Visiting Royalty in London

Kristin had a work event in London, so we decided to use the opportunity to spend the weekend with our version of British royalty -- Arden and Sunil.  They moved to London recently, so we were excited to take them up on their fabulous hospitality (i.e., tell them we were coming to stay without any real option for them to say no).  

Their place is in a great location -- we just hopped on a quick flight from Stuttgart to London Stansted and from there it was a direct train to Liverpool Station (and Arden and Sunil's couch). 

The weather was nearly perfect...especially for March.  Kristin's dinner was at a very beautiful space close to Westminster, so it made for an amazing walk from the Tube (in high heals and a long dress).  And some goofy fancy-dress pictures of Kristin.   

Kristin needs to get better at the candid shots. 

The next day, Arden and Kristin went looking for lunch.  About 5 miles later they had some fun pictures.  And some mediocre burritos.  But the walk was great.  It was bright and sunny.  Amazing.

"Hey look kids, there's Big Ben."

On Friday, we spent a few hours wandering through the collections at the British Museum.  There was a list of "can't miss items," so naturally we found all of them and got good pictures of the incredible stuff the British "borrowed" (and never returned) from other cultures.  

We were afraid we were under dressed.  Class class class at the British Museum.

Quality time with the important pieces from the British Museum collection.

If only the Rosetta Stone could help us learn German.

Our favorite part was the friezes and statues from the Parthenon.  It's pretty terrible that they aren't actually at the Parthenon, but it was amazing to see them up close and so well protected.  It made us excited to see the building itself in Athens.

We missed the actual fancy chess board.  So we settled for the gift-shop version.

The next morning we went for a jog that hit some of the big London sites -- the Tower of London, London Bridge, the Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Kensington Palace.

"Hey look kids, there's Big Ben."  Again.

We had an awesome lunch at a cute place near Arden and Sunil's house called Poppies Fish & Chips. There were huge portions and lots of fried food deliciousness.

Yum.

  

On Sunday, we went to the Brick Lane market close to their house.  It was an amazing day, so there were tons of people enjoying the great weather and the even better food.  It was nice to have a relaxing day just to enjoy a typical London weekend.  Matt managed to have lunches from three different ethnicities (Sri Lankan, Guatemalan, and Malaysian).

Thanks to Arden and Sunil for being awesome hosts for us.  We can't wait to get back!