Europe: England Pictures

on the airplane to europe!

first view of the london eye

us and big ben :)

driving under the Tower Bridge on our bus tour

us with the tower of london

the tower bridge from the tower of london

the london eye

changing of the guard at buckingham palace

parliament from the london eye

westminister abbey

platform 9 and 3/4

high tea!!!!!!

the city from the london eye

windsor castle

highclere castle, aka downton abbey!

the roman baths

stonehenge

bath abbey

~Ashley

Europe: London/Bath/Oxford: Days 3-5

'ello Mates!

(All my pictures are at the end again- the events have **) 

Sorry about the delays- I've not been allotted any of the 30 free minutes, and on the night with free internet, I was too tired to write.

So anyway, Tuesday! We went on the London Eye first thing in the morning- beautiful views. A half hour of picture taking :) **

Then we went…. to Kings Cross Station! We found the monument for Platform 9 3/4 and took pictures :) **

Then we exited the tube and went to the British Library. Too boring to give a picture.

Yeah.

So then we went to the Royal Opera House, where the Royal Ballet performs, and took a picture with the ballerina statue :) ** 

Then we went to High Tea at the Lounge- sandwiches, scones, and desserts :) 

The British Museum was…. boring…. I'm also not a museum person, at all. We went to Harrods (HUGE department store, the size of Park City but ONE store, for all you Lancastrians) and shopped as well.

That was really all we did that day. So then- Wednesday.

We left right away from the hotel and went to get a car from the airport. Then we drove (I slept in the car :D) the two-ish hours to Windsor. The town was quite beautiful and quaint- we had British pizza, which is not quite as, uh, delicious… as American pizza we found… and Tango, which is the British version of Fanta- except they had green apple! So good!

Then we went and toured Windsor Castle. **

We left and drove to……. Highclere Castle, where they filmed DOWNTON ABBEY!!! We trespassed to get a picture and I popped on the zoom lens :D **

We drove many more hours to Stonehenge and found a fence around it and you had to pay 20 pounds- which is 30 dollars- to get in twenty feet closer… so we stood outside the fence and snapped some pictures. We were there for a total of about three minutes. No kidding. **

Then we drove the rest of the way to Bath, had dinner, and went to the hotel.

Next day! Thursday.

We toured the Roman Baths, went shopping, and saw Bath Abbey.

We had "cream tea" in which I had a 

" chocolate milkshake", which consisted of chocolate milk with a little dollop of ice cream floating in it! Not what a milkshake is in America, I ASSURE you. 

Very nice town. 

We drove to Oxford and found our hotel, then drove into Abingdon for a nice… dinner. I was sick and therefore did not eat much :( It was delicious and I wish I could have, though!

The next day, Friday, we went to Mcdonalds for breakfast- porridge is oatmeal as we found! Then we drove into Oxford and spent the entire wet, rainy, FREEZING day touring the town. Not very nice AT ALL. Terrible. But we had a marvelous three course dinner at a pub- we loitered there for three whole hours!

Then we went back to the hotel and attempted to find a good British show- but ended up watching 5 USA. We're not original at all.

Saturday, we woke up and had croissants and muffins from Tesco, the British supermarket, and then flew from Heathrow Airport to Paris, France. Our time in England is over, but we are coming to something MUCH better. Maybe.

Yeah. So when we got there, we took the subway (tube no longer) to our hotel and checked in. It looked very scary in the hallway, but the room is nicer than the other ones!

Oh, and did I mention? We have FREE WIFI now!!!! Hurrah! Yeah.

Cheers! (or should I say au revoir? or however you spell that…)

~Ashley

Pictures are here!!! :D

Europe: London: Day 2

'ello, chaps!

(I'm putting all my pictures at the end with captions, just FYI- Saves that precious 30 minutes of free internet :D)

Still in jolly London- we still have a whole 'nother day here until we leave the premises for Bath, Oxford, etc. 

Today we did even more sightseeing, including the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace- it was PACKED!!! 

I managed to elbow my way to the very very front, without my family :) And therefore got many amazing pictures. This one chap was leaning on me for a tripod for his camera! It was quite vexing. Yes.

So anyway, after that, we took another incredibly long stroll to get "tea" someplace called Paul's. I didn't even have tea… just a salad! :)

After that, we went to the National Gallery and plodded through those halls- I'm not much of an art person. 

And even after THAT, we went to the National Portrait Gallery beside. Ugh.

After those two STIMULATING experiences, we walked several hundred miles (or so it seemed) back to our hotel and freshened up. 

We hopped on the tube after a few minutes of confusion with the ticket machines and rode to Picadilly Circus, where we browsed Chinatown and found a dark and very snug Taiwanese restaurant. 

We were all (but Dad :D) pretty wary about it at first, because the menu included words like "intestine", "belly", and "foot". How… exciting.

But once the food arrived, it was very great. Pork kebabs and ground pork (tasted like ground beef…) rice bowls are very good.

As I also may add, the sign on the door said, "Please Knock The Door"….. you can imagine our wariness, I suppose.

We left and headed through Chinatown across the street tooooo………. our theatre for LES MISERABLES!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say, I was pretty psyched going in. But coming out was a whole different experience. The whole performance ABSOLUTELY blew me away. It was better than the two Broadway shows I've seen (Wicked and Newsies). 

Jean val Jean was AMAZING, and so was Javert's understudy, and Enjorlas (or however you spell that) was fab as usual. Marius and Cosette were a little downing, but whatever- the rest made up for it- especially the 5 or 6 year old 4 ft Baby Cosette- ADORBS!!!

After that, we caught the tube again over to our hotel, and here I sit. 

Night.

~Ashley

Here's my pictures! Enjoy :)

Europe: London: Day 1

G'day mates!

Well, we're here! Good ol' jolly Britain. I can already feel myself falling into the accent little by little- it doesn't take much :)

So anyway, I'm planning to do these Europe posts mostly with pictures, and describe the pictures, and therefore tell what we did each day. 

Since we only have 30 minutes of free wifi, I wrote this on my Notes and copied and pasted it into Blogger- waste not, want not, right? Yes.

So here it goes- May 17-19 in pictures.

Our first view of the London Eye!

A small obsession with telephone boxes

Big Ben and Us

We took an open topped, double decker bus tour and I took tons of pictures- that I didn't know what of… so I shall not put those, no.  :)

Saint Paul's Cathedral

The Tower Bridge

That's about it for today- I'll try to post tomorrow with our 30 minutes of free internet :)

Cheerio!!!

~Ashley