We're back from our European Vacation!
We left Sep. 2 and came home Sep. 16. We were gone for two weeks! Overall, everything went smoothly and great while we were there! There was one hiccup on our way home, and I thought it was the end of the world (I was so tired that day)! However, it could have been so much worse. More on that later.
Our itinerary going on our trip was flying round trip to and from London. We would leave Wednesday and arrive Thursday (England time). England is around 8 hours different than SD. We would spend Thursday - Sunday with Nana, then go to Paris Monday - Saturday, then back to Nana's Sunday - Wednesday. I kept in touch with family via e-mail and face time or wi-fi calling.
It was definitely a trip to remember! It was amazing to make one of my dreams become a reality, and it could not have gone any better. Kyle and I did really great together figuring everything out, staying calm, and finding our way around! We're a good team!
We left Sep. 2 and came home Sep. 16. We were gone for two weeks! Overall, everything went smoothly and great while we were there! There was one hiccup on our way home, and I thought it was the end of the world (I was so tired that day)! However, it could have been so much worse. More on that later.
Our itinerary going on our trip was flying round trip to and from London. We would leave Wednesday and arrive Thursday (England time). England is around 8 hours different than SD. We would spend Thursday - Sunday with Nana, then go to Paris Monday - Saturday, then back to Nana's Sunday - Wednesday. I kept in touch with family via e-mail and face time or wi-fi calling.
It was definitely a trip to remember! It was amazing to make one of my dreams become a reality, and it could not have gone any better. Kyle and I did really great together figuring everything out, staying calm, and finding our way around! We're a good team!
Our first 'day' in England our plane landed between 9-9:30 am. We only got like 2 hours of sleep, Kyle even less. We flew from SD to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia to London. We left Philadelphia at 8, but that is 5 o'clock in the evening our time! So when we were supposed to be sleeping on the plane and it was around midnight East coast time, it was only 9 pm our time! When we landed in England it was 1-2 am our time! Yeah, crazy time difference. The planes have a 'Netflix' type program where you can pick what movies you want to watch or tv shows or games, etc. So Kyle and I were able to watch about 2 movies before trying to get some sleep. It was a 6 hour flight from Philly to London. So 2 movies took about 4 of those hours. The flight didn't feel too long, but the time difference was hard when we got off the plane.
By the time we got through the border check and picked up our bags and went to the bathroom and got to the underground tube to take the trains to Nana's, it was around 11:30 am! So it took a couple hours. By the time we figured out what trains to take and riding the trains we got to Nana's train station around 1:30 pm. So another couple hours! By this time our eye lids were having a hard time staying open. We were told to STAY AWAKE when you get there, so we still had a ways to go before we could go to bed.
Nana picked us up from the train station in St. Albans which is only a 5 minute car or taxi ride from her house. I think we unpacked and got everything situated and ate a late lunch. After lunch we decided to take a little tour of St. Albans.
St. Albans is where Nana grew up and started raising her kids, including Kyle's Dad, Mark. St. Albans is a 20 minute train ride north of London in the county(?) of Hertfordshire. St. Albans is a very religious community and they have a famous cathedral/abbey. It is a definitely a big suburb town of London and like all things in England, old.
Here are some pictures of our first little tour of St. Albans.
By the time we got through the border check and picked up our bags and went to the bathroom and got to the underground tube to take the trains to Nana's, it was around 11:30 am! So it took a couple hours. By the time we figured out what trains to take and riding the trains we got to Nana's train station around 1:30 pm. So another couple hours! By this time our eye lids were having a hard time staying open. We were told to STAY AWAKE when you get there, so we still had a ways to go before we could go to bed.
Nana picked us up from the train station in St. Albans which is only a 5 minute car or taxi ride from her house. I think we unpacked and got everything situated and ate a late lunch. After lunch we decided to take a little tour of St. Albans.
St. Albans is where Nana grew up and started raising her kids, including Kyle's Dad, Mark. St. Albans is a 20 minute train ride north of London in the county(?) of Hertfordshire. St. Albans is a very religious community and they have a famous cathedral/abbey. It is a definitely a big suburb town of London and like all things in England, old.
Here are some pictures of our first little tour of St. Albans.
This clock tower is original to St. Albans
The Verulamium museum. There used to be a Roman city before St. Albans was St. Albans and the Roman city was called Verulamium. The museum has a lot of roman artifacts and skeletons that they found where St. Albans is today. Pretty neat.
One of the large roman mosaic pieces they found.
Where we stayed: Nana's house, it was her late husband's home.
So this is not where she or Mark grew up.
We went to bed around 8 that night and Kyle and I slept until mid night. We woke up pretty awake, but fell back asleep after an hour for the rest of the night! So that was good.
The next day we planned to head into London. We convinced Nana to come with us, but we all woke up late and didn't leave until around 11. We took it easy and ate lunch when we got in the city. After lunch, we took the red topless tour bus around the city. From beginning to end, I think they said it takes 2.5 hours and they take you by all the famous sites. It is a hop on and hop off bus, so you can get off at any of the stops and get back on at any of the stops. We rode most of it for about an hour until we got to the pier. The bus ticket included a Thames river cruise. You go up one side and come back down the other side looking at all the famoous sites by the water. It was fun to get on the boat and have a different view from the water than from the bus. We got back on the bus after our river tour and took it Trafalgar square and Piccadilly Circus. We ate dinner at Piccadilly Circus. Nana was pretty wiped out at this point, so we hopped back on the bus and got to the train station and went home. It was a long day, but Kyle and I were ready to hit the pavement the next day and really explore.
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Parliament Building
Behind Parliament building by the river
DaVinci drawing/painting at the National Gallery. I took pictures of the art I studied in Humanities at BYU. Very cool to see it all in person!
VanGogh Sunflowers
Claude Monet, Water Lillies
Kyle in the empty guard both at the Tower of London
Entering the gates to the Tower of London
View of Tower Bridge from the Tower of London, they are really close to each other!
THE Tower of London
Walking up the stairs exploring the fort around The Tower of London
Kyle looking Medevial, ready for battle to protect the crown jewels!
The REAL reason to visit the Tower of London: The Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, it is against the rules to take ANY pictures of the crown jewels. It was very worth it though. We saw the REAL stuff. And there are guards still protecting them outside.
Tower Bridge
There are many more posts to come, so stayed tuned for more Europe updates!
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