Top 10

I've been working on this post during our last week in Paris. Now that it's the night before we leave, I feel it's appropriate to share!

Things I'm looking forward to at home (in no particular order):

1. Getting in my car and driving it whenever and wherever my heart desires (although I'm quite certain it is going to feel like driving a tank at first) with my air conditioning and music as high as I please (and no weird smells besides the occasional skunk as I travel).

2. Seeing my family, friends, and boyfriend - I've especially missed these sweet faces (photo taken two days before we left)


3. One word/acronym: DVR

4. Wireless Internet wherever I want/need it (or 3G) and a fully operating phone

5. Heather Lou's wedding and Brittany's wedding the first two weekends I'm back with the chance to see old friends

6. Scrambled eggs from home, biscuits and jelly, grilled cheese, Mexican food, chick-fil-a, wheat bread, water that I know will taste normal and is abundant, you see what I mean here...

7. Free, mostly clean bathrooms at pretty much every turn and my own bathroom

8. MY OWN BED AND MY FAN (and only the crickets to be heard outside my window if for some reason the fan doesn't drown out all other noise). This actually might be number one.

9. Southern hospitality and English as the primary language (especially spoken with a southern accent)

10. Income - instead of just spending :)


Things I'll miss about Pais/Europe

1. Pastries, tarts, awesome muffins, gelato, good sauces, and the BEST tomatoes at every corner

2. Not filling my car up every four days with gas and being able to walk to something if I want it

3. This weather

4. Sleeping with the windows open (well, at least when it's quiet outside)

5. Reading for pleasure - I've read/re-read a little more than five books (I'm in the middle of one and just read half of another) while I've been here. Which is pretty good considering we don't have a ton of down time.

6. Having no set schedule, no real responsibility, and no alarm unless I want one

7. English accents, phrases, enthusiasm, and politeness (The other day at M&S the cashier forgot to give a woman her tiny cookie with her tea. To make up for it, she gave her a cookie and a half - to which the woman replied "By God, you ARE a treasure." As if the half extra tiny cookie was the best thing ever. The cashier proceeded to give Mom and I each a free cookie to try - a treasure indeed.)

8. Free, abundant exercise that doesn't feel like exercise until your feet and legs feel like they might fall off

9. Having something that's actually interesting to blog about every day

10. Incredible history, architecture, and beautiful sights and experiences Every. Single. Day. Even if it's not all good or goes the way we plan, there's something cool/new every day and something we haven't done left to explore.

Overall, we've had a great time and had awesome opportunities, and we'll have great memories (and thousands of pictures) to last a lifetime. We are so blessed to have been able to experience everything that we have! It will be bittersweet to head home, but there's truly no place like it... Until I'm ready for another vacation :) at least I can continue to catch up the blogging from our last week!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rue des Irlandais,Paris,France

Trafalgar Square, Royal Mews, & Theatre

After exploring the Tower of London, we jumped on the same river cruise we took last time to get back to Trafalgar Square. Carol and Dr. Weed headed to do some of the things we did the first time in London, so Mom and I took off to do some new things.

After getting off the boat we walked along the River Thames and had a snack - yum!



And made it to Trafalgar Square - memorial to the Battle of Trafalgar and site of many rallies, protests, NYE celebrations and other big events in London



The sculptor who did these didn't have a pet lion. Instead, he had a pet labrador. They bear a striking resemblance to the dog if you look closely.





National gallery


Official countdown to the Opening Ceremony!



From here, we were off to the Royal Mews. At Buckingham Palace, this is where they house the cars (Bentleys and Rolls Royce's), limos, carriages, and horses. For once, I could take my own pictures inside!









THE carriage. And by that I mean the one Kate and William travelled in after being married


But this really is THE coach. It's the Gold State Coach


It's massive and they have to basically tear apart the side wall to even get the thing out. It also weighs four tons and must be stopped long before you actually get to the point you want to stop.


We also got to see some of the many horses. But it was feeding time - so no good pictures!

And to end this packed day in London, Mom and I decided to go see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. It was SO good, we had great seats, and we had such a great time. It was one of my favorite things we did while in London. (Monica, if you read this, I thought about you the whole time - I know how much you love Wicked!)



View from our seats - first row of the balcony


Chocolate and champagne - yum!



It was another full, great day in London; I love this city!

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Tower of London

After spending almost two hours traveling around London on the double-decker bus with a great tour guide, we headed to explore the Tower of London. We got to see the outside of it on our last trip, but had to catch our boat cruise and didn't have time to go look through it.



Tower Bridge from inside Tower of London



We took a short tour with a Yeoman Warder (aka beefeater)


Bloody Tower



We saw the Ravens - legend has it Charles II was told if the ravens left the tower, the kingdom and fortress would fall. There must be six at all times (they keep 8 just in case).


This monument stands on Tower Green- where ten people were beheaded (inside the castle so there was no audience and was less humiliating). Hundreds more took place in public - on Tower Hill. The monument reads: "gentle visitor pause awhile: where you stand death cut away the light of many days : here jeweled names were broken from the vivid thread of life : may they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage: under these restless skies."


Then it was time for the Crown Jewels - all pictures here courtesy of a google search. The Tower is apparently the safest place in London, and so the crown jewels reside here. We saw the most important crowns, coronation robes, scepters, dishes, the coronation spoon, etc. These are still used today at British coronations (although the last one was 60 years ago when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned). Fun fact - the Olympic medals were also being housed in the vault, but they weren't open to the public.

Guard outside - its a real person, I promise


Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation with many of the crown jewels


Cullinan I and II were both cut from the 3,000+ carat diamond (the largest ever found). Cullinan I (also know as the Great Star of Africa) is over 530 carats and is at the top of the Sceptre with the Cross. It was incredible.


The Cullinan II is set in the Imperial State Crown. It comes in a little over 317 carats (see it at the bottom of the crown)



We also saw the famous Kih-I-Nor diamond which is set in the Queen Mother's crown. Kings will not wear is diamond as it is said to be bad luck for them. Lucky us, ladies.


They also showed all the serving ware for the feast they hold after coronations. By far the most impressive was the punch bowl - it weighs over 500 pounds and can hold 144 bottles of wine


Lastly, we went inside the White Tower which houses an exhibition of armor and weapons used over the years.



Princes William and Harry's uniforms


An original toilet. Waste dropped straight down to the outside.


One of the first wall fireplaces ever - they used to all be in the middle with no chimney


And of course, an original axe and block



There is much more to see at Tower of London - you could easily spend an entire day there if you pleased. However, we wanted to see some other things, so we were off to Trafalgar Square and the Royal Mews!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rue des Irlandais,Paris,France

London from a Double-decker

On our second day back in London, we decided to jump on another hop-on hop-off bus tour like we did a few weeks ago. We rode all the way over to the Tower of London. Once again we saw Olympic paraphernalia everywhere.

Olympic game lanes all throughout the city




Banners on every post you could see almost




All 200+ participating country's flags. Our bus turned before I could get a picture of our flag, but they didn't leave us out!




First clock in London with a minute hand




Bomb damage from WWII




Benedict Arnold's home - he lived here until his death




Back under the Tower Bridge we go




City Hall and the Shard. City hall is made of glass - to represent transparency of the politicians. Ha I think it's also so it will be environmentally friendly.




But they did have a cool animation going - Olympic themed of course. Hard to see in this picture, but they had animated Olympians going through their events.




And we finally made it to the Tower of London - which I'll save for its own post!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rue des Irlandais,Paris,France

Harrods

After exploring Olympic Park and getting shopping in at their shopping center, we decided to head back into town for...more shopping! Ha so where else would we go to shop except the famous Harrods. Seven floors and 330 departments of bliss, y'all. It's such a beautiful building and they have just about anything you need/want...if you're willing to spend the money of course ;)

You aren't allowed to take pictures in some parts of the store, but I was too busy looking at everything and soaking it all in anyway. I managed to get a few though.



My most favorite place in the whole store - the Christmas department :) looove. They even had Christmas music playing. I bought two ornaments here. Is it time to put the tree up yet?


More in the Christmas department



Here are some pics of the inside courtesy of another Google search

The purse department


Jewelery


And where we spent a lot of time - the candy shop - look how beautiful the building itself is on the inside





Yum, yum, yum


My loot from the candy shop - all so good, but the pink strawberry champagne one was so unique and so good. They had so many to choose from it was hard to narrow it down to these!


Harrods takes up five acres - so it was impossible to see it all with our time frame (honestly, it's interesting getting out of the place it's so massive). I can't wait to go back and explore some more sometime!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rue des Irlandais,Paris,France