European Adventure Recap - The Houses of Parliament & Big Ben

Friday October 23, 2009

London, England

Big Ben!

I never realized before that Big Ben is actually attached to the Houses of Parliament

Houses of Parliament

This building is across the street from the Houses of Parliament

Slowly But Surely

I am hoping to really start knocking out these blog posts from Europe. I'm only on London and I have 5 more cities to go -whew!

In addition to the new post below, I have updated some of the previous posts to include some of Shannon's photos from the trip. While I took over 2,500 photos myself, believe it or not, there were some things I did not photograph because I knew Shannon had gotten it (and vice versa). So in the previous recaps, I went back and added a few of her shots to complete the posts.

My goal is to break down each city - by either event or attraction - and post several smaller posts as opposed to a few large posts......here's hoping that this helps me to blog more!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to showing you lots more of our little get-away!

European Adventure Recap - View from the Top Volume 2

Friday October 23, 2009

London, England

London Street Scene -

You can see the type of Double-Decker Bus we rode in the distance in this photo

I will have to go back and figure out the names of all of these monuments and buildings.....

Looking out over the Thames

Tower BridgeMe and Big Ben

Although we weren't as close to the overpass as it seems, it was still weird being in an uncovered vehicle while driving under those!

More of London's diverse architecture....

These are balconies that cantilevered out beyond the building.

Londoners should never be late for anything - there are clocks everywhere!

Enjoy Your Thanksgiving!!

"Gratitude...it fills us with a consciousness that God loves and cares for us, even to the least event and smallest need of life."

- Henry Edward Manning

European Adventure Recap - View from the Top Volume 1

Friday October 23, 2009

London, England

The first thing we did this day was get on one of the Red Double-Decker Tour Buses and ride around seeing all the sights.

Here's Shannon on the bus as we head toward Tower Bridge

There was very old architecture.....


.....and very modern architecture.

Being in Architecture for a living, it was neat to see the contrast between the different types of buildings.




Window Washers



Taxi!

"My train pulled into Waterloo..." (in a Brandon Heath song)

I thought the little English Pubs were really cute!

The streets are so narrow! I can't imagine someone driving a big SUV through there.

Up ahead, you can see the Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

This is St. Paul's Cathedral, where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married.

We were surprised that they got married right in the middle of such a very busy downtown area.....if you look two pictures up, you can see that other buildings surround it.

More to come!

European Adventure Recap - A Questionable Breakfast

Friday October 23, 2009

London, England

Breakfast....yum

Our hotel in London served us a "Traditional English Breakfast"

I was unaware that beans are part of a any kind of breakfast, but apparently they are in England.
I wasn't quite sure of everything on my plate, but I gave most of it a try.....

European Adventure Recap - Day One in London

Thursday October 22, 2009

London, England

Our first stop in London was Patisserie Valerie - a French Deli/Bakery - we grabbed lunch and dessert

It was so hard to decide which dessert to get!

They gave us our food in these cute little boxes and bags
Here's my Sam-ich

And my dessert was Awesome! It was some sort of custard thing with these flaky layers in between

We ate our lunch in the courtyard behind our hotel

Surrounding the courtyard are buildings, but the courtyard itself was quiet and relaxing

The next stop was the Tower Bridge - we walked across it to the other side

Here's a building that sits next to the Tower Bridge

And a view of some high-rise buildings in London

We then walked around exploring London for a while...here's a street scene

This was some sort of hotel I think where the windows were lit up and it looked pretty

Another street scene

This was an open-air market near the Covent Garden area

There were several shops there too - some on the lower level that you see the railing around

This was one of the shops on the lower level - a Cupcake Shop - too cute!

We even found a Pizza Hut! We didn't eat there, but we had to take a picture.

Here was a hallway leading to the Tube (subway)....I thought it was neat that it was rounded.

Then it was back to our hotel for a good night's sleep - here's our hotel at night