hope that we have some luck,  if not, we will probably have to wait until after New Years to look again.  Everything pretty much shuts down around the holidays.  Josh and I decided to plan a trip to Scotland instead of giving each other gifts this year, so on December 26th we are leaving London for a five day trip to Edinburgh and Glasgow Scotland.  We are so excited to see Josh's "homeland", I promise I will try to get a picture of Josh in a kilt!

Cheers!