We went from St George airport, to Denver, to Chicago, to London. I reminded Adam the last time we flew it was snowing other places and he probably wouldn't want to wear shorts. He did anyways. So he froze once we got to Denver. I had to take a pic, cause I warned him. And of course since we were on a small plane they made us walk outside. Before we took off we had a 30 minute layover on the ground in St G before we could even fly to Denver. Then the turbulence when we were almost there was enough to make me want to turn around. It was rough, and it truly freaks me out. I almost broke Adam's hand squeezing it to death. Felt like I was gonna either puke or bawl. I know it sounds dramatic, but turbulence sucks for me. But we made it. phew.
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| This door cracked me up. Although you never used the handle, it was a swipe the key and push kind of door, it was still fun to see the handles in the middle. The key you did swipe looked like a key instead of a card. |
The nice thing about this trip is that we didn't have four to six hour layovers like last time. We had a few hours between each flight and after being a tad late or getting around the airports it worked out really well. We decided we aren't that big of fans of United Airlines. We were just so spoiled on Air NewZealand, that this airline was super lame. They charged you for everything. Oh well. When we got into London we had a lady waiting with an Edward Jones sign as she showed us where our driver was. It's nice we don't have to work out those details. He took us right to our hotel. He chatted with us and told us a lot about the city and I was just in awe of all the buildings. They are were so beautiful.
I never took a picture of the outside of the hotel. We stayed in the Grosvenor House in London in the Mayfair district. Basically a really pose part of London. (One we could have never afforded if we chose it) We got there at like 6:30 their time. We were told that check in isn't until like 3, that we'd have to go wander until check in. But when we got there they were able to get us a room. We were the first EJ people there. That was a first, I feel like usually we are last. They had these free walking tours that you could take that took you a few blocks to explain the area, the tube, the buses, the shopping, the restaurant, etc. Adam didn't want to go. He's kinda all about exploring on his own. I talked him into going at the 11:30 one. So we definitely had time to kill. They advise you when you get there not to go take a huge nap, just nap a little to help you adjust to the time change. I was so exhausted, and didn't sleep at all on the flight. I was ready to sleep and Adam was ready to explore. He went to explore the hotel, area a bit while I slept for an hour.
This was our bathroom. I like to take pics of where we stayed.
Our bed was actually super comfy until half way through the night when you felt the springs.
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| The art on the walls were all about fashion |
When you go on a trip EJ is contracted with Maritz Travel Company that has people there on hand for anything you need. (They are the ones that pick you up from the airport) Then they have travel people from whatever destination you are at to help guide you to whatever you want to do. So we went on this walking tour with this cute little British woman who was certified to give tours all around London, which we found out is a pretty big honor. Anyway she showed us and the only other EJ people there yet around. They were from North Carolina and had their 7 year old daughter with them.
We learned that a lot of Arabian princes get bored and fly their cars over with them to London to race and show them off. The streets where we were at were full of fancy cars. Porches, BMW, Bentleys, etc. Adam was in car heaven and took some pics of his favs. The hotels only park the nicest ones out front of their hotels. There is no parking anywhere, but some hotels own some parking garages, which used to be old horse and carriage stables back in the day. They are called Mews.
She showed us all about how to pay and ride the tube (the underground), their subway train. She told us a little about buses, the shopping, restaurants. I'm glad she told us about Pubs. Nobody comes and takes your order you have to go up to the bar to order. Glad we had known that or we would have looked like idiots. We learned on our own Pubs are one of the only affordable places with good food. Fish and chips, and meat pies, and Shepard pies. Cafes or cheaper restaurants had gross food. We weren't impressed by much of the food anywhere we ate. It just wasn't that good. Which was a common opinion among us EJ Americans. Even the hotel Breakfast was kinda blah. ANWYAY, She told us about tipping, and some historical facts as well.
We were right by the US embassy. Which I guess is moving to another part of London that is more dodgy. There is a law that you can't change the outside of historical buildings. So they are gonna turn this building into Condos, and the eagle will have to stay.
I took pics of a lot of buildings. Adam teased me and asked what I was gonna do with them all. Who knows but I was in love with them all.
They keep their taxis looking like old models. Mainly for tourists that love it I think. They also have the telephone booths all over for tourists as well. Nobody uses them. I opened this one and about gagged at the smell. It also was full of garbage. :( The only time someone was in one was to take a picture.
We used the underground the most. People thought it was silly not to use the buses cause it was cheapest and you could view London as you went. BUT we just couldn't ever nail down the buses. We did ride them a little and we felt we walked enough EVERYWHERE to see London. Plus the tube maps just made sense and got you there fast. The only time I didn't love it is when it was busy with locals in the evenings and so packed you couldn't breath.
After our tour we took off on our own. We had this app that you could type in where you wanted to go and it'd put destinations in a good order to do them and how to get to each one. Pretty handy. So we tried it out the first day. We headed to the British Museum. IT WAS HUGE. It seriously had like six huge floors of history from all over the world. It was fascinating and overwhelming at the same time. There was no way to see it all, but we went to the ones we for sure wanted to see, and left to explore London some more.
We took a bunch of pics at the China exhibit to show Gabe.
I loves the Egyptian one and the Mummies
We ended up in some random rooms trying to navigate around this huge building that had like one bathroom. This ship is a clock that moves around and fires things at different times.
We then wanted to see Parliament and Big Ben. We froze doing this. It was super cold out. We wanted to tour Westminster Abbey, which you can pay to do, except when they have services going on. We went when they had services and planned to come back later in the week to see the inside. The outside of both Parliament, and Westminster were amazing!
We walked through this park and sat and watched the river Thames for a bit. (Pronounced Tims-which I still think is so silly)
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| Riding the Underground |
They had crazy shopping along streets our hotel was by. We weren't much into shopping. Maybe someday if we have the money to. So we just browsed a few. This was the Disney store that was huge there. We took some pics to show the kids.
Marble Arch station for the tube and bus was "our" station. It was at the corner of Hyde Park which is right across the street from our hotel. It's the one we used the most.
EJ has three dinners throughout the week. A welcome one, a farewell one, and the mid week one is always themed. For the welcome we were so exhausted we almost didn't go. But free food is sometimes a nice option. We almost left early when one of the other EJ advisors told us she heard they were gonna have some special guests come. So we hung around until the Queen, Prince William, and Kate walked in. Obviously they were actors, but everyone took a minute to figure that our cause they looked so much like them. I got to tell everyone I hugged the Queen. Ha! I did, I hugged her and told her she looked so great. Afterwards we went straight to bed. Although every night for about three nights I'd sleep for a few hours and wake up wide awake. My body seemed to think I was taking a nap at home, (which is was afternoon at home) and It would take me forever to go back to bed. It was hard. Adam on the other hand didn't even have any issues. He kind of amazes me. Slept like a baby.
