Sunday, October 2, 2011

England

Johanna and Brittany Spears :)  at Madame Tussard's
Our first apartment on Henrietta Street in Covent Garden


First American food in a loooonnnnngggg time

Pan pizza yummy
French bakery across the street

Having fun on a cute London street

Yes, the phone booth does work.

Joshua's 24th birthday and where did he want to go, Chipotle, the only one is Europe was in London :)
Joshua pointing to the wallpaper in Chipotle to the sentence that says "I am not addicted"

UUUmmm some fountain in London haha

Big Ben from a very far distance.

Where to go next????

Big Ben very close up.
The London Eye, the WORLD'S highest observational wheel, each pod holds around 30 people.

Sarah in front of the House of Parliament

Joshua,me and Johanna

On our way to Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace. We couldn't get in because they were sold out a month ahead :(

Sarah and Johanna

Joshua and JT
The Imperian War Museum, the best historical museum I've ever been to. It covers the wars of the last century.  The kids loved it and said it was one of their favorite places in London.

Us with a man who had lived some of his childhood years in England during the war.  Of course I had to ask a million questions, which he was more than happy to answer. Great first hand account of information.

Changing of the Guard

At Madame Tussard's Wax Museum. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Samuel with Pele

Johanna was so proud she took a picture of this bird mid-song :)

St. Paul's Cathedral where Prince Charles and Princess Dianna got married
In picking England, we were looking for a place that would get us out of the Italian heat. Well we went from the heat to rain! We had a temperature drop of about 25 degrees also. It was great to be in a country that was so green. England was also a chance for the kids to be able to communicate in English with people other than their family. They were getting homesick for American food so this trip was timed perfectly. I reserved two apartments through a company called Vacation Rentals by Owners, basically people renting out their vacation homes to tourists. I was a little leary because you really wouldn't know what you were getting until you got there in person. You could see pictures and read other peoples comments but not much other than that. The first apartment was in the upscale trendy neighborhood of Covent Gardens. I knew it was going to be okay when the kids said "Dang mom you did good on this one" :) It was literally a stones throw from eating,shopping and people watching. It was like living on Rodeo Drive. Since we were so close to everything, it was also noisy at night. The setup was shops,restaurants,and bars on the ground level and the apartments on the 2nd,3rd,and 4th floor. Well the bars pretty much stay open till 3 in the morning and then bottle pickup comes everyday at 6 in the morning. The location was worth the noise though. The second apartment was in SoHo, very artsy, lots of theatres large and small and lots of night clubs. Let me describe it and see if you can figure out our new location :) There was a shop across the street from us that would be about 10 steps racier than Fredericks of Hollywood, with mannequins,male and female, showcasing the products. One nightclub called GAY and another called The Rainbow Room. I'm sure you can use the context clues to determine the flavor of our new neighborhood. We had all said we wanted to experience different parts of London and we did. We did alot of walking and saw alot of sights. We had a great time being tourist in a country we could speak the language :)