We decided
to leave La Spezia early in the morning to road trip up to Lake Como prior to
catching our evening flight to London from Milan.
We were not
disappointed as Lake Como is one of the most beautiful areas I have ever
seen. It reminds me a lot of Lake Chelan
in that it’s a really big lake, surrounded by mountains and is blue, clear and
clean. The difference is that it’s
inhabited on both sides and you can drive all the way around. There are beautiful little resort type towns
all during the drive. We were only able
to drive from one end to the other on one side because of the time it took with
the narrow, winding roads. There was a
ferry type boat just like the "Lady of the Lake" in Chelan too! We definitely decided that this will be a
destination for us some day!
We boarded
our flight to London on Alitilia Airlines (all regional airline) and as
some of you might have seen on my Facebook status the spawn of Satan sat behind
me. Unbelievable that this mother let
her child kick my seat the entire 1.5 hour flight to London. I glared at her several times with the “Barb
Look” which obviously did not translate into her language.
After
landing we had to get in line in London for immigration. We see a very long line with one of those
Disneyland type signs that says “45 minutes from this point”. The looks on everyone’s faces should have
been our first clue! After that sign the
line kept going down two more corridors!
We had to
email our friends Mike and Yvonne who were waiting for us in the hotel and tell
them “yeah it’s going to be a while”. “A
while” turned into 2 hours in the immigration line. It was not fun, everyone was tired and the
line cutters (“que” for our English friends) were so annoying. I got to where I would block people from
cutting and it was not funny yet kinda funny (in a Karma kind of way) when this
one young girl behind me tried to cut and then dropped her Iphone and cracked
the screen….oops!
It took so
long we missed the last train into London so we had to take a taxi. Turned out to be so fun. It was a black cab (those fun cute ones) and
our driver was amazing. We basically got
a mini tour on the way to the hotel and it was fun to see London all lit up at
night including Big Ben and Buckingham Palace!
We got
checked into our hotel around 12:30 am. It
was beautiful (especially compared to the last one) and I was so freaking
excited to see an iron and ironing board so no more ironing with a hair dryer! In our room was a beautiful anniversary card and
a bottle of Proceco from Mike and Yvonne and another card and bottle of wine
from the hotel. They had told them this
was our anniversary trip….so sweet and it felt good to be so welcomed after our
very long evening trying to get thru immigration.
For those
that don’t know Mike – I worked for him at Wizards for years and he is from the
UK. He retired 4 years ago and moved
back to England with his lovely wife Yvonne.
They live in a small village of 800 people not far from Dorchester
(hopefully I spelled that correctly). They
were the most gracious and fun hosts we could have had. It was great to enjoy this part of our trip
with them.
We met Mike
and Yvonne the next morning for breakfast and Nick experienced his first (but not
last) of the “Full English” breakfast.
It was a fried egg, toast, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, a slice of tomato,
hash browns and baked beans (yes I said baked beans).
They had
gotten tickets to the London Eye (think the Great Wheel in Seattle). The difference it holds 25 people per car ,
takes ½ hr to go around and you can walk around in your “pod”. Such a great way to see the city from a
different view point.
We then
walked over to the Parliament building where we saw a member of Parliament
arrive and then happened to see another one in a local bar. This is why you have locals as “tour guides”
– as we would have never known who these people are.
Our next stop was Westminster Abbey. I always thought it was a small but beautiful cathedral that royals funerals were held in and that William and Kate were married in. Well many weddings and funerals have happened there but also every coronation and the place is massive. It's a stunningly beautiful church full of history. There are people either burie
We jumped on
the Big Red Bus tour where you can hop on and off and sat on outdoor top area
so we could see well. It was great – we
had an amazing tour guide who was funny and it was a great way to see and learn
about all the local famous places and momuments. It was the hottest day on record this summer
for London so we got some sun, sweated a lot and road all thru the city.
We walked
around in the evening made plans for the next day and of course enjoyed seeing
some of the night-life in London. We
were close to what they call the South Bank area along the river which holds
lots of bars, restaurants. Plus it just
felt good to walk around while it was cooler.
The next day
our mission was to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We got there early and had a pretty good
viewing spot. It was AMAZING. So precisely choreographed and the bands were
great. Apparently if there is a flag
flying from the palace it means the Queen is on the grounds. There was a flag flying but we were not sure
if it was the correct flag. Yvonne is
going to research the one we saw to find out its’ meaning. The balcony that royals wave to the crowds
from during weddings and celebrations was right in front of us and we saw lots
of people come and go in and out of the palace so we had fun making up stories
about who they were. One car had a
police escort so we know it had to be “somebody” but we have no idea who…J
We walked
back to the Thames River area and jumped on a River Boat Cruise. It was narrated just like the bus tour so a
lot of it was the same but from a different perspective being on the
water. It was hot again but didn’t feel
as bad as the day before. We all
remarked afterwards though that our tan lines were far more noticible this day
over the previous day – I kinda look like a raccoon from my sunglasses and Nick
is as dark as ever of course!
The coolest
thing ever on our river cruise was a large cruise ship came down the river and
they had to raise the tower bridge for it to go thru – we have some amazing
pictures and Mike remarked he had never seen anything like it.
We joked
that Mike was the ultimate tour guide and we should have gotten him a flag to
hold up so we knew which way we were headed.
It was also quite remarkable that he pulled of the parliament member
sighting, the especially longer than normal changing of the guard ceremony and finally the cruise ship coming down the river so the bridge could be raised! I
guess it pays to know “people” that live in small villages - ;)
We went to a
local Pub for dinner on our last evening which was so fun, great food, great
wine/beer and especially great company.
London was
amazing in even the short bit of time we got there. It was so fun to have our friends as tour
guides, to visit and to spend our last few days on this trip in a beautiful
city. We will definitely come back here
and spend more time exploring the other areas of this beautiful country.
This ends my
blogs on this adventure. I’m so thankful
I did this after every city so that Nick and I have a journal of our
adventure. It was everything we imagined
and more plus I got to spend all this time with my best friend and husband (all
in one)…love him.
Now we are
on our flight back to the US thru JFK in New York. We have missed everyone and are excited to be
getting back home. This upcoming year
holds a lot of exciting things for us.
Our daughter and her husband are expecting their first baby boy Atlas
Grey and our son is getting married next summer so we get a new
daughter-in-law.
Nick and
Barb
XX
No comments:
Post a Comment