Althorp, London Eye, and Tower of London

Hello from across the pond! I believe Annie and I have officially packed in everything we possibly could so far on the London portion of this trip. Wednesday started with a trip to Althorp. A trip which we almost missed, but thankfully the bus driver came back for us! Althorp is located about 2 hours via bus outside of London, and is the childhood home of Princess Diana. I'm not sure how it started, but our family has always loved Princess Diana and I remember closely following her when I was growing up. It was a very sad day when she passed away, and I remember staying up to watch her funeral when I was in High School. Althorp actually is over 13,000 acres, and we were able to see her home, the memorial exhibit, and the oval lake where she is allegedly buried. Below is the picture of the main house, although it doesn't do the estate justice as it is an incredibly beautiful piece of property.

On Thursday, we hopped on the tube over to the London Eye. The Eye is basically a huge ferris wheel, but each capsule on it holds about 30 people and it gives incredible views of the city. The total time of the "flight" was about 30 minutes. I'm not usually squeamish about rides like this, but I have to admit I could not walk around in the capsule without letting go of the railing! Annie of course found this amusing. We were able to get a few good pics before we exited the Eye.

After the Eye we headed over to The London Dungeon. It is a theme park which has displays and reenactments of subjects such as the Black Plague and Jack the Ripper. Annie and I had seen this on TV and thought it would be fun, but we were mistaken. It wasn't worth it, but at least we learned our lesson. After the Dungeon we headed over to Harrods, which is London's most famous department store. It is huge! We were told it covers over 13 acres and pretty much sells anything you could possibly think of. We got a chance to check out the Evening and Wedding Gown Boutique. Amazing!!! After Harrod's, we decided to try and catch a movie. We ended up with tickets to "Mamma Mia" which we really liked! It's funny because in the movie theaters here, they give you assigned seating. A strange concept to us. 

Today started off with a trip on the "Original London Sightseeing Tour Bus." I had done something similar to this when I went to NYC with the Arzaga family, and it really was the best way to see the sights in the city. We covered all the major areas, and Annie finally got to see Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards as we drove by. Sorry Mom, the Mews were closed today....I swear! The bus driver on our tour even told us. A lot of the sights we had seen already when we came upon the IMAX ad for The Dark Knight. Annie and I got pretty excited about this and we're taking pictures. I don't think other people on the bus really understood why out of all the landmarks we were seeing, these two crazy girls were scrambling to take pictures of a movie poster :)

We ended the bus tour with the Tower of London. This was the site that holds the crown jewels which are spectacular, but they don't allow any pictures of them. Outside the building, we also saw the famous London Guards.

The Tower of London was also the site where they used to execute people for there crimes. The Tower of London is located right outside the famous Tower Bridge.

After the Tower of London we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before heading out to do the "Jack the Ripper" walking tour at 7:30pm this evening. I did this last time I was here, and it did not disappoint the second time around. The tour was guided by a "Ripperologist" that told great stories about London's first and most famous serial killer. One of his colleague's was even one of the aides that helped Johnny Depp research his role as a detective in "From Hell." Annie and I had a great time with the crowd listening to all the crazy stories of how the mystery went down in London in 1888. It was funny because there were twin boys on the tour who were about our little brother, Zach's age. They looked JUST like him with there hair from behind. Annie and I kept doing a double take to see if it was him! 

I think I have covered everything so far. Annie and I meet up with our tour group tomorrow evening. As soon as I have more updates, I will post!

Liverpool, Westminster Abbey, and Hairspray.

It has definitely been a busy two days. Monday started off with an early call time. We had to be at the train station at 6:30am to catch our train to Liverpool! We have talked about going to Liverpool since my last trip to London 6 years ago, and I know our family is anxious to hear about it (Zach...this means you!). The train ride was a little over 2 hours long. When we arrived to Liverpool, Annie and I made our way around the city to see all the Major Beatles sites. The first place we saw was the Cavern Club, and the Cavern Pub. Both of these locations were down a tiny alley, and only a few steps away from eachother. The Cavern Club was the location of the Beatles very first performances. They played over 200 shows here before getting a record deal, and of course the rest is history.

Heading inside the club, you had to walk down about five flights of stairs as it was originally a basement below a warehouse. We got to stand on the very stage where the Beatles were born.

After the Cavern Club and Pub, Annie and I headed into the Bealtes Experience. The museum wouldn't allow you to take pictures inside, but it was amazing to see all of the memorabillia and displays throughout the hour long tour. Annie and my favorite part was the section titled "Beatlemania" that showed a constant video loop of millions of girls in total hysteria and in most cases, passing out. Quite the scene! After the museum, we were off in our very own Magical Mystery Tour complete with an authentic bus like the one used by the Beatles, much to Annie's embarassment :)

Our tour guide had an abundance of great info for each of the sites we saw including Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, and all four Beatles childhood homes.

After our tour was over, we headed back to the Liverpool train station for our journey home. It was quite a long day, but well worth it! After such a long day on Monday, we slept in for a bit today before heading out to Westminster Abbey, which for all you "Friends" fans, it was hands down the best Abbey we have ever seen, as shown by Annie's reaction below:

We also saw the famous Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye, which we will be riding this Thursday!

We then headed for some shopping, and we're able to purchase tickets to the evening performance of "Hairspray" on the West End! Annie and I LOVED the play and we sang along to all the songs. Looking around we seemed to be the only ones mouthing the words. It was great! We got third row seats on the floor, so all in all it was a fantastic show! Tomorrow is our tour into Althorp, the childhood home of Princess Diana. I think that sums it up for now. I will post more when I can! 

Abbey Road

Getting used to this time change is definitely a challenge! Annie and I ended up waking up at about 4am and never could get back to sleep. So we got up and ready and headed out looking at a few places around our hotel area. We visited the Tesco (like a Safeway meets Walgreens) to get a few odds and ends. The only reason I even knew what it was in the first place was from hearing about it in a Lily Allen song. From there we went on to meet up for a London Walk. This is a company that gives walking tours all over the city in all different themes. The walk we chose for today, since we are going to Liverpool tomorrow, was the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour walk. Our guide was very well informed and obviously a huge Beatles fan who has met Paul McCartney several times with pictures to prove it. We saw Paul's London offices, the original Apple offices that was started by The Beatles and also the site of there last live show that was the rooftop performance:

the studio where "Hey Jude" was recorded, and of course, the famous Abbey Road Studios where they recorded "Abbey Road" as well as shot the album cover artwork. It's funny because if you didn't know what it was, it would just be any ordinary crosswalk and actually has quite a bit of traffic passing by. A lot of drivers were laughing at everyone running across the street trying to take pictures of ourselves. Annie and I laughed every time we walked across, but most likely we won't see any of those motorists again :) 

While we were on the tour, we met a really nice girl named Alexis who has been studying abroad here for the past month from Miami. She was incredibly helpful with lots of great advice on all different activities to do and the best way to do them. Alexis, if you get a chance to read this, thanks for all the info! It was super helpful! From the Beatles tour we were off to Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus for food and some shopping. We ate at Planet Hollywood, where Annie found this Joker prop from Batman Returns very exciting as expressed by the look on her face:

We headed back to the hotel early as we have an early wakeup call tomorrow morning. We have to be at the train station at 6:30am for our train ride to Liverpool! Signing off for now.....

London, We Have Landed!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for checking our blog for our Europe trip this summer. Since I know our friends and family are so interested (admit it...I know you all are) and because it is cheaper then calling home, we decided to set this up for everyone back in the states to see how we are doing along the way. I want to send a big thank you to my friend Brodie Brazil for not only letting me steal this idea from his trip last summer, but for setting this site up for me. He even posted our itinerary for us to the left (but hey, I did agonize over the photo selection! That's the important part right?) You can leave us comments on any post. If any one has any suggestions or advice for activities for us here, please post them!

Annie and I safely landed in London this morning at 7:00am London time (11pm Pacific). Our send off actually started VERY early Friday morning (12:01am to be exact) in Pleasanton when we went to see "The Dark Knight." All of our friends know we have been waiting to see this movie, and it did not disappoint! Because of that however I think we got about 3 hours of sleep last night, and about 2 on the plane. We had a direct flight to Heathrow and used the Tube to get to our hotel. Even though I printed out directions, we did get a little lost finding our hotel from the tube station, but hey, we are now very familiar with this area! We ended up napping for 2 or 3 hours (does that count as a "nap?"), then taking the tube to the restaurant, "Sticky Fingers." My mom and I went here many times when I was here last and liked it a lot, so it was fun to go back to the Kensington area and look around. We were mainly walking just to stay awake! We are back in our hotel now so we can rest up for what hopefully will be an action packed trip!! I don't have any pics just yet, so I will leave you with this lovely photo taken on my cell last night at the movie of my little brother wearing the Joker Tshirt I bought for him just for the occasion:

 I will update again as soon as I can, so check in when have a minute!