London's calling

7/15

- London here we come! This incredibly long "day" continues. Our early flight had us in London before 8am! The flight itself I remember none of for I was passed OUT from the moment my butt felt the cushion to the moment the wheels scraped the runway.

- after about 3 hours of buses and trains and more buses and delays and construction, we ended up in a small town where Katie's friend from grade school, Steven, was waiting!!

- it was great to be with someone we actually knew and as he crazily drove us to Windsor i fell asleep in the back with a smile on my face (and a lovely double chin as well im sure)

- the town of Windsor was ADORABLE!!! This is the queens favorite castle and the whole area felt very quaint but regal and poised at the same time. The castle itself was large, of course, and so interesting but all I started to hear was the droning of my audio guide and all I could feel were the aches and stabs in my feet and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep on the queens nice comfy bed. Just for one minute...

- I felt so bad for Steven because he really was meeting a different me. I just really don't do good off of little sleep. I know this, and yet we still booked that stupidly timed flight. Lesson learned!

- after seeing the grounds and the amazingggg interior of this castle (even a dollhouse of the entire castle with real artwork and gold furnishings and everything matching the real castle exactly was there!) we grabbed some sandwiches and decided to head off for the day. I was a literal zombie by this point. Feet dragging, eyes barely slits, hair a mangled nest on my head, makeup smeared and my normal self hidden deep below, sleeping away.

- steven then drove us to gatwick airport so we could get a direct train straight to our hostel. It was an hour drive and as Katie and Steven chatted away in the front, I recharged (ie conked out) in the back.

- we FINALLY arrived at the hostel, fun vibe with its own bar, club, and rooftop garden, talked to some Spanish girls in the lounge, ran across the street to the grocery store, grubbed in our beds (14 people in this room!), looked at some pictures, and then...drum roll please...SLEPT!!!!

7/16

- michelle's back! That's what I felt like as I woke up feeling well rested and energized. I'm usually a light sleeper, and being in a room of 14 would have had be up at 5am, but this night I slept like a complete baby.

- Katie and I did the usual routine and then met up with the free walking tour. Im a big fan of these just because I love hearing the history behind what I'm looking at. It makes it so much more real and alive in my mind. and free= great.

- we cracked down and got an oyster card for transportation, and were then led around a good part of this huge city by our actor/ tour guide.

- things we saw and learned about: Belgrave square, Hyde park, st James park, buckingham palace, st James place (prince Henry lives here), Marlborough house, trafalgar square, Westminster abbey, big Ben, the parliament building, London eye, and much much more along the way! SO COOL!

- after the tour we went to a Chinese buffet...eh not so great. Then back to the London eye and bridge to take some scenic pics, and then where??

- ABBEY ROAD! We trekked across the city to walk across this oh-so-famous street and had tons of fun watching all the Beatles fans walk across this road, all cool like, in between bouts of traffic. The wall near here was covered with Beatles lyrics as well and it was pretty magical, I must admit. Those poor people who live there and have to drive there everyday, though.

- we decided to squeeze in one more thing before our tour and basically had to sprint through Kensington gardens and snap past the palace. It was well worth it and so beyond beautiful. I want to live here!!! With Kate and William of course :)

- Hop back on the metro and head to the meeting point for our “Grim Reaper” Tour of London (Katie insisted, and I thought it’d be a cool way to learn about London’s oh-so-dark history)

- A total of 6 (gasp) of us decided to do this tour, apparently, but our tour guide was very knowledgeable, down to earth, and fun to listen to as he led us around eastern London (a side of town not usually visited by tourists).

- We were led past the old sites of gruesome beheadings, heard even more gruesome stories about these beheadings, learned about the Tower of London and more lovely torture techniques, and followed in the steps (literally) of Jack the Ripper. The weather was gloomy and cold, perfect for learning about this spooky history (especially when we went to the actual sites of horrible murders), and after a few hours we were finished.

- We meandered back past some bridges (forget the names currently) and then finally back to our hostel where we munched on grocery store items. My feet were KILLING ME after 2 tours that pretty much had us sprinting all around London. And London, my friends, is HUGE. That night we slept really good, again, from pure exhaustion.

7/17

- Waking up early, we walked from our hostel (past more amazing London sites) and over to St. Peter’s Cathedral, Millennium Bridge (from Harry Potter), The Globe Theatre, and grabbed lunch at the Borough Market (pie, mash, and gravy).

- Now for the exciting part. We grabbed a metro and then a train and then a special bus to the HARRY POTTER STUDIOS!!! Oh wait! Before catching a train, we stopped at King’s Cross Station and took the classic pictures at Platform 9 ¾! Like everyone had said before, it was extremely anticlimactic. But still a must for any Harry Potter fan, of course!

- We were high on life for the rest of the day and could barely contain our giddiness as we walked past (and sometimes even touched) ACTUAL props from the Harry Potter movies!!! We felt completely star struck and what should have taken only 3 hours would have taken us 6 (if we had more time). We spent way too much time in the first room (literally taking a picture of every single thing) but we got to learn so much about the behind-the-scenes of Harry Potter and there were just so many interesting and amazing details! Any Harry Potter fan would absolutely love this and I couldn’t recommend it enough. It went above and BEYOND any expectation I had and I would have honestly paid 100 euro’s for it.

- Short on time, we had to semi sprint through the last couple rooms but when they say they save the best for last, they don’t lie. When I rounded the corner into the final room, I was literally left speechless. The magnificent blue lighting of the room combined with the magical music and twinkling lights and the HUGE HOGWARTS CASTLE in the center of the room was just like a dream. I can’t put it into words.

- Sadly having to dash through the aaaaaaamazing gift shop to catch the final bus of the evening, we left the studios feeling 100% content with life. One of the best experiences yet. Harry Potter will always live on.

- Another grocery store dinner, another exhausting arrival at our hostel, to sleep we go.

7/18

- Our last day in England. We woke up pretty early, grabbed breakfast, checked out and threw our bags into a locker at our hostel, and off we were! We never wasted one second in London, that’s for sure!

- We RUSHED to the British Museum (free entrance, yeah baby!), made a beeline for the Rosetta Stone and some cool Egyptian mummies, raced back out, and walked pretty darn far to Buckingham Palace. I was not satisfied with our lack of seeing the Changing of the Guards and I insisted we go back and see the real show.

- Towards the end we were literally running towards the palace, especially when we heard a marching band looming closely. We got there in PERFECT timing. Spot on I tell ya. Just as the guards were exiting Prince Harry’s place and marching towards Buckingham we arrived and pretty much followed them down to the palace. Some tourists got a little too excited and were harshly yelled at by some of the guards. We stayed for the next hour and got glimpses here and there of the guards, and heard snippets of their music, and even got up close and personal at one point. I really enjoyed the experience and I still can’t believe it’s something they do every single day. Crazy!

- We then had a little picnic in the park nearby (as it rained on us) and slowly meandered back to the hostel and grabbed our ever-increasing-in-size-from-souvenirs backpacks. From there, we caught a train directly to the airport and it was smooth sailing from there on out! 

- Our last budget airline flight was through easyjet and after a small delay, the 45 minute flight was easy peasy. All was good until we got to Schiphol Train station and realized neither of us had any euro’s handy AND our debit cards wouldn’t work in any of the machines. And they don’t take credit cards. We literally had to scrounge together loose change to buy our train tickets, but eventually were on a train (the wrong one at first, oops) to Castricum!