Travel weekend (Wed-Sat) has come and I've decided to remain in London and see whatever I want whenever I want. There's sooo much to do here that we couldn't cover half of it in the 6 weeks we're here. Dayton, Briggs and I have all stayed and dubbed each other's permanent "travel buddies."
Wednesday -- Our first stop was Kensington Palace, the former home of the monarchs which is literally right across the street from our flat. Why we haven't gone there before I still don't know. It is fabulous! We saw the King's apartments and gardens as well as an exhibit about the Debutantes of the 50s. We wanted to go to the London Eye to take a view of the city from a higher elevation (not my idea of fun AT ALL but they talked me into it). We didn't meet back up when we thought we would so Dayton and I just observed the Eye itself which is really really REALLY high and amazing in construction. Then we went to see "Jersey Boys", a musical about Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.
Thursday -- We went to the changing of the Royal guard at Buckingham Palace. (Yet again, a VERY short distance away - only a 5 min walk). When we stopped to ask some Taxi drivers for directions we were offered a chance to sit in the driver's seat with the official Taxi badge on. Such a sweet little old man - by far the nicest person we've met in London thus far. We got to the Palace with 20 min to spare before it began. The flag was high meaning that the Queen was home - meaning we weren't going to get to go on a tour inside. When the parade started there were tourists everywhere and we felt a little out of place (weird huh). Because we didn't get there at the crack of dawn, we didn't get really really close to the gate, but we did have a pretty good view. The army band played ABBA songs, Singing in the Rain, Loch Lomond, and "As Zion's Youth in Latter-days." Kind of a random compilation but it was amazing.
Friday -- Administrative day....aka Shopping, homework, cleaning, recooperating, and planning. Because the Royal Band got us on an ABBA kick, we decided to end the week to watch "Mamma Mia" and sing along to each and every song. Of course we started it late so part of our trio dropped off so she went to bed. Then the last two of us got a little side-tracked thinking about "stuff" so we just turned the movie off and went our separate ways...ended up staying awake WAY to late chatting online.
Saturday -- Running in the Park, Yoga, and bird-feeding in the park...what else could be a good end to the quiet week (nobody in the flat). We fed the birds at the pond/lake in Hyde Park. No pooping problems, but I did get bitten on the foot by a pigeon and still have the red mark battle wound (BIRD FLU!>!>!!). Dayton lead us in some relaxing Yoga which put me into a fit of giggles for some reason. And of course we HAD to finish "Mamma Mia"...further behind than we left off because we loved that one song. Our day finished off with everyone coming home from their Travel week in various parts of Europe so we got to hear stories and see pictures. Had to practice a piece of Portuguese for Church so I webcamed with my expert who laughed and made fun of me the entire time. Up way late/early (2:45am) in a room with horrible lighting making hisses and growls in all the wrong places and laughing each time I said a word with the wrong pronunciation so it meant something completely different. Definitely should've gone to bed when it got a too fun. But, it all paid off in the end and my speaking went really well (and I got a lot of compliments on it).
Such a fantabulous week and I wouldn't have traded a million out-of-town trips for these 4 days of perfect memories!
Wednesday -- Our first stop was Kensington Palace, the former home of the monarchs which is literally right across the street from our flat. Why we haven't gone there before I still don't know. It is fabulous! We saw the King's apartments and gardens as well as an exhibit about the Debutantes of the 50s. We wanted to go to the London Eye to take a view of the city from a higher elevation (not my idea of fun AT ALL but they talked me into it). We didn't meet back up when we thought we would so Dayton and I just observed the Eye itself which is really really REALLY high and amazing in construction. Then we went to see "Jersey Boys", a musical about Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.
Thursday -- We went to the changing of the Royal guard at Buckingham Palace. (Yet again, a VERY short distance away - only a 5 min walk). When we stopped to ask some Taxi drivers for directions we were offered a chance to sit in the driver's seat with the official Taxi badge on. Such a sweet little old man - by far the nicest person we've met in London thus far. We got to the Palace with 20 min to spare before it began. The flag was high meaning that the Queen was home - meaning we weren't going to get to go on a tour inside. When the parade started there were tourists everywhere and we felt a little out of place (weird huh). Because we didn't get there at the crack of dawn, we didn't get really really close to the gate, but we did have a pretty good view. The army band played ABBA songs, Singing in the Rain, Loch Lomond, and "As Zion's Youth in Latter-days." Kind of a random compilation but it was amazing.
Friday -- Administrative day....aka Shopping, homework, cleaning, recooperating, and planning. Because the Royal Band got us on an ABBA kick, we decided to end the week to watch "Mamma Mia" and sing along to each and every song. Of course we started it late so part of our trio dropped off so she went to bed. Then the last two of us got a little side-tracked thinking about "stuff" so we just turned the movie off and went our separate ways...ended up staying awake WAY to late chatting online.
Saturday -- Running in the Park, Yoga, and bird-feeding in the park...what else could be a good end to the quiet week (nobody in the flat). We fed the birds at the pond/lake in Hyde Park. No pooping problems, but I did get bitten on the foot by a pigeon and still have the red mark battle wound (BIRD FLU!>!>!!). Dayton lead us in some relaxing Yoga which put me into a fit of giggles for some reason. And of course we HAD to finish "Mamma Mia"...further behind than we left off because we loved that one song. Our day finished off with everyone coming home from their Travel week in various parts of Europe so we got to hear stories and see pictures. Had to practice a piece of Portuguese for Church so I webcamed with my expert who laughed and made fun of me the entire time. Up way late/early (2:45am) in a room with horrible lighting making hisses and growls in all the wrong places and laughing each time I said a word with the wrong pronunciation so it meant something completely different. Definitely should've gone to bed when it got a too fun. But, it all paid off in the end and my speaking went really well (and I got a lot of compliments on it).
Such a fantabulous week and I wouldn't have traded a million out-of-town trips for these 4 days of perfect memories!
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