A Visit To The Queen

We were lucky enough to get away for a weekend in London to visit Ashley.  Hannah stayed with my parents in Germany and we spent a few fun days exploring the city.  I have been to London several times, but you can never get enough of this city.  I think it is a fascinating city, because it is so diverse.  It is so huge, but still has so many quaint neighborhoods.  Of course we visited all of the must see sights, but we also spent a lot of time wandering around neighborhoods and markets.  Thanks Ashley for letting us come visit.  We had a great time.
We arrived at Gatwick and took the train into the city to Victoria.  From there we started walking without a map and got a little turned around and ended up in Chelsea.  We didn't really have a plan for the day, so it was no problem, but we originally wanted to go the other way.  We enjoyed some fish and chips for lunch and then headed back towards the center of the city.

Big Ben and the Parliament

We walked by the London Eye, but decided not to get on it.  There was a long line, because it was the last day before a scheduled maintenance break of 3 weeks.  We were not so sure we wanted to get on it before they do their maintenance :)

One lesson I learned is that UGG's are not waterproof.  It rained for the majority of the day and my feet were soaked.  We walked over to Trafalger Square, Somerset House and Picadilly Circus and in between we stopped at a few pubs to warm up and dry off.  Ashley met us after work and we walked around some more and had dinner.  We were all really tired after dinner and headed home to Ashley's flat.  We headed to the Borough market the next morning.  Scott and I were in heaven and couldn't decide which foods to try. 

We continued our journey along the Thames to the Tower Bridge.  This is still one of my favorite sights in London.

We decided to go ice skating by the Tower of London.  I know this was not Scott's favorite, but I really enjoyed it.  I do have to say that Scott was the most improved on the ice!!!!

After ice skating we were a little tired of walking and took the tube to Harrod's.  I think Harrod's is such an experience and I don't know how they make money, because everybody in there is a tourist just checking things out......then we headed to Hyde Park and had a coffee/cider/beer by the pond.  Next up we took a bus into Notting Hill and strolled around this cute neighborhood.  Our first stop was the christmas tree pub.

We met Nina and her boyfriend out for a few drinks and we ended up at an American Sports Bar to watch a playoff game.  By the time the game was over we had missed the last tube and had to take the night bus home.....you just have to experience that.  I don't remember the last time I saw 3am (actually I see it almost every night when Hannah wakes up)!!!!

The next morning we headed out to Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian.  For some reason I cannot find the pictures from that day on my camera (I will have to look on the internal memory card).  After Greenwich we made our way back to Gatwick.  I think we did a pretty good job covering London in 2 1/2 days.  What a blast!