A Look into my Life

I took ma and pa back to the airport this morning. Everything went without issue. Mom is quite worn out but she did survive the week, just. And dad did too!!

Yesterday I once again hired a car, just for the day this time. Mom wanted to see the prime meridian at Greenwich and Hampton Court Palace. So we took off early in the morning in our Vauxhall Astra heading for Greenwich Park. There we wandered around the Royal Observatory in the drizzle that would accompany us all day.

After our visit there we headed across the south of London through terrible Friday afternoon traffic. This is when I really wished I’d opted for an automatic transmission. Regardless I now have a stronger left leg. We arrived at Hampton Court with only a little time to actually go through. We did hit all the major areas however, minus the gardens. But it was raining and despite the current situation, would have been miserable to go through. The rooms within were beautifully decorated and were massive. It must have been quite extraordinary to live in there in the 1700s. There had been a fire in the King’s portion of the state rooms. It was repaired and refurbished and looks fantastic. 

We then departed Hampton Court with the Satnav set for Piccadilly Circus in the centre of London. I want mom and dad to see the lights there as well as the Christmas lights of Regent Street and Oxford Street. We looped up through there seeing everything and being one of the few cars on Oxford Street mixed amongst the busses. Quite intimidating! We stopped off at a few shops and got them some souvenirs, dropped them off back at the hotel, returned the car, and dined on some pub food before calling it an evening!

I’ll put of pictures of yesterday as well as pictures from their trips to Windsor, Stonehenge, and Paris. 

Status Update

In two week time I should be landing, or near landing at Philadelphia International. 

I have a little bit of a dilemma on my hands. After I return home, finish up covering my experience here and write about re-culturing myself the the way of the United States I don’t really know what to do with my blog. I will keep it up for quite a while. I hope to go back through and do a lot of proofing and minor tweaks to the posts, but once that is done I have no idea what else to write about. So for the next couple weeks I’d like to hear from everyone who has been viewing and ready for the past 3 months to leave some feedback on where and what you’d like to see from my site. I’d love to post about my last semester at school but it would all be the same; cold, it snowed, and class sucked. So I’m open for ideas!!

So far all is good! Mom and Dad had a good time Monday on their tour of London. Mom did excellent on her crutches. They got to see all of the major sites around the city including Camilla, Prince Charles’s wife pulling out of their gate. They even saw a lifting of Tower Bridge! Check out the pictures in the gallery to see what they saw!

Yesterday we made a substitute for Black Friday, only a little early. In the morning we went to Harrods. We got to see a good bit of it including the toys and Christmas world. Those are the most important parts in my opinion. We then headed up to the new Westfield Shopping Centre. This is now the largest mall in Europe and we have been there! We took a cab to these places just for simplicity and the people at Westfield were very nice to Mom.

In the evening, after some great pub food, we ventured up to the Winter Wonderland festival in Hyde Park. They have quite a celebration going on there. There is a German Christmas market set up with vendors selling nearly everything, an ice skating rink, food, rides, lights, and of course Father Christmas. I’m so glad that we made it there!

Today Mom and Dad left a 5:15am for their day trip to Paris. This is the same one that Jamie and I took when she was here. I have no doubt they will have a great time. I just hope it warms up for them a little. I’ll be posting pictures once they have returned. Tomorrow is their trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Again, the same one that Jamie and I took.

As you can tell, we did see the Mona Lisa. More about that later though! Monday, 20th of October we awoke very early in the morning to catch a shuttle to St. Pancras station just north of London. It’s very close to where I’m currently living. There we caught a very early Eurostar train to Paris. We rode in first class baby!! We arrived in Paris about 10am local time. where we had a coach tour of the city. We got to see the location of Moulin Rouge, the Champs E’lysee (I had to restrain SOMEONE from jumping out the coach and running to the Louis Vuitton store!), the Arc D’triomphe, and most notably the Eiffel Tower!

We were provided with an express entrance into the tower with a lift taking us to the first level. We were then given some free time to explore it and the chance to go up to the second level. You could either pay to take the lift up or take the stairs for free. We took the stairs! The view from there was absolutely amazing. The city is relatively flat so you can see for miles. We then ate lunch at the tower and rejoined the group for a boat tour on the Seine River. Most notably along the river was Notre Dame. There are quite a few pictures of it. Unfortunately we did get to see it up close.

After the river cruise we set off for the Louvre. We had a few minutes at the inverted glass pyramid. It’s an amazing sight! I of course did my part to hold it up for a bit. It’s quite heavy! HA HA! There are legendary pieces of work throughout the entire museum and I’m still stunned that I have seen them in person. Of course seeing the Mona Lisa was legendary! Surprisingly you are able to take pictures of her. She is roped off and behind glass for protection. She’s amazingly smaller than what you would expect.

The day ended with a train ride back to London and a shuttle to our hotel. We both were very, very tired and had another big adventure from tomorrow; Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. I will hopefully get that up later tonight or tomorrow morning. Until then I’ll be uploading Paris pictures so be sure to check those out!

Oh my what a day! Where to start? I suppose the beginning will do. We awoke today to the gray drizzle that I have found to be the norm for Fall in London. We departed from our hotel in hopes to take in a few sights regardless of the weather. First off was checking out Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Then crossing the street to see the magnificent Westminster Abbey. Its amazing the amount of history and architecture in just those few squares.

At that point time was running a little short, we had a 12pm reservation for a flight on the Eye, so we crossed the Westminster Bridge. Taking pictures of course! And headed up to the Eye. We boarded and were whisked away. Riding this for the second time I was still amazed by the view. There simply isn’t anything like it around. Well, until I climb the Eifel Tower tomorrow!!

After we ‘landed’ we took off towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Then was somewhere I have wanted to go to for quite some time, Greenwich! It’s located just outside of the city. It’s a nice little section and I may revisit it again in the coming weekends. We ascended the large hill to the Royal Observatory and had a photo taken on the Prime Meridian.

After grabbing some grub at a pub we headed back to the hotel and have called it a night. We have to be up around 4am to catch a 6am EuroStar train to Paris. I’ll get pictures up of that when I can. To hold you over though, I have posted today’s pictures. Sorry there aren’t any comments for them. I’ll work on that when I get some free time.

Well, actually I’m sitting in my living room, but WELCOME TO WEEK 6! I’ve nearly made it halfway through and without totally loosing my mind. I feel at this point that I’ve fully got the hang of this British thing. For the most part at least. The weather here has be absolutely amazing but today it seems very British, gray and gloomy. I do miss the simple life of home though. Friday starts my mid-semester break and boy do we (my sister and I) have quite a week planned! More about that later though.

This week I’m playing catch up and get ahead. I want to ensure a work free week next week. That includes getting a jump on two papers that are due just after break as well as an exam this week. Great fun!

So what do we have planned for this magnificent week? Well Friday I plan to travel to Dover by train to check out the white cliffs and the castle located there. I just can’t sit around on the first day of break. Friday evening I will be meeting up with a friend if the planets align correctly. Saturday morning there is a great big package arriving at the airport!! Jamie is coming!! We will be traveling to Paris, Amsterdam, a few stops in eastern England and a few things planned around the city itself. So stay tuned for all of that.

I’ll be quite busy the rest of the week so there may not be another update until Friday evening/Saturday morning.