London- Day 7, Last Day

The Tower of London

Last day in London-

My last day was a major highlight of the trip! Steph and I awoke to a beautiful room service and took our time getting ready and being lazy… but we had also been going full steam ahead (train joke) the day before and were exhausted. But Jeff, on the other hand was so chipper and fun and he’d gotten no more than 3 hours sleep every night we’d been there with all of the work and studying he had to do. Scrunch! He had gone out of his way that morning to get us day-of tickets to “Les Miserables”. He ended up buying “music seats” so named for the lack of stage view- they were supposedly blind to 30 % of the stage. (but for 15 pounds- you couldn’t beat the price and it turned out the seats were fantastic).

Anyways- that morning Steph and I headed to the Tower of London! An incredibly entertaining tour. The beefeaters were so named because they ate the food before the King to make sure it wasn’t poisoned, so they were privileged enough to eat beef. Holy cow! We loved our tour guide! He had the driest sense of humor and kept making fun of Americans and people from Putney. He was all dressed up in the beefeater guard garb (try saying that 3 times fast), and would spin the tales of executions and beheading in a thrilling, humorous and gross way! He looked like a “handsomer William Shatner” according to himself. J It was fascinating.

Our Beefeater tour guide

The Tower of London started out as the oldest castle in England, called the White Towers. Subsequent kings would build more and more outer walls and motes to add to the security and magnificence of the place. This was also a place of dungeons, prisons, torture devices (like the rack) and famous beheadings of royalty that got on the wrong side of the king. He told of how they had a mote there for 500 years, the water from the Thames would wash through with the tide twice a day. Those times it would also wash in raw sewage, filth and garbage. The filth would settle on the ground while the rest of the water flushed through, leaving super nastiness behind- which I guess is a pretty good defense! Nobody could stand the smell!

The beefeater told crazy stories, (warning: graphic) like of Anne Boelyn, the infamous “whore” and wife of King Henry the 8^th. She wanted to be beheaded in the manner of the French with a 2 handed sword. So they brought in a French swordsman for the job. She was so startled and unaware of the man actually beheading her that as the executioner held up her head by the hair to show all of the peasants gathered to witness and said, “Behold! The head of a traitor! So die all traitors! Long live the King!”. Her eyes were still swerving looking around in their sockets and her mouth was still moving in silent prayer for 30 seconds after!!!! AAAGGGHHH!!!!

He told the sad story of Lady Gray, the 16 yr old who was queen for 9 days and a puppet in her family’s thirst for power. She was a Protestant and the “powers that be” were NOT happy with a Protestant on the throne. She was in prison for over 130 days, in a prison opposite the building of her young 18 year old husband. Her sister-in-law (newly instated Queen) tried to pardon her, but eventually had to sign their death warrants. She first had to watch her poor husband get killed and then went up to the chopping block. She told the executioner to “dispatch me quickly”. Then she was blind folded. Wanting to make the job as easy on the executioner, she groped around for the block calling out in a trembling voice, “where is it? Where is it?” The priest helped her to it and she was killed. So sad! She was so worried about suffering a painful death because it had a happened a few times where the executioners had missed! I won’t go into detail, but once it took 8 strokes to finally hit the mark, the large 60 lb ax was clumsy and many of the executioners were drunkards.

A happy story involved a large, burly, red-bearded Scottish Lord. He was brought to the prison there and sentenced to die. His wife and her ladies drove through the worst snowstorm in recorded history 360 plus miles to get there. Halfway through the journey the carriage wheels broke and they continued on horseback to the Tower. She went in with her ladies to see her husband who was then somehow disguised as a woman while one of the lady’s got the guards outside drunk. The husband walked out crying with the ladies while the wife led on a convincing 2 way conversation for over a ½ hour of her talking to her husband until she knew the women and her husband were safely away. Then she left telling the guards not to disturb her husband that night because he was deep in his prayers. They escaped and lived the rest of their lives in marital bliss. He died in his sleep at 85 and she followed 2 days later of a broken heart. That’s a nicer story, right?!

So, after the carnage and entertainment, we went to see the crown jewels! They were incredible (and I don’t care too much about diamonds and stuff). The Queen’s coronations robes were immaculate. There were diamonds from old Punjab leaders who were conquered in the Queens crown. We saw the biggest diamond in the world in the shape and size of an egg in a scepter. It was pretty unbelievable.

Then we took the tube to meet with Marc’s sister, Alyssa, for dinner. We had to be quick because we both had plays at 7:30. We walked around her cute town of Richmond, UK and then ate at an Asian fusion restaurant called “Wagamamas”. It was delicious and we had a great time talking about life. After dinner we got back on the tube and headed for “Les Mis”. I am still singing the music in my head. Lorel, you know that song you sang in Elementary school about “little people know, when little people fight, we might be small, but we’ve got some bite!”- that’s from Les Mis! I had a laugh, but mostly cried like a prego-head the whole time. Thank goodness Steph had tissues! Jeff was hiding his misty eyes. J The music and story are so powerful and the quality of the singing and acting was pristine. These guys are the big-time. It’s like the Broadway of London. This was amazing and beautiful.

The next day I took a taxi to the airport, flew home for 12 + hours and am SO happy to be back with my family!!!

Paris- Day 6

We woke up at 9:30 and had a breakfast of eggs, baguettes, hot Coco and Jelly at the café next to the metro station. We also had all of our baggage with us which was very cumbersome and annoying! Luckily we brought small bags in our large suitcases to London so we could have smaller ones on our jaunt to France. Bit they were still ‘nnoying! We took the metro to a RER station (train station) after some last minute Paris shopping. At the station, we were waiting for a bus and I just thought to ask this girl if we were waiting for the right one. She said, “No! That’s the train to Versailles!” against our better judgment, we just jumped right on the train she said to and it started rolling right away! Thank goodness it was the right one! The train took 30 minutes to get to Versailles. When we got there, we got our tickets and lugged our baggage up what seemed like a mile of beautiful grounds! Luckily there was a baggage check there and we were happy. 50 pounds lighter, we were ready!

Versailles

We walked around the palace and were just blown away by the architecture and beauty, but we also kept making fun of King Louis because of his large, frothy, massive, Cher-hair that Steph said looked like it had been parted by Moses. This guy was full of himself! He was super flamboyant, and everything was so over the top and gaudy but amazing at the same time. After Versailles, we took a train to see Marie Antoinette’s “Petite Trianon.” King Louis had given her land to build her own house and getaway area, and this girl had taste! She built her own village “hamlet” with about 12 buildings surrounding a pond.

First – her own house was a small Palace and ornate, but not as gaudy as Versailles. Then we walked about a third of a mile through beautiful gardens and grounds and it reminded me of the East Coast (fall colors, grass). Her “Hamlet” was tucked in through that beautiful walk and they were little thatch-roofed houses. It looked like something out of a fairytale! It was the most spectacular place I have ever seen! (and I’ve been to some pretty beautiful place in my life). I felt like Elizabeth Bennett when she saw Mr. Darcy’s house for the first time. I’d never seen a place more happily situated. The village of thatched roof, country buildings produced things for her convenience. There was a mill, a dress maker, a dairy, farm, and other places that served her and Versailles. The lake was filled with fat ugly fish that these rude French boys were chucking rocks at! (That made me mad and I almost had to smack them down… but this time resisted. Boys will be boys) The place looked like my idea of heaven. I never knew until that time what my dream world looked like, that was it. So, yeh, we liked it… a lot! I will definitely be sending pictures of that.

By then it was time to go, we collected our largish bags and were off to the train station. We went from train to metro to another metro to another. The last transfer was ridiculous!! It was like we were trying to get in to a Michael Jackson concert! It was dangerous, there were so many people cramming to get on the tram. I thought someone would push me over into the tracks. The tram i/*s going over 100 miles per hour and stopping for less than a minute, 3 or 4 people get off and then 5 more try to cram on! We were at the front row for 3 trams and still couldn’t get on. Finally, some people took pity on us with our bags and my pregnancy and helped us push through to get inside. I was so squished in that thing, I could’ve lifted up both of my legs off of the ground and stay exactly put. I started getting dizzy and having a hard time breathing and my poor baby tummy was really being pressed. The worst was that the doors wouldn’t close on one of the cars and so the tram took 20 minutes before it actually started moving! Steph was in some ballerina pose the whole time with an arched back and seriously this black dude behind her kept grabbing her butt!!! I would’ve too, if given the chance- but ew! There was a nice French guy that I talked to about life while we were smooshed together with thankfully my bag between us. He looked and talked just like the “River Monsters” guy on Animal Planet. We were so glad we left with more than enough time to get to our train, we thought we’d be a couple hours early, but between the metro and getting bootys grabbed, we got there right as they were boarding! 3 1/2 hours! When it should have been an hour at most. Oh well, I am grateful I live in a place where I can have my own big car and go where I jolly well choose, but you can't beat the beauty of Paris at night!

We were relieved to get on our Eurostar train where we had nice seats, sit and read a bit. (I am reading the “House of Glass” series now) Steph started reading “Hunger Games”. We took a taxi back and we were SO happy to be back in London in that nice hotel! Steph was so glad to see Jeff again and we went nite nite.

Paris- Day 5

Today was our favorite day in Paris and for the whole trip so far. We woke up at 11:30. ‘Nuff said. The scrunchin’ housekeeping lady woke us up! Seriously they sound exactly the same in every country, “housekeeping!”- just like on “Tommy Boy”. The doors to our room were extremely hard to open. The lock was weird and there was a stationary knob in the middle of the door you have to somehow pull up towards you and out as you are unlocking the lock! It took us 5 or 6 minutes of loud banging and lifting to try and open the door.

So after getting ready we headed down to our neighborhood café across from the hotel. They only had French menus, but the waiter was super nice and told us everything they had. We skipped breakfast altogether and had lunch. I had the greatest meal of my life (up to that point). Pasta with 3 frommages (cheeses)- that’s a word we learned and used frequently! :) The penne pasta was cooked to perfection and the cheese was soft and supple in the middle. We would take the cheese and spread it on the baguettes and it was tasty!!!

We then strolled over to the metro, we went to see the Orsay Museum that has our favorite paintings in it, from Van Gogh to Picasso but it was closed due to a strike. (lame!) So we decided to go shopping! We bought some Paris stuff for the kids, and then we saw this bakery!!! I bought the most INCREDIBLE chocolate éclair in the world!!! Steph got a Raspberry tart covered in juicy raspberries. When she ordered it, the boy was confused…he tried to pronounce the word “Raspberry”. He had never heard it before in his life! We had a good laugh. As he handed it to Steph the manager made the boy say it in English. He tripped over the word a few times! We all had a good laugh.

We took a bus to Notre Dame and luckily a nice Frenchman helped us find the right bus to get on. It was crazy confusing! The sky was very cloudy – we were worried that Steph’s one umbrella wasn’t going to be enough. We walked down an old, beautiful street to Notre Dame, saw it for 2 seconds, and then the rain CAME WITH A VENGENCE!! Steph put up her umbrella, and is really bad at sharing. She held it off to the side and only my belly was covered. J I made fun of her the rest of the trip for her sharing skills.

We ran over to the nearest café yelling and paughing and the Frenchman (who had helped earlier) was there, cigarette in hand, laughing at us! Since we were there we figured we might as well buy a hot chocolate, and we ate our éclair and tart. Twenty minutes later, the rain had stopped and we walked over to Notre Dame!

The railings on the bridge leading to Notre Dame were covered with padlocks and ribbons with initials on them. We asked someone what that meant and she responded in her broken English that it was a romantic bridge were lovers wrote their initials on padlocks to show they would be together forever. At that moment we missed our hubbies and thought it was sweet.

We went into Notre Dame and it was massive and ornate! We walked around for free and enjoyed listening to the Organ music.

After Notre Dame we went to a street that had a bunch of specialty shops. One shop was a formmagery where they made incredible specialty cheeses. We ask a guy to help us chose the best ones and we sampled a few. They were SO good! Next store was a specialty bakery, so we grabbed a large baguette that was perfectly crispy on the outside, and soft and delicious on the inside. We stuffed the cheese and baguettes in our bag for later. Then came the greatest dinner of my life in a café down the street from Notre Dame. I ordered the duck after the waiter suggested it and because it sounded good, and it was absolutely AMAZING in every way!! Steph ordered Salmon served between two crusty pie-like thingy ma-gigs.

It was getting dark so we headed to one last look at the Eiffel Tower at night. We were expecting it to be closed but it was actually open! By the way, the Metro and the Bus took 1 ½ hours to even get there! It was super busy, we took the wrong bus and it was on the other side of town. It started sparkling right when we got there! It sparkles 5 minutes to the hour at night. It was still open so we got to go up all 900 feet! We also happened to get in a group of all Asians on our elevator up, complete with Asian tour-guide. Only in Paris can you learn about France in Chinese. Steph was freaking out on the way up and was really nervous; she doesn’t like heights. But, she was super relieved when she discovered it was all enclosed. It was absolutely beautiful up there, and just a wonderful end to a perfect day in Paris. We skipped public transportation on the way home and paid for a Taxi. We ended our night with the Baguette and Cheese in our room while watching “Merlin” in French (you thought it was good in English!!) Versailles tomorrow!

Paris- Day 4

The grounds of the Louvre

We woke up at 5 am and jumped in our taxi by 5:30. When we arrived at the train station St. Pancris (not Spleen), we were blown away by how beautiful it was! So clean and nice. The brick was up in columns and everything was very orderly. We were early enough to get breakfast at a little cafe while we waited to board. Again, the best hot chocolate and muffin! The train took us mostly underwater to Paris, but we got a few glimpses of the countryside and I fell asleep.

When we got off of the train it was like we were in some crazy foreign country! Which we were. Everything was old, kind of dirty, people were everywhere, loud, and speaking all different languages. Everything was in French and we were so overwhelmed. We tried to get some euros for cash and then find out which train to take into Paris. But it was all so loud, busy and confusing, we looked for a taxi. Finally we found where the taxis were and got in a huge line to wait. As we waited, the line was moving slowly. I paused for literally 2 seconds to take a picture and the girl who was behind just took our spot in line! I was flustered and thinking to just chill out, but I couldn't, maybe b/c I'm pregnant! :) So I said, "So, I pause for a few seconds and you take my place in line?" She said,"Oh, yes, well, I was going to ask if you wanted to go ahead and move back up." Steph was mortified! It was awkward and Steph asked if I thought the girl was offended. I said, "I don't care, I was!" :) That was awesome. Total smackdown.

So we got in the taxi and asked the driver the very line we asked about a million times in the next 3 days, "par le voux anglais?" (do you speak english?) Everyone said a “only a little”, but it was always helpful! Their English was way better than our French! We basically showed our taxi driver the address of the hotel and we were off! There was building to building traffic! He took us around through these crazy side streets fast and expertly. Talking in broken English about Paris. And then we saw it. The Eifel Tower!!! We were so giddy and excited ! He drove right by it on the way to the hotel. We were surprised by how gigantic it is! It was a beautiful clear day. We drove through the round-a-bout around the Arc de Triumphe (made by Napolean) which was amazing. We’ve seen so many dang marble statues.

Our hotel was called the “Ideal Hotel”, nice. We got up to our tiny Pa risian hotel room- what a change from the incredible 5 star hotel Jeff’s school is paying for! We dropped off our stuff, got our day bags together and tromped off to the nearest metro. The info lady helped us buy our tickets. The metro is France is dirter than London, but there always seems to be fun entertainment. Whether it’s some French black dude singing (VERY badly) these African sounding songs and then spouting off political views about the system that we didn’t understand. Or a fun band of 2 guys on guitars singing Micheal Jacksons, “Smooth Criminal” and “The Greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return”. Those were amazing and Steph thre w some money in their guitar case. She was excited to be supporting the arts! J The metro was easy to learn by trial and error and asking friendly Parisians for help. Everyone was always kind and pointed us in the right direction.

The Louvre! Our first real stop! It was incredible and mind blowing. We ended up eating a beautiful jabon (ham) and cheese baguettes to break your teeth off on and Diet Coke right on the grounds over looking the Louvre, statues and gardens everywhere. By that point it was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen (that changed on the last day of Paris). We thought we were there, but it was seriously like a mile of gardens and parks before we actually reached the pyramid. Then we waited in line, which went smoothly, but was lame after all we had been through to get there. We wanted to get the Museum Pass so we wouldn’t have to wait in line anymore at any other museums, so after 45 minutes to get through security, we asked where to get the museum pass. Steph led us on the way a lady had told her, right through the other security line to get in!!!! My heart sank. The police lady said we’d have to go to the end of that line! NOOO!!! We had already waited for so long, I was not about to go through that again! So, I talked to another rent-a-cop security dude and said that we went through by mistake and he luckily let us back in! UGH! So I had to lay another super-prego smackdown.

We saw so many masterpieces, but kept it quick and thorough and to only what we wanted to see. You could spend days there. The coolest thing was seeing the Mona Lisa. I don’t really understand why it’s such a big deal. But we saw it, it was beautiful, and we pushed our way up through the hordes of people to see it. After we saw the Mona Lisa painted by none other than Da Vinci himself, we felt a sense of , “ok, we saw the Mona Lisa, now we can relax and enjoy everything else”. We slowed our pace and enjoyed the sculptures and paintings that were all beautiful. Not only that, but the room and ceilings sometimes outshone the art!

After the Louvre, we were hungry again, so we went to our first Parisian café! The waiter was busy and nice and ever gave us an English menu. I got a beautiful quiche, Steph got lasagna Bolognese and we also bought a $5 water. Dang. It was pretty expensive to eat there, but SO delicious! We enjoyed every bite, took in our surroundings and relaxed.

Then it was getting dark. We walked through the Louvre grounds again. No wonder they call Paris the city of lights. At night, everything is all lit up and breath taking. The fountains and towers were gleaming. We got a gelato and ate that while sitting by a large circular duck pond. Then we followed our guide book that has a tour of France at night in it. It’s in English and French. You pass it to a taxi driver and they can take you on this route around Paris to all of these spots. We finally found a taxi place (you can’t just flag them down) and got our taxi. He took us the Notre Dame (massive and lit up magically), over the Seine River which runs through Paris, past Napoleon’s Tomb, past the Arc De Triumphe, and of course the Eifel Tower. At each place we would ask to get out for a quick minute for photos. He was very kind and seemed to enjoy telling us about the different things in Paris. Most of it we had a hard time understanding. The Eifel Tower sparkles every 5 minutes to the hour, so we happened to leave it right when it started sparkling! So pretty! And SO French!

The taxi drove by some fun shopping, so we just stopped there, got out, and shopped. Most of the stores were way too expensive. But we loved walking around, people watching, window shopping, and taking in the night life in Paris. The street was beautiful with sparkly sequence hanging from the trees- so French. After that, it was late, we took the metro back to our hotel. Everywhere we went was full of people and we felt safe. On the quick jaunt from the metro to the hotel, not too many people were out. But I had a firm grip on my mace as we walked up to our room. A busy, wild, day in Paris. The next would be our favorite day of the trip!

London- Day 3

We started out the day with a tasty and beautiful room service breakfast of waffles, eggs, sausage, potatoes, and toast... oh and jams and hot cocoa and orange juice... you get the idea! My favorite has been the hot cocoa. I don't have super long to write tonight because I just finally skyped with Davey and now have to wake up at 5:00 am tomorrow to catch a train to PARIS!!!!

We have seen and done so much today. We went down to Westminster Abbey for one of their services called the "Sung Eucharist". It was so amazing! We went up to the front gate and listened in the the clergyman telling people it was open for worship only and you had to stay 1 1/2 hours. That's cake for Steph and I! We were surprised to see how many people turned away and couldn't be bothered, We wanted to experience the church and all that it meant. It was absolutely brilliantly ornate. There were statues of patrons, mostly in marble with Greek style dress. There was gold everywhere. The organ is stunning and they started playing after we were seated (2 rows from front). Steph and I just looked at eachother in awe and grinned! The music rose out of there and just enveloped us. Then the service began. There were probably 100 or so people there, not very many compared to the hundreds in "ques" (lines) wrapping around it whenever we've walked by during the week. Our experience was free too instead of paying 12 pounds. . The service was neat. Steph had never been to a Catholic church meeting before, I had only once. The choir was an all men choir of vicars and was my favorite part of the whole experience. One started singing in a high tenor, followed by all of the different parts in layers and echoes in Latin. So beautiful. I instantly felt the spirit. I also felt so much history in that building. Attending church where Henry the 8th went (not much of a recommendation) as well as all of the kings and queens and incredible writers and philosophers have been. I thought it was interesting that everyone who received the bread (wafer) and water drank from the same goblets. They just wiped it down with a white cloth between people. No dank choo. We had a program telling us almost word for word what to say and the songs to sing. So we sang right along and joined in the prayers.

After that beautiful meeting, we were off to the British Museum. Outside there was a crepe truck so we got a chicken/spinach fresh beautiful crepe and a strawberry/chocolate/toffee crepe to split. Yes, that just happened. So the museum- They basically have the greatest collection of artifacts in all of the world, especially of the countries they conquered. So we started out checking out the Egyptian stuff! So cool! Lots of statues and then we looked around a corner and saw a group of people gathered around... the daggum Rosetta Stone! I'll admit, I know that it was a big deal and that it had to do with languages, but that's where my knowledge ended. Basically this was a stone recovered when England took over Rome (who had conquered Egypt). The stone was a decree from the new Roman Emperor to his newly acquisitioned Egyptians that they were to worship his Gods. So the stone has the same decree in Hieroglyphs, Egyptian script and Greek. So the scholars later were able to translate those symbols and then read all of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Ok, so we started walking around and everything was amazing, but we were tired and so we went to the cafe inside the museum and got the most incredible muffins.I got a chocolate one that somehow had melted fudge inside! What?! Steph got a banana-toffee muffin with toffee goodness inside. So good! I mean it was a real muffin, no preservatives, real everything. You can tell! Plus it's unfortunately easier to spend money here because it is almost 1/2 of an American dollar. You see 5 pounds and think that's not so bad! (but that's really like $8.50). And no Dave, the muffins were not 5 pounds- but we probably gained that much eating them! Too easy? Sorry! :) Back to walking some more.. this tourist stuff is not for the weak! And my poor baby tummy was feelin' it every now and then, but for the most part I've been ok. We saw everything from the Parthenon that was bispolded (Easton translation: exploded) in the 1600's during a war. So it was pretty great to see so many of the art pieces that I studied in class at BYU. I took an Ancient Egyptian art class and an ancient Roman art class. Basically just say how everything has to do with fertility and the ideal figure and you're good to go! :) They had all kinds of incredible things- we tried to get to it all, but the place was the size of 2 football fields!

Then we decided after 5 hours, we were good, so we hopped on a bus and met Jeff for dinner at this Italian place near our hotel! I know, you're thinking, Italian?! But you're in Britian! (all indignant) But we read that you have to try the ethnic foods here because like America, this is a hodge podge of cultures... so we ate there and it was the most amazing pasta of my life! So creamy and perfect. The chef there was a real Italian too. So it was the best. Then we came back to the hotel and I finally talked with Davey!!! Yay! Tomorrow is a big day. Train station by 6:05 am, 2 hour train to Paris, drop stuff off at the hotel, see the Louvre, maybe hit the Eiffel Tower! Love you guys! I won't have a computer in France, so I'll be back in touch on my Wednesday night!

London: Day 2

'Old on to your knickers! Best night sleep for me ever! Steph somehow managed to stay awake from midnight-6:30 am, so she's felt refreshed all day... not! We changed rooms for free to a huge executive suite. Jeff and Steph have their own room within a room and I have a nice, comfortable cot in the front seating room. It is great! We also have a train that goes by every minute or so, just like on Harry Potter, but no "Monster Book of Monsters" on the floor eating up our shoes. Plus the room doesn't shake and get all dusty when it passes. It is very fun. I think growing up with train tracks in my backyard trained me to sleep through it all! Someone must have put a pea under Steph's mattress.

Today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in London! Like my Dad said, we felt like a couple 'o school gurls on 'oliday! We woke up with a free room service breakfast at 8:30 am. Jeff left about an hour earlier than that to start his day. Room service breakfast is free every day of our stay and it's incredible! Duke does it right!!! (sorry Dave :) We got pasteries and 4 tiny jam jars and butter to spread on rolls. The best hot chocolate ever with cream and sugar, thick and sweet pancakes, fruit and cereal. Steph almost downed the mimosa, but I have luckily been around a few of those before and saved the day, so she won't have to go talk to her bishop. :)

After an incredible breakfast and getting ready we headed out to the "tube". But our whole area is shut down because of construction this weekend, so we got on a double decker bus! They are red and are just like the night bus on H.P., except, no shrunken heads or evil Stanley Shunpike drivers. Jeff has been the only one to get an evil, mean driver. He came out to meet us (side story) and got on a bus, asked the driver if it would take him to the right street. The driver told him to go out and look at the number... and then drove OFF!!! Leaving Jeff in the dust! Scrunch! Steph and I were a bit overwhelmed at first making sure we got off on the right exits, so we got off a bit early on our way to Buckingham Palace- which was actually awesome! We ended up in Trafalgar's Square, walked around in a few shops and then headed down toward the palace. We veered off of the main road and walked down by St. James Park. By this time I was feeling pretty confident and handy in my map skills. As we walked through the street, there were people walking, huge trees, beautiful leaves, and a little lake over to the side. It reminded me of the walk-way up to the White House in D.C. Colorful and peaceful with an occational taxi cab passing by. The taxis are old fashioned England looking and very cute! We'll use one on Monday when we are headed to the train station to go to Paris.

So the craziness began as we reached Buckingham Palace. Not only was there going to be the changing of the guard, but also a little parade along with it! It was packed! Shorty Steph and I did the best we could, but were seeing a lot of the backs of heads. My favorite were these real knights riding horses that looked absolutely stunning and regal with these metal helmets and tassels. They were incredible to watch. After the fanfare, which was pretty neat, we went over to a quiet park (Green park) across from the palace. Steph got a mini ice cream called "mint chocolate tiny chip" or "mint tiny baby" something like that! I got a diet coke and a blueberry muffin and discovered there was cream inside! DIVINE!!! We sat, enjoyed our little treats, and looked at daggum Buckingham Palace!! By this time the crowd was dispersing, so it was peaceful and relaxing. On our way back we saw a group of about 16 soldiers walk by flanked by police on horses, walking in step towards another area- which was rather fun and unexpected! By the way, Lily there are sculptures of unicorns everywhere at the palace! Everytime you see a lion, you see a unicorn opposite it!

Then we made our way over to the National Gallery. Jeffy was able to meet us here. I led us on a fun walk through the streets a different way to the Gallery. It is free, but they ask for donations (which we made there AND in the gift shop!:) It was incredible! The art collection they have is amazing. You go from the 1500's to 1900's in succession. We started out in the old and went to the newer stuff. The beginning paintings were almost all Mother Mary and baby Jesus paintings. My favorite was a painting called the "Creation of the Milky Way". It was a Roman myth that said said Jupiter (Greek Zeus) snuck into Juno's (Hera) room while she was sleeping and put one of his babies (Hercules?) on her breast to make it immortal. But instead she woke up and her breasts shot milk out everywhere creating the Milky Way! You can't make this stuff up! There were milk and stars shooting out of her boobies, seriously awesome! (Jake would LOVE this story!) Anyways the paintings went from Mythological to Christian. Lots of scary Christian piety paintings depicting men rolling around on thorny bushes to conquer their sins of the flesh. Saints getting eaten by dragons and then escaping alive miraculously. What happened to Christ's church in the 1000's??! It was pretty incredible to see the results of the dark ages and then the beauty that came with the Renaissance.

Anyways after the beautiful Carravaggios, Peter Paul Reubens, Botticellis, Michelangelos, Rembrandts (now I know I only have Rainock's reading from here.... :) and Velasquezs, we got to the Monets, Manets, Renoirs, Van Goghs (the chair, the sunflowers...) and Cezannes! Then we were done, disillusioned from the art (we started getting picky, a tad critical, and over tierd! :) We ate at the little cafe at the museum. I am so weird and got an egg salad sandwich, I mean, who does that?! But it was good and I am pregnant, so I can get whatevs I want. Steph got a nice hot beef soup and a roll. Then Jeff had to leave after lunch to get back to his classes. He ended up getting on the wrong bus, getting his rear kicked again and calculating that he could just run the 2 miles to get back and with a 10 min/mile pace, get back to the hotel just in time! He seriously ran two miles through London. He also accidentally got lost and ran right by Buckingham Palace! Thank goodness Steph and I went our own way! :)

We then went off towards St. Paul's Cathedral- built in scrunching 600 AD!!!!!!! There is no 1 in front of that number. That is very old. We rode the bus (which we are getting the hang of) to the church just in time for their evensong. The choir sings hymns and its a worship service. You also get in the church for free. Unfortunatley for us the square in front was full of psycho, hippy, occupiers. There was seriously a sign that said, "Criminals can make more money bills! Why can't the Government!!" Seriously? Sure! Just print off a few more pounds for everyone! That'll solve your problems!! Crazy. Then some bearded hippy stood up and yelled very dramatically, "Tomorrow! The sun will rise! On a New Jerusalem!!!" everyone cheers and then I panned my camera over to an old, skinny man with a hiked up kilt dancing a gig! It was a prefect moment. I am so glad I have it on film. It's too bad those stinky people were out front. The church is massive and so ornate! We didn't get to go inside and who knows if it's even open right now anyways.

We walked down the street, hit some shops and ran into some guys from New Zealand, Spain and Chico California! Weird! They were headed to a pub that Steph and I had been looking for and so we found it and met Jeff there for dinner. It is the oldest pub in London- built in 1667- called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese". It was really old. Talk about a hole in the wall. It literally looked like each room was carved out of the wall. The tiny hall was pokey and dimly lit, the stairs were short and dodgy, but it was roaring with life and drinkers. We went down to the bottom floor of three and found an empty table, ordered our dinners and had a great time. I got fish 'n chips! Super good! Though somehow whenever Steph would try a bite of mine she'd get a bone! 6 in all! We got cute custards and "puddings" for dessert. They were a'ight. Jeff had to order a real Coke, not a diet one in front of all of the burly men at the bar. The drinks came in these small little glass bottles that the bar tender poured into a glass.

Then it was night life time. We went out on a bus towards Soho. We ended up around the area, walking, shopping, people watching, just enjoying a night walk around London. It was teaming with all sorts of people, families, couples, but mostly the drinking kind. So far Steph and I have found everyone to be so nice. I loved seeing a young English Dad lift up his giggling little girl in his arms and give her a kiss when she asked for a "sweetie" (treat). Ok, that's all for now, it's nite nite time. Love ya'll! Tomorrow we might just become Catholics for the day and go to a service in Westminster Abbey. :)

My trip to London and Paris!

Dave bought me a ticket out to London for my 30th this year!!!! I went last weekend with my bro and sis-in-law. They were going because Jeff is in the International MBA program at Duke. They went to Shanghai last month and to London this month! Jeff is in school all day, so Steph and I hit the town. As well as taking a 3 day trip to Paris, France, we really enjoyed the awesomeness of Loondon. This was a dream come true for me, thanks Davey!!!! If you are interested in a detailed story of my trip out to London and Paris, here it is:

Day 1: London

Well, we're here! We left Dallas, TX at 9:10 pm on Thurs and after a 9 hours flight (and maybe 2 hours sleep) we arrived in London! We're running off of adrenaline right now. It just might be worth the extra $500 bucks for first class to get an awesome nite nite lay down cushy bed. Steph, Jeff and I were literally in the complete back of this huge plane. All 3 of our seats together that reclined to a comfy 90 degrees. (bearnt) But the food was good! We got off the plane and went straight to the underground subway called the tube. Each stop more and more people were majorly sardining in this thing. It was tight, but we saw a few views of "Mary Poppins" roof tops and chimneys. Lots of "gardens" and parks. Beautiful fall colors everywhere. But that all changed once we got to the city! Concrete and brick! And our hotel is right across from Big Ben, the House of Parliament (Harry Potter flew a broomstick by), Westminster Abbey (Prince William and Kate married there along with other royalty for a long time).

We rode the London Eye which is a huge ferris wheel with large "cars" made of glass you can see the whole city. The thing never stops moving so you'd better get on and off quick! Well, it goes really slow and takes about 30 mins to do. We walked around in the crisp England air eating lemon cakes and drinking warm hot cocoa. I am getting a hang of the money that have here, Pounds. It looks really pretty and cool. There are a lot of people here speaking a lot of different languages. Most people are dressed pretty stylish and English. EVERYONE has on either spandex or skinny jeans and boots. We got some yummy sugar baked peanuts on the street and just walked around. Now Steph and I are so exhausted! But we've loved every second. The buildings are all so old and ornate. I mean, one of the churches there next to Westminster was built in 1562. I mean... that's old!

My view of the House of Parliament and Big Ben from the London Eye

I tried to get a picture of the cops and their huge-normous hat (not the bushy ones from of Buckingham, we haven't been there yet). I asked if I could get a picture with them and the cop said, "Oh no! No pictures here, alright take one quick young lady- I'll be looking of" He was smiling and talked JUST like Mr. Weasley. Steph, Jeff, and I giggle whenever we here an awesome English accent. There is a wax museum of famous people named after Madame Tussere, a lady in France who took the ACTUAL heads of guillotine victims and made wax sculptures of the people or death masks of them. She supposedly did Marie Antoinette along with many other famous royals and criminals of the day. I would be fascinated to see an actual death mask of Marie Antoinette... sounds pretty amazing/creepy.

Tomorrow we are headed to the British Museum, Buckingham Palace and wherever the scrunch else we want to go! I saw a bunch of cute stuffed bears that had heart that said "London" and thought of Nora Rose! Easton and Lils would love the London Eye. They also show you a cool 5 minute 3-D movie before you go on the London Eye ferris wheel that has real bubbles, water and mist flying out at you! It was cool. The kids would LOVE that! There was a row of kids in front of us giggling and reaching out to touch everything the whole time! Miss you guys! Love you so much!!!!!