Driving on the wrong side of the road...

Just a typical Irish landscape...

I can't believe it has been almost three months since our trip to Ireland, time has slipped away from us to say the least... Anyways, back to the second week of our driving on the wrong side of the road trip: Ireland!

After a late flight in on Friday evening from England we gave ourselves a chance to have a bit of a lazy Saturday morning before heading out to explore Dublin. Our first stop of course involved beer - we went for a tour of the Guinness Factory. While it cannot boast of being free like the Anheuser Busch tours are in St. Louis, it was nonetheless an interesting tour that included some free samples, and even offered the chance to learn the special technique to pouring a glass of Guinness. We also took some time to enjoy their cool 360 degree bar at the top of the factory that allows views over all of Dublin. From there we made our way to the first of many stops at an Irish pub where we quickly discovered that the Irish know how to make some good chowder and stew for all their chilly days, and we found ourselves ordering it many times throughout the week after that first taste. And to Steve's satisfaction I found out that I actually do like to drink one type of beer, Irish cider, and I quickly made it my go to for the rest of the week as well.



Steve and his little helper with freshly poured Guinness and Certificate of Achievement!

Then it was off to explore the other highlighted spots in Dublin. First stop was Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, (known for being a beautiful illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels and some say Ireland's most important national treasure), which is housed in the college's gorgeous Old Library.


Gorgeous old library at Trinity College

We also enjoyed meandering the streets around the center of Dublin and getting a better vibe of the city on the famous Grafton street before spending some time enjoying the beautiful St. Stephen's Green as well.

One of many fun shopping streets

However, as we were all tired from the late travel the night before and the city was quickly been taken over with parades and celebrations as part of a two week Gay Pride Festival, we decided to get a quick and easy dinner before heading back a bit early to the hotel.

Glendalough Valley

Sunday morning it was time to get a little outside of the city so we made an hour drive to Glendalough Valley in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Just a short ways outside of the city we found ourselves in quintessential Ireland. The road was extremely narrow, it was windy, overcast, and misting with tall prairie grasses lining closely to the road. Steve navigated his way carefully as there were many cyclists out for a morning ride and a few sheep on the side of the road to watch out for! Once we arrived at the National Park we breathed a sigh of relief that we had safely made it there. Then we set out for a few hours of hiking around the two lakes in the valley before making our way up the side of the valley for views over the entire region. The views were stunning and we enjoyed hiking the ridge at the top of the valley along the lakeside. It was certainly a taste of the Ireland we had been hoping to find and made for a nice break from all the time we had been spending in English and Irish cities for the past week. But it was back to Dublin from there for one last night. Yet somehow we managed to enjoy it by stumbling upon supposedly the oldest pub in Dublin (maybe Ireland?) just around the corner from our hotel. It had a nice outdoor area and we (Emma included) enjoyed the live Irish music!

Scenery in the national park reminded us of scenes from The Hunger Games

Beautiful views from the bottom of the valley

And beautiful views from the top!

Beautiful hike along the ridge

Pretty cute hikers

We got an early start on Monday so we could tour the beautiful St. Patrick's Cathedral (the national cathedral) in Dublin before heading south to start our tour around the country. We had about three or four hours of driving to get done before our stop for the night on the south coast just outside the small fishing village of Kinsale. We were able to split the drive up nicely by stopping at the Rock of Cashel, which was an old fortress that was transformed into a church. It sits perched on a small hill above the village and can be seen for miles away. From there we made it the rest of the way to Kinsale and had a great seafood dinner and enjoyed a nice walk around the calm harbor that the town sits on. We stayed at a nice bed & breakfast just outside of town that had views of the ocean. The waves were quite large that evening and we even saw people headed out trying to do some very cold surfing! It was a great place to stay as the B&B owners also built a small pub attached to the house so we were able to enjoy a few drinks after Emma's bedtime!

Rock of Cashel

Views of the countryside from the Rock of Cashel

Inside the remains of the Rock of Cashel

Colorful streets of Kinsale

Having fun exploring Kinsale

More fun in Kinsale, Emma's first carousel ride!

Tuesday's agenda involved exploring a little more of the south of Ireland with stops in the city of Cork and nearby Blarney before driving 1.5 hours towards the southwest coast for our next stop. Before heading out on our day's explorations we enjoyed our first "full Irish breakfast" which included black and white pudding. I figured I might as well try these puddings, while Steve politely declined (probably the smarter move). The puddings are similar as they both consist of meat, fat, and some sort of bread or oatmeal and are formed into a hardened sausage. However, black pudding has the color it does because blood is added too (usually pork blood is used in Ireland). Let's just say the one try was enough for me...

Puddings tasted, we headed to Cork and spent some time walking around the center of town with shops, but not as many restaurants and pubs as we found typical in most other Irish cities we visited. We did enjoy a quick look around the English Market, which was full of fresh meats and cheeses. And although the city was nice, neither of us found it of particular interest, so we made our way onto Blarney fairly quickly for a tour of the famous Blarney Castle and an opportunity to kiss the stone! As we suspected going into it the castle and the stone are completely overrated, but seeing how we were so close Steve had to take the opportunity to kiss it and receive the gift of gab (not sure if he got it or not)!

Steve kissing the Blarney stone!

Having crossed that off our to do list we headed further west to the Killarney National Park, where our hotel for the next two nights was located. The hotel was a bit of a splurge (but well worth it) and situated beautifully on one of many large lakes in the park. We enjoyed dinner in the hotel with gorgeous views and watching several deer feed in the tall water grasses in the lake. And while it is quite common for Emma to quickly make friends everywhere we travel, she made a friendly old man her target that evening and was quick to show us how she's going to wrap her grandpas around her little finger once she gets to see them more often!

Beautiful views from our hotel of Killarney National Park

Come Wednesday morning we enjoyed a huge buffet breakfast and with the help of the hotel manager we put together some ideas for driving and doing a little hiking around the Ring of Kerry that day. The Ring of Kerry is one of three scenic and rugged peninsulas on the southwest coast of Ireland and we were excited for the scenery that awaited us. Unfortunately not too far into the drive the weather quickly went downhill with thick fog, rain and wind. To say the least our thoughts of hiking were thrown out the window and we just hoped to be able to take in a few views along the drive. Although we missed what we know were a lot of great views, we still got glimpses of several beautiful areas. Yet, lucky for us after our stop in the small coastal town of Waterville for lunch the rest of our day and what we saw (or didn't see) didn't matter much because Emma decided to start walking right there on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean! And she didn't just take one or two first steps she decided to bust out 12 steps right there so confidently in the wind and light mist! Without a doubt she couldn't have looked any cuter and you can refer back to a blog from several months ago to see the video of her doing just that.

So with the less than stellar weather and without seeing the views we hoped for, but instead being extremely proud parents, we finished the drive back towards the hotel after stopping for dinner at a pub in the town of Killarney to celebrate our little girl's achievement!

Emma taking a spoon to dad's head at our lunchtime stop in Waterville, pre taking her first steps...

Post "first steps" family photo to remember the moment!

Rugged beauty along the Ring of Kerry

Thursday arrived and we were excited to see a better forecast for the region as we were headed out to drive part of another scenic area called the Dingle Peninsula. Although there are many similarities between Dingle and the Ring of Kerry they are each known for their own unique aspects and Dingle was supposed to be a bit more rugged and we were looking forward to a chance to explore it.

This is a windy beach!

Our first stop along the drive was a huge beach with large whitecaps filled with surfers. It was extremely windy and even some of the sand was blowing sideways. We didn't need much time outside to understand why some of the terrain looked the way it did! From there we made a quick stop in the town of Dingle for another lunch of seafood chowder and the region's famous brown bread. But lucky for us the scenery that afternoon was what we had been waiting for as the coast quickly unfolded as we moved west from Dingle. The winding roads and cliffs with bright blue water and "emerald green" grass were truly spectacular. Emma was a great sport as we found ourselves constantly wanting to stop and jump out for a quick photo. We were thankful she was such a good sports as making it out to the furthest point called Slea Head Drive was more than worth it. The views of the Blasket Islands were stunning as they rose up out of the water in dramatic fashion. There were certainly many a lucky sheep and cow in this part of the country as some of their pastures had amazing views. We even had to walk through part of one to take in the some of the best views! It was a bonus for all of us as I'm pretty confident Emma enjoyed seeing the sheep close up better than the ocean views.

Pasture after pasture... many either used bushes or rocks to separate them, not fences.

One of my favorites along the Dingle Peninsula

Just walking through the sheep pasture to get to more stunning views...

Views of the Blasket Islands

Every time I thought the views couldn't get better, I would find a better view...

We certainly could have stayed out there for hours but with a couple hours of driving still remaining that day we headed back inland to make our way to the tiny village of Adare, which would be our stopping point for the night. Although there was no overwhelming reason for us to stay in Adare it served as a good way to break up our drive further north to the Cliffs of Moher. We also found several beautiful old manor houses and castles in the area to stay at and we were able to enjoy a fantastic dinner of lamb and duck at a nice restaurant where Emma showed off her best behavior that even earned her some ice cream from the staff! We were very thankful that she did so well as seeing that many of these nicer restaurants didn't allow children or they were only allowed to dine prior to 7 pm!

Thatched roofs in Adare!

Gorgeous castle hotel... we thought about staying there before we saw the price!

Before heading out from Adare on Friday morning we were again treated to another great buffet breakfast at the manor house we chose to stay at before taking off for the 1.5 hour drive to the Cliffs of Moher further up the west coast. The Cliffs of Moher were without a doubt the single most impressive thing we saw during our week in Ireland. The sheer 700 foot plus cliffs were daunting and powerful. It was easy to get lost in time just soaking in the views and every little different angle. Not only did we have the chance to walk along the top of the cliffs (several times with the path closer to the cliff edge than I would have preferred), but we also got to take a boat ride for close up views from the water. I would have to say they were more impressive from below, but I also could have done without the large waves and the small boat! And to think they said it was only a moderately rough day out on the sea, there is no way I would have gone out there with waves any larger as we watched several people get sea sick! It was also hard to believe that these cliffs were supposedly 500 feet shorter than some of the smallest cliffs we saw just 6 weeks earlier in Santorini, Greece. Despite the difference in height the Cliffs of Moher were certainly more menacing with the ocean waves crashing below, whereas the relatively calm caldera waters that surround the Santorini cliffs.

Cliffs of Moher

We couldn't get enough of every different angle...

The view from the sea

After the choppy boat ride we were happy to get onto dry land. We found a pub famous for having some of the best live music in all of Ireland in the tiny town of Doolin, which is just north of the Cliffs of Moher and even has some views of the cliffs. The town was also our stopping point for the night.

Saturday morning came and we hit the road for another 1.5 hours north to the city of Galway. Although neither of us could claim it was one of our favorite stops on our trip, it was still another nice Irish city with plenty of shopping, pubs, and restaurants. It was nice to enjoy a low key day and when the rain came we just made ourselves cozy at a pub before relaxing at our last Irish bed & breakfast. And the day was certainly not complete without enjoying what is known to be one of the best places for fish and chips in Ireland, McDonaghs, it certainly did not disappoint!

Sadly when Sunday arrived it meant it was time for us to head home. We first had to make the 3 hour trek back to Dublin in order to fly out, but we had a little extra time so we were able to make a stop outside of Dublin at the Powerscourt Waterfall. It is Ireland's highest waterfall at roughly 400 feet. It was a nice stop, but nothing spectacular, and had we visited Norway and Iceland prior to this trip we might have called this waterfall laughable in comparison with what we saw in these other countries.

Nonetheless it was an opportunity to see one more natural gift this country was blessed with, and there sure were a lot of them. We were without a doubt incredibly fortunate to be able to spend a week in Ireland and experience the friendly people, beautiful scenery, good beer, the list could go on and on. But even more so the two weeks we spent in both England and Ireland are sure to be a highlight from our time in Europe. We even learned many things while we were there:

• Just because you are renting a flat with a washer/dryer don't really ever expect it to work.
• For the first and only time so far while flying with Emma I was asked to taste her food to prove it wasn't something else, so be sure to make carry on food choices wisely.
• Discount European airlines have the most inefficient procedures ever, as do discount rental car companies.
• Always be sure to check to see if a map is to scale before you rely on it to walk somewhere (I always thought better of Rick Steve's maps before this trip).
• Although this is not the first place we've encountered it, baby food is very regional. The English & Irish start their kids young eating only meat and potatoes with pureed jars of it!
• The English call speed bumps "humps" and like to be very accurate in telling you how long you will have to drive over these humps... one such example we saw, "Humps for the next 437 meters"
• When the road sign indicates a narrow road, they mean it!

Wish we could say this was a one way road. Nope, this was two way...

By the end of our two weeks I think this is how we all felt!

A little homesick...

Gorgeous summer evening along the Limmat in Zurich

First of all I caveat this blog by saying yes indeed I am incredibly behind in my blogging efforts, but I think its fair to say the past two months have been a teensy bit busy. So yes I am again going to go a little out of chronological order here but I promise after this blog to update you all on the many amazing places we have visited and things we've done over the past few months very soon...

We have been back in the United States for exactly one week now. Yet, after just one week I am homesick for Switzerland, the place I called home for less than two years and a world away from the majority of our friends and family. Instead we're back in St. Louis, the city I called home for double the amount of time as Zurich, and it can't help but to feel strange as we restart our lives in the same city but as a very different family. Coming back with a child, me without a job, Steve with a very similar but still slightly different job at the same company, getting new cars, finding a new place to live in a different part of the city, the list goes on and on. I feel a bit like a stranger in the city that should be my home.

Don't get me wrong it is so wonderful to see friends and family that we have missed dearly over the last two years and know we can see them on a much more regular basis now. And there is certainly nothing like the familiarities that we find in the country we have grown up in. Not to mention the luxury that I know most anywhere I go I can have a full conversation with a person and understand every word said. I am still getting used to it and find myself surprised every time I realize I can talk to the person standing behind the counter at a store. I even find myself forgetting that I can fully read and understand food package labels and I don't have to just guess what the instructions say!

Grossmuenster Church

However, while I was looking forward to all of the extra amenities and conveniences that we have here, I am quickly finding that maybe I didn't actually miss them all that much. Yes, that garbage disposal in the kitchen sink is nice as is the closet in the bedroom, and oh yes that washer and dryer that can clean my clothes in half the time as the European version, that is very nice indeed! But doing without those things really wasn't that big of a deal, nor was living in a slightly smaller apartment. Going to Target and the ridiculously large grocery store is nice, but now I have a child that doesn't know how to sit still in a shopping cart while I am overwhelmed by the number of choices. While there may have only been two options in my Swiss grocery store, at least they were two relatively high quality options instead of ten low quality options. And yes while it is nice to be able to stock up on food in my super large refrigerator and freezer, I found myself really enjoying the fresh food and small refrigerator that forced me to make trips to the store at least four times a week in Zurich.

I know that I am truly blessed to be able to sit here with first hand experience and reflect on which way is better. When we moved to Switzerland I viewed and judged European life from the American perspective. Now we move back and I judge American life from more of a European perspective. I see and understand why they call us lazy and can't help but to agree sometimes. While it's all relative to what we are familiar with, now that I am familiar with both I'm not sure which direction I'll side with. Yet I know without a doubt that I'll view much of my life differently. And as a result I am both excited and nervous to see what the coming months hold for us and the decisions we make that will shape our next few years.

One of many beautiful Alpine Lakes


In the meantime I am going to miss the precision and neutrality in life that make the Swiss famous. I'll miss the crazy efficient, reliable, and clean public transit. I'll miss the way that they completely mind their own business and let you go about your own business without intruding. I'll miss living in one of the safest countries in the world. I'll miss their amazing chocolate, wonderful cheese, fresh alpine air, and out of this world views and scenery. I'll miss the European architecture and the experience of living in a city and without a car. Not to mention I will greatly miss the access that Zurich gave us to explore the rest of Europe and open our eyes to so much history and natural beauty.

Of course there will be things I won't miss as well like the fact that Zurich is routinely one of the top five most expensive cities to live in, or the fact that Switzerland has one of the highest per capita rates of smokers. And while there are more things I won't miss, the truth is, that the list is short. There is a reason that Zurich often rates as one of the top cities in the quality of life indexes and places to raise a family.

Last weekend in Switzerland

So for now I'm going to try to bring some of the things I learned in Switzerland back to my old/new home and figure out how to make St. Louis a great place for us to raise a family. I am going to try to start fresh and find new things to love here. No, maybe we won't be staying up late on Friday night so we can plan a hike in the Alps on Saturday or finalize the following weekend's travel itinerary, but instead we can discover one of the many reasons people say St. Louis is a great place for families with children. I am looking forward to going out and buying a Missouri tour book and discovering the hidden gems that the area has to offer that I might have overlooked before. Or maybe I'm just going to relax at home with our family and enjoy the fact that we can have a "lazy weekend" to go to the park, take the dog for a walk, and BBQ with friends.

And then in a few years when Emma's old enough to start understanding a few things I'm going to tell her and show her all of the amazing places she's been and people she met. I'm going to teach her that at the end of the day more people in the world are good than bad. Whether we speak the same language, have the same color skin, share the same religious beliefs, we all just want to be happy and to be loved. We were blessed to meet some amazing people the past two years in our travels and they taught me a lot about life.

Yes, it's time for a fresh start in an old city. And while I'm still so very sad to have left behind a place that was truly home to me, I know that I will always have those once in a lifetime memories. I know it won't be easy, but it's time for a new challenge so that we can create some new once in a lifetime memories.

Daughter & Dog finally together!

 

Driving on the wrong side of the road...

The Roman Baths

We arrived in Bath by midday on Thursday with just enough time to drop off our luggage at our hotel before we headed out for our small group tour to the Lacock Village Trust and Stonehenge. We had done quite a bit of research on the best way to get to Stonehenge without a car as it is located in the middle of the countryside about an hour's drive from the town of Bath. We settled on Mad Max Tours and were happy we did. Our tour guide was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon visiting both the historical village of Lacock and the more famous Stonehenge.

If you think you aren't familiar with the Lacock Village, think again. It was actually used in the filming of both Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice. When we saw the cute village we understood why. And it was interesting to learn that basically the only way you can live there is if your family has lived there for generations before. While you only needed a few minutes to make your way around the entire village, the quaintness of the town made it easy to want to just relax and spend an entire afternoon there as well. However, with limited time available, after a brief tour we made our way onto Stonehenge.

Cute homes in Lacock

Emma's preferred method of transportation on our trip!

The local baker delivers (or used to!)

Beautiful Abbey in Lacock

The sheep gate at the Abbey... allowed people into church, but kept the sheep out!

As expected, while impressive, Stonehenge was a bit anti-climatic. Without a doubt the mystery surrounding the formation and how the stones were moved there is fascinating, but at least for us a brief walk around the stones was all that was needed. And while the day had started out quite warm it was quickly getting very windy, cold, and rainy and we welcomed the hour ride back to Stonehenge out of the elements.

Wish Emma knew what a big deal this place is!

The stones were still pretty impressive in size

Quick family photo before it started to rain

So close to walking!

Once we were back in Bath we found a local Thai restaurant (Thai food is very popular in Bath) for dinner. While Emma seemed to still struggle still a little during the day with her teeth coming in, she seemed to feel quite a bit better by dinner and was very happy to have much of the restaurant to ourselves. And lucky for her the waitresses loved her and wanted to seemingly play with her all evening! She could have done this all night with the waitresses encouraging her on, just listen to those squeals of excitement...

Come Friday, our agenda was to explore Bath before a late night flight to Dublin. We started the day by heading to the Roman Baths where we were quite intrigued to learn how the baths functioned as the focal point for the city hundreds of years ago. From there we took a quick tour inside the beautiful Abbey, enjoyed some more fish and chips at a small pub, and meandered around the Circus and Royal Crescent which are both superb examples of the Georgian architecture that the city is famous for. We also made our way to the Pulteney Bridge and Gardens and enjoyed some of the cute shops in the city before it was time make our way to the airport.

The Roman Bath

The Abbey

The Circus

Pulteney Bridge

Exploring the gardens around Pulteney Bridge

While it was a quick stop, we were very happy with our choice to spend a little time outside of London and take in the English countryside as well as to visit one of the world's most fascinating sights in Stonehenge. However, we would both be lying to say that we weren't probably more excited about the second week of our trip ahead in Ireland!

Two weeks where they drive on the wrong side of the road...

We feel so incredibly blessed by the amount of traveling we have been able to do this spring and summer and one of the big highlights was spending two weeks exploring England and Ireland at the end of June and beginning of July. The first stop on our trip was London for four days.

View over the Thames

We flew out of Zurich late on a Saturday evening with two friends that were visiting us from the U.S. We were lucky enough for them to spend part of the week preceding in Switzerland with us before heading to London together. Although our flight was delayed, it wasn't all bad for us as it meant Emma pretty much went straight to sleep as soon as we got on the plane. And we spent the better part of the hour flight chatting with the man seated in our row who ended up giving us some great tips for places to go in London (I think Steve and him may have even become pen pals)!

Playing games in the airport while we wait for our flight!

Since our arrival time was quite late even without the flight being delayed we all agreed to take an iconic black London taxi from the airport to our rental flat. While it took us nearly an hour just to drive into London from Heathrow we enjoyed getting accustomed to driving on the "wrong side" of the road and talking a little with our taxi driver, because after all we all spoke English and we could understand each other (what a concept)! We quickly got a sense for just how friendly people are in the UK and were glad that it remained true for the majority of the rest of our trip.

Little reminders were everywhere in regards to the direction of travel.

After getting in late on Saturday night we made Sunday morning a little more relaxed and used the day as one to orient ourselves with the city. We enjoyed taking a double decker hop on hop of bus tour throughout the city and seeing nearly all the major sights (my favorite "site" was probably the ridiculously expensive houses that cost more than 25 million GBP!). Emma also had a blast riding on the top deck of the bus. At first we were a little hesitant to bring her up to the top since it was not covered and it was a bit of a windy chilly day, but we gave it a try and it was literally like opening the window of a car for a dog the first time. She just loved holding onto the rail and looking over the side while watching the world go by! But I'm not sure who thought it was most funny when after some serious contemplation she deliberately took her pacifier out of her mouth and threw it over the side of the bus before turning back at me with a big grin on her face! Oh the fun we have watching her discover new things.

Great view of Big Ben from the bus!

Emma's taking it all in!

As part of the bus tour we enjoyed a short river boat cruise on the Thames as well. And after making a pit stop for lunch at a Mexican restaurant (don't judge, we really miss good Mexican food) we enjoyed wandering through the Speakers Corner at Hyde Park before making our way through the ridiculously expensive Harrods Department Store and back through the park to see Kensington Palace and gardens. By that point in time we were all sufficiently tired and managed to find a small pub to enjoy some more traditional British food and drink before calling it a night. 

Kensington Gardens

It was a good thing we made Sunday a bit of a low key day because we had to be ready to go early Monday morning as we were off to Wimbledon! Unless you are willing to spend a whole lot of money, you are unlikely to be able to get tickets ahead of time as the lottery system doesn't provide good odds. Since we didn't beat the odds (nor did we fork up the cash for the guaranteed seats) we got up early to head out to queue for grounds passes. Although we could have gone a day early and camped out all night in order to actual get tickets for one of the main "show courts" we opted to just go at 6 am not knowing whether or not that was early enough to ensure we would get tickets. Lucky for us after nearly 4 hours of queuing we got in the gates! While the wait was very long, and very very cold, we had a good time in what was perhaps the most organized and controlled line I had ever witnessed at a sporting event. It's fair to say these people that run Wimbledon sure know what they are doing, so much so that they even give you a "How to Queue" brochure when you enter the line!

Early morning on the tube

Huge queues!

Our "golden tickets!"

Despite feeling quite under the weather that morning with two new teeth coming in, Emma was a trooper and actually seemed to have quite a bit of fun as she was time and time again noted as being one of the youngest Wimbledon fans! And not too many people can say they came to Wimbledon on the eve of their first birthday! How crazy is it that Emma was born on the first Monday of Wimbledon last year and this year she attended the first Monday of Wimbledon!

Getting some love from dad for being such a trooper!

Since our goal was to just get grounds passes we promptly found ourselves a seat on the famous "Murray Mound" formerly known as "Henman Hill" and staked some blanket space for the rest of the day as we knew it would get quite busy by the time Britain's own Murray was scheduled to play. As three of the four of us grew up as tennis players, going to Wimbledon and sitting on the "Mound" was a pretty big check on the bucket list. In between watching Federer, Nadal, Sharapova, and Murray play on the big screen we took turns watching some of the smaller matches on the sidecourts. Steve and I especially enjoyed seeing Isner play up close and see just how tall he is! We also made sure to try out Britain's famous "Pimms" drink, which is their very popular summer mixed drink amidst our eating very non-British Asian food and on the way home a stop at Subway!

Very busy "Murray Mound" once Murray started playing!

Sneak Peak of Court 1 even though we didn't have tickets

Our piece of the Mound for the day!

Watching Isner play

Hope to see you again soon Wimbledon!

It was a pretty good Monday to say the least, I just hope that we get to go back again someday. Although it's cool as an avid tennis fan to go to any grand slam (Steve and I are now three for four) there is just something extra special about going to Wimbledon.

Lucky for us we didn't have to worry about Tuesday being disappointing in comparison, since Tuesday was Emma' first birthday! Unfortunately she really didn't feel well and was not herself at all, but we tried to make the best of it. So we lined up the best that London has to offer to visit for the day.

Where's the birthday girl?

Our morning started with a walk thru Trafalgar Square before heading down to see the very impressive changing of the guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace. To say the least it was not a small production! It's so amazing how much the British love the royal family!

Buckingham Palace

 The pomp and circumstance that happens nearly everyday in front of the palace...

 

From there we toured the inside of Westminster Abbey (unfortunately we could not take photos inside), before walking by the Parliament and Big Ben, and onto the London Eye. Steve actually went on the London Eye along with our friends while I stayed below with the birthday girl who enjoyed just some time to play outside in the nice weather. By that point in time we had seen a lot of sights for the day and so we headed in the direction of Picadilly Circus, which is basically a big open area at the convergence of several major London streets that are lined with shops, restaurants, theaters, and more. Our plan was to simply wander and explore the area but the all important first goal on the list was to get some ice cream for the birthday girl! It was a good thing that was the first stop because from there things went downhill for the poor girl so we called it an early night. Although things didn't work out too terribly as our friends got to enjoy a nice dinner out and we got lucky and found a Papa Johns (I know, we're really pathetic and starting to crave American food).

Westminster Abbey

Parliament

The London Eye

Wednesday arrived and as our last full day in the city we had a few remaining destinations to make it to. Our first stop was the iconic London Tower Bridge (not to be confused with London Bridge which is actually quite plain and unsightly). We were able to go up and through the inside of the bridge, which was not of particular interest, but there was an interesting display of information about bridges around the world. From there we toured the London Tower/Castle and saw the famous crown jewels before making our way onto St. Paul's Cathedral where we arrived just in time to still be able to make the 500+ stair climb to the top of the dome for a view of the London skyline (which is actually somewhat unimpressive in comparison to many other major cities). However, St. Paul's Cathedral was beautiful and interesting in both its similarities and distinct differences from the other famous place of worship in London, Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately once again we paid a very steep admittance fee but were still unable to take photos of the inside.

London Tower Bridge

Our last stop of the evening was for a nice sit down dinner (our last chance for one with our friends as we were headed separate directions the following day) in Covent Garden, which is famous for its good restaurants, market, and street performers. It was a fun area to eat dinner outside and we all enjoyed some good food.  And on the way back that night I learned just how far underground subway lines can run as the stop we got on at we had to take a elevator down the equivalent of 19 stories underground!

Beautiful and random painted trees outside St. Paul's cathedral!

Come Thursday morning it was time to head for our next adventure in Bath, England while our friends finished one last day in London before heading back for the states. So with way too much luggage in tow we made our way for the train station and the 1.5 hour train ride onto our next English speaking destination!



Classic London telephone booth photo!