DAY 3

I'm exhausted after day 3 and we need to get up in about 5 and a half hours to head to the airport for our flight to Amsterdam, so I'm going to be fast.


Today we went to Harrod's, Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, Afternoon Tea at the Orangery, and had tapas for dinner.  It was a wonderful day but yet again it was filled with walking, walking, tube riding, walking, walking, and more walking.  :)  We did take a taxi ride to dinner because we wanted to give our legs a break.  This was a fun ride because it allowed us to see many different things we hadn't seen because we're normally underground in the tube.  


Highs: Harrod's market, Afternoon Tea


Lows: small amount of rain, humidity

Day 2

Yesterday we did ALOT of walking!!  I'm guessing 6-8 miles...my legs hurt bad!!  Ryan had a difficult time sleeping and was up at 2am, which gave him about 3 hours of sleep.  I attempted to sleep but that is difficult while someone is tossing and turning/playing on the Internet/wanting someone to talk to.  :)  


We left our hotel around 7:30 and headed down the street to a true British breakfast stop.  This was not the best food choice on our part.  Everything is very plain; it's like they don't use seasonings/salt.  From there we walked to see the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and the Globe Theatre, walking this whole way!!  The changing of the guards after this was craziness!  There were people everywhere.  Its quite a production they put on, bands, soldiers, horses just to name a few things.  We then headed over to Green Park, and grabbed a sandwich lunch on the way to eat in the park.  There are chairs for relaxing that you can rent, so of course we did this to enjoy our lunch in and catch a short power nap.  


After lunch and our nap, Ryan and I walked over to Reagent Street and did some shopping.  We didn't buy anything, just looked around at the different stores they have and how their prices compare with the USA.  It was fun looking at the different shops as we made our way to Piccadilly Circus.  We walked, and walked, and walked, rode the tube, and walked and walked, and rode the tube, and walked until we couldn't walk anymore.  By this time we were back at our hotel.  I was thinking for sure Ryan would want a longer nap, due to his lack of sleep the night before.  However, that was not the case.  I slept and he did not.  


We made a quick stop at a fish and chips place before going to see the musical "We Will Rock You".  This is the music of Queen put into a musical, so it was pretty cool.  While I was sleeping, Ryan was able to find half priced tickets for the third row which made it even better.  :)  Poor Ryan was so sleepy by the end of the show his head was bobbing all over the place.  We left the theatre and headed back to the hotel around 10:15 but decided to swing by the London Eye so we didn't make it back to the room until about 12.  Ryan passed out RIGHT AWAY!!




Highs: Green Park, Fish & Chips, "We Will Rock You"


Lows: Sore calves, breakfast

DAY 1

Ryan and I left PHX on Saturday night.  We got to travel in the upper deck of the plane.  This was so cool!!  You walked up a small staircase and there were about 20 seats up there with their own 'kitchen' and bathroom.  Our dinner and breakfast was very yummy and we were able to get a good night sleep. The seats we were in could go flat into beds, again, so cool!  We ended up having to circle for about 30 minutes before landing because the airport was so busy.  Customs took forever and my back/shoulders started to hurt.  Silly bag!!


Once we made it to the exit getting on Oyster card (pass you use when traveling on the tube) was easy, and we made our way to the underground!  The trip was about an hour long to the station by our hotel.  Ryan got to sit next to a very playful and hungry little boy. Once at the station we had to walk again to get to our hotel, but only about 5 minutes.  It felt like much longer because of my bag.  I think I'll be pretty strong by the end of this trip!!

We settled into our room and unpacked before heading out to do some exploring.  Today we saw Westminster Abby, Big Ben, House of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus, Soho, Green Park, and Oxford Circle.  I'm pretty sure we walked about 4-5 miles this afternoon!!  Thank god I invested in good walking shoes for this trip.  :)  We had to much fun people walking and exploring today, and for dinner we ate a small, cute pizza place in Soho.  


Highs: seats on plane, dinner in Soho, playing blackjack at 'The Golden Nugget Club' - London


Lows: waiting in customs, finding out my phone doesn't work after calling Verizon 2 times before leaving to get it set up!

Our Plane.  We sat the in the first row behind the pilots.

Ryan in his laydown seat

All ready to go...25 pounds of luggage

My British-sized Diet Coke

Counting Down - - 2, 1, 0

Ryan and I have been counting down the days till our trip since October.  It's hard to believe we will be in the air two days from now.  Oh, boy...that means I better get packing!  Ryan has much of his stuff all ready set out so he can make sure he doesn't forget anything.  He's such a good boy!!  Our front room looks like a tornado went through it.  


On the agenda tomorrow - golf, laundry, organizing new classroom, lunch with friends, call Verizon to activate our international cell phone plan, get a pedicure, finish setting things out for trip, and go to the Diamondbacks/Cubs game! :)  What a fun way to spend our last full day in the states!!

My First Post

I'm not sure what I want to write on my first blog post, other than I'm super excited about our upcoming trip! :) Ryan and I have been planning this since October!!  I'm going to try my best to update it a few times while we are away.  Be sure to check back to see the awesome places we have been, and hopefully some pictures.