Phase One Of Our Big Trip - London!
Last spring Brian and I got our first passports EVER in the hopes of going to an international conference for work in Belgium in the fall. When we got official word in June that two of his papers were accepted for presentation we were giddy because that was the winning ticket we needed! Horray for the International Patella Femoral Pain Conference and all those in the world who love to study knee pain as much as Brian!
Brian's parents were kind enough to come watch our kids and shuttle them to school, soccer and everywhere and my parents decided to tag along with us since they had never seen Belgium before and we could use some European travel savy people!
We decided that since we were going, we would go big and stop over in London first and then ride the Chunnel to Belgium. London was fantastic! Although Hurricane Irene tried it's best to ruin our flight plans - after 3 hours on the phone, and a crying melt down, my father brilliantly thought of the idea to just drive to our local airport and change our flight plans - we were on our way once again.
The town Windor itself was super cute and we had our favorite meal of the trip at a cute pub here.
Brian's parents were kind enough to come watch our kids and shuttle them to school, soccer and everywhere and my parents decided to tag along with us since they had never seen Belgium before and we could use some European travel savy people!
We decided that since we were going, we would go big and stop over in London first and then ride the Chunnel to Belgium. London was fantastic! Although Hurricane Irene tried it's best to ruin our flight plans - after 3 hours on the phone, and a crying melt down, my father brilliantly thought of the idea to just drive to our local airport and change our flight plans - we were on our way once again.
After flying through the night we saw London the easy way - on a double decker bus tour!
And then a river tour on the Thames:
We hopped off the bus at Buckingham Palace - I loved the gold and black gates.
And saw the changing of the guard.
After sleeping 12 hours that night - no joke - 12 hours - we took the train to Windsor to see where the Queen really hangs out. You weren't allowed to take pics inside, but it was amazingly impressive!! It was so cool to see the rooms you see on TV when they host big parties or knight people. It was also cool to see paintings left and right from my art history class in PERSON! Those crazy monarchs have lived here for over 900 years.
I swear this guy was 12 - but the tour guide basically said that you will be hunted down and escourted if you touch or harass them - so we kept a friendly distance.
Later we went to Harrods and let. me. tell. you...it was cool. It was a lot like Macy's in NYC only bigger and fancier. Forget the clothes though - Brian and I were more interested in the HUGE food market. This pic is just the fish market. It was so pretty (and stinky). They had 3 other big food rooms equally as impressive.
That night my parents took us all to see Wicked with seats in the 3rd row! I had heard it was awesome and I'm happy to report it was!! Both Brian and I were 100% captivated.
The next day before we caught the chunnel we roamed around London's amazing museums. It's like DC where everything is huge and free. I was impressed with the buildings alone - let alone all the stuff in them!
I would rank London right up there as one of my favorite big cities. It was so eye opening and a great place to start our international travels!
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Cara