London

I still can't believe I got to go on this trip! Once in a lifetime for sure! 

I have soooo many pictures, so you probably will be bored in 5 seconds. But I plan to blog to book someday, so this is my travel journal! 

Thoughts on London:

Out of all the places we went, it is soooo similar to the states. (duh!) But seeing how some things work there, I am glad we are independent from them, for sure!

 It was nice to be somewhere that everyone spoke our language. Although the British accents made it SO much cooler!

 I loved the names of all the streets and the suburbs of London that our train in and out of town (we stayed--or I should say slept, since that's all we did a the hotel--in Enfield Lock, about 30 min. train ride out of downtown). SO Harry Potter/British. Yes, it all seemed straight out of Harry Potter to me. "Hackney Downs, Brimmsdown, Tottenham Square, Stepney Green!" I loved it. 

London was rough for Collin because he had a really hard time recovering from jet lag. I wonder if he even remembers it! He did a good job of trekking through his exhaustion anyway, but he was pretty miserable. He finally was able to sleep by our 3rd night in London, thanks to some heavy-duty sleeping pills! I, on the other hand, had no problem adjusting at all! I suffered through our first day and then slept like a rock every night. 

Speaking of sleeping, that's all we did at our hotels. That and breakfast before we headed out. We would leave by 8:00 or 9:00am every morning (much earlier on days we were traveling to a different country), and get back 10:00-11:00pm. So we went hard all day every day. It was great and I'm glad we did, since we only had about 2 1/2 days in each of the amazing cities we visited! But needless to say we were exhausted by the time we got back to crash every night. Exhausted, with burning, dead feet, sore legs, and really dirty clothes! (gotta love that public transportation!!) It was great!

Here are the pictures!

First flight from Boise to Chicago

Enjoying dinner in the Chicago airport

After a ridiculous amount of waiting at the airport, we finally arrived by train in downtown London! The train station was so pretty!

Stepping out into London for the first time

Every house/apartment building and most other buildings all had chimneys like this. I loved it!

We used the Tube a LOT. Also the train system. It was fun to figure out and also, London's public transport system is really well-kept, organized, and clean. (compared to some we later used in other cities!)

Our first full day in London we visited the Tower of London. It was so amazing.

Inside the Tower of London--we spent a couple of hours there.

A weird dragon made out of weapons in the armoury

So many quintessential medieval English castles!

We saw the Crown Jewels! No pictures allowed in there. 

Collin chatted it up with this "Beefeater" near the Crown Jewels building for a few minutes. They're former active-duty military who now get some "better" jobs like duty in the Tower of London. 

There were some active-duty soldiers there as well!

The Tower Bridge

After the Tower of London we were supposed to have a 2-hour bus tour through London. It just so happened that they had a gigantic Taxi strike right at the same time, so we were completely stopped in traffic for about an hour. We finally got out and walked. I guess it's a big deal, like 3-year apprenticeship to become a Taxi driver in London. A new app is undermining the professionals. Apparently this strike was unprecedented. It was fun to be in the middle of it! 

Since we ended up walking like 5 miles through Westminster (downtown London area), we got to see all the cool stuff right in person instead of from a bus!

Yeah, Big Ben!

Westminster Abbey

The House of Parliament

House of Parliament from across the Thames

Our awesome British guide had some great stories about Winston Churchill.

This "Public School of London" is actually a private school that costs the equivalent of like $40,000 a year to attend. This is a high school we're talking about. It's right next to Westminster Abbey. 

Heading down to the Ministry of Magic!

Buckingham Palace! We did not see the changing of the guard but it was actually better because there wasn't an insane crowd around. The queen was in!

Maple Grove group at Buckingham Palace

Idaho Group

St. Paul's cathedral

Collin, Cheryl, Hailey and I stayed out late that night to ride the London Eye. It was very much worth it! 2nd biggest ferris wheel in the world, and it goes like 2 mph. Amazing views of London! Helped us get our bearings for when we had to make our own way around the next day on our free day.

On our free day we first made our way to the Millennium Bridge, aka the Wobbly Bridge to Londoners, and aka the Harry Potter Bridge to me! 

Some great views of the city from right on the Thames. 

Right across the bridge is Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Awesome!

Also right there is the Tate Modern Art Museum. A gigantic museum! We felt obligated to stop in for a few minutes and spent about 45 minutes in there. I am not the hugest modern art fan although it is definitely somewhat entertaining in my opinion! We saw plenty of interesting exhibits, like this one.

And this one.

And this one. Yeah, whatever modern art. 

We made our way to Covent Garden, a really awesome square with lots of live entertainment, shopping, and restaurants. 

Sadly by lunch Collin was soo exhausted!

We had our first Croque Monsieurs at lunch in Covent Garden! The beginning of  a love affair, ha ha

Walking the streets from Covent Garden to Trafalgar Square. So much beautiful architecture!!!

Funny thing, the World Cup began our 2nd day there in London. So this is what Trafalgar Square looked like! A huge celebration for "Brazil Day." Reminded me of the crazies that come out for stuff like Alive After Five here in Boise! We ended up being in 4 different countries on this trip and in 3 of them we were there on a night their team was playing. So needless to say, we heard a LOT about the World Cup pretty much everywhere we went. It was fun!

Last stop was Piccadilly Circus! I would equate it to Times Square. Except with older, prettier architecture for sure! 

We caught out train to Paris the next morning out of Charing Cross Station, which is literally across the street from Kings Cross Station! Our awesome tour director took those of us Harry Potter dorks over to Kings Cross for a few minutes so we could get our pictures snapped at Platform 9 3/4. :)

And just to finish this post, I'm adding in Collin's travel journal he had to do for the 2 credits he gets for going on this trip.

Tuesday June 10, 2014

                                We arrived in London at 11:45am and had to wait an hour for a couple of girls from Texas. We tried to freshen up, but it wasn’t easy. We had a fill in transfer guide helping us. Her name was Jenny.  We were excited but slowed up again waiting for the bus. It seemed like an hour for both. We then checked out a few sites, saw the St. Paul’s cathedral, and went to a marketplace. The downtown London area was busy, modern, and had a lot of construction. We walked a lot and finally made it for an early dinner at Wagamama. It was noodles and vegetables and hard for me to eat much although I did. I started experiencing jet lag. Our guide was Alissa and she took over for Jenny. She was nice. Our hotel was Premier Inn and it was a ways out from the city in Enfield Lock, but it was nice.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

                                Well I had a horrible night’s sleep. I think I fell asleep at 3am and woke up at 7:30am. I guess the time change is harder than I thought. So I tried reading, walking, eating, and drinking tea. It was rough.  My mind just wouldn’t stop thinking, especially about the changes in our family’s life.  I was tired and out of it all day but I managed. Our first stop was the Tower of London. We toured the area as individuals. I enjoyed seeing the history. There were areas dedicated to medieval armor, torture, and gold. They had the crown jewels on display and showed a video about the queen, now 88 years old, now queen since 1953. We also got to speak with some Beefeaters—former military who work as retired servicemen and women, kind of as a 2^nd retirement job. The buildings had crazy narrow and steep stairs. The outside moat and entrance was interesting. The bridge nearby was awesome—the “Tower Bridge.” The torture was rough, like in braveheart where they “racked ‘em” pulling arms and legs or just decapitated the prisoners.

                                After walking around the Tower of London Tonya and I got a burger at GBK Burger. It was a fancier burger joint. Although you got seated, then served yourself water, and got up to order food at the cash register, it was slow and we were almost late for meeting up with the group. We got our food and just took it with us. A small group of 10 from Teas who are with a teacher named Santiago, ended up being late by about 20 minutes. The burger was pretty good, but both breakfast and lunch were hard for me to eat because of the jet lag and timing being off. I forced the meals down though to stay healthy and overhydrated with water. That reminded me of the lack of easy access to restrooms in Europe. You really have to plan your bathroom breaks better.

                We checked out a famous sun dial and loaded the bus to take a city bus tour with Alan, our British local guide. He had a wonderful accent along with a great mix of humor and history in his storytelling. He addressed the group collectively as his “poppets, puddings, crumpets,” etc.   They were just a bunch of pet names.   We initially listened on the bus until the city shut down due to a taxi strike. It was amazing. The taxis lined the streets and parked, scooters drove in circles honking. They were all protesting a new app that has come out to undercut the trained system. Taxi drivers study for 3 years as apprentices using scooters, memorizing maps, and learning. It is a proud profession, but a new app allows non trained people to drive their own cars and deliver people to their destination. So we didn’t move more than a half mile in an hour. Finally we jumped off the bus and Alan took us on a walking tour of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. We heard good stories about Winston Churchill and people he liked and didn’t like and where he was buried. Westminster Abbey has a “public school” that costs 28,000 pounds a year, like $40-50,000. They do have the highest success rate, test scores, and entrants into Oxford. We used a toll style bathroom and walked plenty. Buckingham Palace was interesting with the guards and we took a group picture. London has a busy city with noise and little room, but is also balanced with green spacious parks. We said goodbye and thanks to Alan our guide and left him a nice tip. We did learn Great Britain is Wales, England and Northern Ireland, while the United Kingdom includes all those and Scotland. They all fight and prefer independence from each other, but they are sticking together.

                                Our night dinner was crammed, but good with traditional fish and chips and fries. We had to walk around a lot of ships and harbor. It was in a basement and medieval style decorations, but no show. We got to meet Trina and Trinell from Texas. They were nice. I ate plenty and was only a little crammed. After that we went to the London EI ate plenty and was only a little crammed. After that we went to the London Eye and rode the once 1^st, now 2^nd largest Ferris wheel in the world. It provided a good view of the city just before sunset. It was a glass enclosed room that fit 20 people and traveled slowly about 2 miles an hour. For some reason it reminded me of the flying glass elevator in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” We then found our way back to the hotel through the train and tube system. It was just Tonya and I, Cheryl, and Hailey. I got snacks and an herbal sleep aide at a pharmacy. We went to bed at around 11pm.

Thursday June 12, 2014

                                Well another crappy night of sleep.  My body got hungry and my mind got busy thinking again.  I snacked, read the Old Testament, etc.  I was actually very relaxed with a sleep aide, but no sleep came.  Finally it was another 3-4 hours of rest from 3am-7:30am.  I was groggy and not hungry, but I ate and drank.  I then was responsible for travelling during the free day.  We split into 3 groups.  Cheryl went all over and shopped with Hailey.  Clay took a small group to the London Eye and some stadiums.  Tonya, Kearney, Kelsey, Shani, Larry, Judy, and I went to the Wobbly Bridge, the Globe Theater, and a market.  We found our way easily to the bridge and walked across the “Millennium Bridge” famous from Harry Potter.  The pictures were good.  The Globe Theater was good for a few drama team members from our group.  It was nice to see where Shakespeare’s plays were done.  We didn’t buy the tour, but we checked out the gift shop and moved on.  The group checked out the Tate Museum next.  It was free and a huge old building.  We looked at a modern section dedicated to energy and space dealing with art.  It was about the everyday life and work.  It was modern and interesting, but we kept it short.  After poking fun at it the girls kind of got into it and checked out one more exhibit.  We then hit the subway system again with me in the lead.  It was somewhat difficult remembering directions and functioning on little sleep, but we managed to make it to Covent Garden and the Jubilee Market (Cheaper) around lunch time

                Along the way we lost Kelsey.  We quickly boarded a subway train, but the doors shut her out.  It was a little last minute jumping on because we had to make sure it was one the stopped at the next stop.  I yelled at her to go 1 stop to the Covent Garden stop on the next train.  She looked at me and nodded in acknowledgement or so I thought.  We arrived and waited.  She wasn’t on the next train and two more trains after that.  So I went back to the station where she was and checked both platforms.  I also told a subway employee that I had lost a student.  He told me to go upstairs and report it, but I had the other group waiting at the Covent Garden spot too.  So I went back there hoping she had got on the next train.  I got there and there was no Kelsey, no Kearney, and no Shani.  It was Tonya, Larry, and Judy.  They told me Kelsey didn’t show up and the girls went up to report her missing.  So I went up too and finally found them.  The train system workers had found her and said she should be coming.  So I went down to get Larry, Judy, and Tonya.  It was all stressful and filled with nightmares going through my head, but I kept it together, and finally we were super relieved when we were reunited.  Kelsey wasn’t too upset and that was good too.

                                We went to the market square area and had lunch and shopped.  I wasn’t hungry again, but forced food down.  I took a short nap at the table.  Boy was I dragging.  We bought some gifts and souvenirs and then headed to Trafalgar Square and the National Museum and National Portrait Gallery.

                                The area was hopping with a Brazil Day celebration and World Cup excitement since it started today.  We walked around both museums and saw some famous Rembrandts and other paintings.  It was plenty of Nudes, but others were interesting.  The portrait gallery was cool also.  We then walked up the avenue and found the dinner meeting place.  It was called Mela and it was Indian food.  It was curry flavored chicken and rice with chips and jam.  I tried to nap a little at the dinner table and exhaustion was setting in.  I overdrank water again, but I tried to eat well.  Boy was I in a haze and just trying to survive.  I had the real sleeping pill offer from Larry Hill to look forward to.  We walked to Picadilly Circus, a Time Square-like place, not an actual circus.  It was a busy place too.  I didn’t feel like shopping with Tonya so I sat and then walked around.  It was nice to rely on Alissa our guide for the subway train and train ride home.  I had improvised earlier in the day and made it work when there was a cancelled train, but I didn’t feel in the mood to handle that again.

                               

                                We made it back to the hotel, got a snack at one market for free when a man who had pity on me gave us a loaf of bread.  We also bought some juice and crackers at another place.  We settled in for bed and I took a real sleeping pill from Larry.  It was supposed to work in half an hour, but it didn’t so I tried World Cup Soccer and it worked after an hour later.  In the morning I found out from Judy that it usually takes an hour and a half.