Christmas time in London

I think I like London even more the second time around than I did the first. I don't know what happened to the typical "London weather," but it has been absolutely beautiful almost the whole time we have been here... I am not going to say it is warm here, but it is much much warmer than it is in Edinburgh... and the sun has been out every day at least at some point.

All the Christmas decorations are up, and it is just magical to walk down the sidewalks under all the lights and traffic and pedestrians bustling about... the energy here is just incredible.

Every day has been perfect. We have walked along the river path, with famous monuments in the background... Big Ben and the Parliament, over the London Bridge (a couple of times actually... you don't even want to know :), Westminster Abbey... we went to an organ recital there... I actually fell asleep because I was tired from all the walking, but I hear it was pretty amazing :)

We went to the Camden markets on Saturday morning... It was huge... much bigger than I expected... With tons of alternative EVERYTHING you could possibly imagine. I had a great time looking at all the stuff, and John patiently followed me around :) I just love the atmosphere at markets like that... people everywhere, booths crammed in wherever they will fit, selling creations that I could never have even imagined.... It was great!

We walked all through the parks, and I got to experience autumn for a couple of days (somehow I completely missed out on autumn this year... It just became winter when I got to Edinburgh :)... the leaves on the trees changing brilliantly, the sound of the fallen leaves crunching under our feet, the huge old trees lining the sidewalks creating a stately canopy of color for us to walk through.

We went to Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park where anybody who wants to just brings along a step stool, stands up a couple of feet higher than the crowd, and rants and raves about whatever they want, hoping to gather a crowd to listen to their hysterics. The whole area was crowded, so we just walked through catching snippets of what people were saying and stopping when it sounded interesting, trying to make sense of it all. I have to say, most of the people speaking here seemed to me to be complete lunatics, but it was really entertaining nonetheless :)

Our hostel was actually in Greenwich, just a short train ride from central London... So, of course, we had to go stand on the Prime Meridian... two hemispheres at once... took the obligatory picture... it was really cool though to be somewhere that I remember reading about in grade school.

And, the highlight of our time in London was last night.... We went to see "We Will Rock You." I had almost forgotten what a great band Queen is... The whole show there was just so much energy, audience participation, singing along... It was incredibly fun... I actually had so much energy after the show, I couldn't sleep for half the night!

So, tonight I am heading back to Edinburgh... I am strangely excited to get back "home," to see what is new with my friends there, to be in a place where everything is familiar, to enjoy my last few weeks before everything changes... :)