London Day Three

May 1st
We were very tired and wanted to sleep a little extra. When were finally headed out the door, we hopped on the tube to Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. We had no idea were the palace was and stood in the rain to watch some guys do something that looked like the changing of the guard only to see them march to the actual palace for the real deal. This taught me that hyped up things like the changing of the guard are usually lame or less than you expect. It was at this point that we had a mini crisis and our camera woudl not work. I started to freak out, but cool, level-headed Tim just found a camera store and bought a new memory card, thus fixing the problem. What a guy!
We then walked through St. James' Park and saw crazy pigeons. Next we stopped at Covent Garden's and Tim was part of a street show that tons of people gathered to watch. I always knew he would be famous. Unfortunately the street show turned ugly and Tim ended up having to do some pretty weird things. The guy preforming took off his original outfit to reveal a nasty wife beater with "Beast" written on it and a red thong over very tight black spandex pants. Tim got roped into buckling the guy into a straight jacket meanwhile the guy kept trying to hug Tim. After the show Tim ran right to the nearest "loo" to wash off the dirty old man smell.
After the show we headed to the Jake the Ripper Walking Tour which was pretty cool. We went around the more shady east end of London and learned a lot of random things. It gave me a whole new perspective on what London was and is today.
After the walk we sat down to eat some fish and chips and two Korean guys kept staring at Tim. Finally one of them leaned over and showed Tim a picture of him and the nasty guy preforming in the street show. The Koreans thought Tim was a celebrity and wanted a picture with him. I snapped one of Tim and his new fans.
After our lunch we walked along the Thames on our way to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Here too we walked along some less than nice areas and decided that the banks of the Thames are nothing to write home about. It was pretty cool crossing the 'wobbly bridge" to get to the theater. I guess the guy who designed the bridge made a mistake and the whole structure wobbles during a storm. Yikes!
We ended the night at the Globe Theater where we had tickets to King Lear. The atmosphere was so authentic right down to the pre-show music and wooden set. Tim didn't really appreciate the play very much, but it was a definite "must do" if you visit London.

More about Europe

April 30th
On Wednesday we woke to a then novel breakfast of toast and juice. We felt pretty good and set off with a full agenda of sightseeing and fun. Taking the advice of my dad, we boarded a bus tour which proved to be a very good idea. It was fun to hear random facts about the surrounding buildings. It seems like every square foot of London has a notable history. It all seemed so old and cool I probably took a hundred pictures of random buildings just because they looked so old. Unfortunately, the weather was spotty and we have sun mixed with down throughout the day. We took the train into the heart of London and drove by Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Hyde Park, and a million other places. We decided to get off at Parliament square and see the Churchill War a museum and secret cabinet rooms. This was a really cool experience and I learned so much about Churchill and the war. It is crazy to me that they hid the national leader in a spartan bomb shelter to conduct the business of the war. It really hit home what a big deal the war was to England especially when they were bombed constantly. It was apparent that everyone, even the leaders were nervous about a German invasion. How scary.
Next we set off to see the current parliament in session in the ancient House of Commons. The building was gorgeous and I could not believe the amount of stained glass, sculpted stone, and rich tapestries. The actually parliament was rather boring. They were discussing some energy bill or something and everyone looked like they were going to fall asleep. We then hopped back on the bus and went around the rest of London. We saw everything along the Thames and got off at the Tower of London for a river tour. The guide was pretty entertaining even though there wasn't much to see. After the boat we tried to take the bus back to our hotel, but there was not a close stop. It was raining pretty bad and Tim and I wandered around the streets trying to get home. Tim was a great navigator, but the rain and lack of sleep made the trek rather trying. That night we crashed and didn't even stir when the crazy drunk guys at the local pub cheered their local football team on to victory.

NOTE: All the pictures from this day are on our 1st memory card which we cannot get to read. I am going to see if someone at a photo shop can get the pics onto a cd. If that works I will post the pics ASAP!

European Adventure

Where to start on our amazing trip to Europe?
Well, as a wise Julia Andrews once said, "Let's start at the very begining, thats a very good place to start." For me it all started in 6th grade when I fell in love with history. My love for people and cultures grew throughout my formal and infomal education. I loved learning about the familiar history of my English heritage as well as the thousands of other various cultures that have graced the world stage. When I went to BYU I looked into a various study abroad trips and really wanted the experience to see what life was like away from home. But I found my true love a little too quickly to join the university study programs. As graduation loomed near Tim and I wanted to go on a trip to end things with a bang. We may never have this much freedom and time to travel and despite the fact that I am 6 months pregant, we many never have this much energy again. So we went for it!
On April 28th we set off from the SLC airport on our way to our first destination; London. I am pleased to say I handled the plane ride rather well and after a layover in Chicago we were on our way to London.
We arrived in London on Tuesday April 29th. Right from the airport I could feel we were in a different country. The accents sounded so funny and the people looked (and smelled) different than I was used to. There I had my first encounter with the spartan London "WC" an adventure that continued throughout our trip. We set off to find the tube station and to attempt to navigate our way to the hostel. Luckly everything was still written in English and we found our way to the correct tube line and train. I hate to brag, but I really did catch on to the transportation systems rather well.
Our hotel could not have been better situated right next to the major Earl's Court station. While its location was great, the Court Hotel did have something to be desired in the way of room size and bathrooms. Our room barely fit our bed and we soon got used to the one way path around the bed to the sink. They did have a pretty good breakfast there and it was the only place with a TV (not that we cared to watch).
Our first day in London the weather stayed pretty warm and sunny, but we soon got used to this dodgy pattern. We started off our afternoon with a quick walk around the area. Then we hopped onto the tube and after only one wrong train set off to find the BYU London center. While we did find the place it was a rather pointless trip.
Next we headed to the British Museum to see some cool old stuff. And see it we did. We started with mummies from ancient Egypt and African masks. Our jetlag soon talked us out of anymore museuming, but we vowed to return later for the real museum experience. Too tired to anything more than sit, we headed to the Theater District to see a play. We payed a few extra pounds and landed great seats for Les Mis. While we waited for the show, we went in search of cheap food, a difficult quest in pricy London. After much futile searching we sighted the golden arches and settled from a hamberger and fries from McDonalds. McDonald's is a pretty classy joint in Europe by the way. They have flat screen tvs and are not the pigstys I've seen in the states. We killed time and ate our fries really slow because we thought we had a long time before our play started. It turned out that my watch was wrong and we made it back just in time. The show was amazing and I found myself crying at the end. I love the message "to love another person is to see the face of God." Tim really liked it too.