Sarah in London: Art history trip to Kenwood House in Hampstead, more time with my parents, and attractions near St. Paul's (including protesters!!)

What a great few days it has been! Before I went on this trip everyone who had already been to London kept telling me that there is so much to see here that they didn't have time to do all they wanted, and now I totally understand - even though I've been here for two months, every week I discover more and more bits of London.
A few days ago my Art History class took a field trip to Hampstead, a more suburban neighborhood (for the Bostonians - it's kind of like Beacon Hill but even more residential), to see Kenwood house, a huge summer mansion that houses many works of art. The mansion was in the middle of a beautiful park (I believe it's part of Hampstead Heath, Hampstead's famous park area). It was so nice to only have gone fifteen minutes away from my dorm in the rush of the city and be in such a peaceful, serene place. My parents and I wet back to Hampstead the next evening to walk around and have dinner. The buildings there are beautiful and it has plenty of yummy food and cute shops (we were talking to the cashier in one of the shops and turns out her cousin lives in Sharon! Small world!). A great place to take a break from city life but still get the London feel! After Hampstead my parents and I walked around St. Paul's and somehow ended up at Westminster, so we went on the London Eye and got to see London all beautifully lit up at night!

leading up to Kenwood House

Zoe and Barbra climb a tree

pretty lake :)

Kenwood House!

Maria and I

Hampstead

My mom and I at dinner in Hampstead :)

St. Paul's Cathedral at night

Me and my parents on their last night in London

Today my friend and I walked around the area near St. Paul's Cathedral, consisting mostly of the financial district of London. Fist we visited an adorable old fashioned candy shop (one could seriously just write a blog on England's yummy chocolate and candy alone!), and then we went to the original Twinings tea store, the one first opened by the Twining family when they first started their tea business. SO many different types of tea in that place, heaven for tea-lovers! Then we stopped at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Tavern, the oldest pub in London! It's been there since 1667, and apparently Charles Dickens was a frequent guest there! It has a very Colonial Williamsburg feel to it (I know the comparison is ironic but that was the first thing that came to mind when I stepped in!)...it has many little, cozy rooms with low ceilings and narrow staircases. There were barely any tourists in there so it was a great place to talk to locals...as I've said before, every one here is so friendly! By the way, this was on Fleet Street - like Sweeney Todd, the daemon barber of Fleet Street!

Alexandra and I in front of the original
Twining tea store :)

so much tea!

Oldest tavern/pub in London!

Inside the tavern

Worth mentioning separately - just like Occupy Wall Street in New York, frustrated Londoners have begun Occupy LSX (London Stock Exchange) right at St. Paul's, so Alexandra and I really got to have a good look at what was going on. Never in my life have I seen dozens and dozens of tents set up, with protestors using megaphones and crazy signs all over the place. (Some REALLY crazy signs). Even though most of it was kind of exaggerated and ridiculous, it was interesting to walk through one of the protest locations of the recent protests worldwide against banks and corporations.