Welcome to London!

Hello from London! We have been London residents for a mere 4 days but in that time we have managed to check out the London apartment scene, get a car (from a wonderful friend who left it here for us), drive a stick shift in London (yikes!) visit Oxford, tour the major London sites and drink several pints along the way.

To begin, our air shipment which was suppossed to arrive "3-4 days" after us will actually not be available for delivery for 5 business days after it arrives in London. Therefore, we warn you that we will be in the same 3 outfits in pictures for our first 2 weeks in London! Thankfully our apt is fitted with a "combi" washer/dryer. A ridiculous invention that cleans the clothing nicely but only dries it enough for it to not drip when you lay it out on the drying rack. It is also the size of a small microwave so ours has been running constantly (which apparently is a fire hazard since it takes 2 hours to wash a load of 6 items but ...)

So, we started off walking London - literally. The first day we were here we walked from East Marylebone where we are currently residing, to church in West Marleybone (All Souls) then to Notting Hill gate, to Notting Hill to Kensington to South Kensington to Knightsbridge and then through Hyde park and home. I thought I walked a lot in NYC but this was brutal! Not to mention that Notting Hill was having it's carnival - the largest street parade in Europe (according to some European we were talking to) which meant we had to walk with 8 million people along Portabello road in order to eat street food, listen to kids with shrill, ear blasting whistles and finally to the end where MIA was performing. Needless to say, we enjoyed it but didn't stay too long!

The second day we walked again - this time we went East. We checked out St. James's palace, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliment, SoHo and Chelsea. It is so cool to be walking around your city of residence and suddenly be staring at Buckingham Palace. Crazy!

Next we checked out apartments. We started in Notting Hill and managed to see 15 apartments ranging from awful to just short of great. The best one has beautiful hard wood floors, a great living space, wonderful kitchen with all the amenities, a separate washer/dryer (amazing!)... and then spoiled itself by having carpet in the bedrooms and bathrooms. We asked several brokers why on earth these landlords kept the carpets, especially in the bathrooms?! Most of them looked at us in shock and declared London was way to cold to have anything but carpet on one's feet in the winter. Shane recommended the use of slippers but was ignored. So, sadly enough, those of you who visit will likely experience ugly carpet. Just remember Buckingham Palace...

So, we have one more day of looking at apartments, this time in South Kensington area (close to a whole foods - yes, I have already seen it but I haven't gone in yet). However, today was our in-between day and our greatest adventure yet. We picked up the car.

For those of you who hadn't heard, Shane and I were able to get a car from some friends who were over here. It is great except for the fact that the steering wheel is on the right and it is a stick shift. Shane had a brief lesson with his dad a month ago but other than that, neither of us drive a stick! So, today, Shane drove the left handed stick from London to Oxford. A bit ambitious - one might say- for our first driving outing but we are alive and the car has no new scratches! It is a testiment to the kindness of British drivers though that we were only honked at 1 time and had people offer to help us 2 times :o)

OK, sorry for the long post but I wanted everyone to know what we were up to. We will keep you updated on our housing situation and we head for Paris on Friday (via train, not car!)

Let us know how you are all doing as well.

(Pictures are: Oxford, Big Ben, Buckingham from Left to Right)

Love, Sarah and Shane