We left New Jersey on the sweetest Virgin Atlantic airplane ever. However, we were lucky enough to be seated in the very back row (seriously last row, couldn't get any farther back without putting us in the toilets). We landed in Heathrow airport about 45 minutes early (~1915) and after an hour of waiting for customs (yes Kurt they opened up Europe for us and half of India's population) we finally made it to our hotel near the airport. Had some grub at the local McD (free wifi and cadbury caramel shakes...mmm) The Hotel Ibis was awesome and very clean, friendly, modern. We were very sad to leave it the following day.
05/24/2011
We left Hotel Ibis around 10 am (after a terrible British breakfast... jk it's a lot like American breakfasts, except for runny white scrambled eggs and disgusting "sausage") and made our way on a double decker bus with our luggage to the closest tube stop (the local subway) available. We finally got on the tube with all our luggage and made way to our next hotel. But we could not check in to our next hotel until 2 pm. So instead of getting off at the station, we went all the way to Kings Cross and tried to spy platform 9 3/4, but it was hidden by a crowd. We then turned around and went back on the Picadilly line to our stop, Baron's Court. We then proceeded to walk forever trying to find our hotel in this neighborhood area. We managed to find a lot of cool stores along the way. After getting directions from 2 people, we finally made it to our hotel and found out that we had passed the street at the very beginning! (it was literally a block from the freaking tube station!!) We dropped off our luggage and grabbed a bite to eat (Magnum bars and local candy/drinks) at a local convenience store. After that we managed to actually check in to our hotel successfully. We then went to Leicester Square (and hiked up a million stairs of the stationary escalator b/c Zane thought we could magically run up them *insert angry face*) and got our tickets (while panting and trying to catch our breath) for Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre. We then proceeded to Westminster. After getting out of the tube stop, the first thing we saw was Big Ben across the street. It was enormous, but beautiful (you should've seen the look on Jenny's face). We walked around Big Ben and Parliament and headed toward Westminster Abbey. We got some cool pictures of Westminster Abbey and wanted to go inside, but because of a certain American President visiting the UK at the same time we were, Westminster Abbey was closed. Following that we went on the London Eye which had some amazing views. We then headed back toward the theatre area, and managed to get lost in scary China Town, asked a police officer where Queen's Theatre was and he had no idea (seriously, Queen's Theatre was only a couple blocks away, that policeman was a disgrace to all Brits). We found the theatre, but admission wasn't being seated until 19:00. So we decided to roam around and visit some of the shops nearby, and then got some fish and chips for dinner. It was delicious, and then we went back to the theatre. The theatre was incredible and we had some freakin awesome seats. There were at least 3 characters that we recognized from the PBS special. Thankfully no Nick Jonas as Marius (involuntary shudder at the thought). The play was awesome, and Jenny loved it. We then left and tried to find the tube stop for Leicester Square, but managed to get lost and ended up finding the tube stop for Picadilly Circus (the Times Square of London). My wallet instantly got lighter as Jenny saw all the places to shop for the following day. We went back to the hotel (and actually found it first try this time!) and passed out for the night.
5/25/2011 (and I would walk 500 miles...)
Let me start out by saying that I love Jenny, but I swear she was trying to kill me (this is all crap, it was all Zane's idea!!) Anyway, after a forgetful breakfast of cereal and toast at our new hotel (which has less than friendly staff, but semi-decent rooms) we left for St. Paul's Cathedral. The inside of St. Paul's Cathedral was breaktaking. After walking around the inside and the the basement, we made the fateful journey up. We climbed all 530 steps to the top of the dome that overlooked the city. These steps wouldn't be as bad if all of them were the same size or shape. Zane got squeezed tight a couple of times with how low the ceiling was in the stairwell. After St. Paul's we ran and got some sandwiches at a local shop and then went to Shakespeare's The Globe Theatre. We got the floor tickets and were literally touching the stage while the play was going on. We watched All's well that ends well. After the intermission both of our legs were tired, so we decided to walk to tower bridge because it didn't look too far away. On the way to Tower Bridge we happened to run across London Bridge, (and yes it looked like it was ready to be falling down, falling down, falling down). We eventually made it to Tower Bridge and walked along Tower Bridge, and went and saw Tower of London. We then hopped on the tube (*note most of the trains were busy or off schedule this day because somebody actually got trapped under one of the trains, so it was a nightmare) and went to Picadilly Circus to let Jenny do some shopping. After walking around for a bit, we accidentally discovered Soho, and now understand why it is called such. For the most part we tried to keep our eyes to the ground until we managed to get out of there. After this dirty and scary mishap, we decided that we should walk to Hyde Park and get some dinner. This was not a brilliant move on our part. We walked for what seemed like hours, and found lots of cool stores and statues. We finally came across this road with all these American flags and British flags on it. We went and asked a security guard where we were and he looked at us like we were joking. "At the mall, Buckingham Palace is just at the end of the street" he replied. So apparently two Americans can stumble upon Buckingham Palace if they walk enough. So we went and saw Buckingham Palace, but yet again there was an enormous crowd, more than usual. Then we started hearing a certain American President's name again. We then saw a caravan of police cars and security come up to the gates and everyone started freaking out (for no reason because they were coming to pick him up). We then walked to Hyde Park from there and walked along the massive park, which is incredibly beautiful, to the Diana Memorial Fountain. We then started walking towards South Kensington tube stop (or at least trying to find it) and we managed to find the LDS chapel nearby. We then ran into the Sister missionaries and chatted with them for awhile. We then went and got some more fish and chips at a local place. We then left there grabbed some dessert at a place nearby and took it back to the hotel to eat. We shared a raspberry tart and something described as "a chocolate bomb". We then passed out again.
05/26/2011
We started off and for whatever reason (I think it was all of the signs) we thought the "British Museum" was called the British Museum of Natural History. We got there and found out that it was not the cool museum that everyone loves. It was still cool and we wandered around for awhile looking at dinosaur bones, rocks/minerals, monkey skeletons, and a quick recap of Jenny's Anatomy and Physiology classes. We then went and got some good apple pies at McDonalds, so we could use their free wifi to figure out where to go to the real British Musuem. We finally found out where we needed to go and were trying to locate a nearby Nando's (b/c Cam swears by it), but it turn got lost and found the musuem, so we just grabbed some pizza at the Pizza Express down the alley from the front gates. We tried something different (some Italian pizza that I can't spell or pronounce, but was really tasty). We then quickly made it to the musuem. It is seriously an amazing place, it has over 7 million items in there. We saw the Rosetta Stone, and some mummies and just a ton of cool stuff. We only had a couple of hours before it closed and on the map it listed "A History of the World in 100 objects" and we knew we couldn't get all of those in, so we chose to do the other list of the "Guardians of the Museum" which consisted of: the Mummy of Hornedjtef, The Royal Game of Ur, Statue of Ramesses II, Rosetta Stone, Head of Augustus, Hoxne Hoard, Sutton Hoo Helmet, Chinese Tang tomb figures, Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island Statue, Benin plaque: the oba with Europeans, Double-headed serpent, and Pieces of eight (the Durer's Rhinoceros was also on the list, but was taken away for an Australian Art Exhibit). It was all very fun and Zane got extremely distracted in each room, so it was the first time that I was actually going faster than him. After getting to see all of these awesome artifacts, we got to peruse for another 45 minutes or so. We are saving a day when we head back to London, just to solely dedicate it to the Musuem, even though if we had a week there, we probably still wouldn't be able to get the full experience because there is just SO much to see! As we headed out of the Musuem, we got to experience a true downpour that didn't just abruptly stop within a few minutes like it usually does in Denver/Salt Lake, so we got to run to the nearest tube stop (that unfortunately wasn't that close) to find shelter. We had other places we wanted to visit, but they were all outside and we didn't want to fight the weather, so we headed back to the "Hotel." We were trying to find a place by the hotel to eat, but everything seemed to be closed, so we went to the nearby convenience store and stocked up on some tasty snacks (Jaffa cakes, Digestives and some candy bars). When we got back to the hotel, we realized how hungry we actually were, so we went upstairs to try their food. I ordered a hamburger and Zane ordered chicken curry. When they brought my food to the bar the lady said I needed to pay first and they only accepted cash (we had used up the last of our cash earlier that day), so Zane sprinted his way to an ATM in the rain and by the time he made it back they still hadn't even prepared his food! The food turned out to be decent, but we're glad we only ate there once. We went down to our room and began to pack everything up and prepare for our next journey before going to bed.
5/27/2011
We once again beat our alarm clock, got up and went to our last breakfast of toast and sugarless cereal, and for whatever reason, it tasted better than all the other days. We went back to our room to get ready and I was lollygagging, knowing that the train didn't leave until 1057, but Zane was anxious to go by 930 and good thing he was. We head for the King's Cross station with all of our luggage, but unfortunately didn't make it to Platform 9 & 3/4 again! I was very sad, but we were trying to quickly find where we needed to buy our tickets. After what seemed like the longest walk to the Eurostar ticketing office (seriously I don't know how their tunnels and stations look so small on the outside, but take forever to walk any distance in them) we saw a decent little line, so I had no fear that we would be on time. Naturally though, I was wrong and it took 45 minutes and the lady having us cut in front of other people to buy our tickets that cost us 4 times the amount that we had expected (and it was only to Brussels)! I had a near heartattack especially when they said Zane's card had been declined (honestly what's the point of setting up the travel notification if they're just going to halt all of your transactions anyway?! Especially if it had already been after 5 days of using the card?). We had to run to the platform, just to be stopped by security and passport verification. We made it with just a couple of minutes to spare. For the following two hours, we were able to see the beautiful countryside of London, France and Brussels. I managed to even fall asleep when we were in the Chunnel, despite the massive pressure change. Zane wasn't very happy with me either, saying that it was probably the most expensive nap I've ever taken. We got off at Brussels and were happy to see signs with English Translation, but still had to ask where to go buy our tickets to Den Haag. Thankfully, these tickets were very reasonable, and we had an hour to get to our Platform. We stopped to get some delicious waffles and waited for our departure.
*We're sorry if you got lost during this post since both of us typed and editted it.
