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I
don't know if you remember, but while Brad was writing the last update, my
mum (No, I didn't spell mom wrong…that is how they say and spell mom)
was in the air on her way to see us. She got here safe and sound. Here we
are in a picture when she arrived at Victoria Station in London. I was so
happy to see her!!! The night before I only slept about two hours…if
that. It was like a kid leaving for a trip to Disney World the next day.
I had so much planned for us to do. During the week we visited Buckingham Palace (Queen's residence), St. James Palace (Prince Charles, William and Harry's main residence), 10 Downing Street (Prime Minister's residence - currently Tony Blair), Big Ben and the Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, London Eye, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the London Bridge. We also walked through Portobello Market in Notting Hill. One of our favorite tours was Kensington Palace. This is where Princess Diana lived and many queens and kings before her.
In the Palace, there is a display of Princess Diana's dresses and the present Queen's hats and purses. Fashion is a definite for the royalty. My kind of people…
During the week we took a two day trip to Paris on the Eurostar which travels at 186 mph. This is the only train that travels through the English Channel. You are under water for 20 minutes and the entire journey is about 2 hours and 35 minutes. This was my mom's first trip to Paris so our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. When we got up in it, it started snowing. There we are in the Eiffel Tower on the first of three levels.
Our
next stop in Paris was avenue des Champs Elysees where is Arc de Trump stands
at the end of the street. There are tons of shops on this street that lead
up to the Arc. So the Arc had to wait. That night we had a wonderful French
dinner. The next day we toured part of the largest museum in the world, The
Louvre. This is where the Mona Lisa can be found. They sell seven day passes
to this museum so you can imagine how large of a place it is. We made a point
to see the Mona Lisa, Crown Jewels and a few other things in between. We had
to shop a little more before we left Paris so we decide to visit Galleries
Lafayette, a shopping mall in the heart of the city. Until this point, we
had no trouble communicating. However, I knew we were not going to get out
of France that easy. It was time to eat and we could not find a restaurant
with any bit of English in the description of the food. We just had to choose
one. We ordered and guess pretty well except for the appetizer…who knows
what it was?
Now the fun really starts. Have you ever heard the term shop till you drop? We did just that! There are so many boroughs in London to shop. We tried to hit as many of those as possible. I think we spent most of our time in Covent Garden and Knightsbridge. Harrods was a big stop considering they have everything and anything you could ever think of under one roof. We shopped, ate lunch, shopped some more, ate again and shopped some more. We also made a stop at Harvey Nichols. The martini on the top floor was a nice break from the purses, jeans and shoes. You can see us in this picture trying to find a pair of shoes.
Brad always accuses me of being part Mexican, but I do have to admit that my mom and I ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant four times while she was here. I know you are probably asking…wasn't she only there for one week? The answer is YES! I love Mexican food and she does too. However, you can't come to London, England without going to a pub and having fish & chips. We worked that in between our Krispy Kreme doughnut splurges. I don't understand why everyone always says the food in London is not good. Even my mom said she didn't have a bad meal the whole time she was here. You can find just about anything you fancy here in our part of the world.
We
went to see the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie in the West End. The West
End is London's equivalent to New York's Broadway. This musical was Brilliant!
It is also playing on Broadway in NYC so if you get a chance it is hilarious.
(saaaad to be aw awone in da wawld!) The Sunday before my mom left, we went
back to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard's ceremony. Come to
find out, it was a good day to go. The guards were playing Spain's national
anthem to show their condolences to the people of Madrid in response to the
terror attacks that week.
Overall, I think my mom had a fun filled trip. She even saw some interesting people tapping and sleeping on the tube. I dreaded the day she had to leave. It was as sad as the day we left out of Birmingham. I can't wait to see her again in June!
Brad's
job is still going well. He has been lucky the past couple of week because
he has been able to work from home a few days. We have been to a gym several
times now. The gym is about a mile away so we jog there, work out, and jog
back. I wasn't too impressed about the light weight Brad was benching until
I realized that the units were in kilograms. Another conversion we had to
learn (1kg = 2.2lbs).
We have been pretty sore the past few days, as you could imagine, considering it took us over three months to get back to the gym. What am I talking about…I never went to the gym, but Brad was very consistent in Birmingham.
Talk about a small world. We went to dinner with Kelly and Grant last weekend. They are both from Tuscaloosa and graduated from the University of Alabama. They only live a couple tube stops away from us. We met them at their local pub then went out to dinner. We had a blast. Maybe we should start an alumni association across the pond… Just a thought…
That is all for this week. My dad will be the next to visit. I am looking forward to it! Don't forget to take a look at our new London and Paris pictures. We love hearing from you, so if you haven't already, please sign our guest book. Also, if you have missed an update take a look at the past updates link. I hope you all are enjoying our updates…until next time. We miss you!