Ashes, Ashes: The Silent Streets of Pompeii

See this title ^ 
This would likely be the title of my National Geographic article, which would eventually become a National Geographic movie. Except I'm not gunning to write for NG and they already made movie on Pompeii... which brings me back to my childhood.

Grandma Dorthy always got a new NG movie (VHS of course) for us to watch on Christmas Eve.  One of those was a film on Pompeii.  This film became and remained the basis of my desire to visit Pompeii (and where most of my now hazy knowledge of the city's history came from).  And this childhood desire kicked in when I realized how close we would be to this ancient city.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity so we hopped a train to the ruins.

The silhouette of Mount Vesuvius in the background is a constant reminder of nature's ability to conquer man's creations.

You could spend days seeing everything in Pompeii and years learning its history.  For now I am glad we had an afternoon exploring the silent streets of Pompeii.

Modern architecture in an old city

This was a really cool area of London. An old power plant has been converted into the Tate Modern art gallery. It's a pretty amazing repurposing of a building. Nearby are the Borough Market and Globe Theater. All this is connected back to the main part of London by the Millennium Bridge. The bridge was completed to usher in the new millennium back in 2000, but had to be closed 2 days later for an additional 2 years because it moved back and forth too much with foot traffic.

Couldn't resist a video from Harry Potter.

Pretty amazing stuff with free admission

The central court of the British Museum. 

There definitely are some advantages to ruling most of the world for a long time in the semi recent past.                You get to collect from every civilization and culture of the world. Some highlights: the original statues and relief sculptures from the Parthenon in Greece, entire roman Temples reconstructed, amazing carvings and statues from Assyria, gigantic busts of egyptian Pharaohs, and the Rosetta Stone. 

Another great museum was the National Gallery of Art. I learned gained some art appreciation during an art history class in college, and it was actually pretty cool to see some of the pieces we studied. 

Besides enjoying the lions of Trafalgar Square in front, these were some of our favorites inside: 

The Virgin of the Rocks by da Vinci

Coastal Scene by van Rysselberghe

Bathers as Asnieres by Seurat

The Arnolfini Portrait by van Eyck

The Fighting Temeraire by Turner

The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio

Picnic in the Park

It's been fun watching the Olympics and reliving some of the places we enjoyed in London. Hyde Park is truly one of the best metropolitan area parks that we've ever been to. After attending church at the Hyde Park Chapel, we spent the afternoon eating, riding bikes, napping, people watching, and enjoying the scenery of the park. On a Sunday afternoon there are literally thousands people there. 

Margo's smile

Margo always has a smile. And not just in London, but pretty much everywhere. 

The Royal Treatment

Kensington Palace- feel like royalty, even in the loo. 

Roar

A few lions in London. 

The Borough

Nothing beats a good outdoor market for lunch. 

Baguette with lamb and mint

Getting around London

With heavy hearts we parted ways with our silver fiat in
 London and joined the masses on public transportation. 

London Eye

$23 to take a spin.

We'll do it next time. 

Big Ben

One of the great parts of taking more time in one city is that you can visit sites a few different times and at different times of day. The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben was ones of the those sites. 

Another example of some amazing English gothic architecture- Built in the 1840-1870's