London Bridges Falling Down...Falling Down...Falling Down

So, John calls me up one random Friday and says hey...what do you think about London. Well, I proclaim...I don't really think about it. And then he pops the big news....well you better start thinking about it, because we're going there next week. What, whoa......we're going to London....woohoo. It appears that he had to attend a meeting there last Thursday and since there happened to be a Japanese holiday (I know crazy) that next Monday, we decided to make a vacation out of it.

So, last Wednesday we headed out to Narita (our international airport in Tokyo) where we discovered that we could provide a little assistant with some local Japanese school kids practicing their English at the airport. They were in the 6th grade and they were such cuties. They came up to John and I separately to ask us if we had a minute to answer a few questions. The questions were actually a little challenging if you are just learning English. Of course they asked where we were from and our names, but then they asked what we did for a living (my answer was a bit confusing to the kiddos), what we had dreamed of being, what type of Japanese food that we liked best and what we thought of Japan. Then afterwards they took their picture with us and gave us a special gift that they had made themselves...here is John showing his off.

Then we were off...I have only been to London for a day, literally, and John hadn't ever been. So, we got there after a lovely 12 hour plane ride last Wednesday. Hotel #1, which was provided by John's work was lovely and interestingly enough catered to Japanese guests. While John spent the day in a stuffy meeting, I spent my day taking advantage of all that Oxford street had to offer. Gotta love shopping where the all the clothes don't look like they are made for barbie dolls. No offense to the Japanese women of course...just means that they are all tiny...darn them. Anyway, I took some advice from my friends Elaine and Sam and hit up Top Shop and Selfridges. Then I wandered down to Picadilly Circus (why it's called a circus I have no idea). They proclaim this to be the "Times Square" of London, which I didn't quite get from being there, but oh well....I don't think that one flashing billboard on the side of a building quite captures Times Square, but what do I know.

Then I meandered over to the National Portrait Gallery, where I rediscovered that I'm not really into Spanish paintings around the 1500-1600's. I do however have a complete love of all things from Monet and they had quite a few great works of his including one of the water lily pond paintings, which is one of my favorite pieces ever. And Van Gough's Sunflowers were there too. Then I hit up the Texas Embassy for a little snack. Gotta love the fact that you can find a little bit of Texas everywhere.

The next day of course the real sightseeing began with John at the helm. After dropping our bags off at Hotel #2, we hopped on one of the double decker tourist buses and saw all kinds of major sights over the next two days. Some of my personal highlights were seeing Jane Austen's tomb at Westminster Abbey along with Queen Elizabeth I's of course, going to the Whispering Dome at St. Paul's Cathedral, reading some of the graffiti left by prisoners at the Tower of London, St. James park and all the fall leaves and seeing Big Ben with the River Thames as it's backdrop from the London Eye. We really loved London. There is so much to do there and I think we could have spend at least a week more and still not seen it all. Here are some of our picture highlights below in the slide show for those of you that have never been and for those of you that have...we hope these trigger some fun and happy memories.

Until next time.....Jenn

We hope you enjoy these!!