Lost in London

Today I went to the 2008 Temple Festival, celebrating 400 years - Because of the special anniversary, we were able to go inside The Temple Church (which is supposedly a rare opportunity). It's one of the most historic temples in London. The Church was built by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks founded to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem in the 12th Century. It was a neat experience. I sat in the temple and sketched for an hour on assignment for one of my art classes. At 12 o'clock the Master of The Temple gave an hour history of the temple. A lot of the filming of The Da Vinci Code takes place right in this temple and in a few surrounding areas. It was an amazing temple to visit.
Welcome to The Temple Open Weekend 2008 - 400 year anniversary!This is a Knight's Effigy which is located in the circle part of the temple.Sarajane, Me, and Kristen about to learn why the temple we are in is so special.

When we left, we decided it would be fun to walk back instead of taking the tube. What we thought would only take around five minutes, ended up being an hour long journey, going in several different directions. Eventually we gave up and found a tube station, and went home. Maybe next time!

Tonight we had our first London pub experience! We went to a pub nearby our place called the Phoenix. I can already tell that it's going to be a favorite. We were there quite early so it wasn't too crowded. The food was great, and we had a good table for watching the football game (soccer). I'm pretty sure the yellow team won! No worries, it was a non smoking pub, and we just got water to drink.

Just outside the Pheonix.