london pictures, part one

LONDON! pictures...of days -1, 1 and 2. -1 day is travel-to day. gus and i left iowa, flew to minneapolis, had an 8 1/2 hour layover (!), then boarded a lovely large plane for london. the layover was the hardest part to endure...

parts two and three to come!

day -1: sweetest boy, gus, at the museum of russian art in minneapolis--we actually left the airport for a few hours to try and break up the day, but it wasn't quite enough...that layover was rough.

finally on the plane to london--gus slept most of the flight

day one: our hotel--k+k hotel george, near the earl's court tube station in kensington. wonderful place--would definitely recommend it

as soon as we dropped our bags off we headed out to the museum of natural history

wonderful decorative carvings in the fence's piers

and even more wonderful carvings around the entrance

dino attack! gus is silly...

...but he found a platypus and mellowed

that bear looks a little small...? gus is actually reading the wall texts, which thrilled me to no end

komodo dragon

sad lion

hummingbirds (seriously)

dinner at zizzi's after a very, very long day; gus slept beautifully from day one (i, of course, had to be chemically unconsciousfied in order to sleep)

day two: portobello road market

cool wooden things

cool horn things

cool silver things

cool printer's blocks--basically the whole place was cool

yummy pastries

statuesque tulips

we had a fantastic lunch at books for cooks, just off of portobello road

seriously, it was fabulous. it is a little room, behind the bookstore, where cooks make whatever recipe they feel like making--they always have tea and some desserts, but on this day they had also made coconut carrot lentil soup with fresh cilantro and fresh focaccia bread. freaking delicious.

gus riding the tube to the science museum

wonderful display amidst a collection of household inventions at the science museum

operating room scene, c. 1974 (i think)

tons of fantastic hands-on experiments at the science museum

gus was enthralled; it was easily his favorite place to visit

interesting materials exhibition

the main hall, science museum

gus, tempting fate

dinnertime! this is the fifth floor of harvey nichols...

...and their conveyor-belted sushi bar. it was actually quite interesting and not nearly as unhygenic as it sounds. and the sushi was fabulous. apparently, there is a scene in "johnny english" where rowan atkinson's tie gets stuck in the belts (need to rent that).

le swoooooon. i so should have brought this home with me, damnit.