Today was our first full day in London. Yesterday was mostly spent traveling, getting situated in the apartment, and getting acclimated to the neighborhood we are in. We are staying in a five person apartment for the next three weeks on the fringe of zones one and two, which is a bit outside the city center, in the Notting Hill area. We were able to enjoy a nice market on Saturday and learn some of the streets. Unfortunately a significant block of area by us was blocked off because of an apparent fire. The area blocked off kept growing and we had to have seen near two dozen fire engines but somehow never saw any smoke. They must have cleaned it up though because it was fine today.

Today we spent the day doing a walking tour along the River Thames. We are fortunate enough to have a tube station (subway) a few blocks away and the system is rather easy to navigate. We started at London Bridge, went past the Southwark Cathedral and new Globe Theatre, toured the Tower of London, and crossed the Castle Bridge. The Tower of London was great to see because of the rich, dark history and how much civilization has changed since that time.

Tomorrow will be the first interview for our research project so we are getting prepared for that. It will be nice that we will still have time during the day to do some touring. I look forward to seeing what we are able to find out in our research being able to network with people in my field with such broad connections.