Spring Break: London

So we woke up Wednesday morning and made it to the big train station Gare de Nord, to take the train to London. It was an easy trip but you do have to check in and wait to board in a separate area than the regular trains so it was a good thing we figured that out and cleared customs in plenty of time. The train ride is 2 hours which seemed like nothing at all.

When we exited the Tube station (prices are ridiculous if you aren't getting a day pass to ride the tube (subway)) in London we wandered a little to get our bearings and find our hotel. We stayed at the Park Lane Sheraton and it was in a great location right near Buckingham Palace. The free breakfast we got there was awesome.... you could choose anything from fruit, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc. etc. It was much better than the bread and croissants you could get with Jim's hotel status at the Westin. Anyways below you will find some pictures from our few days of sightseeing.... the only super eventful things that happened was the fire alarm going off in the middle of the night at the hotel one night... and our flight back to the States getting cancelled and having to run through the airport to catch a flight to Miami so we didn't have to stay an extra day! We didn't get to sit together for the 10 our trip home but at least I was able to make it into work the next day!

After we left our bags with the concierge we were quite hungry and didn't feel like going to far so we wandered literally next door to the Hard Rock Cafe. Did you know that the one in London is the original?? Once our room was ready we unpacked then wandered around the city a little bit and caught a sunset ride on the London Eye (A giant Ferris Wheel that holds like 25 people per car). You get a great view of the city and I would definitely suggest it though it is somewhat expensive. Museums and attractions in London definitely have higher prices than the ones in Paris which is too bad... but you only live once and who knows when we'll be back!  I was also bummed that we couldn't take any pictures inside Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul's... good think we have the internet to look pictures up to remind us how gorgeous they are inside! :)  We spent each day exploring everywhere we could think of and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! It was not the typical dreary London weather!

Buckingham Palace 

Big Ben 

View of Big Ben from the London Eye

The London Eye 

Me in front of Buckingham Palace 

Westminster Abbey  (though St. Paul's was my favorite church, the dome inside was AMAZING)

Olympics Countdown in Trafalgar Square 

Jim's fish and chips & mushy peas 

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum 

The National Portrait Gallery in London... we just randomly decided to go in here since it was free... best decision ever... I was happily surprised when we wandered into the rooms with the impressionist paintings :) 

Piccadilly Circus  

The Tower of London... they were refurbishing a lot of it (and the city in general for the Olympics) and I was disappointed that more of the Crown Jewels weren't on display like the last time I was there

Tower Bridge

We took the tube up to see Jim's favorite team's stadium :)  

We had our last lunch at Harrod's.... I love this place... you could get lost shopping in here for hours and the food was awesome. I had an amazing truffle Mac and Cheese. 

We ended our trip by seeing a show in the West End... Rock of Ages. Now there is a movie coming out this summer. It was a great show and Jim loved all of the 80s music. 

All in all we had an awesome 1st Anniversary/Spring Break trip. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to top it. I got to go to my 2 favorite European cities and being in England brought back so many memories from when I lived there over 20 years ago!! It is so crazy how quickly time flies! I hope that Jim and I can take many more trips like this in the future.