London touristy things

Our first full day in London was raining, so we spent the day in the free Science Museum. It was amazing.  There were tons of things to see there, not all were ancient (although some of the exhibits could use an update).  Our favorite exhibit was called Listening Post which is too difficult to explain.  Lunch and dinner consisted of a footlong sub sandwich each, eaten half at lunch time and half at dinner time, with a microwavable mac and cheese to supplement the dinner half (our hostel didn't have a full kitchen).

On our second day, we changed locations to our friend's Robin and Aaron's apartment.  They live in this really adorable three floor, two bedroom apartment in Notting Hill.  While they did domestic London things, Andy and I checked out Big Ben, the Parliament building, Westminster Abby, Red Lion pub for sandwiches and a pint of English ale (thanks Sarah and Andre!), Buckingham palace, and a stroll through Hyde Park.  For dinner we made Robin and Aaron black bean burgers in which we put in the usual amount of chili powder, but I think in London that meant cayenne pepper.  The burgers were very spicy.  They made us broccolini and sweet potato fries as sides.

And on our last day in London we went to the Tower of London.  I loved it.  It's a giant old castle in the middle of the city with outer walls and views of the famous bridge (which I thought was called London Bridge but is actually called Tower Bridge).  For lunch we headed out to Covent Garden to walk around and split a jacket potato (baked potato) with vegetable chili on top.  As we sat on the corner of a pavilion, Terri St. Clair (I think) played guitar and sang.  If you can find him on youtube, listen to a couple of his songs.  They were lovely.

In the afternoon back at Robin and Aaron's place, we watched the Notting Hill Festival, or Carnival.  It was not your typical parade, but mostly semi trucks with massive amps and a DJ pumping out reggae music driving slowly by as thousands of dancers trail behind them.  For dinner Robin and Aaron got us jerk chicken and rice and grilled corn on the cob from a Carnival street vendor.