That first week in London was wonderful! The week started with us training from Heathrow into Paddington Station. So we got to see Paddington Bear!

The bear aside, we got to see a whole lot of things in London and a few people we wanted to catchup with too!

First catchup was with the lovely Andrew, who we hadn’t seen in *years*. One of the last people we caught up with because they were away traveling was Caroline and Gareth. So lovely to see you all!

We also saw our lovely Wendy at her lovely little house in Clapham North.

Our first touristy visit was to the Tower of London, which was pretty awesome. We couldn’t take any pictures of the crown jewels, but they are pretty special. They only have the very old jewels on display – I would’ve thought they’d have modern items too.

The other highlight of the Tower of London was the different towers which were used as cells. They had preserved various scratchings on the walls from Catholics who had been locked in the towers during the reformation and more. Was pretty amazing.

Loved the little doorways and walkways all over the place.

Our second big touristy thing was going to the Natural History Museum. Dinosaurs baby! I was expecting a T-Rex skeletoon, but was unfortunately they only had a mechatronic one. Sucky. Still, the Triceratops cast skeleton was pretty awesome!

Loved the Giat Armadillo, like Fast Tony from Ice Age. 🙂 There were quite a few real fossils on display, but mostly behind glass like this triceratops skull.

I was impressed by the Dodo Bird.

After a while, the scale of the number of fossils just overwhelms. They were *all* interesting. Such a great place to go, and it was FREE.

What on earth were these doing here?

Our third big London touristy thing was going to the amazing British Museum. Again it was FREE which was great. First item to see was the Rosetta Stone. It was pretty huge, and absolutely crowded with people.

There is a *silly* amount of Egyptian relics in this museum. Somewhat nauseating at times, because these things have obviously been extracted from the ground in Egypt and then shipped to England, as if that’s the best place for them.Regardless, here if the chin from the Sphinx that had fallen off and Cleopatra’s mummy. I’m totally serious. There were dozens of mummies there.

Plenty of mosaics, some more fun than others.

There were touches of NZ history in there too. Loved all the patu. And in the same cabinet as boomerangs.

These tiki were totally traditional – veyr nice to see.  They were contrasted by the more modern Maori culture display, which featured a fibreglass wharenui frame.

We were somewhat pleased to finish this leg of the London trip because we were in a *TINY* hotel room. The double bed was walled on 3 sides, then there was a bathroom the same size with a strip of floor which our suitcases filled. Awesome.

It was a wonderful week in London and there was so much walking, wandering and snacking in lots of different corners on London. But, it was time to head north to Cambridge, Nottingham, York, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Bring it on!