London!

Another weekend for the books!   We flew over to London for the weekend with API and stayed near Hyde Park right by the Queensway/Bayswater area at a little hotel called Queens Park Hotel.   We got there Friday afternoon and found a little italian place to get dinner (they charged us for the tablecloths... who does that?!) then explored the area we were staying at a bit and walked over to see Big Ben and ride the London Eye at night to see everything lit up!!  It was absolutely beautiful riding the Eye (a giant slow-motion glass ferris wheel) and seeing everything lit up at night - you could see all of London.  

Saturday we saw the Tower of London which was awesome because we saw all the crown jewels and fancy billion dollar swords with rubies and emeralds and DIAMONDS everywhere and all over everything from as far back as the 1600's.  We also saw the chapel where Anne Boleyn and several other queens were buried, and the torture chambers/towers were they were held before they were executed.  It was so cool seeing the places where so much of that history all took place.. the only bad thing was that we didn't see Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the Tudors walking around playing Henry VIII - I love him.  It was all way bigger than I thought it would be.. I thought it'd just be one big tower but I didn't realize there was also chapel and a separate museum and little houses where the royal guards lived and the building for the crown jewels, etc. so it was nice that there was a lot to see!

Next we went to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel to see where the queen was coronated/ where Will and Kate got married! Then we went to Buckingham palace.. we weren't there at the right time to see the changing of the guards but we still saw the guards in their red outfits and tall black furry hats (reminded me of the poster Grandma has in the basement! Looked just like them)

After walking around for pretty much ever and taking a million pictures, Kathleen and I finally rested our legs and went to see Wicked!  It was amazing, I looooved it.  I knew most of the music from chorus but never saw the play and the lead who played Elphaba/the bad witch was PHENOMENAL. She literally gave me goosebumps everytime she sang.  Everyone in the play was really talented but her voice blew the rest of them out of the water.  I don't know if I've ever heard such a great singer in a play before.   Unfortunately later that night our friend's wallet got pickpocketed (we missed safe galway) so that was the worst part of the weekend but overall it was a great trip.

Sunday we didn't have as much time to sightsee because we had to leave for the airport at 3:30 but we went to Oxford St.. fortunately for my wallet it was Sunday and we went early so the expensive stores were all still closed... then saw Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, the CUTEST FLUFFIEST husky puppy ever, a lot of art on display on the sidewalk that I wanted to buy but didn't, a rubber duck that has the british flag on it that I did buy!, and then lots of more dogs in the park that made me miss Bandit!


Mom comes tomorrow... AKA waiting til then to do laundry so i can do it in the hotel and not pay 5 euro for it! woohoo!!