A Hop, Skip, & Jump "Over" the Pond!

L-O-N-D-O-N

To say that I had "good" time over the week while Lake & I were in London would probably be the understatement of the YEAR!  And that's saying a lot because it's the 3rd day of the year!  London is amazing, bustling, metropolitan, fantastic, beautiful, I could go on & on, but I won't bore anyone with adjectives....let's dive right into the week & you can see for yourself!  ;)

Day 1

Our adventure started on the afternoon of Sunday, December 18th at San Antonio International airport.  We boarded our very tiny plane to fly over to Dulles in DC.  We had a 2 hour layover in DC & ate some dinner & grabbed a beverage which I was hoping would put me right to sleep, unfortunately it didn't!  I added a glass of free champagne to my plate, but yep, nothing, not a wink of sleep!  I kept trying, but with no such luck, I think I was just super excited to just get there.  After some point I did doze off for maybe 90 minutes, 2 hours at the most, but the flight was only a little over 6 hours, so it didn't give me much to work with! 

Oh well, we survived & landed safely in London on Monday, December 19th.  We make the long trek to customs, waited in the fun line, got our passports stamped, grabbed our bags & a taxi & away we went!  The drive into the city was long, it's about 20 minutes away with no traffic, but of course, it was Monday morning, so everyone was trying to make their way into the city.  I dozed off for a bit, but woke up just in time to get my glimpse of Harrods.  I was ready to take on the city & the shopping & get to the hotel already. 

our view from our hotel:  Marriot County Hall

We had originally planned on just leaving our bags & going, since it was so early in the morning.  But they had a room ready for us & we got lucky, a room with a view!  We were on the 2nd floor which faced.....wait for it.....The Thames Rivers, which BTW is pronounced "Tims" not T-ae-mes....ya learn something new everyday!  Our window also faced Parliament, Westminster Abbey & of course Big Ben, it was amazing! 

We decided our best plan of action would be to take a quick nap & wake up at 11:00am & get going, remember...that was the plan.  At about 10:30 an alarm starts going off, at first I thought it was Lake's phone, but then I realized that it wasn't, it was the HOTEL fire alarm....awesome!  We rushed to get our coats on & then got kinda lost trying to find the emergency exit in the maze of their stairwell, sheesh, glad there wasn't an actual fire.  We still aren't sure what happened, we just know that we go outside, walked the perimeter of the building & by the time we got back around the front the alarm was off & we could go back in.  We changed & were ready to take on the city! 

Our first stop was at our underground station which was Westminster to get our tube tickets (Oyster Card) for the week.  We hopped on & went to see The Tower of London & Tower Bridge.  We toured around the Tower & got a tour from a real beefeater!  :) 

Side Note:  Did you know, beefeater's are retired members of the British military & they have to serve a certain amount a years & they live on the tower grounds with their families AND their children are allowed to be married in the small church that is on the Tower grounds AND if you are married on the grounds, your children can be baptized in the church & if you're baptized in the church, you can then be married in the church!  SUPER COOL!  I learned so much. 
After we walked around we hopped back on the tube & made our way to The British Museum, we made a wrong turn & walked a bit & realized we didn't know where the museum was.  We asked a lovely young lady if she could help us out, she politely busted out her iPhone & wa-laa, we were routed in the right direction. 
Lake had researched the museum & knew which highlights to see, so we found them & after about 90 minutes both of us felt we'd seen what was needed to be seen & left for Picadilly Circus. 

great restaurant!!!

When seeing pictures of this I had always envisioned Times Square in NYC & while it was cool, it wasn't as big as I'd imagined.  We looked & walked down one of the side streets & found our way to a really great restaurant called The Fish Shop.  We walked in & were seated right away.  The food was sooooo good.  I had Prawns in Chili sauce that were amazing!  Lake had good 'ol Fish & Chips, which I tried & I really don't like white fish & I thought it was really good.  Really buttery & delicate.  It was made with halibut & not cod like it's normally made with. 
After dinner we were wiped, got back to the hotel, had a drink the hotel bar & went to bed


 Day 2
Our second day started with a quick breakfast & a walk down to 10 Downing Street.  OK, so I'll admit it, I didn't know that this was the address for the British Prime Minister.  Lake was shocked, but sorry, I didn't.  We actually walked one street over too far, but we found it, it's really gated & so you couldn't even get remotely close to take a decent picture, but the house is black...that's pretty much all I gathered.  It's pretty though & has a nice view of the London Eye. 

the view from 10 Downing Street

We then walked a couple of blocks down to Trafalgar Square, which was really pretty!  Fountains everywhere, and the official Summer Olympics countdown-er thing was there. 

We then made our way towards the Thames to find Cleopatra's Needle which is an Egyptian obelisk.  There are 3 total, one in London, one in Paris in Place de la Concorde & one in New York City, I believe somewhere in Central Park....I may be wrong though.  On our way over to the obelisk we just happened upon the "official" Sherlock Holmes pub, it was so adorable!  It wasn't open yet, but we took pictures outside of it.  I really wanted to go back & grab a drink, but we never made it back that way. 
We then started the very long journey to Buckingham Palace.  I'm really bad at gaging distance, but it took us about 25-30 minutes to get there by foot.  It was a pretty walk though & we did stop to take some pictures.  Lake & I got to Buckingham & were ready for the changing of the guard.  While we were waiting we met 2 college aged girls (probably seniors) who were Aggies!  :)  They noticed us because of Lake's aggie ring & one of them was from Houston.....crazy small world!  As we stared, waiting for the "change" one of the guards comes out & places a sign that says...."The next Changing of the Guard will occur Wednesday, Dec. 21st"......so we were apparently a day off, *sigh* oh well.....

Westminster Abbey, my favorite abbey

We didn't let that get us down!  Lake & I walked through Green Park to go & see Westminster Abbey.  We took an audio tour & got to see everything.  That place was awesome, I wish I could've taken pictures!  I was amazed by all the sculputures & funeral monuments & just people who are buried all over that place.  Seeing where Will & Kate were married was pretty cool too!
After the tour we found a pub that was about a block away from the abbey & had lunch.  I opted for a burger & Lake opted for fish n' chips...again!  We enjoyed a beer & were off to Shakespeare's Globe Theater!
The theater is located right on the Thames, you can see St. Paul's Cathedral which is on the other side of the river crossing the Millenium Bridge.  We got to tour the actual theater, it was all very interesting.  I would have loved to have seen an actual play performed there, but it's their off season right now & they don't have anything live until April, so oh well!
That evening we found ourselves back around Buckingham Palace.  We had dinner reservations at Bank Westminster.  It's a restaurant that I found on OpenTable.com, so we tried it out.  We got to our reservation a bit early because well, we were in the area & plus, we had to be up super early the next morning to catch our train to Paris, so we wanted to get back to the hotel at a good time & get to bed!  The food was OK, my prosecco was yummy if that counts for anything.  I had a pumpkin bisque as my appetizer & chicken as my entree.  Lake had a salad of some sort & a steak for his dinner.  I wouldn't recommend or go back there, it wasn't awful by any means, it just wasn't great & there are so many GREAT places to eat, that I'd say skip it!  After dinner we found our tube station & went back to the hotel to get ready for Paris early the next morning!!!

Day 3
PARIS!
"Paris is always a good idea"~Audrey Hepburn
This day started off so early!  Our train left the St. Pancras station at 5:40am, so the concierge at our hotel recommended that we get a taxi from our hotel at around 4:40am.  We were up around 4:00, got a snack at the hotel, & left! 
We got to the train station with time to spare, but not too much, went through security, which was very similar to airport security.  We made it through customs & had about 30 minutes to spare.  There was a small cafe in the lobby area so we grabbed some breakfast & waited for our train to start boarding.  I discovered that this train station had free WiFi, I was ecstatic!!  My poor phone needed some exercise!  haha, at 5:20 we were able to board the train.  It was still dark outside so the actual train ride wasn't picturesque at all!  Lake & I both slept the majority of the train ride.  We got to Paris at around 9:00am (Paris time) & found the Metro ticket kiosk, figured out what kind of ticket we needed & where we wanted to go first & we were ready to take on the city of light!!

Basilique Saint-Denis

Our first scheduled stop was to Basilique Saint-Denis.  This was a recommendation that I had gotten from a friend of mine in Junior League.  She knows lots & lots about the city, so I went to her for advice on the must sees for a 1 day visit.  This basilica is actually where the French royals are all buried, including Marie Antionette & Louis XVI.  The church was gorgeous, the area of town that it was in was definitely not touristy & we did have a bit of trouble finding it.  I think both of us had taken for granted that everyone in London speaks in english....we were now in Paris, they speak French, yes most know english, but since we were in an area that probably doesn't see a lot of tourists, finding someone who spoke clear english was a bit challenging.  We finally found a map & a nice old woman saw us looking at it with a confused look on our faces & asked us if we were looking for the "basilique?".....to which we said "yes, um, oui".....she told us exactly where we needed to go & we found it!  It's a very old church, it was originally founded in the 7th century. 

there's St. Denis holding his head...

Here's it's back story:  Apparently, Saint Denis was beheaded in Montmarte.....where Sacre-Couer is.  Not sure why though....anyway, after his head was chopped off, he picked it up, walked a few kilometers & died.  Where he fell, is where they built the church to honor him.  Kinda silly, but hey, good story!  He supposedly buried under the church, along with a whole lot of other important French people.  If you are in the entryway of Notre Dame, you'll see a man holding his head in his hands....THAT'S SAINT DENIS!! 
We got to entryway right when it opened at 10:00am & there wasn't anyone inside.  We managed to find a ticket window & got an audio guide.  All the monuments & burial areas were gorgeous & so elaborate.  I could tell that renovations were taking place all around the building.  I think if we would have gone a bit later in the day, there probably would have been more people around.  We toured the church & then made our way to the metro station located in the area.
Our next stop was Montmarte, which is the home of the Sacre-Couer, this gorgeous basilica is at the very highest point in Paris.  When we went for our honeymoon almost 4 years ago this was by far one of my favorite sites in all of the city!  We made 2 metro stops in Montmarte, the first was to see the Moulin Rouge, which I didn't get to see last time.  This was literally just up the metro steps.  I got my pictures, headed back down to the metro.  Then our 2nd stop was to see the basilica.  The walk to the actual church is a long one with lots & lots & lots of stairs!  My thighs & calves burn just thinking about it right now.  It's well worth the climb though.  The view from the top is gorgeous & the church itself is amazing!  There was a cute little Christmas market just outside of the church so Lake & I walked around there first, then went inside the church. 

Place de la Concorde

We were now ready to visit the main area of Paris!  Our next stop was at Place de la Concorde.  We rode on the Ferris wheel here & although it was cold & super foggy, it was still fun & a good way to see the city.  We found a place to eat lunch off the main area of the square, then walked down the Champs-Élysées, which had another super cute Christmas market.  I found some great smelling soap there!!  We walked around a bit & hopped on the metro to go to Trocadero which, in my opinion, has one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower.  There was ANOTHER Christmas market at Trocadero & we walked towards the tower & went up to the top.  There wasn't much of a crowd at that point, so we didn't have to wait in line for too long.  Once we were up at the top is was SOOOOOO cold & windy & drizzly.  They had a little champagne stand up at the top, but I was just too cold to even think about that!  When we got back down to the bottom the line was insane to go up the tower.  I think it was because people want to be up there once it gets dark to see the tower sparkle.  I was good ;) 

BEST CREPE IN PARIS!

With only about 3 hours left before we had to be back at the train station to head back to London, we still had some things to see.  We stopped at, I'd have to say THE BEST crepe stand in Paris.  It's located right across the street from the Eiffel Tower.  I had my nutella & banana crepe that I'd been craving since March of 2008!  I'm not joking!  In life, there are certain smells that a person never forgets & associates with a certain moment in their life, the smell of a fresh nutella crepe is one of those smells for me!  We then got ready to take our Seine River cruise.
The cruise lasts about an hour & goes from the Eiffel Tower down the river & then back, I'm not sure where the turn around is, but I know it's passed Notre Dame.  The tour was nice, took lots of pictures & tried to stay warm.  After the river tour was over we made our way to "our" metro stop, which is the stop that was a block away from the hotel that we stayed during our honeymoon.  The metro stop was on the Ave. de Suffren & I believe it's the Champs de Mars stop. 

Notre Dame at night

We caught the metro there & hopped off at St. Michel/Notre Dame.  Lake LOVES Notre Dame, so I'm really happy that we made it just in time to walk around inside & get some pictures outside.  We found a nice souvenir shop just around the corner from the cathedral & did some last minute shopping.  Across the street from Notre Dame was another market, we walked around & decided it was time to head back to the train station to make sure we had plenty of time to settle in & maybe eat dinner. 
At the train station we had to go through customs, go through security & the whole works, so it was a good thing we got there with time to spare.  After a quick dinner it was almost time to board the train back to London, it was then that I realized just how incredibly exhausted I was & also that our trip was half way over, which made me so sad!  The train ride back was quick & painless & I'd say that we both slept the majority of the ride. 
We got back to London around 10:00pm & tried to find "Platform 9 3/4" the train platform from the Harry Potter movies.  OK, so if you find yourself looking for this, READ THIS:
The platform is located at Kings Cross Station, just outside the MAIN entrance on Euston Road.  It's just on the outside & behind doors.  They keep them open during the day & I'm not sure what time they close them at, but I know it's definitely closed after 10:00pm, because that's when we were there & we walked right passed the doors because they were locked & we didn't know any better!!  Anyway, just word to the wise.
We got back to the hotel utterly exhausted & went to bed, only to have another FULL day of adventures ahead of us!  :)

Day 4

Right before we left for our trip Lake & I decided to take a day trip to Windsor, Stonehenge, & the city of Bath.  The tour included a tour guide, a pub lunch, & our admission prices at Windsor Castle, as well as at Stonhenge.  I'm really glad that we did this because it was a great way to see all of these places & honestly, I don't know how else we would have seen them all! 

on our way to Windsor Castle

Our bus tour started at the Victoria Coach Station & we were on the road in our double decker charter bus by about 8:40am.  Our first stop was at Windsor Castle where the royals live when they aren't at Buckingham Palace.  The drive was outside the city & only took about 25 minutes, it was great!  We arrived at the castle right as they were opening the gates for the public to go in. 

We had a little over 2 hours to tour the facility.  The main area that you are allowed to see is the State Apartments & St. George's Cathedral.  The day that we were there Queen Elizabeth was not on the grounds, as she & the family were already at their country home where they traditionally spend Christmas.  No pictures were allowed in the State Apartments, so oh well to that!  The inside was just as gorgeous as you'd imagine a palace to be, it wasn't quite as ornate & detailed as Versailles, but still gorgeous!  Lake & I walked around & I'm pretty sure towards the end of the audio tour we found ourselves in THE room where Prince William & Kate Middleton had announced their engagement in November of 2010!  so excited!  ;) 

We walked over to see St. George's cathedral where the most recently deceased king & queen mother are buried & lots of other royals.  I wish we'd had a little more time because the actual city of Windsor is adorable!  This was Queen Victoria's favorite place & I wanted to walk around to take in all the quaint shops & places to eat, but alas, we ran out of time & head back to the bus. 

Stonehenge

We left Windsor at 11:45am & had a 90 minute drive ahead of us to Stonehenge.  The drive was broken up with our lunch break at the Bell Inn, an authentic pub in Wiltshire.  We ate lunch & had a pint of ale & were then back on the bus ready to see Stonehenge.  About 20 minutes away from our destination our tour guide began telling us the tales of Stonehenge & the area of England we were in.  There was burial mounds all over the place where the Druids would bury their loved ones, they still stand!!!  The history in this area was so cool!  We got to Stonehenge & had 45 minutes to tour on our own.  Can I just say, I'm glad we went & it's neat to say that I've been to Stonehenge, but it was just a bunch of gigantic rocks, I mean super cool because how in the world did they get there & who actually built it, but once you saw them....that was kinda it.  So yeah......

cute flower market in the city of Bath

Back on the bus we go to Bath.  Bath was founded by the Romans when they discovered there was a natural hot spring that ran through the city.  The water that runs through the hot springs is supposedly "medicinal" & can cure people.  I didn't actually try it because I was told it smelt of sulfur & tasted like liquid penny.  Thanks, but no thanks.  We arrived in the city at about 3:45pm, so it was already beginning to get dark.  The rolling hills that are around the city are gorgeous & allow for a cool fog to roll in, which make the city look magical!  The roman baths actually closed at 4:00pm so we didn't have enough time to see those, so we just decided to take a walk around the city.  Our first stop was at the Bath Abbey, which was really pretty & allowed us to take pictures, we walked around inside the abbey for a bit & then went out to explore the city.  There were stores & shops & everything, everywhere!  I found the most adorable store called "Instantly Vintage" which reminded me so much of Anthropologie, it was love at first sight!  We walked around, ate some food & by the time we knew it, it was 5:15 & we had to be back on the bus by 5:30.  I could have spent an entire day in that city, it was so cute!!  The drive back to London was about 2 1/2 hours, so we pulled in just before 8:00pm.  Lake & I decided to just hop off at the first stop & we'd find our closest undergound station & make our way back to our stop. 

We had hoped to go to the Christmas market that was just outside of our hotel, but alas, it closed at 8:00, booooo!  There were some restaurants just around the area just outsdie the Waterloo train station, so we decided we'd have dinner there instead.  We found a tapas restuarant called the Blue Iguana that I highly recommend!!  The food was great, the drinks were yummy & the service was good!  Lake & I were both very pleased.  We headed back to the hotel, had one last drink & went to bed.  Only 2 more days left in jolly old England!


Day 5
I had jokingly named this day our "Hollywood" Day.  This was the day we were going to devote to seeing things that were touristy, but not for historical reasons.  Most of these places were either made famous by a movie, a band, a song...well you get the picture......

Platform 9 3/4

This is the place where Harry Potter & his wizardly friends would make their way from the "muggle" world into the magical world & catch the train to Hogwarts.  As I said before (see Day 3), we'd already tried to find this place & had no such luck....it wasn't until we actually saw the platform sign that we realized why....it's behind closed doors that get locked every night!  Oh well, I got in the line with the other kids & snapped my pictures & we were off to the next stop.....

Abbey Road

"all you need is love...."
I'm a HUGE HUGE HUGE Beatles fans, I love them, I always have.  It's weird though because neither one of my parents are huge fans, I mean they like them & I did listen to them growing up, but it was nothing fanatical.  I've actually made it a tradition now that every time I go to Las Vegas, I have to go to the Love store at Mirage & get a t-shirt AND also, every time we go to Disneyworld, I have to go to Epcot World Showcase & get a t-shirt at the UK Pavilion.  It's silly, but I do it now everytime!  :) 
To walk across Abbey Road is definitely on my non-existent "bucket list" & I was so excited to find the road & Abbey Road Studios.  We road the tube pretty far north, still in the city, but definitely not as populated.  When we got out of the station, the area was quiet, it was really nice.  We followed the directions that Lake had found & there it was, the infamous Abbey Road, with it's zebra striped white road lines & the cross walk that the ACTUAL Beatles had walked across for their Abbey Road album cover.  Now, I wasn't so hard core as to take my shoes off like Paul McCartney, which there are theories as to why he has his shoes off & no one else does....but that's a whole other blog entry & maybe I shouldn't share, I wouldn't want the British secret police on me.  ;), but I definitely walked across a ton of times trying to get the perfect picture, it was so fun & scary, I kept thinking I was going to get hit by a car!  The studios were just off behind the cross walk & we took pictures there.  I got my Beatles nostalgia in for the trip & I was happy, back to the tube we went & more "Hollywood" to see......

Notting Hill

"After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."~Julia Roberts as Anna Scott in Notting Hill (1999)
This was quite the tube ride for us.  We discovered that some of the lines were having "technical" difficulties, so our original route got a little screwed up.  After about 40 minutes on the tube, we found the Notting Hill Gate stop & went to find Portobello Road Market.  I'd have to say that this adventure was by far one of my favorite of the entire trip & I kinda think that's saying a whole lot!  :)
The market is so cute!  It's one long road but it ends up being divided into different areas depending on what block you're on.  You can look at antiques & these range from jewelry, to albums, books, clothing, the list goes on & on....then there is food, fruit, veggies, bread, cheese, meats, UGH, I'm hungry just remembering it all!  It was so vibrant & lively & cheerful, I could have stayed there ALL day, but alas, we could not.  I did however find a really pretty antique garnet ring in my Portobello Market Road search.  I was disappointed that I never found "William Thacker's" flat or his map shop, but oh well, the buiding's were super cute anyway.  All in all, it was a great way to spend a late morning.

Chicago

"You know, some guys just can't hold their arsenic."--Cell Block Tango
Moving on with our day, we went to the Garrick Theater to pick up our tickets for our evening show of Chicago which was starring Miss America Ferrera as Roxie Hart!  The show was so good!  We were about 15 rows back, the theater was small & I'd forgotten what an intimate show Chicago is, love it!!  Before the show we had a really good italian dinner at Piccolino's which was in the Picadilly Circus area of town, another opentable.com find, thank you!.  I had the absolutely BEST salad I'd ever had in my entire life!  Their avocado was A-MAZING!  We were finished with dinner a bit early & had a brew at the Garrick Arms Pub which was 1/2 a block from the theater. 

Harrods

Between picking up our tickets & having dinner we stopped in at Harrods.  This is the largest department store, like ever!  It was waaaaaay overwhelming, I don't even know where to start.  We just wandered & I felt like I had no idea what was going on around me.  With the holiday bustle all around us it was absolutely insane!  We ended up grabbing some coffee & dessert at one of  their millions of cafes & it was so yummy!  We bought some souvenirs & we were outie, it was fun, but I'd need an entire day there....no joke!

All in all I'd say "Hollywood" Day was a HUGE success!  :)  The only thing that made me sad was the fact that at the end of this day we only had 1 more full day left in London.

Day 6

AKA our "last" full day in the best city EVER!

St. Paul's Cathedral
Christmas Eve morning

We woke up bright & early and caught the tube over to St. Paul's Cathedral to take a tour of the church.  We were having a hard time finding the actual front entrance of the church & for a few minutes we actually thought it was closed, which wouldn't have been completely shocking considering that it was Christmas Eve.  Lake & I were finally able to find the entrance....big doors at the front, go figure & we toured the church.  We did the audio guide in the downstairs area & then made our way up to the "Whispering Wall" which is pretty cool. 

So this is the base of St. Paul's dome & you can stand on one end & whisper into the wall & it will travel around the opposite end!  pretty cool!  I trucked my way over to the other side & I could hear what Lake was saying, the only thing was that it was a little creepy just because there were like 6 other people doing the same thing & the whispers come over very creepily.....

After the wall we decided we'd make our way up to the top of dome......more than 500 scary spiraling steps later, we made it all the way to the top.  The view was absolutely fabulous & that morning happened to be nice, crisp & clear so you could see till forever!  I hope that I never forget that view for as long as I live!  The climb down the stairs was quite the challenge as well, after all those steps up & just plain fatigue from a week of walking my legs felt like absolute JELLO!  It was hard to not just zoom down the steps not because I really could, but more because I had little control over what my leg muscles were doing!  Lake & I both made it safely down the steps & our tour of the magnificent cathedral was over, what an amazing place!

Ellis Street!!!

Our next stop was to Sloane Square which is a shopping district & part of the Chelsea-Kensignton area of London.  This area was so cute, I fell in love with it!  While roaming the streets we happened upon Ellis Street, this street intersected with Sloane Street.  hmmmmmmm......

me & Lake at Winter Wonderland

We continued our walk of the area & decided to head over to Hyde Park because we hadn't gone there yet, we hopped on the tube & discovered that there was a Winter Wonder Land Festival going on at the park & when I say festival I don't mean a couple booths, maybe a ride here or there....no this thing was CRAZY!  It was huge!!!  We walked around & the food, the drinks, the booths with the most adorable items, it was too much fun!  We grabbed an ale & walked around.  I bought the cutest earrings at one of the vendors' booths, that I adore!  Before we knew it, it was time to head back to St. Paul's Cathedral for the Christmas Eve Choir Service, but we had reservations after the service at a hotel very close to the festival so we thought if it was still open, we'd head back for the evening.

The choir service was so pretty!!!  and PACKED!  Lake & I weren't quite sure how long it would last, maybe 30-45 minutes at most....nope, it was a good 75 minutes, which was nice & I actually liked the fact that there were readings & a message & not just the choir singing.  Made me feel not as bad about missing going to church on Christmas.  We hopped back on the tube to go to our tea reservation.  I felt so lady like the whole time.  My tea was also so yummy!!  And the snacks were TDF!  While we were at our "tea" we asked the concierge of the hotel if he knew what time the festival at Hyde Park was closing at & he told us 10:30, SCORE!  We would have plenty of time to go back over there & that's exactly what we did!

Christmas Eve dinner

When we got back there it was so packed, more people had definitely joined the party!  We found a bar within the festival that was literally on carousel, best idea ever!  And boy, was everyone having a great 'ol time!  It was crowded, beer was flowing & cheesy 80's rock was playing, it was the funnest/coolest thing ever!  We people watched & had some incredibly strong cider!  It was probably the most fun I've had in a really really long time!  We slowly made our way back to the hotel & started the re-packing process.

I have been very lucky in life to travel the world like I have.  Internationally I've been to Paris, Chennai, India, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Singapore & now London.  The last trip I went on that was international was to visit Lake while he was working in India in 2010, that was an amazing trip, but also a tough one!  I went there knowing that when I left, Lake wouldn't be with me & I wouldn't see him for 5 more weeks.  This trip however was great because we traveled together!  I've never been sad to leave somewhere....well, take that back....I'm usually really really really sad the last time I walk out of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World....no, like literally, sometimes I feel like I might tear up, no joke!  But leaving London was super sad, I fell in love with the city, if we could move there & still see our family & friends all time I'd move there in a split second!  But alas.....it's a 9 hour plane ride away & expensive.....**sigh**.......

Thank you for the memories, laughs, & one of the greatest weeks of my life!  We'll be back!