London

On August 9, we headed to London with Brenda and Nick. It started out horribly as we raced to the airport only to find my families flight had been booked wrong and we had to re-buy our tickets. That was a very painful day I'd like to forget! We stayed in a typical English row house (wonderfully close to the train that allowed us to access all of London) while the owners stayed in our home in Hamburg, I love Home Exchange.com. The money we saved for 2 weeks of free housing makes up for my airport blunder. While in London we saw London Bridge (and was reminded of the song), Parliament and Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace (complete with guards standing in front). I was most excited to go to Kew Gardens, one of the first Botanic Gardens ever and home to loads of symposium information that I was constantly quoting in my school reports. I had high expectations and was a bit disappointed. There were very few flower beds, mostly trees and a few beautiful green houses. There were a few trees near extinction that were interesting to read about and we were quite lucky that it didn't rain on us all day long. Through out the week we also explored the Tate Modern Art Gallery(saw some Picasso's), St. Paul's Cathedral (great view), and the British Museum (loads of other country's prized possession that Brittan bought, stole or received as gifts- mummies, Spinx body parts, the Pantheon art work, the Rosetta Stone, statues that once stood in front of important ancient building from all over the world...) Ted and I also saw the play "Wicked" about the witches in the Wizard of Oz. This play was fantastic and deserves all the rave reviews we've heard over the years. Brenda and Nick saw "Spamalot" and said they laughed their guts out. London is great just for the Broadway plays alone. We enjoyed street performers and Cornish Pasty's (hot pockets) and people watching in the Covent Garden area. We also went to Hampton Court Palace where King Henry the VIII lived with his wives (before beheading one, starting his own religion, and marrying a few other times). I enjoyed the garden tour and Aubrie and Kaitlan loved the maze. We also got to ride in a double decker bus and passed loads of red mail boxes and phone booths, all the things I considered to be "Pinch me I'm in England!" icons. Ted really enjoyed the Indian curry we cooked at home a few of the nights. On the second to last day we got separated from my sister while in the tube station, it took over an hour to meet back up and we were sooo happy to find each other again! Despite the set backs and the British pound being twice as high as the US dollar, we had an enjoyable time and was sad to say good-bye to Brenda and Nick. They were such a big help with the girls and wonderful to hang out with. While they began their 24 hour journey home we headed to the western side of England, Bristol, for another home exchange.







Now this is a vacation!