Monday, April 12, 2010

London finally

After our very long bus ride, we took about a 15 minute walk with all our luggage to the hotel. We were in a 2 person room with 3 people so one of us had to be the mystery guest who snuck in and out of the hotel. I took on the challenge. Jenn and Han checked in as I waited in the lobby and later discretely went up to the room.

The next day when exiting the hotel, I took 2 sets of stairs and the elevator. Probably overkill but I made it into a game.

We walked to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. However, we couldn't see a whole lot because we got there a little late and there were so many people.

We then walked around St. James park, where we were able to see tons of beautiful flowers. I was surprised at how busy London was. There were so many tourists! I realized it would be a tourist destination but it was packed.

We walked around Westminister Abby, saw Parliament, Big Ben, and the Eye, and then went to lunch at a Tai place. I got chicken and broccoli and it pretty much tasted nothing like the kind I'm used to.

After lunch, we went to the National Gallery where they were putting on an outdoor play of the Passion of Jesus. We couldn't see because the crowd was so big so we left and walked around. We ended up finding cheap tickets to go see Chicago. Before the musical, we ate dinner at Pizza Hut and they had real Pepperonis! Everywhere else I've seen in Europe uses sausage and calls it pepperoni. More like pepperphony.

I really didn't know what to expect about Chicago since I hadn't seen the movie and pretty much know nothing about musicals, but I really enjoyed it. We sat in the nose bleed section but it worked out because we got to use some pretty stylish binoculars. When the show was over, we walked home in the rain, I snuck into the hotel, and we went to bed.

By Saturday we realized the hotel either didn't care or didn't notice we had 3 people in a 2 person room so the sneaking in and out pretty much stopped.

We got up in the morning and went to Portobello Market. There were so many shops and people! It was difficult to walk at times because the crowd was so massive. We stayed there for a few hours and then took the tube in an attempt to find Chipotle. We had heard rumors that a Chipotle was being built in London, so I researched it and found the address. I read online that it was supposed to open in late April but we thought we'd try our luck anyway. Fate betrayed us and all we found was a "coming soon" sign. So close, yet so far.

After our defeat, we took the tube to Kings Cross in honor of Harry Potter. We found platform 9 3/4 and the excitement on Jenn and Hannah's faces was that of kids in a candy store. We took many, many pictures.

Then we took the tube to the London bridge and the Millennium Bridge. I expected the London Bridge to be significant looking since it has it's own song and all, but it's actually pretty ordinary.

In the evening, we grabbed our computers and began a search for free wifi. We walked for about a mile before finding it at McDonald's. When we went back to our hotel, we found out we had free wifi in our room the whole time.

On Easter Sunday, we got up and got ready for church. We walked to Holy Trinity Brompton which is the church that started the Alpha series. We accidently attended a family service so some of the songs involved hand motions. The strange thing about this service was that there was no sermon or a mention of the bible. Those seem like key items in a church service.

We went to a pancake house for brunch. I forgot that in Europe, pancake actually means crepe. So by American standards, we ate crepes. Mine had apples, bananas, and nutella in it. Yum!

It was a really nice day, so we walked around the gardens in Hyde Park and saw the Peter Pan statue. I also saw people paddle boating in the lake and it made me miss the times my family and I used to go paddle boating when we'd visit my grandparents.

Since the Easter Bunny didn't come to London (at least not to us), we stopped in a convenience store and bought candy for each other. We probably bought a little too much. For dinner, we ate our Easter Candy. I skyped for a long time, fell into a food coma and went to bed.

On Monday, we walked to Harrod's to do some window shopping. The place is expensive! I saw a purse for $12,500. Must have been some purse.

We went to the Albert and Victoria Museum, but instead of looking at the art, we ended up sitting on a bench and people watching instead. I think we're all a little arted-out. People watching was entertaining, though.

For lunch we went to a pub and ate fish and chips. Considering I don't like fish, I wasn't really looking forward to this meal, but it was so much better than I expected.

In the evening, we walked around Oxford St, watched the Hang Over, and went to a night club called The Zoo.

On Tuesday we checked out of our hotel and walked over to Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guards. We soon realized it wasn't a guard changing day.

We walked way too long with all of our bags, grabbed lunch at subway, and then stored our luggage at the train station.

Danie, Carlo, and the kids arrived for a family vacation so we met them outside Westminster Abby and hung out with them for about an hour and a half. It was really good to see them!
After we said goodbye, we got our luggage, took a bus to the airport, arranged the weight perfectly, and got on our flight.

We arrived in Prague for our base course trip around 11. We were picked up at the airport, got to our hotel around midnight, and went to bed.

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