Christmas in London, England

For most of you, I wouldn't need to specify that the London that I meant was in England. For my friends from Southern Ontario, however, it could have caused a stir. You see, they might have wondered why they had heard from me if I had been home for the holidays. London, Ontario is the closest city to my hometown.

December 24, 2012:
So, I spent Christmas in London, England and Christmas Eve, I had the pleasure of reuniting with my friend, Claudia, who I'd had the pleasure of meeting in Lyon.

Unlike all the fakers, Claudia is a local Londoner. She showed us ALL of the touristy things. In the pouring rain. Big Ben, which is actually the name of the bell in the tower which is officially named the Elizabeth Tower:

Westminster Abbey:

(Another side of it looks suspiciously similar to the Notre Dame...)

Covent Garden Market:

And the Tower Bridge (which is not called London Bridge à la Fergie song):

 We got the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London after approximately five hours of walking (which was splendid and included many other sites including  the Globe Theatre, the Christmas display at Fortnum & Mason's, and Buckingham Palace). We had first stopped for a hot chocolate and when we came out, we had the first glimpses of sunshine we'd seen all day. Talaira and I were soaking wet; Claudia, as usual, came prepared with an umbrella. It was perfect weather for picture taking in any case.

I had the pleasure of briefly meeting the family we were staying with. They had just gotten in that afternoon from Scotland and were headed off early the next morning for Miami (what a life, am I right?)

December 25, 2012:
Christmas Day was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It was hard watching photos go up of my family cutting down the Christmas tree, making Dad's Sugar Cookies and generally knowing that they would be together for Christmas without me for the first time in my life. So, waiting for a reasonable time to call them on Christmas Day was difficult. We didn't expect anything to be open all day, there was no public transport and we were staying in a part of the city a bit too far from the centre to be walking around, so we opted for a day of rest.

Talaira and I exchanged gifts in the morning and we had been hoping for a marathon of Christmas movies -- the Grinch, Love Actually, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, those creepy stop-motion films about the land of misfit toys or whatever -- but there was nothing! So many options and British television channels failed us miserably. We ended up watching a marathon of Friends reruns. So whatever. I was really excited to call my family. And it made my heart ache, physically, because I really do miss them. Happily, they received by presents in the mail so that they could open them that morning. Calling them was like soul food.

Followed by a quiet Christmas dinner consisting of Chinese food left-overs, vegetables in cheese sauce, smashed potatoes (as Talaira calls them) and wine. Lovely!