Not in London!

Ok, sorry it's been a few days since I updated this. But we've been having so much fun and have been so busy, I haven't had time! Truly.

We spent another great day in London and visited the Tower of London, looked around jewelry stores, fought the Christmas crowds in Soho and on Oxford Circle, and toured the beautiful old department store, the Liberty London. The Tower was really great - I had visited as a child, but I mostly remembered the gigantic jewels and the ravens. It was fun to re-visit as an adult and to really dig into the history. The Royal Mint museum in particular was fascinating.

We are now in Reigate, a lovely town south of London by about an hour. Our hosts here were Karla and Javi, and we had a wonderful time visiting with them. Yesterday we went down to the city of Brighton for the day.

This is way too short, but I'm out of time for now. We're picking up a rental car soon to drive to our next destination, Basingstoke, to visit and stay with a couple there. The next few days we will get a chance to do some countryside touring, which will be fun. Off we go!

In London!

In case you were wondering, we made it to London! Devlin was here for a week before I arrived on Friday, working working working. He picked me up at the airport, and we enjoyed a luxurious cappuccino and pain au chocolat once I had made it out past baggage pickup and passport check (long lines!).

We are now having a great time with a new Couchsurfer friend and host, Kam. It has been a great two days - and only 2 so far!. Yesterday we did some sightseeing at Westminster and Soho, walked through the National Gallery, and saw Buckingham Palace lit up at night with the Queen's flag flying from the central flagpole. (Means she's home in there, somewhere).  And lastly some really delicious Indian food at The Regency Club in Queensbury.

Today we had fun going with Kam and his two friends to a lake with a man-made beach, at Ruislip Lido. It was a lovely walk in the woods, which are so much like Oregon's, and then we warmed up with a cup of hot broth soup. Yum! After, Kam took us to the Sikh Gurdwara temple, which is the largest temple of its type outside of India. It was an incredible experience.

Tonight we've been invited by Kam to a charity benefit. It's a showing of a new short film which tells the story of farmers' suicides in India. I'll have more information to share about that event soon.

More updates and pictures to come! Stay tuned, cheers from London,
Tamara