Day 5: London, England (Tuesday, August 12th)

What a great last full day in London! First on the docket this morning was the Tower of London. We met my dad there and briefly saw some of his group before joining him for a tour. The Tower of London is super neat and the Crown Jewels are amazing! I could have looked at the Crown Jewels forever. Pictures of the jewels aren't allowed but I was able to get some pictures of the tower. The tour guide we had was pretty funny and loved making fun of Americans. 

Following the Tower of London we walked across the Tower Bridge and caught a taxi to visit St. Paul's Cathedral--another thing I had heard great things about! 

We made it to the cathedral just in time to watch the communion for The Church of England. It's so interesting to learn how other people around the world worship and pray to God. I don't think this lady was too enthused:

I had only gotten a couple pictures inside the cathedral before being asked not to take any more and there isn't a great spot outside to get a picture of the whole thing because it's so big. 

We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant called Garfunkle's and then split up from Tom because he wasn't feeling well and needed to lie down back at the hostel. Chelsie and I are avid Harry Potter fans so we really wanted to make it to King's Cross station while we're here and fortunately Logan and my dad were game so the four of us took a taxi through parts of the city we hadn't seen yet before slipping a little further into my Harry Potter dreams!

The Harry Potter shop was awesome! They had anything you could possibly imagine from t-shirts to wall hangings to wands to any other replica item you can imagine from the books. I would love to one day have a library in our home and fill it with everything we saw from that store! Chelsie and I got matching shirts and my cute dad bought me three HP books; The Tales of Beetle the Bard, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. He's so good to me!

See this trolley? The main reason we went to King's Cross was to take a picture of us holding on to that but the line was at least an hour wait and we just didn't have that kind of time. We have to come back one day to take that picture and go to the WB Harry Potter Studio. 

We still had a bit of time after King's Cross so we went to Harrod's--the world's largest department store!  I had heard it was massive but there's no way to truly understand how massive until you see it for yourself. And to think I thought the Mall of America is huge! The crazy thing about Harrod's is that it's not even a mall, just one giant, EXPENSIVE store.  Here are a few pictures of one of the candy "rooms".  II don't think the pictures really do it justice but trust me, this candy looked like it should be on display forever and never be eaten!  What a crazy experience!

And here we are next to a fancy Harrod's bear:

After Harrod's we went back to our hostel to meet up with Tom and find something for a late dinner. There is a small pizza place across the street from where we're staying called Pizza da Vinci so we got food from there and ended up staying in the rest of the night. We have another early morning tomorrow so we want to be sure we get a decent sleep tonight. Goodnight, London!

Weather Today:

Like the last couple days, the weather was quite nice today!  It was a little windier, which made it a bit chilly at times, but we were never caught in the rain so that was really nice.  Considering what we were told the weather could be like, I'm really pleased with how much sun we had while we were here!

London has been amazing!  It's sad to think our time here is already up. We've had so much fun the past two and a half days and I couldn't have hoped for anything better. While I'm bummed we have to leave, I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Tomorrow: Barcelona, Spain

I can't wait to get to Spain!  Both my brother and brother-in-law served their missions in Spain so we're excited to see where they spent two years of their lives. Vamonos!

 

Day 4: London, England (Monday, August 11th)

It felt so good to get a decent amount of sleep last night! We were up and ready to eat breakfast this morning by 8 o'clock so we could be out the door by 8:30. Breakfast was provided by the hostel and consisted of a bowl of cereal and toast. Can't complain considering it was free dollars! 

Our first stop of the day was a tour of the Buckingham Palace. I'm not a history wiz so I learned a ton of things I probably should have known already. For example, I never knew that Princess Diana is Prince William's mom and I was also under the impression that Prince William is next in line to the thrown when really it's his dad, Prince Charles. I think I thought his mom, Princess Di, was Queen Elizabeth's daughter rather than daughter-in-law which would have made Prince William next in line. Okay, enough of a history lesson!  All you probably care to know is what we thought and we loved it! I thought it was great. Pictures weren't allowed inside but we were able to get a few afterwards. 

Pictures from the back of the palace:

(Photo idea goes to Tom!)

Following the tour we stuck around for the changing of the guard. We didn't get a great viewing spot so the pictures aren't too good but this was taken right as they were finishing up: 

After the changing of the guard we walked toward Westminster Abbey. There were so many great pictures to take along the way:

The rain started to come down at this point so we found a little café called The Chunnel Bar and ate lunch there. The food was okay but the highlight of the experience was watching two women attempting to catch the eyes of some British men and writing notes on napkins to them. We were quite entertained!

We then headed back to the hostel to make plans for the evening and get some much needed R and R. We're slowly starting to feel adjusted but all the walking can be pretty draining!

After our power naps we made our way to the Queen's Theater area and had dinner at a diner with my padre! 

Thanks for treating us, daddy-o! After dinner it was time for Les Mis! I had been so excited to see this for the longest time! I can't even describe how amazing it was. I loved every bit of it and so did the others. I had such a special moment at the end of show when Jean Valjean was about to die and he was talking to his daughter, Cosette, for the last time. That conversation reminded me of my strong desire to live a life that Eli is proud of so I can one day live with him and God again. I loved Les Mis more than I thought I would and can't wait to see it again!

That concludes our second day here in London! I'm excited for another day in this great city tomorrow!

Weather Today:

Once again, the weather was quite nice again today! As expected, we had a bit of rain bit when it was raining it was pretty warm. Hopefully tomorrow cooperates as well!

Tomorrow: 3rd day in London

Day 3: London, England (Sunday, August 10th)

After a 4am wake up call and only a few hours of sleep, we made it to the airport just in time to catch our flight to London! I typically can't sleep on planes but I was exhausted and slept the entire 3 hour flight. This jet-lag business is no joke. We're all still pretty tired but I'm definitely feeling better!

From the airport we took a train to Hyde Park and nearly ran from the station to make it to a 1 o'clock sacrament meeting. It was so neat walking out and seeing this right in the middle of London:

I love that no matter where in the world you are, going to church always makes you feel right at home because of the sweet spirit there. The chapel we were in is extra special for me because my parents had many conferences and baptisms there during their missions. I loved being there!

Because of our early start, none of us had eaten a proper breakfast so we were all starving and needed something ASAP. Tom was familiar with a yummy place called Nando's so we were excited to try it. The ten or so minute walk to lunch was great because we were able to get our first true glimpse of the city and it didn't disappoint! I felt like we were in a movie rather than actually walking around a place I'd seen so many pictures of. As we were walking, we were commenting on how perfect the weather was with just a few clouds and a slight breeze when out of nowhere it started pouring! The rain stopped shortly after and it was quite nice the rest of the day. I guess we were just getting a true welcome to the city!

After lunch we took a train and bus to check out our hostel and drop off our backpacks. Welcome to The Crown!

It's actually a cute little place above a bar and we have the lovely pleasure of sharing it with 15 other people!

Once we got settled in we took off to Piccadilly Circus and walked up and down the streets for awhile and through some of the shops. I loved all of the neat architecture of the buildings and I'd venture a guess that Logan's favorite thing was constantly seeing cars like this: 

He was in heaven! It's easy to see the pure joy on his face as he watched the cars as long as he could:

As we walked, we saw so many interesting people including these two...

After walking around for awhile (I tried enjoying as much as possible without taking a picture of everything we saw), we decided to walk through China Town and find a restaurant to eat a late dinner at. After walking by each restaurant for what felt like hours and even sitting down in one before leaving, our fatigue got the best of us and nobody wanted to make a decision about where to eat so we settled for...Burger King! Yes, we came all the way to Europe and ate at Burger King. At least it was cheap.

On our way back to the train station I saw this sign and couldn't help but take a picture:

Anyone know where in Harry Potter you hear that name? Gotta love being in Harry's neck of the woods!

Aside from the one brief rainstorm, the weather really was quite nice today considering how miserable I've heard it can be here.

Well, that's it for day three! London was as great as I hoped/thought it would be and I can't wait for tomorrow!

Tomorrow: 2nd day in London

 

Day 2: Keflavik, Iceland (Saturday, August 9th)

So far so good! It's still hard to believe we're actually in Europe and living this dream of a trip we've been planning for so long. Our flight from Salt Lake to Denver was super quick but the next one to Iceland obviously wasn't as easy. It actually wasn't as long as many flights to Europe--only 7 hours or so. As expected, it was much tougher sleeping on the plane than we hoped. I got about 2.5 total hours but it definitely wasn't good or consistent sleep. We landed around 6:30am, picked up a car at the airport, and took off for the day!

Iceland was wonderful! I had heard a bit about Reyjkavik but didn't really know what to expect.  When we pulled away from the airport, Logan's comment described exactly what our first impression was: "It looks like we're on the moon!" It totally did! All of the flat land and lava rock definitely didn't make for the prettiest first sights. After driving further into the city the scenery completely changed, as did our opinions of this place. 

**All of these pictures were taken with a phone and sometimes through the window of the car so forgive the lack of quality!**

There's something in Iceland called "The Golden Circle" that's popular for tourists because it consists of several neat things to see. We didn't visit every attraction but we saw a few of them and they were so cool!  It truly is beautiful here!

It was nice having a car so we could do everything at our own pace and most things we did were free so that was great too. We started with breakfast at a cute café and it was delicious!

This was a very traditional Europen breakfast that we shared and loved. On the right is a super soft bagel-type bread with ham and cheese and on the left is a cinnamon pastry with a caramel like glaze. Naturally we were talked into getting the chocolate milk which topped it all off nicely!

After breakfast we made our first stop on the "Golden Circle" to the National Park, Thingvellir. On our way there we started discussing whether or not Iceland is part of Europe. In the end we settled for the Google explanation: 

Also on our drive we came across this funny little stonehenge lookout:

At the park we were actually able to see where the North American and European tectonic plates split. We technically walked from one continent to the other today. Super cool! 

After visiting the park we went to the geyser called Geysir. It was funny watching everyone sit still for minutes at a time hoping to catch the perfect picture. 

A giant waterfall, Gullfoss, followed the geysers. It wasn't quite as big as Niagra Falls but it really reminded me of that. The mist hit us as soon as we got out of the car. 

After seeing the waterfall it was just about time for dinner so we decided to save some money by going to the first grocery store we saw and buying something cheap. I'm not sure what the odds were but we just happened to find the Iceland version of Costco (they even sold Kirkland brand)! See this Tide you would find in the states?

That price is the equivalent of $78.00! We even looked up the average income and it's not very high so I have no idea how anyone can afford to shop there. It really helps you feel close to home when you walk in and see everything American at the store! We definitely didn't stay there for dinner but drove down the street to find some gourmet PBandJs.

Our after dinner activity was by far my favorite! We drove back towards the airport and swam in the geothermal pools Iceland is famous for. 

It was quite chilly outside and the water is the perfect temperature so you can sit in it as long as you want without getting too hot but you still stay warm. 

As a way for us to remember what the weather was like, I'm going to post a screen shot of it each day. 

Weather Today:

The 57 degrees wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been so windy but unfortunately the wind made it quite nippy!

Our hostel is...an adventure! 18 people sleeping in bunk beds and sharing bathrooms is not my type of ideal but it's what we signed up for! Poor Tom drove us around all day so he didn't get a single nap but Logan, Chelsie and I all got a power nap which I couldn't have lived without. We have to wake up around 4:00am tomorrow so fingers crossed we can sleep on the plane in the morning!

Overall, we loved Iceland! We would definitely recommend everything we did to anyone that asked and even agreed we could have used another day here to see things like the Volcanoes and Glaciers that were a bit further out. Maybe one day we'll return but until then, so long, Reykjavik!

Tomorrow: London, England

Both my mom and dad served missions in London so I can't wait to visit the city where they met!  Even better: My dad is leaving to guide a church history tour in England tomorrow and his "free" days just happen to be the same days we'll be there!  I can't wait to see him on Monday!