July 31, 2015: Day 1 in London--Buckingham Palace, Westminster Cathedral, Tower of London

Earlier in the summer at Sandia Labs, Mike was lucky enough to sign up for a poster presentation for a conference at the University of Leeds AND to arrange a meeting with scientists at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Reading, giving us the opportunity and funding to travel to England the end of July and to stay for a week and a half!

July 31st--1st day in London: We arrived at the Heathrow Airport and hopped on the tube to our hotel, which was conveniently located around the corner from the subway entrance. We spent the first couple days in London visiting as many sights as we could squeeze in by taking the subway to various parts of the city.

The subway trains were the easiest way to get around London

These tour buses and red double decker buses were everywhere

Inside our comfy room on the 6th floor of the Conrad London St. James

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cute little British guard in front of Buckingham Palace

The Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace

The London Eye Ferris Wheel seen from Buckingham Palace

Beautiful golden gates of Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria Monument

Buckingham Palace

A war memorial dedicated to American soldiers

Wow--they still have these cool phone booths here!

These old street corner pubs had the most lovely flower baskets

Now that's what I call "curb appeal"!

St. Edward's Bell Tower of Westminster Cathedral seen in the background

London's Westminster Cathedral is gorgeous!

Views of the city from the top of the tower included
St. Paul's, Houses of Parliament, and Windsor Castle 

These old brick buildings come alive with colorful window planters

Advertisement of "The Book of Mormon" musical in London

Big Ben/Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament

Cool statue of Winston Churchill

These old architectural buildings are everywhere in England
They remind me of castles and temples

Another advertisement and West Minster Abbey behind the bus

The pre-opening set of "The Book of Mormon" musical included a replicate 

of an LDS temple outlining the stage (with a revolving gold statue of Moroni at the top); 

a backdrop of heavenly clouds, and an array of stars and planets in the heavens

The set was beautiful, as were the rest of the sets and scenery. Most of the story

and music in Act I was fun and entertaining--especially the scenes with Mormon

missionaries. Sadly, by the end of Act I, the story and songs went from innocent

and hilarious, to disgusting, vulgar, and sacrilegious. Mike and I were extremely

disappointed and disgusted by the content of show. The "good" parts were really 

good, but the bad parts far outweighed the good and polluted our minds and souls. 

In the end, we wished that we had gone to "The Lion King" instead and could

have gotten a refund on our $200 tickets...

A tasty high carb meal at Byron Proper Hamburgers

The Tower of London seen at night