We are alive and well! I have been avoiding the blog because it usually takes me forever to publish a post and well, we simply haven't had much down time. I have also decided that I will not post pictures until I get back in the States. Why? It has been taking forever to upload just the 8 or so I have posted to Facebook and I would rather be lounging in a park or wondering the town. I will probably keep posting Instagram photos when I am near WiFi though, so keep your eyes out for those (only is your interested I guess). And last...if you don't have the app Viber on your phone you need to get it. If you do we can text and call you for free when we have internet...do it!
Enough of the boring stuff...onto the fun!
We had a very long, but good travel day to start our trip. I was a little scared that we were going to get our bags lost somewhere between Montreal and London, but we landed in London on Tuesday morning and our bags arrived with us! Yippee! First thing we did in London was purchase our travel card for the tube, the Oyster card. This allowed us to pay one fee and travel at anytime on any tube or bus throughout most parts of the city. Although I feel like we spent most of our time in London underground, the card was well worth the cost and no doubt saved us lots of time and pounds (dolla bills for all you Americans). We spent most of Tuesday finding our way, researching, and napping. I think it took my body a couple days to adjust to the time difference, but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights in England.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent around the city, switching hostels, and meeting new friends. We started with a hop on hop off bus tour to get our bearings with the city. Smart but hot, hot, hot and kind of boring. I think London is best seen on foot, but that's hard to do in a city sooooo big. I never realized how large London was and it's so spread out! Anywho...after the bus we spent some time in Green Park. I read some travel books and relaxed while Chris played futbol with some Brits and Italians. After awhile in the park we walked around Buckingham Palace and called it a day.
We filled the next day full of a yeoman tour at the Tower of London, fish and chips with a seat along the Thames River, a walk across the London Bridge, a walk around the Parliament building and Big Ben, and relaxed in the lawn under Westminster Abbey. All this before 5 when we sat in on evensong at St. Margaret's chapel next to the Abbey. We headed to a great part of town called Covent Gardens for dinner. This area is filled with street performers, pubs, shops, and restaurants. I really loved our time here! We ate at a sweet French place and after grabbed some fro-yo to enjoy one of the street performers American tunes. Great day!
Friday was spent as tourist at the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and checking out two of London's futbol arenas. We were lucky enough to be at St. Paul's cathedral for the installation of their new dean that was lead by the Bishop of London. I loved it, Chris slept! We spent the evening in Kensington park with some snacks and beer just watching the swans in the lake and the kids playing.
Since this trip is a spur of the moment, plan as we go trip we decided we had seen enough of London and headed west to Bath for a couple nights. We arrived by train Saturday around 6 after a nice morning in Hyde Park and an awesome market called Portobello Green market with a friend of Chris' that was in London for the day.
Bath was good to us! The town was beautiful, people were friendly, and we were able to walk everywhere. We sipped on Pimm's cups, toured the old Roman Baths and the fashion museum, drank with young locals, danced at a Motown party, and walked along the canals. I would absolutely visit bath again and recommend it to anyone visiting England. It was just an hour train ride away and a great way to escape the busy city life! Before we trained over to Belgium on Tuesday morning early, we headed back into London for the night and spent some time in Trafalgar Square for dinner and ice cream!
I really enjoyed England and was sad to leave, but we have lots to see and only 8 weeks left to do it!
What I learned about England and Brits: everyone smokes, they all stand just right outside the pubs enjoying their drinks, and it's not always gloomy and raining. We haven't had rain yet and actually had record breaking heat in London!
We are currently in Brugges, Belgium and loving it! It's a little harder to understand others, but a beautiful place! I'll write all about it when we leave for Amsterdam Friday. Cheers!
LOVE LIFE and travel.
