London England is the BEST! Ok, so I'm just overly JACKED about the weekend that I just had. No I would not want to live in London permanently, as I would not want to live in Paris permanently - BUT London (as Jill and I are keeping score) is MAJORLY kicking Paris butt (what is it like 32-5 or something?) AND we were only in London for 48 hours or so. I can just imagine how I had the chance to hang around longer. We were speed-tourisming but our main reason for eurostarring it across the Channel was to go see Wicked the Musical. Everything else was just gravy (ok so I don't like gravy but I did have the BEST Cottage Pie EVER and it had gravy and it was FANTABULOUS!)
It surely wasn't all smooth sailing from the get-go. Before even leaving Paris I open my big mouth at lunch and tell Jill that I bring my "gift" with me whenever I travel for 2 reasons (and these 2 reasons ONLY I SWEAR!):
1) It's the 1 thing other than my passport that I'm terrified to lose so when I travel I wear it so I know where it is (you all know how paranoid I can be... this saves me the stress)
2) It's brought me good luck when travelling. I have not run into any real "travel" problems since being in Europe.
HA! That'll teach me! Don't we get to the train station only to be trying to fetch our tickets from the wrong kiosk - TWICE! And after finally asking the info desk and told to go up to Eurostar (holy DUH AMY!) we find a specific Eurostar kiosk and our tickets spit out with 3 minutes to spare before the train is set to leave (I thought they would all give me our tickets... NEVER ASSUME FOLKS - I should listen to my own rules). Little did we know there is "check-in" with Eurostar and it closes 20 minutes PRIOR to departure - we missed our train. Luckily the lady working at the counter was nice enough to exchange our tickets free of charge...who knew you had to go through airport-like security to get on this baby? Happily the next train leaves only 30 minutes later and by the time we get through security and passport control (2 more stamps!! WOOHOO) we just make it to the 3:13pm train. Arrival in London 4:36pm (it's a 2.5 hour journey but London is 1 hour behind so we gained an hour which was nice). The Eurostar is a nice train, comfortable, roomy and fast. It doesn't seem to go that fast from inside the train but we cross the Channel in 20 minutes MAX! You aren't in the dark for very long that's for sure. Super cool to go from Paris to London in less time than it takes to drive to Barrie (and just as cheap too if you get your tickets early enough). SWEETNESS!
Our first mission in London: figure out the transit system. Our 2nd mission: ABBEY ROAD! We found it without much trouble at all - a little walking never hurt no one (except our blisters) and it is a BEAUTIFUL and PEACEFUL end of town. Leaves all over the place, kind of felt like the Fall. Not too hot either for once - BONUS! It's plain to see that the locals are used to people crossing the street back and forth all day long and they are really quite patient (at least they were when we were there). There was no crowd though so that's always nice too. Jill and I each crossed and then grafitied the Abbey Studios gate wall with some love for the boys!We had dinner in Leicester Square at Chiquitos. Yes we had Mexican in London ok? It was TERRIFIC! We then made our way back to the Hotel. What they don't tell you is that in London they use the weekends to work on the underground lines and so there are often, if not always, lines that are completely non-functioning. Luckily for us we didn't run into too many problems but we were staying near Heathrow and well it was a long haul. What a treat to stay in a lovely hotel though. Hey - when you've been sleeping on a 6 inch piece of foam for 2 months and a pillow that's flatter than a crepe - you look forward to staying in a hotel. PLUS we get continental breakfast... SCORE! AND ENGLISH TELEVISION!!!
Saturday consisted of a delicious breakfast complete with real English Bangers! :D We then headed to Madam Tussaud's wax museum but were floored to find a minimum 2 hour lineup outside. Hugely dissapointed we go search for the planetarium but can't find it so we head over to the London Eye where we spend the rest of the afternoon by the Thames. After our ride on the giant ferris wheel we go out to eat before the main attraction. We stumble upon The Albert this cute English Pub where you order your food from the bar and they bring it to you. In our case we ordered from the specials which are served from a buffet and we both got the Cottage Pie with peas and carrots. Gluttony at its FINEST! The plate was ENORMOUS and I ate every last bite. OY! :D We stuck around longer because we loved the atmosphere of the pub so much and ordered tea and sat there together and enjoyed tea time. I LOVE THE BRITISH!! What a lovely LOVELY day! Now to the theatre!
WICKED was WICKED! Nothing else can possibly describe this musical and do it justice. It is AMAZING and MAGICAL and FANTASTIC! We had goosebumps and tears and left there GLOWING we were so moved by this performance. By far the BEST stage performance I have ever been to and probably in the top 3 shows (concerts included) I've ever seen in my life. The show alone was worth the trip. Everything else was like I said - gravy. We were buzzing back at the hotel and not even tired and didn't get to bed until after 2 am I believe and had to be up early because we wanted to try and get to Tussaud's early enough. No luck - we got there but still had no time to see it so we decided to explore London some more before heading back. Another lovely day, we walked through St-James' park, seen Buckingham, Trafalgar Square, the Canadian Embassy, the Quebec Embassy?, and a building we are curious to know what it is... I also bought myself a whole pile of stuff! I know, I know... I have NO IDEA how I am going to bring everything home.
Home... now that's a sad thought. I am in denial everyone! Europe has won me over and GB has won my heart! I may be ready to go home but that doesn't mean I want to anymore. 4 more days... 4 more days..............
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