Week 3, The River and Work

Hello again to all of our faithful followers! I hope you aren't getting sick of my boring ramblings. We've had another week of doing some more of the same. :) 

We are still very much enjoying our time in London, and are so pleased that we took this leap. It has been a learning process figuring out how things work around here. The trick is to set up a bank account, to do that you need proof of residence. Not just one, but two. Getting a proof of residence is harder than you'd think... A letter from the Government Jobcenter with one's National Insurance number is one way, but all other options don't apply to us yet. (One way, we we're told by the sincere bank assistance, is to use a bank statement from another UK bank account...Clearly that isn't going to work for us.) 

Last week we went into central London and as we were walking around, we came across The Monument. It is a tall strucutre built between 1671 and 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London (which occurred in 1666). We had some time so we paid for our tickets and started the climb. There are 311 steps in a tight spiral up the inside of the column of the structure. It was exhausting going up but the views were really beautiful once we got to the top. The walk down was tricky and we held on tight to the rail so as not to tumble forwards down the tight stairway! Below is a picture of The Monument (disclaimer: I didn't take this photo as the camera on my phone is average to crap. This is just the first image you get when you search for The Monument on Google and happens to be a lovely picture) From the top you can see quite far, the second picture is a view down the Thames and Tower Bridge. 

After that we wandered over London Bridge, which is the first bridge in London and also was the only bridge across the Thames until 1729. Seeing that London has been the site of human settlement for about 2000 years, it is quite amazing that for 1700 years there was only one way across the river. There are now at least 33 bridges crossing the Thames. The river is really huge, and despite its thick, muddy colour, really majestic. I have loved the chance to walk along beside it or even just cross the river in the train. This was our second chance to wander along the banks of the river this week. We spotted the HMS Belfast docked in the river and went to have a peek. We decided we not to go on board as we weren't willing to pay for another admission ticket! But the sun had come out and the views with tower bridge in the background were quite beautiful. Frans even managed to coax a pretty picture out of his phone.

Earlier in the week we took a trip to Canary Wharf to the east of London. This is the area where the original docklands were and historically an area of poverty. Now it is home to the headquarters of many big banks and is a booming business industry. The buildings here are mostly modern and made of glass. This is contrasted to the old town of central London City where the buildings are much older, made of stone or brick and have elaborate detail carved into the walls and pillars. In Canary Wharf, there are building sites everywhere and the development in the area is charging ahead. We wandered along the river for a bit, but eventually we got too cold and had to go home!

Below is a picture from Canary Wharf of three of the iconic tall buildings in The London skyline. They are known as The Walkie Talkie, the Cheese Grater and The Gherkin. We are pretty sure those aren't their real names, but they're pretty descriptive, hey? 

I start work on tomorrow (Monday) and am really looking forward to it. I have been on holiday for quite a while and I'm excited to get started with something again (I'm sure I will be regretting those words next week when I am super tired and not coping with the work load!) As I've said, I'll be dealing with a long commute of 1 hour and 40 minutes or so... I'm still coming to terms with that!