We arrived at Heathrow from Milan and were overwhelmed with the sparkling Metro. It was like entering a theme park--the Metro employees were so welcoming and everyone stood quietly in lines. After the mass chaos of the Milan airport it was a relief!
We rode the Metro to the Victoria train stop, where we stowed our bags. We had plans to meet up with our friend Stephanie, but not until much later, and we'd both grown really tired of carrying around our big bags.
After dropping our bags, we moseyed about, enjoying the culture and stopped into a pub-style restaurant called Garfunkels to eat lunch.
We were actually tired of touring by that point because we'd been traveling for 18 days, and we had both visited London before, so we decided to take it easy and check out a few places close to each other. We saw the Royal Mews.
Buckingham Palace.
Parliament and Big Ben.
Westminster Abbey-- Sadly, I still haven't been in there and this is the second time I've tried. It was closed that day. :-( I really want to see inside!
Beautiful statues
Hobbit houses(just kidding)
After walking around for a while, we sat in a park by Buckingham Palace and rested. Zach played with a British Squirrel--they were fearless.
We decided to ride the London Eye because I'd never ridden it before. It was near dusk, but we could still see really far. So cool!
We rode the metro. fun!
We goofed around too. Funny how my name was on everything!
Stephanie lived in a cute 3-story house. I think it looked a little like the houses from 101 Dalmations from the top of the roofs.... at least that's what I wrote in my journal. :-) What do you think? Her house was very nice and she was a great host.
The next day, Stephanie had to work, so we hung out and did laundry. We headed into her neighborhood of Chiswick(Chisick) to check it out. We ate at this restaurant.
Stephanie cooked a chinese meal for us-- so good! We hung out with Stephanie and her roommates after dinner for a while.
caveat-- if you don't love Jane Austen, you will be bored for the rest of this entry. I'm just warning you!
The next day, Zach, Stephanie and I went to Bath-- a town about 115 miles away. If you are a Jane Austen fan--as you probably know I am--you would be just as stoked as I was to be going there. This was Jane's hometown, and many of her books mentioned it. In fact, Northanger Abbey is even set in Bath! I actually didn't connect all of this till we got off of the train. So it was a great surprise. :-)
We saw the town church--there was a wedding going on, and everyone leaving was all dressed up with hats on. So cool!
We first went to the Roman Baths. I've seen some ruins before in Israel--and we'd seen some in Pompeii, but these were much more elaborate and kept up. It was fascinating.
We all ate lunch, and then Zach and I went to a history of fashion museum and Stephanie stayed with another friend who'd come with us. It was pretty interesting, with lots of neat clothes. We even went into the Assembly Rooms(!!!) to see some of the clothes. The Assembly Rooms of Northanger Abbey drama. :-)
We were short on time before our train was to leave, and so we almost didn't go on the tour at the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street, where Jane lived. Zach insisted and it was a great decision. It was our favorite part about Bath by far. I learned so much about one of my favorite authors! I wish we'd taken a walking tour, but we didn't know about them until it was too late.
I just thought this was funny.
After seeing Jane Austenland, we headed back to Stephanie's house before we went out to eat at a Thai restaurant and pub with Stephanie's roommates and friends.
We passed by Colin Firth's(MR. DARCYYY) store so I had to take a pic. We went to another pub and enjoyed our last night in Europe.
The next day, we eventually headed to the airport, but made a stop at the Harry Potter metro stop. :-) We are tourists. and fans. :-)
We had a wonderful time in London and Bath. I look forward to when we can visit again. I hope to see all the castles and spots where Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters based their books... and Chatsworth house... Pemberly in P&P the movie. ;-)
So ends our 2008 Europe trip! I hope to write about our honeymoon and trip to Boston ASAP. :-)
