Five days after graduation and four days after my last day of school Miranda and I got on a plane-with her best friend, Mikayla, and Mikayla's mom, Teresa, and started our European Adventure. We spent 17 days, June 11th-27th, traveling to New York, London, Paris, and Dublin. I've taken awhile to blog about this because combined we took about 1900 pictures. How in the heck can I do that in one blog post?! Obviously it will be a condensed version-I'll try to limit it to one or two of my favorite photos from the day. So here's the brief recap:
Day 1-Tuesday June 11th-we took the red-eye flight to NYC
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| Ready to go! |
Day 2- Wednesday June 12th-we took a taxi into Manhattan and met up with the Farnworths. Then we did a marathon tour of NYC. We visited the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, saw the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park, and spent some time in Times Square. NYC was exactly as I expected it to be, just as they portray it to be...dirty, busy, loud, amazing. I loved it. I will go back again when I have longer than 8 hours to see it, but it was a pretty good use of our 12 hour layover:) Then it was back to the airport for another overnight flight..this time to Dublin.
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| It was SO windy at the top of ht Empire State building! |
Day 3-Thursday June 13th-We arrived at the Dublin airport with another night of little to no sleep and took another flight to London. Matt's sister Paula picked us up at the airport and drove us straight to Windsor Castle--a good way to beat off jet lag...although by this time not only were we exhausted, we didn't smell so good either. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with the Kremsers. I LOVE my niece and nephews! They live in a small town called Stokenchurch that is about half way between Oxford and London. Paula was so nice to drive us to the tube station every day and also provide some yummy food. She's just that amazing:)
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| At Windsor Castle...notice the sweatshirts? NYC was our last hot day... |
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| At the McDonalds in Windsor.....where we first found out Europeans don't like unhealthy food. It was weird to have ungreasy fries and meat. |
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| Miranda and her cousin Calvin-yes he really is that cute! |
Day 4-Friday June 14th- Our first full day in London was spent visiting St. Paul's Cathedral (our first encounter with a spiral cement staircase--yes we went ALL the way up to the top), the Tower of London (holy hugeness Batman!), Tower Bridge-up to the top and over, and the London Bridge Experience (basically a haunted house that talks about the first London Bridge). After a full day of sightseeing we headed back to the Kremser's for dinner and relaxing. And yes, I did manage to get sun burnt in the whole 10 minutes the sun was out. Stupid!
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| Tower of London |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| What trip to London would be complete with out a photo like this? |
Day 5- Saturday June 15th- We started the day off at Westminster Abbey--AMAZING! We had hoped to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace at 11:15, but we got off to a late start and then stayed longer at Westminster so we were a bit surprised to see so many people still there when we arrived at about noon. We finally decided to ask someone why the roads were blocked off and they said "The Queen is coming" Cool so, we hung around and sure enough, with much pomp and circumstance, the royal family arrived--the princes on horseback, Kate Middleton in an open carriage, and the queen in a closed carriage. It was a bit surreal as we watched the royal family all up on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. As we started to walk away cannons started going off and then the royal air force flew over...we started to realize that this family was not merely getting back from going shopping. So, we played the stupid tourist card and asked a guard what was going on, he responded in tone that clearly let us know that yes we were stupid Americans "It's the Queens official 60th birthday" again stupid looks from us.." 60 years since she was coronated Queen of England!" Oh! So yes, we absent-mindedly walked in on the Queens 60th Jubilee---highlight of the day for sure! We then went on to meet Paula and Jaxon in Piccadilly Square. They visited the National Gallery with us and then left us as we walked through Trafalgar Square, and got soaked to the bones as we walked to and waited in line for the Churchill War Rooms.
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| The Royal Family |
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| Westminster Abbey |
Day 6-Sunday June 16th- After two days running around London, Sunday was a nice break. We went to church with the Kremsers and then spent most of the day in Oxford. We were able to see the school where they filmed some of Harry Potter in and Alice's Sweet Shop-Lewis Carol's inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. The town of Oxford is beautiful. I loved all the old buildings. When we got back to the Kremser's, Miku had made us a yummy Hungarian dinner...another great day in Europe.
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| The kids eating the Kraft Mac-n-Cheese we brought over from America (along with fruit snacks, Reeses, marshmallows, and dum dum suckers) for lunch. |
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| The Great Hall-looks like they added the fourth row of tables digitally |
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| At Alice's Sweet Shop--where there was actually hardly any candy..whatever |
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| On a cool street in Oxford--Paula was our tour guide for the day |
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