London - July 26 - 29 - Settling In

The trip to London was easy and uneventful. Arrived on time; flew through passport control and our bags were the first ones on the belt. (Pic - Nancy was a happy traveler.) We spent the first couple of days unpacking, setting up our flat in Notting Hill and putting together IKEA furniture. The flat is great - AWESOME location and has everything we need. We didn’t quite anticipate how MANY stairs would be involved on a daily basis living on the top floor…with no lift. (Lift is British for elevator.) There are 84 stairs from the street to our “Reception Room”/kitchen. We made that climb several times a day (often with packages in hand) during the first few days. (Phew.) We’ve already found a couple of great spots to nosh in Notting Hill, including the Cheeky Scone (best scone I’ve ever had); Trejos Tacos (one of the best burritos I’ve ever had); and…most importantly - Darlish Ice Cream…it’s darlishious!!! (I had Darlish ice cream three nights in a row…but I also averaged over 20,000 steps per day…so it’s okay.) On Tuesday, we spent most of the day walking through London. The only specific destination we had in mind was the Temple Church - originally built by the Knights Templar in 1185. Over the course of about 25 years, Nancy had previously attempted to visit inside the Temple Church 3 or 4 times, but the church had always been closed…for one reason or another. Tuesday was finally the day, and we were able to visit inside. It isn’t particularly ornate or grandiose on the inside compared to many famous churches, but it does have an impressive stained glass window…which you can see when YOU are able to visit the Temple Church. Just a couple of blocks from the Temple Church is the Royal Courthouse (Pic below). Very cool building from the outside, and completely open to the public. On a whim, we roamed the halls for a bit, and even sat in on an active trial…no pics allowed. It was a very boring trial, so we didn’t stay long. And…of course…no trip to London (at least for Nancy) would be complete without a stop and Liberty of London (Pic below). Next stop…Cornwall!