Last Day

Sunday

Our last day here and Carrie is super sick and I am just plan exhausted and still feel like I'm off balance all the time.  it's mid afternoon here and we're back at Carrie's flat to rest.  I think we're just plain done with the trip.  It was fun but for me at least it's time to come home.  Carrie leaves tomorrow too although I think she's like to stay here if she could but I know the craziness of my visit has made her tired too. 

 I miss my boys and can't wait to sleep in my own bed.  

We had plans to go to Cambridge today but decided to stay in town.  We got a bit of packing done and headed out to Spitalfields Market which was great.  I found one last thing for myself and had lots of fun looking.

After a lovely lunch of Tapas we decided to get some rest and possibly stay in the rest of the day, but we'll see what happens.

Winding down

Saturday

We hoped  on the tube and headed back to Convent Gardens to pick up the last few gifts for people back home and a cup of coffee to get us going.  We then Hoped back on the tube to go see Westminster Abbey.... 

Westminster was really cool and different then I remembered it being.  This time it seemed larger and more impressive.  Seeing the coronation chair was really cool along with the tombs of some of the most notorious royals.  

We then decided to walk to St. Pauls Cathedral.  This turned out to be a bit more of a walk than we anticipated, but a good way to see the city since we're leaving soon.  The mosaics inside of this church are incredible!  Carrie walked up to the top of the dome.  I decided it wasn't a good idea since my equilibrium is still really off to the point that I constantly feel like I'm sitting in a row boat.  

We then hoped on a  double deck bus and tried our damnedest to find Abbey Rd so I could write Jamie's name on the wall, but alas no luck. We headed back to the house to get ready for our big night out that was ultimately never to be.  Poor Carrie who started getting sick a few days ago (even though she wouldn't admit it) came to the realization that you may have the cutest dress in the world on, but when your nose looks like Rudolph's and leaks like a faucet it's just not that hot.  So, after months of wanting to go out to one specific club here she gave up the dream and we headed to bed early.  

I drank Bath water

So, first off I must apologize... I had every intention of doing daily posts that were full of detail and description to convey the feeling of the city and the traveler in it (myself) but alas the city has taken it's toll on me and by the end of the day it's all I can do to get ready for bed, let alone try and remember all the things I did that day or God forbid the day before.

Anyway, that said, now I'm going to reach back three days into the past and bring you up to the present.

Wednesday:

We had big plans this day but unfortunately got a late start due to a couple errands. Anyway we made it to Tower of London and were given a great tour by one of the resident Beefeaters. We also got to check out the crown jewels twice in fact. That night we went to this awesome play in Covant Garden called "The Women in Black" it was a ghost story and was actually scarier than I thought it would be. We both had a lot of fun!

Thursday:
This was the day we leave for Bath, so got up, made it to the train on time, and low and behold someone else killed themselves again today (see Windsor post) on the tracks so again we were delayed. This is 2 times in a row that we were on the train and this happened. So far we've been pretty lucky with the tube not having this issue although I hear it's pretty common on there too. It's pretty sad and must happen pretty often or else Carrie and I just manage to hit two bad days I'm assuming it's the 1st reason since it doesn't even seem big enough of a deal for their media to report on.

Anyway a couple hours after expected we made it to Bath. This town is beautiful, super easy to walk and has a good amount of stuff to do. I also have to say it's a nice break from riding the tube 4 times a day in the city.

I should also mention 2 days before this I started noticing that my depth perception is totally off and that I started feeling like I was constantly on moving ground even when I was completely still. By this day it got really bad and hampered some plans, but we still made the most of it. We tool a city walking tour, checked out the Roman Baths, drank our complementary glass of the Bath spring water (10,000 year old rain water) tastes about as good as you would imagine anything 10,000 years old to taste. We also checked out the Abbey built in the 1700's (?). The night was capped off by having food and a couple pints of cider. I would like to say we slept peacefully that night but we stayed in what had to be the loudest hotel in the city. There was literally a crowd of drunk people outside our window yelling all night.

Friday:

We had a full day to spend in Bath and not a ton of stuff left to do so we got started around 11 and headed to the fashion museum housing clothes from as far back as the 1600's. After we spent the rest of the day shopping wandering through their amazing parks and neighborhoods, and what good trip would be complete without eating... a lot. So now I'm back in London getting ready for our last couple days of which we will try and pack another weeks worth of plans into. Wish us luck!

The White Tower (Tower of London)

Houses built in the 1500's where the Beefeaters live (Tower of London) Lady Jane Gray was kept in one of these before her execution.

The Roman Baths in Bath

The Abbey at Bath

View of Bath from one of the parks.

"This is a Piccadilly line to Cockfosters"...

... That's the main subway line that we use and I hear that phrase at every stop when we're on the Piccadilly line out to Carrie's flat. I'm pretty sure this will be stuck in my head by the time I leave here.

I've been having a great time, so great in fact that I haven't been posting and now will try and play catch-up. Sunday we started out our week of ultra tourism by walking, and walking and walking. That's not totally true, we had to hop the tube first to get to our walking place. We walked all along the south bank, over Westminster Bridge up to Covington Gardens, then to Piccadilly. On our way back we stopped for tea and dessert. All and all a great day and a ton of exercise. I'm getting used to riding the tube even though this day was incredibly busy.

The view from The South bank of the Parliament building and Big Ben

Monday
We decided to get a ton of stuff done today, it may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind we're not staying in close-in London and none of the places we go are in walking distance of each other. Although we do walk a lot anyway:

First stop, Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards. Next we went to the British Museum, which I would highly recommend. I personally loved the Egyptian section.

Then High Tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace. We got the full 9 yards, champagne and everything!

Here is the "sunken garden" at Kensington
Monday night we went to this great bar so Carrie could get some mead. There we met up with another American Intern Rachel and had a lot of fun and made some weekend plans to drive to Cambridge on Sunday. Should be fun, but I'm a bit nervous about the car ride.

Tuesday
We took the tube to Waterloo station and got train tickets for Windsor. Long story short some guy killed himself by jumping in front of a train and killing himself so, getting to Windsor (or anywhere for that matter) was a fiasco. After we made it we barely had enough time to do the tour but still enjoyed it.

It's been fun here so far, but hard to cram everything in. I think we're going to end up having to make a few hard decisions and prioritize things we want to see.

London stuff

I made it to London safe and sound and am staying with my friend Carrie in her flat. We're in an area of London called Wood Green. From what some of her local friends told me it's not very nice, but I haven't seen anything scary yet and I think the houses are super cute. Last night we went out to a bar/club called Digress for Carrie's going away party that her co-workers arranged for her. It was fun, although the cocktails here are WEAK. We didn't stay out too late as I was exhausted from my journey and we still had a good tube ride home for the night. We also found out that we aren't going to be able to make it to Paris due to a fire in the channel tunnel. This is a huge BUMMER! We're trying to figure out other travel plans.
Today we took a boat to Greenwich which was really cool. The captain narrated the tour for us telling us about different buildings and making stupid jokes. The weather was beautiful and a good time was had.

Me and my tourist photo in front of tower bridge.

Once in Greenwich I stood on the Prime Meridian up at the top of this hill where the Royal Observatory is. This park was the backyard of a home of one of the previous queens. We also checked out the local markets and ate at a pub that's been around since the 1830s where Dickens used to hang out.

This one is self explanatory.

We're engaged!

Yep, we did it. Jamie asked me to marry him on 8-8-08 which was not part of the plan but an added bonus since I'm horrible with dates and this ones hard to forget. We're thinking about getting married in a hot air balloon next spring. Should be fun!

I found the perfect engagement ring and wedding band at an antique jeweler here in Portland. I think it's neat that my rings have history, one is almost 100 years old. I'd like to think there is some desperately romantic story behind them, but alas, I'll never know. Guess it's up to me to create my own romance.