Goodbye London, Hola España

Look at me, I'm multilingual! (in reference to the title, in case you didn't catch that)

My stay in London was amazing. I had such a great time and being there with Kate made it even better. We saw so much that I think I got my workout for the year because we walked so much. I will continue on being a couch potato when I get home :)

Saturday in London:
Kate and I woke up early and got ready to go see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. There were so many people there I was shocked. There were policemen shouting at people to move over here or walk this way or don't walk that way. Really it was just comical the way they were trying to control the crowd. While we didn't realize it, the changing of the guards happened within the gates of the palace, not outside of them so we ended up not being able to see the ceremony. We did see some cool English guys dressed in the classic red uniform playing in a marching band. Kate and I also noticed there was a flag up at the palace which could mean the queen was actually in Buckingham Palace at the time. Which is awesome, I could have been standing within a few hundred feet of royalty, not many people can say that! Except Kate Middleton...until she is royalty in less than two weeks. Anyways, want to see some pictures?

The gates to Buckingham Palace

The policeman trying to move the crowd

He was awesome!

You can see how many people there were

The marching band!

Going into the palace

The policeman used his horse to move the crowd. He came right at us with the horse!

After the ceremony finished at Buckingham Palace, Kate and I decided to walk back to her dorm. We got a little lost along the way, but we did get to see some of the guards up close! It was just by chance too. We also got to see Wellington Arch.

Wellington Arch

I took a little posing advice from Colin and did the "thumbs up"

The guards we got to see!

The other side of the arch

Saturday afternoon Kate and a bunch of her friends and I went to Abbey Road and to the recording studio! It was really fun to see and we took a picture like The Beatles. I think it's pretty comparable, don't you?

We had a blast! It was fun to watch people try and cross the road without getting hit and sync up to get the perfect shot. It was just a lot of fun. On Sunday, Kate, Anthony and I went out for a real American breakfast. I got pancakes, eggs, toast and bacon. A perfect combination. Kate and I then headed to a market where they had basically everything! I found a really pretty scarf for only a pound and got some other gifts for other people (obviously I can't tell you on here what they were because then it'll ruin the surprise). The last stop on Sunday was to go to the British Museum. I got to see the Rosetta Stone and some other really cool Egyptian and Greek artifacts. I also go to look at a collection of old coins. For those of you who don't know, I love to collect foreign money. So that was really cool for me to see.

Rosetta Stone

British Museum

My last day in London, Monday, Kate and I had a full day planned! We started off at the metro because we were so tired from walking. I must have been more tired than Kate because as we were hurrying to get on the metro, the door closed after Kate and before I could get on! We had about 5 seconds to communicate and all Kate did was wave her hands and mouth to me "STAY HERE!" and that's exactly what I did. So for ten minutes, I was stranded in the London metro with people around me laughing and two business men commenting "Oops!" to me. Thank you British men, I appreciated that so much. It was actually pretty funny and we laughed about it the entire day.

After the mishap at the metro, we arrived at the Tower of London. We discovered it would cost about 16 pounds to get in and with the limited time we had, we opted to just walk around it and spend more time in Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a beautiful building and I could tell it was built to make a statement. It even had a moat! I've never seen a building with a moat so it was pretty cool.

From the Tower of London we walked across Tower Bridge. It was huge!! And it's true to it's name, it has giant towers on each end. It's one of the oldest bridges in London and really reminded me of walking across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

As you can see, the view was beautiful. And it's a huge bridge. Next up was Saint Paul's Cathedral. It's a very historic cathedral and was under constant fire during WWII. I learned that people stayed in the church day and night to watch over the entire place in case a bomb dropped or the cathedral became under attack during the war. Several important funerals were held here and Princess Diana was married in this church. There are many knights and dukes buried here along with a tribute to American soldiers during WWII who helped to protect London and the church. I couldn't take pictures of the inside, but I got some lovely pictures of the outside.

Now in case you have been wondering why I'm so dressed up in these pictures of my last day in London, it's not because I was hoping to steal Prince William away from Kate (Middleton that is, not Ehrman who I traveled with. Although she'd be a fierce competitor for old Prince Will) And it's not because I thought I'd grace London with my beauty (however, I did). No, it's because Kate and I decided we were ladies and ladies deserve to have afternoon tea. We made a reservation and at 4pm, we sat down to have tea, sandwiches, scones and cupcakes and other assortment of treats.

The scones were by far, the best thing I have ever had. I wanted more! There was actually a lady sitting by us and we gathered she was a reporter. Well the tea place had made her an entire snack thing like ours and she didn't eat any of it! I almost became a thief in London because I wanted to steal the scones she left! I've decided I'm learning how to make scones when I get home. We had a great time and it was nice to sit down after walking so much!

Kate and I came back after tea and relaxed and had dinner. Alas our sweet-tooth's took control and we just HAD to go out for dessert! I got Belgium waffles and chocolate and ice cream, Kate got pancakes and chocolate and ice cream. It was a perfect dessert to end my stay in London. London has been, by far, one of my favorite cities I've been to since being in Europe. I have made it a goal to go back there one day and stay for a few weeks. It was just that amazing. Plus I don't think you can see everything there is to see in just one week, London has so much to offer. It's truly a very vibrant, historical place.

The next morning I woke up at 4am to get to my flight. It was so much better in terms of turbulence than my first experience on Ryanair. I arrived safely in Madrid where Paulette picked me up. Wondering who Paulette is? Stay tuned for my next update on my European experience. Next post...

SPAIN!

El amor de Sara