Day 2 Pictures

a long lost relative?

on our way to Westminster

yay for nice weather

Tower of London

Ann Boleyn's house. The last original Tudor house in London.

old cannons and the sweet guards with there hats they stole from the French.

The beginning of psychological warfare? Henry's armour.

Tower Bridge

Anchor Inn

the globe theatre, rebuilt by an American (taking over the world)

View from the top of St Paul's Cathedral

claustrophobic stairs you had to climb to get the view.

no birds to feed.

One bird to feed, no food.

Covent Garden

Josh almost cracking a smile and Dad laughing at the performer

Aussie performer, that pole was held up by four "volunteers" from the audience.

Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly is such a fun word.

Can I get a lift?

Day 2 started off with a ride on a beautiful red double decker bus. I wonder if someone has made one into a house or funky hotel room? We then walked through a lovely park (uh i forgot the name) past the queens horses and down to Big Ben, Westminster and Westminster Abbey.

We came to see the Abbey but it was closed because of the Pope having some meeting in it later that day. Poor mum and dad have tried 3 times now to see inside Westminster Abbey, josh was relieved. So we went to the river Thames and caught a tour boat down to the Tower of London. I never found my sea legs and proceeded to trip getting off the boat, I didn't' stack it completely but the chap helping people off the boat made such a fuss about me nearly tripping that it would have been better if I had.

Regaining my dignity we walked over to the Tower of London and waited for our very own Beef eater to tell us all the horrible things that happened there. Lots of people with no heads, two princes murdered, famous people imprisoned, the only original Tudor house left in London and crown jewels. Did you know the crown jewels actually belong to the people? that is why they are always on display. Here's another useless fact, someone has sent roses to Ann Boleyn's grave every year since she died. So can someone tell me why people make such a big deal of Ann Boleyn didn't old Henry boy kill off the rest of his wives?

After the Tower of London tour we inhaled our lunch while standing above the traitors gate entrance to the tower and headed over to the London Tower bridge and got to walk across the top which was cool they have pictures of other cool bridges up there which makes the tower bridge seem less fabulous but we didn't go to the engine rooms or see the road lift up so I guess that would have made it absolutely fabulous.

We then hiked it down Clink St. Prison said hi to Little Dorrit, walked past the Anchor Inn (where some famous writer sat there drinking while London burned), just in time to find out that the globe theatre had a show starting so we couldn't go on the tour and the souvenir shop didn't have anything cool with my name on it. seriously, I have the same name as a famous fictional character, you'd think it would get put on key rings etc more than Julie/Julia but nooooo.

Anyways we got to walk across the millennium bridge to St Paul's Cathedral. I didn't go there to see the second largest unsupported dome in Europe or marvel at the paintings, or to go to a service, I went to feed the birds. Turns out I didn't have a tuppence and I already ate my sandwich at the traitors gate so we decided to climb the bazillions stairs to the whispering gallery where you can whisper something to your friend on the other side and they can hear it. its Chinese whispers without the middle person. Then up another gazillion stairs to the first balcony for a look at London then another trillion spiral staircase steps up to the very top. The view was glorious and you began to feel sorry for the builders back in the day with out work and safety laws. After swearing never to climb another staircase ever again I promptly went down to the crypt and saw more famous dead people then we got kicked out because service was about to start.

So what do you do when you don't go to church? yep go to Covent Garden to see the street performers and maybe do some shopping. This guy was actually from Melbourne and ex cirque de solei so he was a very good performer but even better a asking people for their money. Then to Piccadilly circus for food and guess where we ate... TGI Fridays. America really is taking over the world and we are supporting it! it was Josh's choice, I think dad nearly died the music was so loud. We went home after that because my feet were about to drop off, mums had already dropped off and josh was just dying to chat with someone.

Come Fly With Me

DAY 1

This was the first time I've ever been scared while flying...too many Lost episodes in a row and I was in the back section which means I wouldn't have been with Jack or Sawyer and the Others would have kidnapped me. It was a bumpy ride with bad food but we did get to circle around London for 20 minutes waiting for clearance to land. Isn't it beautiful from the air? by the way Fabio's brother was on the plane, seriously I did a double take because I thought it was Fabio.




What a different experience going through customs in London, all the customs officers were so polite and actually spoke to you. (unlike the yellers at LAX, really people do you need to scream 'have your documents ready' at me after I've been on a 14 hour flight?) We made our way down to the Underground or Tube (train) but not before Dad found a struggling traveller, she had 3 massive bags and was moving to London to study for and year and asked dad where a safe place to stay was (and that's why American get a bad name) so we spent a little while helping her work out the train and some place to stay, hopefully she made it ok.








We went to the Marriott in Maida Vale and dropped off our bags because it wasn't check in time yet and got right back on the tube to go get our London Pass. First stop was Madam Tussuad's where I didn't take that many pictures because I'd just been on a 10 hour overnight flight and hadn't really slept or showered and who wants to look like that by all the beautifully waxy celebs. So I just got one of Josh and Shane Warne (cricket player) haha. It was pretty cool to see all the wax sculptures there and it was so surprising how short they all were. I think my fav was the Audrey Hepburn one, she was dressed in the breakfast at Tiffany's outfit sitting at a table there was a chair next to her so you could take photos but as if I was going to get a photo, this is Audrey and here's me with greasy hair and weirdo plane food on my shirt, gorgeous. after all the famous people they take you on a little London through the ages ride, think Disneyland minus the annoying its a small world.






Then to a 4d super hero movie that zac and will would have loved it had hulk, spiderman, ironman, miss marvel?, capt America and some bad dude. Josh and his GQ pose and me with my Comic-con nerd face.













after all that excitement we went straight back to the hotel and slept until me josh and dad went to see Wicked! 4th row back! I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how stinkin close we were, of course I didn't cause josh was there and that would have ruined all his street cred. Wicked was awesome i was blown away by the talent of the entire cast. You know because usually you can tell if performer is either an actor and a dancer or a singer and an actor but I guess not in London everyone is trained and talented. It was fabulous, so I spent way too much money on a shirt. Josh got us some Burger King - the first of many American things we did in London, so sad, American businesses taking over the world. Then I had the best sleep I'd had in 4 years, an entire 8 hours straight!

Juliet goes to London

Part 1

The first time I planned a trip to London was for the British Lit tour at BYU-I and the terrorists ruined that one. It was cancelled because the board of directors decided that it wouldn't be safe to have a bunch of obnoxious Americans running around in other countries.

The second time I booked a trip to London it was with my 2 best friends! So much more exciting than the educational one. We were planning on going to London and Paris all for a very low price. And then came Isaac and I was too preggers to fly by about three weeks.

So lucky number three here I come. I'd like to thank my brother for having a good friend getting married in England, my sister for offing to mind my kids and suggesting it to my parents, my parents for pretending I'm still a minor, Sean for letting me go away for 10 days while he's in his 3rd year of school and thanks to my in-laws who are coming to make sure Sean doesn't die looking after the kids by himself.

Lets hope my flight doesn't get cancelled.

Happy Birthday Cubs

Cubs del la Chubs 1st birthday.

Will and Zac making the Lamington cupcakes.

and then Eating them.

It has been an exhausting week for little Zackie...Trying to make socks and sandals trendyDesigning new Super Hero Costumes,
And using his new powers to fight....

the monster thats been sleeping on our couch.

Magic

My kitchen timer is magic.
We have a problem with sharing in our house, Will and Zac hate to share their toys and I hate to share ice-cream. So along comes the magic timer and waaa laaaa when that thing beeps Will/Zac will hand over the toy and ask me to quickly start the timer.
Earlier tonight I was actually using the kitchen timer for cooking and when it beeped (meat defrosted) Zac said "My Turn" and they promptly swapped toys. Fifteen minutes later the timer beeped (noodles cooked) and Will said "My Turn" and yet another swap. Its magic.