We made it! Day 1 in London.

It took a van, a plane, a train and a bleary-eyed walk through very busy city streets but we made it to our apartments in London.

Ready to depart for Newark (airport not valley).

Kelsey, Michelle and Dr. Firenze in the airport.

Rob, Mark, John, Jesse and Olenka in the airport.

Navigating the baggage claim at Heathrow on very little sleep.

Heading for the tube.

Having some lunch before our tour at the British Museum. Or was it breakfast?

The British Museum!

Meeting on the steps of the British Museum for our tour of the Enlightenment Wing.

Our guide, Janet, talks about the 150 year "Enlightenment Period" and tries to give us a perspective of the world through 18th century eyes.

Janet tells us about how views of the natural world expanded during the Enlightenment, setting the stage for the Victorian period.

Our guide discusses how appreciation of other cultures, customs and religions grew during the Enlightenment.

Janet concluded our tour of the Enlightenment Wing with an overview of 18th century trade and discovery.

Back to our apartments for a little bit of rest before our evening walking tour of Bloomsbury (our neighborhood).

After a brief rest we joined our guide, Brian, for the “Literary Bloomsbury” walk.

Our guide informed us that T.S. Eliot lived and worked across the street from our apartments.

We learned the history of Russell Square, where we hold our morning class meetings.

As part of our walking tour, we learned about writers, artists and poets who lived and worked in Bloomsbury.

After learning the history of "Queen's Square" (which included tales of King George III's porphyria and Queen Charlotte's unfortunately small nose), we stopped off for a break and conversation with our guide at "The Queen's Larder" pub.

At the conclusion of our walking tour, we learned about the many famous people who have worked in The Reading Room of The British Museum.

We finished our long day at The Plough Pub with some traditional fish and chips and.....

....steak and ale pie.

After dinner at the pub, we all headed back to our apartments for some well-deserved rest.  Dr. Firenze and Dr. Saraceno seemed particularly tired.  We discovered that they had both been in London recently for the royal wedding.

Although Dr. Firenze was a little "freaked out" by the size of the crowd and the noise of the fly-over, Dr. Saraceno thoroughly enjoyed the festivities. In fact, it seems as if Pippa was quite taken with him.

We will meet tomorrow morning for class in Russel Square park. In the afternoon we will enjoy a “Darkest Victorian London” walking tour followed by a private tour of Dickens House.

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~ by bcclondon on May 23, 2011.