This morning we set our alarm for the first time...and Terri woke up before it even went off! We spent far too much time getting "cute" and then headed down to breakfast. Once we were ready to leave the hotel it was "bucketing" again...really pouring! So we had the doorman hail us a Taxi and set off for the Tower of London.


^^ Terri sad because of all the bucketing. =(

We spent three and a half hours touring the Tower. We took the audio tour (headphones that allow you to go at your own pace ~ fast forwarding through what you don't care about and pausing to see the things we want to spend some time on). We saw the Crown Jewels (highly overrated in Terri's opinion! Can you say "UGLY"?!?!), the execution site of two of King Henry VIII's wives, and toured the towers different buildings. It bucketed the entire time we were there, but we had a great time seeing a site we have been eagerly awaiting.


^^The guard outside the entrance to the crown jewels.


^^ Ashley guarding the crown jewels... hahaha.


^^ The memorial where the execution scaffolding (used to behead King Henry's wives) stood 400 years ago.


^^ Ashley posing with the beefeater. =) HAHAHA!

Next, we were off to Harrod's for shopping! Harrod's is one enormous store...four square blocks & six stories. We knew that Harrod's catered to upscale shoppers, but we had thought that they also had more "normal" items as well. Well, we were wrong! It was incredible to see the designer items they had...especially the SHOES...but there was absolutely nothing we could even dream of purchasing. OH! Ashley did purchase a gift for her mom...but it didn't break the bank! We had lunch at the pizzeria on the ground floor and it was wonderful. One of the pizza makers would break out into song when the mood struck him...he was terrific and made for a more "authentic" feel to our lunch. We shared a four cheese pizza (formaggio quattro) and each had a soda...it was delicious!


^^The Pizzaria guy singing. =)

After Harrod's we returned to our room, thinking we would stay in for the night. Well, shoes were calling Terri's name so we ventured out to Picadilly Square for some shopping! Terri found her souvenir...a new pair of boots! They are C-U-T-E...even Ashley approves! We toured the Square for a while, lots of great shops, big and small, well-known and one of a kind. It's a really great area, known as the "Times Square of London". Ashley also scored a souvenir for herself ~ a super cute new scarf!

We decided to call it a night...and just in time! When we were half a block from the hotel the rain turned to HAIL. We raced to the door and walked into the hotel declaring to each other how much we LOVE LONDON, rain and hail and all! We ordered room service, (from the kid's menu since the adult menu was full of things we'd never eat! Ashley had a ham & cheese toastie (ie; grilled ham and cheese) with chips (ie; fries) and a fruit platter; Terri had chicken strips and chips), then we skyped with Tyler, Wendy, and Josh, watched the US/Canada gold medal hockey game, and set out planning our next day.

Tomorrow we head out of town for the first time...to Windsor Castle!

After 7 hours and 22 very long minutes in the air, we finalllyyyyy arrived in London this morning at roughly 7am their time.  The flight was good, no terrible turbulance, excellent landing, no screaming kids. =)  Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to sleep on a plane, so we're both verryyyyy tired right about now (as I write this, it is 3pm here, 10am in Michigan).  This sweet little old english man met our flight and drove us to the hotel, which is amazing!!! We don't have pictures of the outside yet, but I'll post pictures of our room below.  Terri made the oopsie of requesting one double instead of two twins, so we thought we'd be sleeping together.  But as it turns out, they had a superior king room open and we upgraded.  They even turned the king bed into two twins for us the nice people.  It's much roomier than we expected and WAYYYYY nice. =D It's a winner.   Oh, and it was ready for us when we got here, a double plus. =D

So, after checking in, we hit the town (sort of).  We walked a teeny tiny bit up to Victoria Station to get our travel passes.  We ate lunch at Pret, which is a nice deli place.  All the items are fresh made, but pre-packaged, so you go in, grab what you want, and pay (cash registers here are called "tills!" hahahaha).  Then you can sit down and eat or leave.  It's really convenient, and fairly cheap.  =)  We ventured over to Buckingham Palace and bought "hop-on, hop-off" bus pass tickets for today and tomorrow, so we did that as well.  We only saw about half of London.  We didn't get to any of the major land marks yet.  They kicked us off half way through the tour to get on another bus, but it took too long for us, so we hopped on the tube and now we're back in the hotel. =)

So far, we are super impressed with London.  Terri deemed it the best city ever.  Everyone zooms around in their cars - mind you these are not our cute little cars, they're driving BMW's, Audi's, Mercedes.  We've seen maybe a handful of Fords, a few mini-van type vehicles (BMA/Mercedes/etc type of course) and only 2 poor trucks.  I guess they don't drive those here??  I might note that aside from Ford, there are NO American cars here... hmmm...

Terri's favorite are they "weirdo, crazy, stupid motorcycle people" who zip around on their mopeds/motorcycles, weaving in and out of traffic like fiends!! They are insane!  We'll have to get pictures for you to see =)  It's crazy! Traffic is like nothing we've ever seen.  There is no way I would ever want to drive here, even if the steering column WASN'T on the wrong side of the car.  Hahahaha.

Here's a few pictures to tide you over. =)  Thanks for following our trip! We're excited to share it will all of you.  We'll update again as soon as we do something grand. =D

P.S. Tyler - you would be sooo proud: London is verryyyy green!  There's recycling bins all over the place and the busses are running "green."  It's apparently very eco-friendly here. =)


PICTURE TIMEEEEE!



This was dinner on the plane last night --- mmmm. I know you're jealous! =)


Our monitor telling us where we are in the world. This was with about 50 minutes left.


Our hotel room. There's a TV tucked in the corner you can't see and another section where the bathroom and sitting area are.


Buckingham Palace. (The Queen was in today... yay! hahah)


Not the best picture of Ashley, standing in front of Buckingham Palace. 9 hours on a plane will do that to you =)


Harrods!! =) This one is for Wendy! We'll be shopping there later this week. =) Yay!


The hotel rooms here do not come with coffee pots, but instead tea sets! How cute!!


We maybe did a little shopping this morning. =) The store we bought these at offered free samples. This tea has got to be the world's best tea. Not kidding. Hence, we bought 3!! Hahaha.