London!

After our time in the English countryside, we headed into London for 3 glorious days!  We had amazing weather the entire time and it was perfect for walking around and exploring the city.  I was very excited to be back there as I absolutely LOVE London.  If I could live in a big city anywhere else in the world, it would be there without a doubt.  There is just something about it, it's so alive with energy and people walking at all hours of the day.  There are so many things to do culturally and to see.  I also am a big fan of the fact that you can walk everywhere, take the Tube, or take the bus.  There is no need to drive at all.  Plus one can see a play any night of the week.  This was the third time that I was in London, and it was still fabulous and I am sure that I will be back there again some day.  

We started off our first day there with heading over to Tower of London for the morning, Tower Bridge, and then finished the afternoon by doing Westminster Abby.  We were at Tower of London first thing in the mornign so we beat several of the tourists getting there, which made it nice to see.  It is a very old fort type castle set right on the river.  The afternoon we wandered around Westminster Abby, seeing everything and enjoying.  We then parked ourselves outside on the grassy area where we grabbed a 20 minutes rest/nap before we were off again. 

Our second day we got up first thing in the morning to do the new Harry Potter studio tour about 20 minutes outside of London.  It opened up a couple of months ago and the entire studio where most of the movies were filmed was turned into a tour.  We were able to see several of the sets, get a look into the movie making process, and have some fun pictures taken flying on brooms.  We also enjoyed some butter beer while there!  After our tour, back to London we went and did the London Eye, which is basically this large ferris wheel type thing that takes you extremelly high up in these enclosed glass cylinders.  When at the top, there are breath taking views looking out over all of London in all directions.  That I had not done before, so it was very enjoyable.

Our third and final day, we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and were a bit confused cause toward the end of the ceremony, they starting playing New York New York.  It seemed very out of place.  Once that was done, we were off to Harrod's to explore how the other half lives and spends their money.  We walked through the huge department store for a couple of hours, in awe of how expensive everything was.  We finished up our day with a picnic lunch in Hyde Park, a quick nap, and then off to finish up some souvenier shopping before catching our night flight to Shannon, Ireland. 

We had an amazing time in London.  There was this yummy Italian place we found that was unbelievable and had the freshest gnocchi I have ever had.  We also had lots of gelatto while we were there.  One night it was even our dinner instead of real food.  It counts, right?  We are on vacation.  Although, the next day was when we had butter beer and a danish for lunch/snack so we decided after not having real food for 24 hours, it was time for some actual food for dinner by the next night.  We figured all the walking we were doing around London was probably a good thing.

We also saw Chicago and this other play while we were there, 39 Steps, at the recommendation of our hostel.  It was hilarious!  We wished we could have stayed longer to see more plays and musicals, but there just wasn't time.  I love the fact that you can see so many plays and musicals there all the time. 

We had 3 Australians as our roommates at this hostel and they are all traveling for several months.  I realize that I am blessed to be able to travel for a month, still receive a pay check, and come back and have a job waiting for me, but hearing that they will be gone for months, makes me itch to be gone again for longer than a month.  I would love to have that type of opportunity again.  One day...I figure when I retire or if I am every in between jobs, off I'll go!