London Baby! (we've been watching Friends at night)

Today we got up pretty early. I woke up at 5 and was pretty much awake (we had gone to bed at 10:30 the night before though!). I made myself lay down for a while, but finally got up at 7. We ate breakfast and then got started on our day. We left the flat around 9.

Starting our day!


The outside of the flat


The mews where the flat is (I think that means alley for us)


There's a row of embassies near the flat that we've walked by each time. When we later came home there was a small group of people outside of Turkey's demanding that mass graves be opened in Turkey.


Backwards car!


Pretty walkways on the edge of a park. I love when cities have these!


This sign was in the grass at the park and I thought it was funny


Geese! We didn't mess with them since they can be so mean


St. James' Park Lake. This reminded me of 101 Dalmations when Pongo pulls Roger and Anita into the pond :)


One of the walkways that we walked


At the Wellington Barracks. The guys were doing marching training or something...right after I took this picture (and there were other tourists next to us), one of the guys near the back turned his head and made a funny face, sticking his tongue out at us. Guess he's not ready for the palace yet! But it cracked us up.


More marching


Look at them driving on the wrong side of the road...we're getting better at knowing which way to look when crossing crosswalks though!


Big truck trying to squeeze out of the alley. Yikes!


Office buildings. I wish ours looked like this


Westminster Abbey!




It kind of reminded me of It's a Small World
At first we weren't sure that we wanted to go inside and pay for the tour (16 pounds each!). But we decided that we would probably regret not seeing it, so we went in. Boy were we glad that we did! They had audio tours (narrated by Jeremy Irons!), so we could look around at our own pace, and not have to read a bunch of placards. The architecture was beautiful, and there was so much history there. We saw lots of tombs including Darwin, Newton, Chaucer, Handel, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary and many others. Fun fact: although there is a monument for him, Shakespeare isn't actually buried there. Unfortunately there was no photography allowed inside, but since there is google now, it wasn't that big of a deal. If you want to see what we saw, you'll have to google it :P


Big Ben! I don't think the clock face is big enough to have four children stand on the second hand like in Peter Pan. Disney, you've misled me.




This was outside a Churchill museum that we didn't visit today, but I figured I'd get a picture of his statue


Parliament building (which Big Ben is a part of) on the Thames




We crossed the bridge and got this iconic shot. Then we walked down this side of the Thames on the Wharf. There was some sort of festival going on, but we just walked through. We did find Subway on this side, and our American taste buds were very happy


The eye of London. Kind of like a slow ferris wheel, but you stand in it, and it rotates taking you higher and around. It was expensive, and I don't like tight spaces like that. No thanks. So we skipped it. But it looked cool!


They were building sand "Castles" on the shore. This is a couch :)


We kept walking and realized that we could either keep going to our intended destination of the Tower of London, or we could cross back and see St. Paul's Cathedral instead. We decided that since we had already walked this far, we may as well see the Cathedral and save the Tower of London area for another day. So here's St. Pauls!


It was too big and we were too close to get all of the dome and us in the same shot.


There was no old lady sitting on the steps and feeding the birds. But the song did play in my head :)


Once again, we couldn't take any pictures inside, so google it. We liked St. Paul's even better than Westminster. It was more awe inspiring. So amazing how big and majestic they were able to build something like that in the 16th century. Fun fact: there's been some sort of cathedral on the grounds since 604 A.D., although it has needed to be rebuilt a couple of times. There was an ipod audio/video tour, and while we were there they did the Eucharist. It was less historical then Westminster, and more religiously spectacular. There were mosaic tiles near the ceiling that glittered everywhere. The high altar was incredible. We were able to climb up to the Whisperings, inside the dome. They call it that because you can hear someone whisper from across the dome (similar to our Capital Building). We then continued to climb up and up. We arrived outside on the Dome, and then were able to enter higher part of the dome and kept climbing. We climbed 530 steps. We also got our Christmas ornament here :)


But the climb was definitely worth it!!






They're building the tallest building in all of Europe (for now)


On the side of St. Paul's. I think this is the arch that the children and their father walk through in Mary Poppins


A view of St. Paul's through some business buildings


We had seen this church from the top of St. Paul's and walked to it. (after a starbucks fix too). We think it was bombed during WWII. The only signs told about how the flowers were planted in position with the original floor plan of the church. There were columns also that were where the original columns were and had vines beginning to grow on them.


It started to rain then. It felt like it was so late in the day but it was only 2:30! We decided that we were too tired to walk all the way back to the flat, so we took the underground back.


But first we got a picture of the Millenium bridge, which we also saw from the top of St. Paul's. Harry Potter 6 anyone?


This made me laugh. I have new jeans that are dyed really dark. I washed them before we left, but the rain made them leave dye on my legs. It looked like I was really badly bruised though!



We got back to our flat around 3:30. We cleaned up and then took a nap. We had been planning on not napping, but we were tired from how much we walked. So we napped. We're still pretty tired though! We got up around 7 and have been watching TV. It'll be time to go to bed soon. Sounds amazing to me!

Europe!!!

We made it! After a day of traveling and little sleep we are in London! We got to take the underground to the flat. Doug said that the tunnel smelled like Disneyland. Probably all of the crowds and machinery :) We got to the flat and got the keys from a friend of the owner. My grandparents have an old friend that lives here and is letting us stay at her flat. The locks are really complicated though and we have trouble every time we come back and try to unlock them!

We explored the city around us a bit and went grocery shopping. We definitely stood out! Their grocery store was so different from ours! My mind kept playing tricks on me. Like we were looking at potato chips and in our country the green bags are sour cream and onion flavored, right? Here's it's salt and vinegar. Which is fine for me, I love those! But when I see green it makes me want sour cream and onion. I forget what the blue packaging was (which is salt and vinegar back in the states). Oh, and they also don't refrigerate their eggs. That's a weird concept for me. We got some cereal though (again, we're flavors and color coding all off), milk (semi-skimmed means low fat), soy milk, bananas, and some pringles (which the color coding was correct!) We also picked up some caesar salad wraps for lunch.

We went back to the flat and decided to nap for a bit. It was only 12:30 and Doug didn't get to sleep on the plane. Plus we were both pretty cranky. We slept for a couple of hours and then went back out. We walked to a pharmacy because somewhere between LAX and here I lost my make up bag out of my carryon bag. I'm pretty sure it just fell out when I got my water bottle out or something, and I am positive that it is the only thing missing, which is lucky for us. Everything that we've discovered that we've forgotten or lost has been easily replaceable (hair ties, headphones, and now make up). So I picked up some make up and Doug got a redbull.

We kept walking to the other side of the park to Buckingham Palace. It's so big! Unfortunately tours don't start until the 23rd...which is the day we fly to London. Oh well, I guess we'll have to come back ;)

We walked and saw the theatre where we're going to see Wicked on Thursday. We bought a map so we can get around. Doug is our navigator. I am not a map person. I can figure it out, it just takes me a little bit.

We came back to the flat and got some snacks. It was raining off and on when we were walking and now it's pretty consistent. So we're watching Friends and enjoying the rain. In a little bit Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model is going to be on, so we're excited to see the difference between that and America's Next Top Model. We're also planning out our trip for tomorrow. So far London Tower, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Thames is on the list. They're all within walking distance (within 5 miles), so we'll see how far we get, and what's left we'll see in the coming days.

Waiting in the airport for our flight!


The tube station that we got off on. We liked how it was tiled in.


Going up the escalator to the street


Our room




The Arch of Wellington. It wasn't open. Maybe we'll go back to go inside (it's a look out from the top)




We love the architecture of the buildings on every street!


Buckingham Palace!




Gate of Canada


The guards marching in front fo the palace


On the other side of the street from Buckingham's


Pretty self-explanatory, but I got excited when I saw this posted. Unfortunately Doug didn't know who he was. But there's lots of people from wars and battles that I don't know, so I guess we're a good match :)


The rest of the building where he lived

This past week has both dragged and flown by. I can't believe that it's already Saturday (only by 17 minutes, but still). Doug comes home today :)

I think that's why this week has dragged, but flew by because I was so busy. For the 4th, I went out to Fillmore (it's now tradition), to hang out with amazing friends, eat amazing food, and blow up barbies and stuffed animals with modified piccalo petes (don't tell).

Both Tuesday and Wednesday I had floorset which really threw off my sense of time. Both nights I got off work at 5. On the second night I was not tired at all when I got home. I watched some of Glee, ate breakfast, showered, and then took some Tylonel p.m. and conked out till 3 in the afternoon. I was still tired but figured that it would be a bad idea to sleep any longer. I hung out with friends again. We played Trivial pursuit and ate oreo fudge cremes (I'd been seeing commercials when I watched stuff online and they looked so good...and man are they good!).

Then Allison, Elyse, and I watched "Charlie St. Cloud." It was ok. I think I would have liked it better if I hadn't seen the trailer. They left around 1 but I was still not that tired. After a bit I made myself go to sleep though cause I had to get up early the next day.

This morning I went to a work meeting, and then had work a couple of hours after that. After work I decided to wash Doug's truck for him. I feel like guys either spend too much time on their cars or no time at all. I am really okay with Doug not washing his truck five times a month and treating it like his baby. I'm glad that he chooses to spend his free time with me and not with his truck :) With that said though, his truck was diiiirty! I told my dad that I think the last time that it was waxed was when we were dating and he taught me how. So I washed it, waxed it, vacuumed it, cleaned the carpets and seats, and put a new air freshener in it (one that he had when we were at Hume and always brings back early dating memories). I'm excited for him to see it!

When we were watching "Charlie St. Cloud" (I know that technically that wouldn't go in quotes but it's the easiest way to emphasize that it's a title), the characters were talking about e.e. Cummings, and it got me remembering about studying him in an English class at SBCC. I remembered which poem was my favorite and thought I'd post it:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Doug comes home tomorrow, did I mention that?! I think I'm gonna try to get some sleep. With how long I've been awake and how much I did, I'm actually rather shocked that I'm not more tired. I should be sleeping by now...