The Traveling Martens

Sunny and warm in London

Another 4 thousand miles under our belt! Actually, the seven and a half hour flight seems short to us by now and went by quickly. The two hour wait to get through customs at London Heathrow was a shocker though. We made our way to Canary Wharf to meet our friend Tim Burke (we are staying with Tim and Sandra while here). We also saw where Stacy used to live in London during college.

The weather here is amazing, so we barbecued that evening on the patio of the Burke's apartment(sunny and 85 degrees). The next day was sunny also, two days of sun in a row in London seems to be a rare occurance. We went in to the city to walk around Hyde Park which was packed with people, joggers, dogs, ducks and horses. We finished our tea by the Serpentine Lake, a huge lake over 200 years old. We got a great Thai lunch (Panang Curry and Prok with holy basil - umm) across from Harrod's department store and walked around the city some more and saw Imperial College where Stacy took classes. We sat on the Burke's patio again that night, enjoying the weather.

This morning we took a 2 1/2 hour train ride through the countryside up to Liverpool. The city just won the European Cup so several parts of downtown are mobbed with people out celebrating. There are several pedestrian streets with stores and restaurants and packed pubs. Liverpool is also where the Beatles came from and the city seems to be the music capital of the world. There are pubs and bars advertising live bands everywhere and every fence has a different flyer for bands, shows, and DJs. We're here to see a show tonight, and we're glad we got a room ahead of time because the city is packed.

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 9:52 AM