London, England

Fans

We got up early on Thursday and ventured back to the underground. Tim had an appointment with First Contact to get a bank account sorted out, a UK SIM card for his cellphone and some handy tips for insurance, tax, etc etc - all very useful stuff. Who should be sitting across from Tim in the seminar room but Matt Sanders from Russell McVeagh. Tim summer clerked with Matt in Wellington and he then worked in Brendan's tax team until recently. Small world.

Meanwhile, Megan went to the Bristish Museum just down the road and spent an enjoyable couple of hours being drowned in history. We met up at 12pm and caught a train to Westminster, where we both marvelled at Big Ben and did the tourist thing, snapping photos left right and centre. After queuing for almost an hour we finally hopped on the London Eye. This is a must-do for new tourists in London. It was a great way to get our bearings and see a few sights from high above London. Money well spent.

After that we wandered back across to Westminster Abbey. We must have spent around two hours inside the Abbey, although you could spend all day there. It was absolutely staggering. We had no idea how many famous people were buried under the Abbey, not just monarchs, but poets and literary giants, religious ministers/bishops etc, politicians and many other important people in Britain's history. We were particularly impressed to discover that Isaac Newton and Lord Tennyson (Megan's favourite poet) were buried there! There are also statues and other marks of respect for people like Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, the list goes on.

The stained glass windows, carvings, statues and beautifully crafted ceilings are just amazing. We were blown away by the coronation chair, which was made in 1301!!! This wooden chair is about 4 times as old as New Zealand! Ha ha. Equally impressively, evey monarch since the Norman Conquest in 1066 has been crowned in Westminster Abbey and those crowned since 1301 have sat in this coronation chair. Tim was tempted to jump on to it and shout "King of the castle, king of the castle, I have a chair" Borat styles, but we reckon he probably would have been shot.

London is just so cool, there is so much to see and do. Tomorrow Anna has taken a day off work and is going to act as travel guide/shopping buddy and show us around some more!

Ka kite
Tim and Megan