The last day

Our last day in London (Sunday) was great. We said goodbye to Heartbreak Hotel:


...and went to church with Steve, which was really fun:

It was the seminary sacrament meeting, so listening to a bunch of funny high schoolers talk was a good start to the day.

We spent the rest of the day in the Kensington area, which is where I lived during my study abroad. I realized that I had it made back then and I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should have. Here's my old flat on Hyde Park Gate, across from Kensington Gardens. I lived on the second floor (without an elevator, gasp!)--another thing that I didn't appreciate at the time:


We picknicked in Kensington Gardens (which, by the way, I always thought was part of Hyde Park [thanks to my street being called Hyde Park Gate, I guess]! I feel like my whole life has been a lie) and enjoyed the sky. This is me saying "The sky in London IS HUGE!!!"


I also enjoyed the birds. I was like, obsessed with the swans. I had been telling Robbie that I wanted to get into bird-watching and I don't think he took me seriously at the time, but when we got to the pond he told me that maybe I should pick up the hobby. (I thank Allie's grandparents for my new quest.)


Robbie doesn't like birds as much though:


We checked out the Prince Albert monument, which is one of my favorites in London:

The Peter Pan statue is a good one too:


The Princess Diana fountain in Hyde Park, which was full of naked children, RUNNING at breakneck speeds. The lifeguard in me hated that.


View of the Serpentine and the bridge, where I used to go running:


The wall outside the V&A museum:


Robbie on the Tube--so much cleaner than Paris's system:


I love Kensington. It felt so familiar going back. I didn't even need to get out my map. That was an exciting accomplishment. I also told Robbie that if we were to move to Europe that London would be on my list of top cities to live in. I really love it.

Anyway, after our jaunt in Kensington, we went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey. If you're ever visiting London, I think that Evensong is the best way to visit the abbey. It's free, it's beautiful and peaceful, and you get to enjoy what the church is known for (the music and the service). They performed Purcell's "Hear My Prayer" as they walked in, which was my favorite part because you could hear it so clearly in the building. We also lucked out because it was the graduation of the boys in the choir school. The lady next to Robbie asked him if he was a choir boy, which I thought was funny. (The choir boys had names like Raphael, Maxim, and Augustus. They also had those sweet high collars.) Apparently her great-nephew was graduating, and she told us that he has perfect pitch. She also told us how hard it was to get into the school and that you have to be well-connected. I liked the inclusion of that information.

The sermon was so cool. The Dean of the abbey spoke about how every time he goes to the abbey, he learns something new. (This should sound familiar to any Mormon reader.) I guess there's something like 3,300 people buried at the abbey, so he was talking about how he likes to find new graves and find out more about the person. He then transitioned into talking about lifelong learning, and how the boys graduating will be going on to higher education in choir school... it was an interesting insight into choir culture, I guess. He also quoted St. Augustine, who said, "He who sings, prays twice." That sentiment really struck a chord (HAHAHA!) with me. I think that the spirit was definitely present during the service. It was really beautiful, and a nice way to end the trip.


After the abbey, we said goodbye to Big Ben:


...and hello to the Cadbury Flake, my favorite ice cream truck treat:


If anyone's up for another trip to London anytime soon... I will do it. Happily.

London: Day 2

I kind of forgot about finishing up with London. Oops.

Saturday was fun. We started out with a trip to Regents Park (right by our hotel) and breakfast with the birds. (I love birds [except for pigeons]. More on that later.)

Elvisly Yours was right next to the London Beatles Store.

Heron buddies! Are those herons? Who knows. I just thought it was funny that they looked like old men sitting in a row with their beards.

Robbie loves weeping willows.

Afterward we met up with Mary Helen and Valeria again for gallery strolling, vintage shopping at Brick Lane, and breakfast for lunch at The Breakfast Club. Yum. The weather wasn't really on our side that day--we had originally intended to meet for a day in the park, but it was pouring rain by the time we met them. Sad, but we didn't stop till we got enough. And FYI--hot chocolate in Paris sucks, but I had it three times on Saturday in London and it was always good. Curious.

This bathroom had Strawberry Shortcake wallpaper (who is called "Charlotte aux Fraises" in France... mouthful, right?) and the other ones had Fraggle Rock and He-Man wallpaper. Cool.

Behold--the disco.

This was a map in one of the galleries representing the birthplaces of visitors who came to the gallery. England's pile of stickers was huge. I guess that shouldn't be surprising.

After our rendez-vous with MH and Valeria and friends, we wandered around the city looking for something to do. The weather was crummy and everything was closed, so we just improvised for a while. We ended up walking around the touristy sites that Robbie wanted to see, starting with Trafalgar Square, walking through the Whitehall District, going back up to St. James Park (pelicans!!!!!!) and Buckingham Palace (which never ceases to underwhelm me), to Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, and ending at Hummus Bros in SoHo. A note on Hummus Bros--I subsisted almost solely on variations of pita and hummus sandwiches when I lived in London. How did I not know about this place?? It's super cheap, and so good. I could make meals out of hummus for the rest of my life. And a note on The Village, which is a classy gay bar across the street from Hummus Bros--there were at least five men in baseball hats and their undies dancing on tables in the windows for all the world to see. Thank you, SoHo.


The end!

The first day

I've got so much to say about London. Maybe I should start from the beginning. I've been itching to go back since 2006, when I did my six-week study abroad. I had long hair and a denim skirt. See?


It was a lot of fun. I loved being there. But just like now, I was homesick a lot, and I probably wanted to go home to my friends in Provo. (Especially then, though, because I had really bad self-esteem issues the previous semester and I had just made friends with Lissa and Carrie and Jess and Veronica and Marcilyn and etc. and then suddenly I left, and I just wanted to go back to my new friends.) It was also a hard time because I had very little money. I'm pretty sure that the money that we spent this weekend was equivalent to the amount that I spent the entire 6 weeks I was there. Also, the pound is weaker now than it was then. (1.6ish vs. 1.9ish. Woof.)

Anyway, I learned a lot about myself in London. Like that I wanted to work in museums. I remember g-chatting with my dad about visiting the Tate Modern and I said, "I think I want to work in museums." See?


So. There you go. There is the back story.

Now I'll recount the adventure, which began with an 8 hourish trek from Paris. (You can skip this if you get bored.) In the time it took us to use Easy Jet's services, we probably could have driven to London. First, our train to the airport had technical difficulties, and even though we had planned our trip to have an hour cushion at the airport, we showed up 2 minutes after the gates were supposed to close. (That was the first time I cried.) Then we ran across the airport (in case you missed it, CDG airport is HUGE), where a flight attendant yelled to us "The plane is late!" An hour late. So we waited some more, then we waited in the plane for a while, then we waited in the passport line for a while at Luton, then we waited an hour and a half for our bus (we missed the first one because of the flight delay) and got out of the airport at 1:30, got to London at 2:30 (when the tube isn't operating) and we had no cash and WE WALKED TO OUR HOTEL. If you know the area, we walked from the Baker Street station (by Regent's Park) to King's Cross station. That was a blast. I mean, it took all of 30 minutes or something, but it was 2:30 in the morning. Come on! So now you can understand why I cried the second time (when I saw our room), even though I should have been expecting it. I'm the one that booked the London weekend. I saw the review that said "I would NEVER bring my wife here." I also saw that every other hotel in London ran at about 300-350 pounds for three nights. Thankyouverymuch.

Okay!

So! We were not daunted by Thursday. Well, I was, a little bit, but Friday was Robbie's birthday, and we just wanted to have a good time. We went to Borough Market before we met up with Robbie's mission friend, Steve (who is from the London area and lives in the city right now). I love Borough Market because everyone gives you food there. (Not so much at our market in Paris.) Robbie and I ate our fill of cheese and Turkish delight and jam and chocolate and other delicious treats. My favorite treat was chocolate covered honeycomb, given to me by a man who yelled out, "Hey! Red lady!" (I was wearing red. Who would have thought?) "Eat this!" I will never refuse such an offer.


After we met up with Steve, we all took a lovely stroll along the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster Bridge, and then back to Tower Bridge. We were lucky this weekend, because 2 of the 3 days were sunny and beautiful. Friday was especially beautiful with puffy clouds and a cool breeze.


After that walk and some Greek food and some ice cream, we went to Greenwich Park to check out the observatory and the prime meridian. It was anti-climactic. But it was cool to visit the Docklands, since I'd never been down there before.


After Steve left, we went back downtown for some birthday dinner, a walk, and a visit to the Tate Modern.


After that, we had a little nighttime stroll. It was late, but 1) the sights all lit up at night are pretty, and 2) we just needed to spend as little time as possible in Hotel Scary. Sorry that half of the pictures are blurry.


Here is a parting shot of Robbie's hair, blowing in the lamplight.


In his defense, we both need haircuts in a bad way.