This is it... our last post from London.  =(  All the following posts will be from the US, which isn't nearly as much fun!!  Hahaha.  But they'll probably all be pictures, so I guess they will still be fun. =)

Today was a relaxed day.  We shopped this morning (Terri's idea, mind you) at Selfridges, a big name department store here in London.  It was much more reasonable than Harrods.  =)  We bought way too many souvenirs here.  We don't want to spoil the fun, so no pictures or descriptions of those until AFTER we give them away. =) 

After shopping, we went to the cinema, which is not a big to-do here.  It is, however, EXPENSIVE!  Wow.  You will all appreciate the prices of our movie theaters much better when we tell you our tickets cost a whopping £12 ($18!!!!).  Seriously!  We spent over £35 ($50) there today.  Yikes!!!!  Our flick of choice was Leap Year, which I believe we have in the US.  It was super cute. =)  We loved it. =)  The cinema was very strange though.  We think it had about 6 floors.  Hahahah.  Our movie was in theater 9, which was on the top floor.  It was veryyyyy weird!!

We meandered around Trafalgar Square after that and finally made our way back to the hotel.  We had dinner at a nearby restaurant called "Pizza Express."  I was leary, but it was REALLY GOOD!!  We had garlic cheese bread for an appetizer, four cheese pizza (yes - again!  We like our cheese!), and for dessert Ashley had cheesecake and Terri had Benoffee Pie.  =)  OH BOY was it delicious!  I now weigh nearly twice as much. =)  We also tried Pimms, which is British sangria.  That too was a winner!! It was soooooo yummy!!

Sadly, we have no pictures today. =(  We never found anything photo worthy.  Hahaha.  Our plan now is to pack, pray that our suitcases don't weigh too much, and relax for the night.  Our flight home tomorrow leaves at 9:55am from here and will arrive around 2pm there... It's 9 hours in the air but only 4 in real time!  How strange is that?!  We'll probably take a few days off from the blog to recooperate, but we PROMISE lots more pictures starting again sometime next week. =)

This trip has been the trip of a lifetime.  The memories we made (and 852 pictures we took) will always be special to us.  I can't speak for Terri, but I plan on returning at some point.  It's just so amazing here!

We'll see you all (or most of you!) on Monday if not sooner. =)  Thanks for following our blog and remember we'll be back with more pictures!!

Today was another lovely day in London. We started our day at Buckingham Palace - hoping to catch the changing of the guard since we struck out last time. We got there an hour and half early and got a prime spot along the fence. We took a lot of great photos of the palace and of the guards out front. We had just settled in and were preparing to wait it out, when a policeman came by and told us everyone had to leave. Today was a state visit and, apparently, heads of state are more important than us. So we had to move along. We were invited to stand behind a barricade and watch as the Queen's car went by, but we decided against it.


^^ Buckingham Palace, Main Entrance


^^ Guard outside the main door

We bought a hot cocoa and proceeded to walk down The Mall (the main road in London that leads to Buckingham Palace) and into Trafalger Square. Along the way, we had to stop for several delivery vans making a delivery to St James' Palace (Prince Charles' home). I don't want to brag...but one of the delivery guys hit on me (Terri). Yep, the cream-de-la-cream...I was hit on by a delivery guy. My dream vacation is complete.

We were almost to Trafalger Square when we were stopped unexpectedly. A police man called out to us "young ladies" (bonus points to Mr. Policeman for calling me "young"!) and asked us to come over to him. Panic ran through my head and I could hear Mike's voice saying "Just don't get arrested...that's all I ask!". I walked right up to him and said "Yes, Sir" confident in the fact that I had done nothing wrong and could survive well in British prison...for thirty or forty seconds, at least. He gave us a stern look and said "Hand over your hot coffee!". LOL! He was cold and wanted our hot chocolate! No luck, Buddy....and we were on our way again...happy to have remained arrest-free!


^^ Guards we saw on the walk.


^^ Entrance arch to the Mall and Buckingham Palace.

Once in Trafalger Square (after giving directions to some poor soul who thought we looked like we knew what we were doing...sucker!) we took the tube to St Paul's Cathedral. We spent a couple hours looking through the church...I just don't have words to describe it. A church has been in that spot since 604 AD and St Paul's has been there since 1100 AD. It is grand, majestic, and so beautiful. Ashley and I both lit candles and said our prayers...it was a wonderful visit. If Ashley says anything about how long it took us to find our way into the church (we walked up on the back side of it and it's a LOOOOONG way around) and claims that I swore and said something like "How the hell do you get in this church"...don't believe her. She lies. She should pray for help to stop lying. =)


^^St. Paul's

After our visit to St Paul's we walked back to the hotel. We don't know for sure how long the walk was, but we're guessing about two miles. It had gotten windy and was kinda cold, but it was great walking down Fleet Street and just taking in the city. Honestly, I was pretty proud of us. No maps, no asking for directions...we just set out and found our way home. Pretty cool for only having been here a few days.


^^Ashley in a phone booth =)


^^Terri in a phone booth =)


^^I can't remember the exact name, but this was Wellington Barracks I think. Yay Soldiers! =)

This evening we had dinner in our hotel's restaurant, The Old Master's Restaurant. Ashley had roasted lamb, potatoes, roasted zucchini and, for dessert, Eaton Mess...a berries & cream dessert. Terri had roast beef, potatoes and, for dessert Bannoffee pie...a layered pudding/caramel/banana dessert. We both loved our food!

Then it was off to our second play...Love Never Dies. This is Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Honestly, neither of us loved it. It was just okay...but we enjoyed the experience and we especially enjoyed the ice cream we had at interval (that's the Brit word for "intermission"). And while we're on the subject of the theatre, last night we went to see Wicked. This play was BRILLIANT! Terri generally doesn't like musical theatre and loved this play! Ashley loved it so much she wants to get the sound track. It's the story of Glinda the Good Which and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz...sort of like the "story behind the story". It was terrific and we would recommend it highly!


^^Marquee for Lover Never Dies


^^Marquee for Wicked. =)

Tomorrow we're off to Hampton Court Palace! =)

Last night after we blogged, we headed to out to the London Eye, which is the world's largest observation wheel. =) The view was incredible!! You could see the entire city of London. We couldn't find where they're building the Olympic Village though - we think it'll have to be wayyyy outside the inner city because there is no room what-so-ever for that much stuff to be built in the city.

For dinner we went to our first English Pub, Bag o' Nails. =) HAHA! The food was awesome! Ashley ordered a Big Ben Burger, which was a burger with lettuce, tomatoes, bbq sauce, and egg - yes a fried egg on top of the burger! It was reallllyyyyy good. And it came with chips (french fries). Hahaha. It's so much fun learning all the British lingo. =) Terri ordered bbq-ed chicken with chips and a salad, which was also awesome.

This morning when we woke up, it was bucketing (raining) out. It was just a light drizzle, but I (Ashley) have never been so excited to see it rain. =D I got to use my fancy umbrella (TERRI EDIT ~ the first time Ashley opened her fancy schmancy umbrella one of the spokes when UP HER NOSE!). Hahaha. We had breakfast at the hotel, which was a traditional English buffet. Ashley had eggs, toast, ham, apple tart, and FRESH SQUEEZED OJ! Terri had eggs, sausage (which was gross), ham, cottage cheese, and pear. Also delicious.

Our first venture was out to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Honestly, it was way overrated... We actually left. There were about 15,000 people there to see a 15-minute event. It was interesting to see the guard. Two bands marched in and then they switched guards. There was so many people we couldn't see anything. We plan on you tube-ing it. =) We were OK with this though because we weren't all that excited to see this anyway.



After that we TRIED to catch the tube at Victoria Station, but 2 of the lines were shut down completely. They do maintenance on the weekends and it was the weekend for this tube. We ended up leaving and caught a cab (not a black one sadly, but a nice one!) to the National Portrait Gallery. We weren't allowed to take pictures sadly, but we have already taken 332 on only DAY 2, so that's probably for the best. =) We saw the Tudor gallery, which was neat. Terri and I are huge fans of Henry VIII and ALL SIX of his wives. =) Hahaha. We also viewed the current galleries where we saw paintings and pictures of the Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Harry and William.

After that, we hiked up Charing Cross road to Trafalgar Square. This is Terri's "favorite place in the world." It was absolutely incredible! There were two fountains, a couple monuments, and stairs, where we sat to people watch. =) Trafalgar Square is considered the heart of London. Charing Cross is the offical heart of London and Trafalgar Square is right on top of that. Everything in London is measured from this point. Our taxi driver described it as "if you say you're 6 miles from London, you mean you're 6 miles from Trafalgar Square." (If that makes sense!)









After wayyyyyy too many photos of the square, we took advantage of our last day of our tour bus tickets. We saw the rest of the London sights from a distance, most of which we'll be seeing close up later this week. It was nice to familiarize ourselves with everything. We located nearby tube stations and made note of things not on our list to-do that we want to add.


^^^ Tower Bridge


^^^ Big Ben!!


^^^ Downing Street- where the Prime Minister Lives =)

There are soooo many little differences between here and home. At the museums, we took the lift (elevator) and as we were going down, the speaker said, "Now approaching level negative two." Obviously, we thought that was weird. Hahaha. It turns out that in London, any floor below ground level is negative, unless there's only one floor below ground level, then it's a basement. Strange, huh? Also, there's no "Exits" here, everything points to "Way out."

After our foray on the tour bus, we freshened up at the hotel and headed out for dinner. Tonight we ate at "Duke of York," another pub. Terri ordered roast chicken with peas, carrots, mash (potatoes), and Yorkshire pudding. Terri claims the chick was "half a chicken." It was really huge!! Ashley had a full on traditional English meal of fish and chips and a pint! Boy was the pint gross!!! It was "Beck's," which Dad said we have the in US, so that was disappointing, but I only drank maybeeeee 1/4 of it! Hahah. I had to try!! The saddest part for me was the fact that two nights in a row now I've ordered alcoholic beverages (the legal age in Europe is only 18), AND NO ONE CARDED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahahaha. Last night, the gentleman didn't even ask and tonight, the waitress said, "Are you 18?" and when I said yes, she brought my pint! I guess they're lax about it here??? Hahaha.



After dinner, we stopped by a grocery store to stock up on goodies for the hotel room. Ashley's been living on Mars Bars - I think I'm up to 5 already? Hahhah. Terri loves the Kit Kat's here, which are not the same as US Kit Kats. They look the same, but are so much better tasting!! We think it's probably the chocolate they use to make them... not sure, but boy do they rock!!

So that's our day today. =) Tomorrow we're around the city again and Monday we're venturing out to Windsor Castle. =D

Oh- and the police here drive BMW's. Wow!!!!! Don't tell the American police in their poor Fords!