Week 4 - Finish It Up in NYC

So this post is a little late, but in case you didn't know, I was able to complete my goal of running/walking 100 miles during the month of July!  And I finished 4 days early!

I didn't run too much the week of our trip, got a couple of runs in early on in the week, thanks Ariana for joining me on one of them, but I took it easy after Wednesday.

We flew into New York City on Friday, July 26th.  When we got to the hotel our room wasn't ready yet, so we walked around our neighborhood & then over to Central Park.  It was only a block away.  We were able to get an idea on where we'd be running the next morning, we'd mapped it out already & the plan was to start at the hotel, run to see lots of "sights" in the park during the first 1.5 miles, then finish out the last 1.5 & grab some breakfast at a crepe restaurant off of Columbus on the Upper West Side.

Saturday morning we woke up around 7:00am & we were ready to get running by 7:30, the weather was amazing!  Nice & cool, upper 60s, a little humid, but nothing compared to Texas.  We ran over to the entrance of Central Park at E 76th & we were off!  Our first stop was at the Alice in Wonderland bronze statue, then over to the Hans Christian Andersen statue.  Then to Bethesda Fountain & Strawberry Fields, up north to Belvedere Castle & then, just finishing out the run.  It was such a pretty run, so many people out, doing the same thing, playing with their kids, walking their dogs, running in a marathon!, just being active, it was awesome!  As we finished, we decided to walk along the outer part of the park & I looked up to see how much farther north we needed to go & much to my delight & TOTAL surprise, we had finished the run on W 100th Street!  Totally coincidence, didn't plan it that way, it just happened.  Complete serendipity!  ;)

So, that's it, goal accomplished!  Was it easy?  Well, it wasn't the hardest thing I've ever done, but it wasn't easy either.  Was it fun?  Ummmmm, the encouragement & the sheer look of bewilderment on people's faces when I would tell them what I'm doing was fun.  My knees & lower back didn't think it was so much fun.  Would I do it again?  Maybe not 100 miles, but maybe something smaller.  Like my good friend Ariana, she's running 60 miles this month, like that mileage much more.

Anyway, like with most "physical challenges" it all ends up being mainly a mental game with yourself. Making sure you follow through, doing it even when that's the last thing you want to do, and trust me, I had those moments plenty of times over the month.  Especially with the fact that it's the middle of summer!  So I did it!  #100JulyMiles, DONE!  :)

Thanks to everyone who ran with me or "liked" a run check-in, or status update, or picture or who left me an encouraging word here or there, I appreciate that so much!!  :)

I'll leave you with pics of our Central Park run!

             

   

Lake & Erica Take on Europe: The Remix

Lake & I were very lucky to have spent our Christmas & New Year's break in Europe!  Traveling all over the place!  We left SA & the USA on Christmas Eve & returned back, a little worse for the wear but a bit more culturally knowledgeable on January 4th 2013!  We were gone for 12 whole days, it was incredible, amazing & I wish I could go see the sites every year!

So, here's the recap of the trip blog :)

Day 1:  Travel Day to Berlin

Ready to take off!  Right before we saw
Eva Longoria at the airport!

We left SA mid-day on Christmas Eve.  I've never traveled on Christmas Eve so that was interesting, but surprisingly the airport was pretty low key & the United Airlines ticket girl was in the holiday spirit & let us check our 3rd bag for FREE!  Yes, we were those people who packed way too much, but I mean it's hard to pack for that long, in cold weather!!  We had a short layover in Newark, New Jersey....this turned into a slightly longer layover because it started snowing right as we were getting on the plane, which was pretty & all, but I wanted to leave already!  So we got "de-iced" (which I'd never experienced) & we were off!

Day 2:  Merry Christmas from Berlin!

After about 7.5 hours of flying, in which I probably was able to sleep a total of 2 hrs, on & off and very uncomfortably, we finally landed in Frankfurt, Germany.  Didn't see any of the city, just the airport & I have to say, it was nice & clean & people were as friendly as German people can be!  The only thing that did annoy me at this airport was this it was HOT & travelers were sprawled out everywhere.  Taking up seats & seats.  I was sleepy & annoyed & not in the mood for these folks.  At this airport was when my search for free WiFi started & pretty much continued the entire trip.  I know, I'm an addict:  "Hello my name is Erica & I'm addicted to Facebook, Twitter & Instagram!"  Unfortunately, no WiFi at this airport, at least not for free unless you had a German phone/iPad/computer. 

Our layover in Frankfurt wasn't too long so next thing I know, we're on a Lufthansa flight to Berlin & I passed out!  I don't remember anything about that flight.  It was only an hour but all I can recall is the flight attendant asking me to adjust my seat to the "full upright position"....or at least I thought that's what she said in German, who knows?!?!  We landed in Berlin & took a cab to our hotel.  I'm always wary of cabbies in foregin countries, or just cabbies in general.  Why should I trust you, maybe you think it's funny to leave tourists in bad neighborhoods or maybe you're going to take us the longest possible route & we'll be paying a bazillion dollars, but we don't know any better???  Anyway, that's just something I think about when taking a cab ride in a new country with folks who don't speak the same language as I do.  For a funny/scary cabbie story, you should read about our cabbie in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia....click here for a good laugh, look for "KL & Gang Talk?"

So we checked into our hotel & got to our room & had the rest of the day to see what Berlin was about.  We were staying in what was West Berlin, but pretty much on the edge of the border.  The area was recently modernized & we were near lots of fun shopping, food & entertainment stuff.  The area was right next to the Sony Center & we stayed at:  The Grand Hyatt Berlin, very nice & the staff was friendly & we even made friends with our bartender who was originally from DC, go figure!  The hotel was right by a subway station & just a walk down from the Berlin Tiergarten (their Central Park), it was really pretty!

Brandenburg Gate

It was Christmas Day so we knew lots of places would be closed so it was off to see sites that were open!  We walked in the cold & rain to Victory Column, it was beautiful, don't get my wrong, but I had not mentally prepared myself for that long of a walk in that cold & wet of weather.  Oh well, now to hoof it back!  We walked the mile back to the Brandenburg Gate.  Lake has waited his entire life to see this site, so I was happy that he was finally there, in front of it.  We took some obligatory pics & found a Starbucks over in the corner & popped in to warm up, take a break & mooch off some free WiFi!  I needed the break though, jet lag was starting to kick my butt & I needed some caffeine & my feet needed the break as well!  We took some time to wander down Unter dun Linden, this is the main drag in what was once East Berlin & is lined with Linden trees.  During the Nazi rule the street was lined with Nazi flags, so this was much prettier!  The street was covered with shops & restaurants which unfortunately were closed because it was Christmas Day.  We found our way back to the hotel, had dinner at the Christmas market just outside & called it a day!!

Day 3:  Who knew "West Berlin" was actually smack dab in the MIDDLE of "East Germany" and other fun facts.....

First off, I'd like to thank my amazing husband for doing such an awesome job planning this trip!  He's my trip guru & he never fails to find fun, interesting & amazing things to do when we take trips!  THANK YOU LAKE!  :)

So, for our second day in Berlin we were taking a walking tour of the city.  I wasn't feeling so hot that morning, didn't sleep well, was dehydrated, so I was tons of fun to be around!  We were meeting out walking group by the Berlin Zoo then taking a train to East Berlin to gather the rest of our walking tour together.  Our tour guides' name was Amos, he's from Israel & a law student at Humboldt University in Berlin, this kid knew his stuff!  The tour actually started in East Berlin, specifically around Museum Island which is where all of the major museums are in Berlin.  This is also home to Berliner Dom which is their national cathedral.  We had walked around the inside of the building the evening before, but on this day, we only saw the outside of it.  Amos toured us around this area of the city, then walked over in front of the university where in the 1930's there was a huge book burning, all books written by Jewish authors were burned & there's a memorial to this event in the square just outside of the law school at Humboldt.  The memorial is very interesting, it's in the ground & covered by a transparent piece of glass, it's very deep & is basically an empty book shelf.  This is supposed to symbolize the thousands of books that were burned that day & all the knowledge that was lost, pretty powerful stuff!  We then trekked over to an area closer to Checkpoint Charlie where we had our lunch break.  We found a place for lunch, I was able to get in my social media fix & even text a few of my besties via "WhatsApp" & was ready for the rest of our tour.

In front of part of the Berlin Wall, after visiting
Checkpoint Charlie

After lunch we walked over to Checkpoint Charlie, at this time we were actually standing on what was once the soviet occupied area of Berlin (East Berlin).  There's a demarcation line that goes around the entire city that indicates where the Berlin Wall once stood & it actually encircled East Berlin, not really what I imagined.  I also never knew that Berlin sits right in the middle of what was once East Germany!  MIND BLOWN!  I guess I'd never really looked at a map to consider this but when the Allies split up Germany after WWII they didn't want a powerful city like Berlin to sit in East Germany, they didn't want what happened to ever happen again so it was decided to split the city, just like the entire country was split, so "Checkpoint Charlie" was actually the 3rd checkpoint people would have to go to to get in/out of East/West Berlin if they were coming from outside of Germany (Americans).  (Alpha - 1; Beta - 2; Charlie -3).  We continued the tour along where the wall once stood, we then made our way passed what was once the center of the Nazi Air Force & then over to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  This memorial is totally open to interpretation, but it was interesting & powerful, I'm glad we saw it.  The last stop on our walking tour was back at The Brandenburg Gate.  We bid adieu to our tour guide & walked over to the German Parliament Building or the Reichstag. 

Let's Disco Berlin!

The Reichstag is really historic looking but then it has this modern building in the back, you can walk to the top of it & it's made of all glass.  You can look into the actual chambers where parliament meets & see them in session, if they're in session.  This is supposed to symbolize the transparency in their government.  Maybe it's not a bad idea.....We walked around & grabbed some dessert (which I have officially become an expert on, (tasting it that is) & Irish Coffee) at the Hotel Adlon.  OK, so who remembers when Michael Jackson dangled his baby "Blanket" out of a hotel window?!?!?  Anyone.....WELL, if you do, then you'd be interested to know that it happened out of one of the windows at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, random, I know.  After our mid-afternoon snack we headed back over to our hotel area via the subway to get a bite for dinner, then went to the prettiest Christmas Market ever!  What fun!  :)

Day 4:  I can only take so much museum time....

Our last day in Berlin was spent seeing as much as we could of the city.  We were leaving the next day to Vienna so we wanted to take full advantage.  We were up early to catch our train out to see Charolttenburg Palace which was about a 15 minute train ride.  The palace was home to Sophie Charlotte who was in power at some point in Germany (Prussia).  I'm assuming the castle used to be on the out skirts of Berlin, but now it's pretty much in the middle of the city.  The palace was pretty, no Versailles, but pretty nonetheless.  We took an audio tour & really wanted to see the gardens but as we were leaving it started to rain & it was super cold so we decided to make our way back to the train instead & grab some lunch.  We then went over to Museum Island to go to the Pergamon Museum, which let's be real....all museums pretty much house what that country has successfully taken from other countries when they occupy said countries.  The stuff was cool & big, but I was sleepy......Lake loved it though, so that was nice.  That evening we found a really good Asian/dim sum place in our hotel area and enjoyed a nice laid back meal.  We took one last tour of the holiday market outside of our hotel & had one last crepe and called it a night.  We packed up & went to bed early for our flight out to Vienna the next morning.

Day 5:  Vienna - How bout we lose our new iPad!

We boarded our very early flight out of Berlin to Vienna on this morning.  I think we left around 8:30am & landed in Vienna at about 10:00am.  The flight was pretty pain free, just a quick hop south & east.  The airport in Vienna was really nice & guess what....FREE WiFi, SCORE!  When we landed though, we were very surprised to find out that you don't have to get your passport stamped when flying from Germany to Austria.  Apparently there's a block of countries in the EU that have made it easier on travelers to travel between their countries, so Germany & Austria are two of those countries, hence no passport stamp needed, my passport was soooooo sad! 

Let's Go Vienna!

We caught a cab from the airport over to Wein (Vienna) & got checked in, though our room wasn't ready for a couple of hours.  We stayed at the Hilton Vienna  which is located right across the street from Stadtpark (their Central Park).  We grabbed some lunch & a coffee & were able to check into our room.  We had a park view & it was a comfortable place to stay.  We were able to book a tour that afternoon which was a bus tour of the "inner city" & then an actual guided tour of Schonbrunn Palace.  The bus tour was great & really let us get our barrings for the city.  The tour of the palace was absolutely amazing!  This was the summer home of Marie Theresia, Marie Antoinette's mother.  There were paintings all over the palace of the family & young Antoinette.  The gardens at the palace were also gorgeous!  At the end of the tour we were given some free time to wander around the gardens & the Christmas Market out in the front of the palace.  Now, I swear on all that's good in the world that our tour guide told us to meet back at the bus drop off point at 5:45pm.....giving us just a little over an hour to wander.  Well, Lake & I had a great old time, taking pictures, shopping, I drank some mulled prosecco, GREAT TIME!  We go to the bus stop & get there at 5:40pm, no one's around, but we're early so whatevs.  Wait, still no one....wait till 5:50, no one....crap!  Maybe I got the time wrong....go back to the palace to see if we recognize anyone..nope, not happening!  We then both realize...WE MISSED THE BUS!  And, to top it off, Lake left his back pack on the bus which luckily didn't have anything too valuable in it, other than our brand new iPad!  GREAT!  Luckily the cafe that was outside the palace had free WiFi & we were able to pull up a map on my phone & figure out where the closest subway station was.  We had just enough cash to buy a one-way ticket to the closest stop to our hotel & things were looking up!

After getting back to the hotel we immediately told our concierge what happened, called the tour company & they promised we'd have our backpack at the hotel the next afternoon, whether the iPad would be in there or not was left to be seen, but we'd safely gotten back to our hotel & we didn't lose anything too terribly crazy, yes, that would have sucked, but Lake locked it remotely, so we couldn't do much more.  It was also a good exercise in getting to know Vienna's subway system.  Which, like Berlin, only required you to buy a ticket & get it validated to get on the train, no gates to go through to assure you had a ticket.  They're very trusting, but they're also incredibly safe cities, I never really saw anything shady going on anywhere.  Every once in a while a "subway cop" will go into a car & ask to see your validated ticket, if you don't have one you're fined a hefty chunk of change, so I guess that deters people from sneaking on??

mmmmm, a Cosmo
in Vienna, delish!

We made our way to Stephansplatz, a very nice shopping area & where St. Stephan's Church is.  We had drinks at a cool bar, that I can't remember the name of, and I had quite possibly the best Cosmopolitan EVER!  no joke!  We then went to dinner at very lovely Italian restaurant.  While we were waiting for our main courses a waiter (not our waiter) but a waiter sets down a nice salad in front of me, I hadn't ordered one, but I don't know, maybe this is like Olive Garden, everyone gets a salad.  I start eating a little of it, then I see our waiter in the corner "yelling" at the guy who'd given me the salad....OOOOOOPS, salad, NOT for me, the salad was for the couple at the table next to us, talk about awkward!  For some reason (maybe because I was on my 3rd glass of prosecco) I was so embarrassed & I couldn't stop laughing, oh well, we aren't known as "Dumb Americans" for no reason!  ;)

Day 6 - Buda Pest - Two Different Cities - No Really, They're TWO SEPARATE Cities!

The next morning we were up bright & early to catch our bus to Budapest, Hungary.  It was an early morning & I wasn't happy to hop out of bed that morning.  We left our bus station at 7:00am & had a three hr bus ride to deal with.  I was asleep the entire time, it was glorious!  We arrived in the "Pest" side of Budapest at around 10am.  So, Budapest is actually two separate cities that are divided by the Danube River.  At some point they decided to build a bridge to make it easier to connect with each other.  Buda is much more older, historic & residential.  Pest is the "business" side of the city, much more metropolitan. 

on the Buda side of Budapest

We drove around Pest, stopped at one of the city centers, then headed over across the river to Buda to get ready for our authentic Hungarian lunch.  We were served Paprika Chicken, goulash, and a dessert.  The lunch was really yummy & the cappuccino I had at the end of the meal was yumm-o as well!  After lunch we took a walking tour down the cobblestone streets of Buda & saw some gorgeous sites!  The city itself was very quaint, reminded me a little of Bath, England.  The church in their town square was absolutely gorgeous & the view across the river over to Pest was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen!  By this time it was about mid-afternoon & we hopped back on the bus to take a bus tour of Pest.  The tour guide left us at around 4:30 & we were free to wander around the city, I made sure a 100 million times that we knew what time we were supposed to report back.  Lake & I took off & had a lovely dessert & coffee at Gerbeaud Pastry Shop, apparently it's known all around the world.  I'd never heard of it, but it was definitely good!  After taking a breather we walked over to the main basilica in Budapest & wandered a bit, then, because of sheer paranoia, we started walking back to our bus pick up location.  We got there with plenty of time so we were able to take some really pretty pictures right at sunset.  Just after 5:45pm we loaded the bus & we back off to Vienna, another 3ish hours.  This time I wasn't sleepy though, luckily the bus had WiFi so I was able to get some social media time in.  If you travel abroad I highly recommend getting the app "What'sApp", you're able to text with people, as long as they have the app & it's kinda cool.  I was thousands of miles away & I was able to stay in touch with my friends....the only major problem I found was the time difference.  Having one way text conversations is tough sometimes....

When we got back to Vienna we went out to grab dinner & found this AMAZING restaurant called Medusa, everything we had was so good, I'm glad we stumbled upon it!  After dinner we went to a rooftop bar & I had a yummy sparkling wine cocktail.  Bless the Germans & Austrians for truly understanding my love of bubbly!  I had some of the best cocktails while visiting!

Day 7 - Vienna WOWS and Depresses

waiting in line for the Sisi
Museum

Our last day in Vienna was devoted to site seeing.  The city is just beautiful and if you want to see the historical sites, you go to the "inner city."  We found our way to the Hapsburg Imperial Palace and patiently waited to see the Imperial Apartments which is where the Empress Elisabeth (AKA Sisi) once lived.  So, Sisi is like Austria's Princess Diana.  She was empress at the end of the 19th century.  She was a recluse & hated being the center of attention.  She was incredibly thin, scary skinny in fact & had crazy long hair.  Towards the end of her life she was obsessed with traveling everywhere & anywhere.  Ironically, this led to her death.  She was traveling to Geneva in 1898 under an alias when an anarchist stabbed her.  She actually didn't realize how seriously injured she was & hopped on her boat back to Vienna, she ended up collapsing on the boat and dying a few days later due to an infection.  After her death, she became a martyr.  Her whole museum was really depressing, she seemed really lonely & her entire life seemed so sad & tragic. 

Now that I've depressed you thoroughly, let's move on to the rest of our last day in Vienna.  We walked around the city & found the most beautiful architecture ever!  We loved it!  Lake keeps saying how much he wants to go back there.  For lunch that day we dined at Cafe Landtmann, which is a cafe that Sigmund Freud would frequent.  It was here that we had our first apple strudel, which Austria is famous for!  This one was served cold with whipped cream, it wasn't until we enjoyed another one at a small cafe in Salzburg that I understand how truly wonderful a strudel can truly be!  The afternoon was filled with church site seeing and just taking in as much of the city as we could.  We had dinner that night at another cozy Italian restaurant and went to bed early to catch, yet another incredibly early flight to embark on the last leg of our trip to Munich.

Day 8 - Munich - BEWARE of Live Fireworks!

New Year's Eve 2012

We arrived in Munich, Germany on New Year's Eve.  We took a walking tour of the "inner city" as soon as we got the our hotel.  We stayed at Le Meridian which was right by the main train station in Munich.  The hotel was pretty & a good location being right next to a subway station.  The walking tour started right in the heart of Marienplatz, which is like their town square area.  We toured the whole area & learned a lot about Munich & it's incredible history.  From Bavaria to the role it played in the years leading up to World War II.  The city itself is pretty & historic, but after spending 2 days in the city, I'm just kinda like, whatever with it.  After the walking tour we headed back to the hotel to nap & figure out what we were going to do for dinner that night & also just for New Year's Eve in general.  We hadn't planned anything in advance, so we were up for anything, we figured there had to be something going on.  We had dinner at our hotel & it was quite possibly the best meal we had the entire trip.  After dinner we wandered around the town square trying to dodged stray fireworks & drunk Germans walking around with full bottles of Moet in their hands.  I just wasn't feeling it, call me a party pooper, but I like semi-order & there was none.  It wasn't even that things were totally out of control or that chaos was all around it was just that, the whole city seemed so unorganized....that's what we get for not planning ahead!  We ended the night at our hotel bar & luckily I had asked Lake to buy a bottle of bubbly in case something like this happened, so we popped the bottle open & celebrated the beginning of 2013 in our hotel room.  Right at midnight we opened the window & there, outside of our hotel was our very own, incredibly sporadic & disorganized fireworks display.  New Year's Eve is the only day of the year that Germans are allowed to purchase fireworks, so they enjoy themselves fully on this evening.  After midnight, I stayed up & watched the year turnover in London because we had friends who were celebrating there.  Hands down....London Won!  ;)

Day 9 - The Sights, Sounds & Beers of Munich

Our first day of 2013 was spent just kind of wandering around the city of Munich.  We rode on the subway & just went here & there.  Nothing was really planned out, which was nice.  The thing I found hilarious as we were going through the day was all the bottles of Moet just lying around, like NBD.  It was crazy.  The aftermath of New Year's Eve was evident all over the city.  The bottles & also the "popped" fireworks were everywhere, it was insanity!!

not impressed with the mess

The evening we took a "beer tour", which was fun!!  We stopped in at a couple of local "pub halls" and of course made a stop at Hofbrau Haus, which was very interesting.  I can't even begin to imagine what it would like to be a server there.  First off, my arms would be cut!  Those mugs that they have to carry are crazy HEAVY & they carry multiple ones!  WOAH!  We made a couple of new friends & ended the evening at a hostel that was right down the block from our hotel.  I'd never been in a hostel, so that was interesting, it was much cleaner than I'd imagined.  We made friends with a Spanish couple & a Japanese couple who spoke Spanish....who knew the Spanish language would make us some new friends ;)  The tour ended & we were off to bed, we had an early train to catch for Salzburg!  YAY!

Day 10 - "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music" and the Taste of Strudel!

On the second to last day of our trip we had a day trip planned to Salzburg, Austria.  The train station was right across the street from our hotel so we didn't have to wake up too terribly early to catch it.  It was a pretty painless ride and we got to see some snow on our way over there.  Unfortunately, no snow in Salzburg (city proper), but we did get to see some later in the day (more on that later).

Salzburg Fortress

The main train station in Salzburg is a bit of a walk to the "old town" so we started our trek over.  It was a good 20-ish minute walk, but on our way we came across our tour home for the Sound of Music Tour that we were going to take later on in the day, so it was nice to know where we were headed.  We finally managed to find our way to the Old Salzburg Fortress which is way up on a hill/mountain.  You have to ride a trolley/car thing up the side of the mountain to get to the top, but wow, the view from up there was amazing!  I'm not sure if I've ever truly understood what the term "breath taking" meant until that moment.  The day was a little hazy but off in the distance (and it really wasn't that far) were the Alps, it was one of the most gorgeous sites I've ever seen, EVER!  It's impossible to describe.  It was one of those moments that makes you feel really tiny in the grand scheme of the world and puts you totally in awe of God's majesty, it was just incredibly beautiful!!  :)

We stayed up at the fortress and made our way around, then headed back down because it was time to find some food!!  We came across the most adorable cafe where we decided it would be a good place to have lunch.  The food was great & of course, the dessert was even better!!  I had a raspberry/chocolate tart thing & Lake had a warm piece of apple strudel with vanilla cream sauce on it.  OMG they were both so good.  I washed my dessert down with a "Mozart Hot Chocolate" which is basically just hot chocolate with a shot or two of "Mozart" liqueur.  DELISH!!  After lunch we did a little shopping at "Christmas in Salzburg" which was this cute little ornament shop that had thousands of eggs that were made into ornaments, they were everywhere!  I ended up buying a few for me & a few for some folks that I <3 :="" class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background: yellow;">nbsp

="">Shopping time ended & it was time to start our "Sound of Music Tour" which I'd been looking forward to since we got on the plane from SA!!  The tour was so much fun!!  I think our tour guide helped though, he was the funniest guy ever!  Literally, he even had Lake cracking up, he was a total smart a** but it totally worked!  We got to see the home that was the "back" of the VonTrapp family home, then we saw the home that was the front of their house, the gazeebo from "16 Going on 17", the lakes and mountains from the opening shots of the movie & the church where the Captain & Maria were married. 
Side Note:  The gazeebo is locked because a few years ago an older woman was trying to reenact the musical scene & fell & broke her hip....no more jumping from bench to bench for anyone else!  Thanks lady!

MONDSEE!

The last part of the tour was my favorite.  We drove up to this little town outside of Salzburg called Mondsee.  The church where the wedding scene occured is located here.  The town is so cute & quaint, I couldn't get enough of it!!  We had about 90 minutes to just walk around the little city & do some shopping, it was just enough time!!  On our way back into the city we were able to watch a special DVD on the making of the movie which had some interesting tidbits. 

The tour ended & we had about 2 1/2 hrs to kill before we had to catch our train.  Our tour guide had recommended a hotel rooftop bar for a great view of the city.  The hotel was, Hotel Stein which was located right on the river.  We had a drink & some apps there & then went to the Cafe Sacher for one last dessert & coffee in Salzburg.  The cafe was so cute, I loved it!!  Their coffee & food weren't too shabby either!  ;)

After one last dessert we caught a cab back down to the main train station & sat around & waited for our train back to Munich.  We sat on the platform freezing our butts off, but not wanting to miss our train, we endured the cold.  We hopped back on our train & zipped right back to Munich.  We were back in our room before 11:00pm & ready for our final full day of vaction.

Day 11 - Fairytales Really Can Come True!

So, our final day of vacation was truly magical!  No really, we saw castles on our last full day, it was amazing!!  We left Munich around 8:30am & we off to the mountains just outside of Munich (about 1 hr-ish).  There had been no snow in any of the major cities we'd visited, but while traveling up to Mondsee, Austria the day before we saw "old" snow on the ground, but we hadn't seen any actual snow fall.  Our first stop was Linderhof Castle which was one of the homes of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  Ludwig was quite a recluse and was painfully shy.  He was also a chubby guy.  He sought refuge in this palace and even though it was much smaller than Versailles, he fashioned the palace after the famous French palace just outside of Paris.  He was also obsessed with the "Sun King." 

my favorite pic from the whole trip

The palace was pretty on the outside & the inside.  The walk to the palace was absolutely beautiful, tons of snow everywhere!!!  It was pretty cold that day, but it was so pretty that I didn't mind much!  Lake & I took a guided tour of the inside of the palace & then we were able to take pictures outside & around the palace.  After that we had a short bus ride up into the mountains & had some free time to wander.  We hopped back on our tour bus & had one more short bus ride to see Neuschwanstein Castle.  This castle was used as the inspiration for both Sleeping Beauty & Cinderella castle (Disneyland & Disneyworld).  To say that I was excited or happy to see this place would be a tremendous understatement!  I've dreamed of seeing this castle since I was a little girl! 

Getting to the small city that sits at the base of the giant hill the castle is on, you wonder, huh, how do you get all the way up there??  Well, two options: 

1.  You can take a horse drawn carriage.   I know what you're thinking, oh wow, that's so romantic!  Let me tell you now, it wasn't all that cute & romantic.  The "carriage" looked more like a golf cart and the line to catch one of the carriages was at least at hour long wait!

2.  Our next option was a steep mile long hike up the hill.  Though this didn't make me happy, I figured it was our best option.

We had lunch in the little city before we made our way up & we only had 2 hrs to spare after that.  We had a guided tour scheduled as well, so we started the hike....as we started getting closer to the top it was definitely getting colder & rain/snow had been in the forecast.  At first, I didn't want to believe it, but the moment that we turned our last corner & we could see the castle, it started snowing.  Pretty, white, light, perfect snow!  I was ecstatic!!  Not only was I at a real life castle, and not just any castle, but THE castle, it was snowing & it was the snow I'd wished for the entire trip, it was perfect!  :)  We had about 20 minutes to spare before our tour started so we took lots & lots of pictures.  The snow didn't really show up in them so I guess I just have to remember it, oh well!

We toured the castle, which was never actually completed, but it was still really pretty inside.  Once we got back outside the snow had turned to rain and we made our way back down, slippery road.....we hopped back on our tour bus & drove back into Munich.  The bus ride was about 90 minutes so Lake & I both took a quick nap. 

Our day trip was over & we had our last meal in Munich at the restaurant of Munich's "Gordan Ramsey", the meal was TDF, I can't remember now what I had, but I just remember that it was good!!  We were both exhausted at this point so we headed back to our hotel & packed up to get ready for our early morning trip back home!

Day 12 - LONGEST DAY EVER!

Our day started off with a trip to the airport & all that it entails, pretty standard stuff.  We got there early, ate some breakfast, mooched off some free wifi & we were off to London.  Oh how I wish our layover would have been significant, but alas, it was just a short stay & we were back on the plane to Washington DC.  I didn't want my sleep to be messed up, so I was able to fight off sleep for the majority of the flight.  I watched, Pitch Perfect, Marie Antoinette, some episodes of Mad Men & some eps of New Girl.  All in all, I was entertained most of the flight!  :)

We landed at Dulles or is it now Reagan? a little late & headed over to customs, the next two hours of my life I'd like to refer to as "Hell at the Airport".....which it was!  It took us almost an hour to get through customs to get our passports stamped, then we still had to wait in what seemed like the longest line to go through security again.  It's amazing what "Mob Mentality" does to folks....while we were in line through security a family of 5 tried to cut through the line & they got stopped by security, the lady in the family raised her voice to the security guard & said, "I'm sorry, but we have a connecting flight!" to which the security guard said, "yeah, so do ALL of these of other people, you can go to the back of the line"......everyone clapped, haha!

We finally made it through security & had to run from Terminal C to  Terminal A.  We had to catch a tram to get there, we, along with about 5 other folks from our flight were "those people" sprinting through crowds of people trying to get to our flight.  We finally get to Terminal A & of course Lake & I have to run to the end of the terminal to our gate.  I ran ahead & geot there just as they were last calling everyone.....wait for Lake only to discover we're on the tiniest plane known to man, for an almost 4 hr flight, freakin' great!  At this point, my patience was gone & I just laughed and said...."of course this is our plane".....we walked onto the plane, sweaty messes & were greeted by what almost seemed like a sauna on the plane.  They said it had to be that warm in order to be comfortable at the high altitude, that's funny, I've never experienced that...EVER!  We made our way to our seats, by the restroom no less & settled in.  It was miserably HOT & I felt nauseous.  The seats in front of us were empty to so I asked the flight attendant if one of us could move up & I think she saw the desperation & could probably smell us, so she let us take the two empty seats in front as well.  Once we took off the flight was pretty painless.  I'd been saving "Notting Hill" on my iPad so after an hour I started the movie & the next thing I know, we're flying over Texas & almost HOME!  We landed & my brother & Miss Maryn were there to greet us.  Trip over?  NOPE, one more thing, just for good measure.  With all the hurry & scurry, Lake's bag never made it on the flight from DC, so oh well, it would be flown in the next morning on the first flight from DC to SA.

All in all, our last day of travel was by far one of the worst I've ever had to deal with, but eh, after 11days gallivanting across Europe, who am I to complain!  :)  Lake & I have traveled the world together & there's no other person I'd rather do any of these things with. 

Team Ellis Takes on Europe The Remix is in the books!  Where to next?!?!

Spring Break 2012

What I did on my Spring Break
Report posted & created by Erica Ellis

I have been bugging Lake to take me to New Orleans, Louisiana since forever!  I even wanted to go for my bachelorette party, but I was swayed to stay with the bribe of a free house & a limo, it all worked out quite well!  Roll around to getting back from London.  Lake wanted to go someone oversees for SB, but I know what kind of toll that takes on you & the exhaustion it creates, so I said I didn't want to be gone for the entire week, I needed some down time to just vegg during the break.  So we were at a stand still.  I kept suggesting NOLA & kept getting brutally rebuffed!  That is....until Valentine's Day rolled around.  Lake had cutely hidden little Valentine's cards (the kind you hand out as a kid) all around the house.
 
Side story:  when Lake was in India 2 years ago he had done this.  He hid all these fun gift cards & notes & cards all around the house & sometimes I'd randomly find them OR sometimes when we'd Skype & he knew I had a bad day he'd be like "oh, hey, go check in the 2nd draw on the left in the kitchen" or whatever.....so sweet!!!  Anyway, Valentine's Day kinda reminded me of this!
Back to the story.....

We ordered in sushi & stayed in on Valentine's & I'd already gotten a lovely vase of tulips & Breaking Dawn:  Part 1 on DVD.  Thought that was it, we aren't big Valentine's people, which is fine by me!  So Lake says, oh wait, you have one more present.  He hands over a big white envelope with one more card attached to the outside that says:  "how bout we go to NOLA?".......opened the envelope & there were our plane tickets!  YAY!!!!

NOLA Trip--1st Half of Spring Break
Day 1

Our flight out was scheduled to depart from SA at 12:50pm, we had a layover in Houston & were landing in New Orleans at 3:30pm, this was the plan.....

Lake & I at Hobby airport in
Houston, we were very happy
to be getting on a plane!! (stand by)

Well, Sunday morning some crazy storms rolled through San Antonio, by the time we were up & headed to the airport it was a gorgeous day....here.....well, at around 11:30am those crazy storms were demolishing Houston & our plane was still stuck in Houston due to weather.  Needless to say, we were delayed...a lot!  We ended up leaving SA at 2:40 and landing in Houston at 3:30 (our original landing time in NOLA).  To say that people were upset or angry is just an understatement.  Everyone was getting super pissy with the desk people....it was people watching at it's finest!  What can you do, it's a safety thing, so oh well.  At one point, it became just funny to me.  We land in Houston & bust it over to Gate 49 to see if we can be put on stand by for the 4:45 flight.  There were a few people in front of us, but we ended up being 5 & 6 on the list.  Numbers 1 - 4 ended up getting on the flight.....nice.......  Good thing though is that we were automatically put on the stand by list for the next flight out which was at 6:05.  Checked in there, assuming that we were would be 1 & 2, but NO, there were some "A-Listers" (frequent fliers) who had already been placed on the stand by list ahead of us, so we were 4 & 5 for this flight.  Long story short, we had a stand by success!!!  And by 7:15 we had safely landed in NOLA & we were eager to get our bags & eat some dinner.....
Oh wait, our bags!
Had we not made the 6:05 flight we were going to have definite seats on the 8:30 flight, well, of course, no one told our bags about our stand by success, so they of course came in on the 8:30 flight.  Oh well! 
We leave the airport, tired, agitated, excited, & lets be honest, a little stinky.....we catch a cab & head over to take on "The Big Easy"

We stayed at The Hotel Monteleone which is located on Royal Street, one block over from Bourbon & 2 blocks in from Canal Street.  This is a really cool, historic hotel & is still family owned!  It also is home to one of the oldest bars in America:  The Carousel Bar, literally, you sit & the bar & it turns.  It takes 15 minutes to make one rotation.  Kinda cool stuff!  Back to our first evening.  While in the cab headed over to town I used my OpenTable App to make a reservation for dinner at NOLA which is one of Emeril Lagasse's restaurants in New Orleans.  Luckily they had room for us at 9:30.  We got to our room, splashed some water on our face & were off to dinner.  As I've mentioned before, I've never been to New Orleans before, so my sense of direction was a bit off.  But we managed to find our way over to the restaurant.  Looking back on it, the French Quarter is really easy to maneuver, I just needed to get my barrings.

our appetizers at NOLA, omg!

Dinner at NOLA was so good!  The food was delicious!!!  When we got there we were about 20 minutes early so we grabbed a beverage & waited.  There was a very lively group of UK (University of Kentucky) basketball fans there.  The SEC Tournament was being played in New Orleans & they just had a game.  I'm not a b-ball person, at all, but based on how happy they were, I guess they won, or lost really badly?!  We were seated & got looking at the menu.  We decided on mussels & stuffed chicken wings to start with.  Both plates were some of the most delicious things I'd ever tasted, seriously!  And how ingenious is it to stuff a chicken wing!  Culinary master minds!!  For my entree I ordered a Blue Fin Tuna salad with an Avocado puree & Lake got good 'ol Shrimp & Grits!  WOW!  Again, WINNING!  For dessert we opted for an Ooey Gooey Chocolate dessert.  It was ooey gooey because it had marshmallow underneath the cake/brownie portion & was topped with a coffee flavored ice cream, incredible!!!  We rolled out of there & headed over to Arnaud's which is just off Bourbon & I believe Bienville.  This bar was pretty cool looking, totally reminded me of the bar that Jack goes to at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.  The bartenders were wearing tuxes, very old school!  It was way smokey in the bar, so we opted for "Go Cups"

ooey gooey at NOLA

Sidebar:  Can I just say, this whole "go cup" thing really intrigued me.  Everywhere, get a go cup here, get a go cup there.  What an ingenious idea!  Not done with your beverage, but your friends are.....Go Cup it is!  LOVE IT!

the "OG" Pat O's in the French
Quarter :)

At Arnaud's, the bar is actually named "French 75"....this is where the French 75 drink was invented, thank you Mr. Arnaud & your brilliant mixologists!  After Arnaud's we went over to Pat O'Brien's on Bourbon, the original!  I think it's kinda cool that San Antonio has one as well.  Now I've been to all 3 in the US.  There's also one in Orlando at Universal Studios City Walk.  After we had one hurricane, we made one more stop & then it was time for bed.  When we got back to the hotel we were pleasantly surprised to find our bags waiting for us!  YAY!  I had never been so happy to shower in my life, yuck!

Day 2
We woke up bright & early for our brunch reservation at The Court of Two Sisters which was about 3 blocks down Royal St. from our hotel.  This had been highly recommended by various people, so I was really excited.  The brunch was a buffet with jazz music, pretty fun.  The outdoor patio was really pretty, only problem was that it was raining on & off, not hard, but still rain.  We were able to sit under a large umbrella & braved the rain.  The patio had a very large Wisteria that covered the entire patio, it was cool!!!  Lake & I both enjoyed the buffet & the greatest thing about a buffet is trying a bunch of stuff in little amounts & deciding if you like it or not.  This was great!  I tried "Turtle Soup" for the first time.

Lake & I at brunch at The Court of Two Sisters

Sidebar:  I don't know what's in Turtle Soup, just that it's good & has a very tangy after taste.  I was very saddened (not sad enough though) when I learned that YES, there is actually turtle in Turtle Soup.  I still feel kinda bad, but WOW was it good!

Jackson Square

After brunch we walked over the Jackson Square & visited St. Louis Cathedral.  We kind of just wandered around for the morning & then went to Harrah's.....played some craps, won/lost some money, then we were on a search for Johnny's Po-Boys.  We found it, had to wait in line for a bit, but after trying it, the po-boy was well worth the out the door wait!!  After lunch we did some "antiquing" down Royal Street then headed over to the Mississippi River to start our Cocktail Tour.

Cocktail Tour
We'd look into this before we left SA.  Lake & I were both really excited for the tour!!  It was a walking/guided tour.  It was so much fun & I highly recommend it!  It was through GrayLine Tours.  Drinks were not included in the price of the tour, but I believe it was $24 for each of us, our tour guide was AMAZING, so just for all of the historical facts that we got it was well worth it!

First Stop:  Antoine's Hermes Bar.  We toured the restaurant, got to see some really cool private rooms, they have a HUGE wine cellar (crazy big), & they also had a whole bunch of Mardi Gras memorabilia to look at, it was very educational!  We tried a Pimm's Cup at the bar, it's a very British beverage.  Pimm's is actually caramelized gin.  The drink tasted like Sweet Tea with a hint of cucumber, very light & summery.  I really liked it & Lake loved it!  very yum!
Second Stop:  The Court of Two Sisters.  We were back, again!  Our tour took us out on the patio & I actually learned that the wisteria tree over the outdoor courtyard is actually over 140 years old, crazy!  The recommended drink at the bar was the Bayou Bash.  This drink was made with SoCo (which I hate!),   home made fruit punch, & a splash of Cabernet on top.  It was actually really really good!!
Third Stop:  Pirate's Alley Cafe & Absinthe House.  arrrrrggggggg!  Apparently this is a very popular for the local pirates of the area.  They meet nightly & dress up!!  kinda funny!  As this is an absinthe house, this was the recommended drink of choice.  The drink is called "The Green Fairy", you drip water over a sugar cube & it drips into the absinthe underneath.  You're supposed to swirl it around & see "fairies" in the liquid.  Lake & I decided not to partake in the beverage.  Absinthe is actually now legal in the US, but it wasn't up until like 2 or 3 years ago.  Although our tour guide did tell us that Louisiana never really got rid of it.
Fourth (Last) Stop:  Arnaud's French 75 Bar.  And this was the same bar we'd been to the night before. As we were running a little late, Lake & I excused ourselves from the tour to make sure we'd be able to make our dinner reservations at Commander's Palace.

1-1-1 Soup, a-mazing!

We had dinner at Commander's Palace that night, it's located in the Garden District & unfortunately this is all we actually saw of the garden district, with the way the rest of our plans were broken up, we didn't have any time to make our way back down there....or ride a street car, so oh well!  Emeril Lagasse was a sous chef here back in the day....our cabbie told us that he was a "baby chef" there, haha!!  Dinner was good, our soups were fantastic, we had 1-1-1 soup, which was a small tasting of each of their soups.  So we had a gumbo (not my favorite, but still very good!), a tomato shrimp bisque (which was A-MAZING!) & turtle soup (my 2nd favorite).  For dinner Lake had fish & I had a gnocchi plate that was so tasty!!  For dessert we split a cream cheese cheesecake topped with caramel that was TDF!  It was very creamy & yummy & delicious!!  After dinner we met up with one of my colleagues who just happened to be in NOLA with his family.  We met up with him & his wife & bar hopped but ended up at Turtle Bay, kinda close to Pat O's.  There was a guy playing guitar & during his break John & wife Dejah, who just so happened to have a birthday that night, sang during the break.  They were great!  Crowd pleasin' stuff!!  We parted ways & went to bed, dreaming of our last day in NOLA & the copious amounts of food we would consume!

with the Benke's out on Bourbon!

Day 3

Tuesday morning we woke up to eat our last brunch in New Orleans.  We went to eat at Brennan's which was a nice 2 block walk down Royal Street.  The family that owns Brennan's actually owns lots of restaurants in NOLA, including Commander's Palace.  Brunch was so good!  If you ask Lake he'll tell you that it was hands down, the best brunch he'd ever had in his life!  I find it hard to argue with that statement.  I ordered Eggs Benedict, which I'd never had before & I can't remember the exact name of what Lake ordered but it was basically Eggs Benedict but with a Cajun twist.  Whatever it's called, it was so good!  At the end of our meal we shared an order of Bananas Foster, which was actually created at Brennan's.  They have a rolling cart that rolls around the restaurant & prepares your dessert for you table side, kinda like table side guacamole, but with FIRE!

St. Louis Cemetery #1 Tour

After brunch we didn't have too much time, so we wandered a bit & did some shopping.  I find the 2 cutest dresses at a boutique just off of Jackson Square, loved it!  By the time we knew it, it was 1:00 & it was time for our Cemetery Tour.  I had really wanted to do a night time "ghost tour" of the city, but with dinner reservations each night, we just didn't have any time for that.  As our tour started it began to rain & not just "sorta rain" no, it was pouring!!  We took a bus from the Mississippi to St. Louis Cemetery #1 which is just outside of the Quarter.  We waited out the rain for about 25 minutes in their visitors center.  Not that I didn't enjoy myself or the tour, BUT, our tour guide wasn't all that great.  She just wasn't very dynamic & didn't really give us too much information that you couldn't find in a book.  The cemetery itself was super creepy, but cool.  The only really bad problem was that it did stop raining, which was GREAT, BUT like a typical rain storm in the middle of the day, in the south, it was brutally HOT & HUMID after, which probably also took away my enjoyment of the tour.  All in all, I'd say skip this.  There are plenty of horse drawn carriages that give you a tour of the city & stop at this cemetery & allow you to walk around on your own for 15-20 minutes, I'd say do that instead!  After the tour we were ready for a late lunch, because we had late dinner reservations.  We went to eat at Napoleon House, which wasn't very far from our hotel.  I had the most delicious shrimp remoulade over an avocado.  Basically I love anything that is served over an avocado!  Since lunch was "semi-light" we walked over to Cafe du Monde for an afternoon snack of beignets & cafe au laits.  Can I just say, if you want to go there & NOT have to wait, go on a Wednesday at 4:10pm, NO ONE was there, I mean, it was still crowded, but we didn't even have to wait in line.  There were open tables, SCORE!!  I'm excited to have tried there "famous" beignets, very tasty, but there coffee was even better!!  Loved it!  After our beignets we walked down to a market area, then walked all the way back down Royal, it was a good 10-12 blocks, but I fell in love with the streets of NOLA, so it was lovely stroll.  We had a late dinner reservation so we grabbed a drink at the Carousel Bar at our hotel, which, like I said earlier, actually turns!!  I indulged in a French 007, it was pear vodka, champagne, & cranberry juice.  It was really great & our bartender was great as well!  Our dinner reservations were at Galatoire's which is on Bourbon Street.  It was one block away from us.  We had been told, that if we can....get seated on the 1st floor, we had made reservations though & Lake had read up & what he read told us we'd be on the 2nd floor & that the 1st floor was for walk-ins.  So we got there & the first floor wasn't full, so we asked if we could just be seated there & they let us.  When we first got there the atmosphere was really lively & upbeat, but slowly people started finishing their dinner & there weren't too many people coming in, so it kinda died down.  The food was just kinda OK.  We started off with Oysters Rockefeller, which I'd never tasted before, they were very very fishy, but good.  We also had souffle potatoes which were quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted!!  They served it with a super yummy, rich Bearnaise sauce, they were delish!!!

the magical potatoes!  

Sidebar:  These potatoes are sliced long & thin, then fried in oil that's about 200 degrees.  They then take the fries & freeze them & once an order for the potatoes are placed, they fry them in oil that's like 800 degrees & they POP!  So they end up being big & puffy, but hollow because they explode.

Back to dinner.  Lake & I shared crabs au gratin, which was OK, but I was expecting more flavor.  For dessert though we had a black bottom pecan pie, which was so rich & yummy!  That was good stuff!!  All in all, I'd say Galatoire's is a good place to go, but there are so many other incredible places to eat at that I wouldn't put it on the top of my list of "must eats."  After dinner we went to Jean Lafitte's Bar which is way down on Bourbon.  I grabbed a hand grenade before we began our trek.  This had come highly recommended by a friend & pretty much everyone on the street I saw was drinking one, so I thought....why not....when in NOLA?!??  It just tastes like melon, which can be very dangerous!  It was good, but strong & sneaky, it's like, oh yeah, yum, then BAM, buzz city!  haha.  That was pretty much all I needed for the evening, I was good.  We were back in the hotel, not too late & packed up to get ready for our flight the next morning. 

heading to dinner our last
night out in NOLA :)

And so that was our trip to NOLA, lots of fun, lots of food!  I'm so glad that Lake finally gave in & we were able to experience....."The Big Easy"  :)

Valley Trip--2nd Half of Spring Break
Thursday morning I woke up early, ran a quick 2 miles with Anne & was off to drive to the Valley.  It was a quick 2 day trip, but lots of fun!!  I hadn't been down there since the end of November, so it was nice to visit & see family & friends.  Thursday afternoon my friend Monica came over with her two adorable girls to play with Maryn & Hayden who were down in the Valley with my sister in law.  Watching Lily & Maryn play was too cute!!  They were both so sweet with each other, awwwwwwww!  It's hard to imagine how "grown up" they are now!  They aren't little babies or even toddlers anymore, they're little girls!!  Monica has a second daughter named Mallory who is about Hayden's age, so yeah, they just kinda stared at each other the whole time, still very adorable though.  :)  After the visit Leah & I went to have dinner with my cousins on my dad's side of the family.  We had a great time & they can always make me laugh!  On Friday, I woke up, ran 4 miles, then was lazy, which was very much needed!!  I also got a hair cut at deSanchez with my old stylist, I only cut about an inch & a half, so nothing too drastic.  I needed it though!  The whole reason why I went down there was to help my BFF celebrate her 30th birthday!  Monica had her party at Tipsy Canvas in McAllen.  Basically, you have an "instructor" who guides you through a painting & everyone paints that same thing, they can just use the colors of their own choosing.  We painted "Tipsy Tulips."  This was much harder than I thought, but it was so much fun!!  I think it had more to do with the fact that I was getting to spend time with my life long friends, but the food, drinks & painting didn't hurt either!!  ;)  Saturday morning I woke up & drove back to SA.

Mon's 30th Birthday at Tipsy Canvas in McAllen

Phew, so that was it, that was my Spring Break!  All in all, it was so much fun & also very tiring!!

SPRING BREAK 2012, wohoooooo!

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!