Day 4 - Hyde Park (again), Herrods, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Hard Rock, Train station *cry*

Our last day in London was bittersweet. I was very excited to see Paris and lets not lie...to eat a my weight in crepes and croissants. But I LOVED ADORED London. I'd move there in a second, and if I read any article about it right now I get all teared up because I miss it so much. I'm a traitor to my country. lol The first picture is out of order because blogger did some weird thing. So alas you get to see a picture of Harrods first.

Harrods was pretty cool. It was very fancy, enough were I didn't want to touch ANYTHING, even when we went to the electrical department and they had normal movies. I was afraid they were like lined in gold or something and kept my hands to myself. It was HUGE and we didnt even see half of it i'm sure. If I had millions of dollars i'm sure i'd have a grand ol' time there.

So this is where our day really started. We walked through Hyde park to get to the tube stop that goes to Harrods. Hyde park is HUGE HUGE HUGE. And gorgeous so it was a very nice start to our day. We came upon this lovely statue of Peter Pan. I made Matt pose...because...he's..like Peter?? I have no clue, i just made him pose okay!
At the end of our hike/stroll across the park we came to Prince Alberts Memorial. Holy Moly Victoria LOVED her husband. This thing is MASSIVE. And way fancy, like crazy fancy. I told Matt im putting elephants on his gravestone to show how much I love him.

This was the most impressive of the musical groups we saw performing all over London. There was a musician in every tube tunnel just about. These guys were amazing and were selling CD's.

This was the yarn shop that we took an hour to find..only to see it was CLOSED on Monday. What the heck people! I was not happy. Luckily a petite little french woman was walking by and saw my disgruntled expression. She must know disgruntled very well..she walked over and asked in broken english what I needed, I mimed yarn. (It was interesting) And she pointed me in the direction of a department store where normal people shop (not Harrods) where they sell YARN! HEAR THAT Sears! This DEPARTMENT store sold YARN! Cool right! So it was just a little bit aways and we went there and I found my English Yarn. Happy end to my Yarn story :)

After I had my pretty lavendar yarn in my hot hands we headed over to Big Ben, It was...well it was Big. What else do you want me to say! It was a big ol Ben!

next we went to Westminster Abbey. I was pretty churched out at this point. But we thought hey what the heck we gotsta go in the Abbey! And man alive am I glad I DID! The tombs of Chaucer, William Blake, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, John Keats, the Bronte Sisters (totally teared up when I saw that one), Jane Austen (memorialized) and just a ton of other literary super stars. I was totally freaking out. It was SO CRAZY COOL. BUT the best had not yet come. I walked into a small side chapel. Where laid Queen FREAKING Elizabeth and her sister Queen Mary!! I was totally biting off my lip so I wasnt the weird tourist crying all over the tombs of these women. It was amazing. I was so excited, it was soo cool. And i'll never forget it.

Then we walked around Parliament and it was really beautiful and magnificent. But really I was just still on a total high from seeing all those tombs and memorials at the Abbey. lol

Then we ran on over to Hard Rock Cafe (the FIRST one) and I got a pin for my friend Lori back in the States. ;)

This is where we had a minor freak out by my dear husband. We went back to the tube to catch it to St Pancras station. WELL that day was the last day of the Notting Hill Carnival (where we had to go and pick up all our luggage because thats where our hotel was) when we arrived at the tube we saw much to our suprise that it was PACKED. like seriously SARDINE packed to get to the train. You couldnt even get CLOSE to the actual train stop. It was atleast a 30 min wait to catch a train. And we had an hour to get our luggage then go to the other side of town and get on the train. So Matt proceeded to freak and say he was goign to RUN the 4 miles to our hotel, grab our luggage which was probably like 25lbs. And RUN back to where I was (making sure I sat and STAYED on the bench where we were) And then we'd try and catch a bus. LOL I was like ummm CALM DOWN CALM DOWN LET ME THINK! ...Okay matt how about we get a taxi?...Matt quickly took a deep breath and was like OH YEAH! Hahahah so we hailed a taxi (that was fun, it was our first time ;) ) and had a lovely drive over to our hotel, our driver was so nice and very talkative, matt ran into the hotel and got our luggage, the driver than took us to the station and we had PLENTY of time to sit and relax. It was much better than matts original plan. hehehe

We took the Chunnel to Paris. Which is to say we got in a long fast train, went through the English countryside then DOWN UNDER the english channel UNDER THE WATER and up into France and its lovely countryside. I'd love to tell you how it was to go under water in a train but I can't. Because the train has a mystic power over me and I passed out within 30 min of the trip. I seriously COULD NOT keep my eyes open. I tried so hard because I was having a hard time saying goodbye to my England. Seriously had to work at not getting all weepy. And I did it! I just fell asleep instead.

Day 3 Hyde Park, British Museum, Tower of London, Globe Theatre, St. Pauls Cathedral

Day 3 in London. Fatigue had set in. I seriously had to photoshop my eyes in some pics because I had like 5 LINES under them. Not showing that to all my friends and family..sorry folks. This is Hyde Park, directly across from our hotel. They had a really neat art type "row" on Sunday morning lots of lovely...and not so lovely pictures.

See...the English confuse me. They think Americans are over the top...but THIS is a PARK BENCH. A PARK BENCH PEOPLE! A TAD over the top ya think?

I got all excited when I saw this. And if you don't know who this person is, you should be shot...then hanged..then quartered. British style.

The British Museum, also known as "Britain's raping of the world." It was really cool to see all the treasure from around the world. But made me a little nauseous thinking of all the people they took over and stole from. Kinda sucked.

The inside of the Museum, it was pretty cool. Pretty echoey.

The Rosetta stone. It was pretty awesome. Had the same thing written in multiple languages. Really neat to see.

See I need to move to London. They obviously know WHERE to get their news. Very wise people.

This is London's version of a "big box store." Its a small storefront, with tons of catalogs. You look through, pick what you want and go to the counter. They go and get it for you in the back. Matt was geeking out over it.

This is a lovely emperor, He was fascinating. And very cute in his Ceasar cut.

First view of the Tower of London. Its much larger than I thought it would be. First built by a Normandy conqueror. Some of the original tower foundation is still around.

This is where MOST of the people were executed if they stayed in the Tower. Only 5 were beheaded inside the compound. Then of course the little princes that were murdered in their rooms.

this was our Beefeater Dickey. He was pretty funny. To be a Beefeater you have to have 20 years of perfect military service to the Queen. NO screwups. These guys are the cream of the crop. And pretty entertaining. If you go to the Tower you MUST take their tour. Its free.

Anne Boleyn's apartments before they took her head away from her.

The chapel where Anne and others are buried. Unmarked graves. Anne is buried under the alter along with Jane Grey.

I'm right outside the chapel in this pic, I had just seen the inside and was totally crazy excited. lol

Inside the main tower. They had a display of Henry's armor. It was pretty cool. The guy was FULL.OF.HISSELF. though.

These crows were MASSIVE. Like i'm pretty sure it could open its beak and rip my face off. They were the size of large cats.

a pretty shot of the compound.

the main tower, when they were adding stairs to it they were digging around it and found two small bodies buried. They were the little princes that went missing hundreds of years earlier.

Traitors gate. Many reputable noble prisoners were brought in on boat through this gate. usually at night under secrecy.

The "monument" where the beheadings took place. I also love this pic because this dude is sticking his tongue out.

Close up shot :)

I think I was on the Jubilee bridge when Matt took this. Shows some of the other cool bridges in London. They have a ton. Many are purely pedestrian.

We went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see Troilus & Cressida. Probably one of Shakespeare's least performed plays. It was really good though and we enjoyed it. I couldn't stop thinking of how cool it all was. I still remember clearly learning all about it in Mrs. Anger's English class Sophmore year.

We sat in the middle level. VERY glad i paid more and got actual SEATS. There is a big area in the middle that is $5 to get in and no seats. Just a big concrete floor. Its where all the "peasants" would stay when Shakespeare's plays were being originally shown. There is no roof over that area. So some people got wet. Not horrid though, we were lucky to see very VERY little rain.

Matt at St. Pauls Cathedral. It was MASSIVE. Unfortunately it was almost midnight so they were closed :P So we didnt get to go inside.

Instead we went to this cafe right across the street from it and had this AMAZING chocolate torte. It was GOOOD GOOOOD. :) Probably one of my fav desserts on our trip.

This picture I took to show you how freaking scary it was past midnight. It was a Sunday night, it was DESERTED and I was totally freaking out we were going to be murdered in the middle of the business district in London. We made it home alive though. So that was good.

Day 2- Portobello Road, Windsor Castle, Piccadilly Circus

Okay so i'm kinda slow and forgot to put the pictures in the correct way. So TODAY we are going backwards through day 2 of our trip. :) I'll TRY and remember to do it the other way from now on.

This is our beautiful view of Parliament and Big Ben, I think we were on the Jubilee bridge this time (there are so many bridges!) We heard some fantastic musicians on this bridge. Violinist, keyboard, cello. Very pretty piece and very romantic :)
Piccadilly Circus, probably my least favorite place we visited in London. I mean it was cool and all, GORGEOUS buildings seriously stunning but they were covered withhuge neon flashing signs. And yeah...it was just more cheesy than awesome. This is my fav. part of the area though, the statue of Eros. :)

This beautiful concotion we got at Carluccios in Windsor. It was at the train station, where they had these beautiful restaurants and shops. It was a great design. (ugh matts getting in my brain)

This was called Florentine Chocolate. Its hot choc served in an espresso cup (because its SO rich) and you can drink it but in this picture i'm showing you how THICK it is. And OH MAN DELICIOUS.

In the little town area around Windsor Castle there is this little tea shop. TOTALLY crooked. I was not going inside..mainly because the menu was pure English and made me gag a little.

As we were leaving the castle grounds this was our view. On the left is St. George's cathedral where 15 English Monarchs are buried. Including Henry VIII and his favorite wife Jane Seymour. On the right is just a small part of Windsor castle.

St. George's Cathedral. It was SO SO pretty inside. Wish I could of taken pics inside. Lots of small chapels all over the place FILLED with huge coffins. Lots of statues. It was almost like all the nobles were all trying to outdo eachother. It was a bit much, but beautiful nonetheless. We had to take a picture of our token guard dude. :)

This is the inside court of windsor. Its a huge rectangle, their cars drive though this passage way and then they get out at those big towers there. This was built as a fortress first and foremost. It wasn't a comfortable residence for hundreds of years after William the Conqueror built it.

No reason behind this picture besides its really pretty :)

Our first close up view of the castle. On the ground anyway. Its funny in all my pics it looks like people are on the phone, but thats just the guided tour thingy they give everyone. You had to hold it like a phone to hear it.

Our first look of Windsor, this was taken on the train. It was a GORGEOUS train ride and thank goodness for trains. Its where I caught up on all my sleep.

This was my favorite tube station in London. Its the Notting Hill stop and i thought it was so pretty. Kind of old London meets new.

This is one of the gardens in Notting hill that are strictly private. They are fierce about their privacy at these places. If you don't believe me rent Notting Hill with Hugh Grant.

On of the many huge gates we couldn't jump. Darn our unathleticness!

A gorgeous neighborhood in Notting Hill. Matt took SO MANY PICTURES OF NEIGHBORHOODS. Sheesh. But this was prestine.

This was on Portobello road. Matt and I couldn't stop snickering. We are so immature.

The beginning of Portobello road. We had the Portobello Road song in our head for MONTHS because whenever we looked at our london tourbook we'd see the name and start singing. If I mention the name now Matt groans and gives me a dirty look for putting it in his head again.

The beginning of our VERY full day. I took a pedometer and on this day I walked 26,686 steps.

No "Exit" signs in London. It says "Way out" instead. For some reason we found this pretty funny. Probably sleep deprivation.

a beautiful church by our hotel. I liked the sign that was out front. lol