My fabulous trip to LONDON!

2009 was a good year for me when it comes to vacations. I am so lucky!! First we had the amazing cruise, and then I was invited to explore London for 4 days and 4 nights with my Aunt Donna, Uncle Klaus, and my cousin Francie! We left December 26th from DFW ( scheduled to take off at 7:45 p.m., but actually took off sometime after 10:00 p.m.) and arrived at Heathrow Airport around 12:30 p.m. on the 27th. Lets stop right there....this is only my second time on a plane. The first time was to San Diego, so it was a 3 hour flight. This was around a 9ish hour long flight....keep in mind I am pregnant. Also keep in mind that when I am pregnant I throw up all day long, for every reason, and for no reason. Car rides are terrible. Apparently plane rides are terrible too. I filled up two bags during the landing alone. Talk about embarrassing, haha! ANYWAYS, we finally landed and headed to Customs.....ahhh Customs. We were told that Francie didn't need a note or anything allowing her to travel with me (she's 15)....but apparently we were told wrong. Customs was pretty sure that she was a run away and that I was helping her. We said we were cousins but we look nothing alike (not uncommon) and we don't have the same last name....oh yeah and I look like a 12 year old wearing a wedding rind. Awesome. So the man asked us about 30 questions, with his "hard to understand African (I'm guessing) accent". Francie is a shy person...so I was doing all the talking which looked even better I'm sure. Anyways, we convinced him that we were really only there for a short vacation and she fully planned on returning home to her parents in 5 days. So we went and found Donna and Klaus and hopped on a Subway headed to London! Oh yeah, Subways make me feel sick too...I luckily didn't throw up though, because there was NO WHERE to do it. 45 minutes later we emerge from underground to find LONDON!!!! And it was beautiful! So we grabbed a taxi and headed to our first stop...the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel right off of Thames River...it was amazing.

The Lobby

This was on the front desk and I loved it....

Also the Lobby...leading into the bar.

Okay, after we got unpacked and settled in a little bit we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner....the ORIGINAL Hard Rock Cafe! I took pictures of some of the memorbilia they had, but I don't think I'm going to put any up...I may change my mind later.

Francie and I in the Taxi on our way to HRC.

After that we went back to the hotel and Donna, Francie and I went for a little walk along the Thames River and took a few shots of the Parliment and Big Ben at night. The pictures don't do the beauty of it justice...but it's all I have :)

Big Ben is over on the right side.

Oh yeah, and we had to take silly photos of ourselves pretending to talk in a phone booth...duh!!

The next day (our first full day in London) we had some breakfast and then bought some passes for the Big Bus Tour...you could hop on and hop off as much as you wanted for 48 hours. And it included a river cruise too, which we didn't get to go on because we ran out of time the first day, and then it rained the second and third day. I took so many pictures while we were on that bus, and I don't really remember what any of them are of. The buildings there are just amazing to me, so I guess I don't really care what they are of, I liked them anyways.

Isn't this amazing!!?? Minus the head that is in the way.

We just HAD to go on the London Eye, so we waited in line for like an hour and a half so we could see a 360 degree view of London. And it was so worth the wait!

Not a full view of the city in this photo, but I love this one.

That night we went to "We Will Rock You". It was fantastic! It was a show about Queen's music, and time after "Rock and Roll died". I loved it! And that was the end of that day.

Let's see if I can remember exactly what we did on day 3 (second full day). Okay, we went to see the changing of the gaurds at Buckingham Palace...which kind of sucked because you really couldn't see much unless you shoved your way to the front, and we all know I didn't bother to do that. I didn't want to get stabbed in the eye by someone's umbrella. Ugh. Buckingham Palace was beautiful though!!

Buckingham Palace.

The only part of the guard changing that I got to see.

This was inside the Buckingham Palace Store.

After that we decided to get OUT of the weather and go hang out at Harrod's (the world's largest department store in my opinion...) We had some lunch at the Harrod's Cafe and then tried to shop a little, but there were so many people there I couldn't even enjoy it! I was afraid of getting lost :) After Harrod's we went back to the hotel to relax a little bit and then had dinner at the Texas Embassy!

Day 4 (3rd full day) we started out at the Westminster Abbey, of course! We got there early enough for there to not be much of a line, thank goodness. You couldn't take pictures inside, but I got a couple outside.

Westminster Abbey.

This was right above the doors to the Abbey.

After we were done at the Abbey we went and had some lunch and then got on the bus for our Rock and Roll Tour, which was so cool! We saw so many things that I can't even write about them, I will have to put a video up so that you can see. I think if you go to youtube and google Rock and Roll Tour London, someone has actually put a video of the tour up. It was really interesting, I recommend taking a look if you are ever in need of something to kill some time. After the tour we went to the Hard Rock Cafe Vault for a few minutes and then went back to the hotel to rest before we went downstairs for fish and chips on our final night. The next morning we left the hotel at 6:00 a.m. (midnight in Dallas) and headed to the airport for our flight home. I didn't throw up this time, even though I really wanted to. We finally got home right before 3:00 p.m. and then had a lovely 2 hour car ride home, so yes, I was asleep by 9:30 on New Year's Eve. I woke up a little bit before 11:00 and my sweet husband and I shared a New York New Year's Eve kiss and I passed out again. It was an amazing trip and I loved every second of it...even the parts that made me sick. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and I will never forget it! Here are a few more random pictures from the trip, I will eventually get all 430 of them up on facebook :)

Pounds....worth tons of dollars. Dollars...worth not so much pounds lol.

Inside Hard Rock Cafe.

I am going to go ahead and say I did a great job taking this picture :) thanks me.

Elton John.

Francie and I in front of the Thames River.

Some sidewalk boat decor...

I took this while I was on the Eye.

Of course we weren't looking...Parliment and Big Ben during the day.

Another cute little decoration in our hotel's lobby. Look, I'm actually wearing make up, lol.

And last but not least! The flowers that the boys had for me when I got off the plane!!!

Jared checking out his souvineer pjs from Buckingham Palace...aren't they cute?!

A little big....but cute!

He was pulling the pants up, lol! But I think he is channeling Michael Jackson in this one!!