Phase 3: London!!

From Paris we moved on to London via train.  I think my family was relieved to be continuing the next leg of our trip in an English-speaking country.  I have been in countries where I do not speak the language, and I know that it truly is difficult if you are not able to communicate with anyone very effectively, be it hotel employees, waiters, cab drivers, etc, so I can certainly understand why they felt that way.  I was excited for London because, rather than stay in a hotel over Christmas, we were staying in my roommate's wonderful cousin's house, who lives in London with her husband and baby but was in the States for Christmas.  I have only met her a few times, and was blown away by her generosity when she offered up her home to us.  It really made a huge difference to come back to an actual home every day, rather than to a hotel room, and the location was great for all of the sightseeing that we wanted to do.

When we got in, we went to this restaurant/bar called the Prince Alfred, in Beth and Josh's neighborhood, for dinner.  I was definitely feeling down-in-the-dumps that day, for a variety of reasons: I was missing Dan terribly, I was sad to be leaving France, and I was depressed to not be in our own home for Christmas.  Also, even if we had been at my parents' house for Christmas, being that we are transplants, we would not have been in the house that we grew up in, which made me sad. That being said, I am SO glad, and feel so fortunate, that my family is in DC now!  After this dinner, though, I felt so much better, because the food was delicious, my family was in a really happy, chatty mood, and the staff was really friendly.

I was really proud of us, because, other than taking a cab twice and the Tube once, we walked EVERYWHERE!!!! There were days when, in addition to my dad's and my runs, we would walk 8 or 9 miles, so go us for not whining and for getting some serious exercise!!! It was actually really helpful that we did all of that walking, too, because I realized, when we got there, that I felt slightly disoriented as to where everything was relative to each other.  Walking definitely helped me get my bearings!  On Christmas Day, nothing was open and we had a bit of a slow start, given that I think Tim and my dad were still adjusting to the time change.  We walked downtown, stopping along the way at Buckingham Palace (where I was replaying the royal wedding broadcast in my head, the part with the kisses on the palace balcony.  Please don't judge me.) before heading to Christmas Mass at Westminster Cathedral, which, with its moorish-looking design, looked more like it belonged in southern Spain than in the middle of London.  After Mass, we went home and made an improvised dinner, courtesy of Marks & Spencer.  It certainly wasn't a gourmet feast, which definitely wasn't ideal, but we were all together, so that was all that mattered.

Much to our disappointment, nothing was really open on the day after Christmas, either, being that it was Boxing Day (in my opinion, a completely useless holiday, but who am I to judge?  According to Wikipedia, it was traditionally the day when nobility would give boxed gifts to their hired help.  Why they had to make a holiday out of it, I have no idea).  We opted to go on the hop on- hop off bus tour, which gave us a really comprehensive view of all of the major sights in the city, thus enabling us to get off the bus when we wanted to explore a particular area more.  We ended up getting off near Big Ben on our loop back from across the Thames, and walked up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, where the Olympic countdown was in effect.  We got back on the bus later in the day and got to see the more western part of the city, the more museum-y district (needless to say, we didn't do any museums because Tim is very anti-museum haha).

On Tuesday, we walked over to Notting Hill and, after exploring the Portobello Road area a bit (which was not exactly bustling like it had been when I was there last), grabbed a quick bit of breakfast.  One of Tim's roommates lives in London and another of their roommates, who, oddly enough, studied in Salamanca this past semester and was staying with the other roommate's family for Christmas, had just gotten back to the city, so they did their own thing for the rest of the day.  My parents and I walked about 9 miles that day, from the house all the way through Hyde Park and then up to Harrods, so that I could get my La Durée visit in.  Being that it was the first day that Harrod's was open after the holiday, it was a MOB SCENE.  I'm usually okay with crowds (my parents HATE them), but even I was getting a bit disgruntled; since it was so crowded, my dad and I got our desserts to go.  I was somehow able to restrain myself from eating it until later that night, and it certainly did not disappoint.  That La Durée, they certainly know their desserts.  We got back on the hop on-hop off bus for another two hours, which gave us a slightly different perspective, because we got to see everything lit up at night as opposed to in the daylight.

The next day, we departed via train for Edinburgh.  In theory, I love trains in Europe, because they are relatively efficient and comfortable.  But we were really crammed in there like sardines, what with all of our long legs, so both train rides, the one from Paris to London and the one from London to Edinburgh, were pretty painful.  I really did love our time in London, and I guess the one thing that I would change if I had it to do over again is that I would go a few days after Christmas, because of the closures for Christmas and Boxing Day.