"London Baby!!!" -Abby Churchill

London was amazing.  From the minute we walked outside the train station and the classic London taxi screeched to a halt in front of us (naturally completely painted to look like the British flag!) I knew I was going to love my time there.  Even though it was midnight and I was absolutely exhausted I could barely wait to wake up in the morning and start seeing everything!

And see everything we did...after getting in line early to buy Wicked tickets that next morning we did as much as we could!  After we walked into Westminster Cathedral and stood outside Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, we strolled through St. James park with its beautiful flowers and got to see a fox grab a rabbit out of midair as it hopped out of a bush!  After that extremely unexpected experience, we toured Westminster Abbey, saw Big Ben and the Parliament buildings, took our pictures in the classic London phone booth, and went up in the London Eye.  Everything we did was exactly what I always imagine when I think of London but a million times better just because I was actually doing it!

Because we had indeed bought Wicked tickets for that night, we headed back to our hostel relatively early.  However, because we were still trying to fit in as many things as possible, we walked back through Trafalgar Square.  This turned out to be my awesome "oops" stop of London.  I seem to have one everywhere we visit - a place I know absolutely nothing about when we visit that I somehow end up loving.  Looking back on it, I still couldn't tell you what I liked so much about the square except the  maybe the atmosphere.  It was packed with people but it still kind of felt like we were there by ourselves...it was a very cool feeling.  There was also a large countdown clock to the Olympics; it was very surreal to see and it made me wish we could have stayed in London for another couple months!

After doing all of this, we headed back to get ready to do the one thing Emily absolutely insisted on doing while we were in London - seeing a Broadway show.  As I mentioned above we bought our tickets to Wicked earlier that morning so once we classed ourselves up a little bit, we were ready to have a tasteful, musical night out on the town.  Even as someone who usually doesn't get into the musicals, operas, ballets, etc., I have to admit doing this in London, the home of Broadway, felt perfectly fitting.  The performance and just the entire evening was amazing - I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it!  Besides even during the slow songs where I was getting a little drowsy, it was absolutely hilarious to watch Abby and especially Emily sitting on the edges of their chairs completely entranced - it was entertainment in and of itself!

Our first jam packed day in London was directly followed the next day by an equally full day of seeing some of the major sites outside the city.  My mom had studied abroad in England while she was in school and the one thing she kept telling me I HAD to do while I was in London was take the tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehedge, and Oxford.  She said it was one of the highlights of her time in Europe and I will have to say after seeing these three amazing places I completely understand and agree with her!  Part of it was just experiencing the English countryside but the best part was definitely actually being able to walk around these world-famous places.  Windsor Castle was impeccably beautiful and fascinating to walk through and read about.  I had to keep telling myself that I was actually walking down the same paths and hallways that the royal family called home!

Stopping at Stonehedge was also quite an experience because even though there wasn't a whole lot to see, there was a lot of interesting information regarding the history which definitely made it more interesting.  I'm still baffled by why the heck those stones were put there but based on what the guides said, I'm definitely not the only one!  And, after a two hour journey, we finally arrived at Oxford which is still one of the coolest things I think I've experienced yet.  What I think I liked the most was Beth and I didn't go to Christ Church College (probably the most famous part of the university), but instead wandered around on our own.  We listened to some of our guide's tour but then decided to just explore on our own which I could have done for another three hours if I would have had the time!  My favorite part was seeing the library (have I mentioned that I'm a huge nerd...?) and, the most amazingly, walking through their special exhibit where there were various ancient texts as well as the first book ever written in English!!  I was so excited I had goosebumps for ten minutes!!  It was a great way to finish off the tour-filled day!

Even though by the start of our third day in London it felt like we had seen everything, there were still couple things on my list that I wanted to do before I left, most importantly, the Tower of London.  So, after a morning of tea drinking and tea shopping (two of my favorite things!) we headed over to see all that one of the most famous London sites had to offer.  Once I got there, I realized that the two and a half hours we had would never be sufficient but we knew the main things we wanted to see and made sure we hit all of those first.  I could have spent a lot more time exploring but getting to see the Crown Jewels and all of the weapons, armory, etc. definitely made it a worthwhile trip!  I have never seen those large of jewels or that many ancient weapons in my life - very, very cool!  One last stop at the Tower Bridge (huge surprise - who knew it was that color blue?!) and it was sadly time to say goodbye to London.  However, I will admit that I was so excited about our next stop that it made leaving that wonderful city much easier!

As always, the pictures :)

Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.

Ben and I :)

View from the top of the London Eye!

Needs no description.

One of the colleges at Oxford!!

Inside the Tower of London.

Tower Bridge!

A Whirlwind Week - Paris

I just realized that somehow I just didn't write anything about our final stop on the first travel week when we went to Paris!  Because it's about a month late, I'll just hit the major highlights even though it was such an amazing place that I could write pages on everything we experienced!

I'll begin by saying one of the greatest parts about Paris was, again, being able to travel/stay with people from home at Iowa State!  We were lucky enough to be able to stay with our friend Caine who is studying fashion and living in Paris for the semester - it was great to not only see her but have a free place to stay!  What was even better was one of my very good friends, Nickie, came down from where she was studying in Ireland and spent the three days of the Paris leg of our journey with us.  It was so awesome to see her that even if Paris would have been terrible (which it definitely was NOT!), I would have had an absolutely fantastic time!

Anyway, in addition to the wonderful company we were able to see as much of Paris possible in three days.  A few people I knew that had visited Paris told me that one of the best things that they did while they were there was take a free walking tour of the city.  Because we really didn't know a ton about where everything was or, more importantly, what everything was, we decided to take the tour on the first morning we were there.

It ended up being a great decision as we were able to see almost all of the main sights within a three hour time period!  We started in the Latin Quarter and saw Notre Dame, walked along the Seine and under the New Bridge, went through the Louvre and around the famous glass pyramids, and even got to take our break at Starbucks!!!  (I know it sounds silly but after two months of tiny cups of coffee, I stopped at every Starbucks we saw and dominated American-sized cups of coffee the entire time I was there - it was GREAT!!)  After our break we got to stroll through the park directly outside the Louvre and wander our way down to the start of the L'Avenue des Champs Elysées (the most famous road in Paris).  Seeing that as well as the Royal Palace, the building where Napoleon's tomb lies, and a distant view of the Eiffel Tower made it a tour well worth our time!


In the next couple days we did more exploring of the places we wanted to go back to like Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the stained glass cathedral, and the Arch de Triumph.  I was super happy because not only did I get to eat duck, escargot, and crepes but I found authentic French macaroons that were out-of-this-world delicious!  One of my favorite things was watching Emily at the Paris Opera House - she was in her own version of heaven on earth...I literally thought she was going to pass out!  All of this combined with a half day trip to amazing Versailles and a nighttime walk up to the Montmartre District made it a very successful trip and a great end to the week!  

The New Bridge - it had the carvings of over 300 silly men on it!

Right outside the Louvre!

We got to see the nighttime Eiffel Tower light show!

The Mirror Hall at Versailles was absolutely incredible! 

Our lovely hostess, Caine :)

Emily, Me, & Nickie - we somehow managed
to get the whole tower in the picture!

Travelmania Take Two!

We began our second travel week with a trip to Germany - a country I absolutely HAD to visit at least once before going home.  Because we only had a couple days to spend in Germany, we decided to just do one city which ended up being Munich.  This turned out to be a great choice because not only were we able to visit the nearby Neuschwanstein Castle (a place we had heard amazing things about!) but we were also able to do the one thing I knew I needed to do before leaving Europe - visit a concentration camp.

So, on the first day of our travels, we took the train to Dachau - the first camp ever established by the Nazi's and the one closest to Munich.  It might have been one of the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had and I know that how I felt being there is something I will never forget.  We walked through the whole camp and got to see and hear about each part - it was one of the most informative places I've ever been.  And, as it turned out, going there first was one of the best decisions of the trip because it really made me crave normalcy and appreciate the rest of the trip so much more.


After we finished at Dachau, we were ready to just experience something completely different so we spent the rest of the day exploring Munich.  Walking through the streets just looking at all of the beautiful buildings in the Old Town area, eating lots of delicious German food, and enjoying the wonderful weather really made the rest of the day very enjoyable.  I think my favorite part was definitely hanging out in the Hofbrauhous which is the largest beer hall in Munich.  We sat with a table of half Americans and half bachelor-party-celebrating German guys and as you can imagine that combined with the rest of the massive crowd of people made the atmosphere ridiculously fun!

As I mentioned above, the other big thing we wanted to do while we were there was visit the Neuschwanstein Castle which is what we did the second day.  This is located a couple hours from Munich so we got to experience even more of Germany on the beautiful train ride.  When we arrived, it was sort of like seeing a fairy tale come to life.  The castle is exactly what I always picture when I think of Disney and fairy tales - it was incredible!  We were able to take a bus up the mountain and then hike to a nearby bridge that crossed over a valley and offered a perfect view of Neuschwanstein.  I think the view and just the bridge in general was the best part - it was such an incredible sight that it even made the tour of the castle (which in itself was unbelievable!) pale in comparison!

A couple hours and a missed/wrong train disaster later, we arrived back in Munich.  After grabbing more delicious German food that this time involved apple strudel (!!!) we felt like we had successfully conquered as much of the German culture possible in the 48 hours we had available.  By the time we left super early the next morning on a bus, we were all set to see more of Europe which is exactly what we did in our next stop in Prague which I'll talk about next time!

The famous warthog of Munich!

We managed to be in Munich (a city known for meat) and
run into a Vegan demonstration!  I couldn't believe it...

My first Porsche tractor!

Classic.

The beautiful view of the Neuschwanstein Castle
from the overlooking  Marienbrucke Bridge...

...and alternatively the view of the Marienbrucke
Bridge wile standing in the Castle!

The City of Lights :)

Two weeks ago, when we went to Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, I reaffirmed the fact that I am definitely a mountain person.  Give me a beach and I'm thrilled but give me a mountain range and some lakes and I am in absolute heaven!  As you can imagine, because of this, Lake Lucerene and the surrounding Swiss Alps were essentially my heaven on earth!  It was definitely the most beautiful place I have traveled to yet and it is right at the top of my favorite places list.  Because I don't think I could do it justice in words, I decided to make this post much shorter and include a lot more pictures - I know I'd rather look at what we did than read about it, so here it is!