Travel Tuesday: St. Paul's, British Museum, Lion King

It has been a quick month already since my brother left after his five week visit with me here in Germany. If you've been reading the blog since then, you'll remember that we took a trip to London while he was here! We were only there for four days, but we sure packed in a lot of exploring! That's given me writing material for many a post, to be sure! Here's yet another: St. Paul's Cathedral, the British Museum, & seeing the Lion King in the West End!  If you know my Travel Review posts, you'll know this isn't going to be short.  And I didn't even tell you everything!  :)  Enjoy!

St. Paul's Cathedral

One of London's most famous sights, St, Paul's Cathedral was a must-see while we were visiting.  We saw it during our Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus Tour, but made a definite point of taking the Tube there to see it on foot.  The building is so large & nestled between the other buildings of the city that you really can't take it in completely.  Therefore, I've found a great picture for you that shows it in all its beauty!

While inside the Cathedral, my brother & I dared to go where few go: up 257 steps on the spiral staircase to The Whispering Gallery, then up another 119 steps to The Stone Gallery {where you go outside for panoramic views!}, then yet another 152 steps over precarious stairs in very tight spaces to reach The Golden Gallery {where you have to go outside to reach the stairs that go back down, but it's a little scary!}

How cute is this wedding double-decker bus?!  I know it sounds very strange, but there was a wedding taking place in the Cathedral's Crypt Chapel.  It was stunning, really.  {I didn't realize the significance of weddings that take place in this location!}  And after our hike to the top of St. Paul's, a refreshing drink from the Starbucks next door {is there anywhere without a Starbucks these days?  Geesh!} was in order!  Then, hopping back onto the Tube!  Mind the gap!

 
The British Museum

Wow, what an incredible place!  I'd always wanted to go here, & I was so excited that my brother & I were able to squeeze a visit into the rest of our exploring!  We weren't able to stay long, but it was immediately clear that it would take months, if not years, to see all that the Museum has on display.  And, according to an employee we met, there are thousands of artifacts owned by the Museum that are in storage elsewhere!  Incredible!  I took an Art History class years ago, & it was amazing so see the things that we learned about, to be in the place that keeps these artifacts safe!  The Rosetta Stone, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mayan sculptures...  Oh, I loved it!

It would be wonderful to go back when I had more time to look around, but it's nice to have been there even just once!

The Lion King on London's West End

Seeing a show in London was on our list of top things to do!  And we did it!  We purchased last minute tickets at Picadilly Circus the day before the show, & the price wasn't bad!  Neither were the seats!  I've been to a few shows on Broadway, so it was really fun to be able to compare.  The show was so well done, & the costumes were unlike anything I'd seen before!  I especially liked the baby elephant & the jaguar :)  I'm not ashamed to say that I got goosebumps during the intro, when all the animals come out & "The Circle of Life" is being sung!  Beautiful!  At one point during The Lion King, they sang "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!".  We were in London, indeed!

This video of the original London cast of The Lion King is great!  I hope that you all enjoyed the travel review!  It's fun for me to think back on trips & to look at photos again!  It's such a blessing to be able to visit so many new places in the world!  ♥

Travel Reviews: Stonehenge The Strange!

We continue on with my travel reviews, dear readers, by discussing Stonehenge. What an eerily famous place, Stonehenge, filled with mystery, intrigue, & possibly alien invasions! Oooooooo!  Are you in suspense?!  And yet, according to our tour guide, the mystery of how the enormous stones were erected has been solved.  Archeologists say that people laid tree trunks on the ground to form a sort of railroad track that they then rolled the stones over until they reached their final location.  Seems possible to me!

Oooo!  What were they doing?  I bet it wasn't nearly as mysterious as we are lead to believe.  Or perhaps...it was!  Oooo!

In a theoretical nutshell, Stonehenge was put up around 2500 BC as a burial ground, but maybe the aliens are responsible for the placement of these enormous stones!  In fact, if you look at this site from high in the sky, you can see thousands of burial mounds surrounding it, & together they all form the constellations!  Now, that is crazy!  But true!  Do you think that the aliens created Stonehenge?!  Oooo!  Okay, enough with the Ooooo-ing!

Oh, these photos were taken on my Dad's amazing Nikon.  Can you say camera envy?!  {And I tweaked em a bit on Picnik.Com}

Anyhow, Stonehenge was possibly used as a place of pagan worship.  Our tour guide told us, also, that the stones were believed to have healing powers.  In fact, the body of a man from Italy {if I remember correctly} was found in one of the burial mounds, suggesting that he traveled all the way in hopes of being healed at the site.  Poor guy--it didn't work!

A friend of mine who recently went to Stonehenge did this: a picture of her toes with the stones in the background!  It's a weird place, okay?  I was allowed to be strange!

Admit it...  Kinda a cute idea :)

There is one stone set aside from the others so that you can touch it...to get all those healing powers, you know!  Of course, I pushed my hand through the crowd gathered around the stone so that I could get my luck!  I have now touched a stone from the infamous Stonehenge!

On a lighter note, any Spinal Tap fans out there?  The famous Stonehenge scene from the movie crossed my mind many times while I was visiting here!  Oooh, hilarious British humor!

{ Can you tell that I'm starting to feel better?! }

Travel Reviews: Windsor Castle %

I woke up this morning to one of my favorite things: a thunderstorm. It made me want to pull my duvet up around me & snuggle in for a bit more sleep. But the doggies had other ideas. Layla came in & rested her head on the bed beside me, just close enough that her nose was touching my face. And Lucius, who is such a midnight wanderer that I have to put him in his kennel for bed so that he doesn't fall down the stairs {yes, it's happened}, was crying for me to come let him out. So we got up. I made a big cup of some of my favorite green tea, gave the dogs their breakfast, & started some laundry.  It's going to be a cozy day here today, I think!

Now, for more on London.  { You can see my other posts on this travel topic by clicking right here. }  My dear, I have more pictures than I know what to do with!  It's a daunting task to go through them all & pick out a few to share here with you all, but I will do it!  I promised to!  And now, I have the time :)

Day Three in London:  My brother & I booked a country bus tour to take us to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, & Oxford.  We were really excited to get out of the city & see more of the true England.  { As I started this post, I intended to cover all of day three, but I'm realizing Windsor Castle will take up a lot of space!  I hope you enjoy these reviews, because it's going to be a while before I'm finished! }

The beautiful Windsor Castle.  { Photo from here }

Windsor Castle was our first stop, & we've both decided that this was one of our very favorite places of the entire trip.  This is the largest castle in the world that is still inhabited & it is at least as old as the ages of William the Conqueror.  The castle's floor covered about 480,000 square feet & I'm sure that we saw only a snippet of that!  Oh, & I must say that the Queen was there at Windsor while we were touring the grounds!  Yes, indeed!  The flag was flying high to let us know!

The Queen is in!

We had only two hours at the Castle {which our guide agreed was ridiculously short!}, so we booked it from one place to another.  First, through security.  Yes, full security with metal detectors & all.  Must keep the Queen safe!  Then, we walked the grounds & got our bearings.  We overheard that The Changing of the Guard was soon to take place, so off we went to watch!  My brother took so many photos that I teased him we could make a flip book :)  Here's just one!

As we'd waited for the Changing of the Guard to begin, we ducked into St. George's Chapel, which has become one of my very favorite that I've ever seen.  { You can visit their official site here & even explore 360 degree virtual tours here as well as listen to the Chapel Choir & the Bells of St. George's!  Or perhaps you'd like to see St. George's Chapel at Christmas.  Please take a peak; it's lovely. }  We did take pictures of the Chapel, but none of them really do it justice.  So here is a photo from INEtours.com.

Beautiful, isn't it?

After watching the Changing of the Guard, off we went to see Queen Mary's Doll House.  This doll house, built in the 1920's, is complete with working plumbing & electricity.  In its beautiful little rooms you can find miniatures everything a real house would hold: working toilets & ceiling lights, carpets & musical instruments, even little wine & liqueur bottles filled appropriately!  The books on the bookshelves are miniature versions of real books made by the authors themselves, just like the famous works of art on the walls.  It was amazing!  And huge!  Here are some good photos for you!  I didn't take any of these--we weren't allowed to snap any photos!  So these are from Getty Images, Royal-Windsor & TravelBlog.

You may remember my mentioning the movie The Young Victoria in a previous London Travel post.  I watched this movie a few weeks before visiting London, but knowing more about Queen Victoria & Prince Albert really made the visit more enjoyable.  Victoria became Queen of England at the age of 18 & she was married to Prince Albert a mere three years later.  Together, they had nine children.  Albert passed away from typhoid while at Windsor Castle.  He was only 42 years old.  Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life, had Albert's clothes set out every morning, & always kept a setting for him at the table.  They are buried together near Windsor Castle at the Frogmore Royal Mausoleum.

The story of Victoria & Albert has really stuck with me.  Their love, their dedication to one another, & their strength  to do the right for the country that they loved.  True love & true loyalty.  There can be nothing more noble, I believe.  Do watch The Young Victoria.  Their story will stick with you too.  I got a bit teary just watching the trailer.  You will love it.



Windsor Castle is a beautiful place filled with beautiful rooms & beautiful stories.  I would love to go back someday & spend much longer walking the grounds & learning more of its past.  How wonderful it is to visit such places; how strange to think that I may never be back again.  But to see them once is far greater than to never see them at all!  It's important to always make the most of your time, no matter where you are!

Travel Reviews: London II %

Part two of my travel review of London is here, complete with photos!  My brother & I took so many pictures that it's really going to take me a while to narrow it down to the small few I will put in this post.  I'll pick some of my favorites!  There is so much to share that these reviews can only touch the surface!

The first day, after sleeping in a bit & going to a local grocery store for pastries for breakfast, we went to find the closest pick-up for London's Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour!  On our way, as the rain started to fall from the sky, we happened upon The Victoria & Albert Museum.  Did you know that all museums in London are free of charge to the public?!  We wandered in & had a wonderful time looking around at all of the sculptures, artifacts, & displays.  There was an exhibit of Grace Kelly's dresses that I would have loved to see had there not been a 2 hour wait!  Nevertheless, we waited out the rain in a lovely place.

I recently watched the movie The Young Victoria, which tells the story of Victoria & Albert.  Albert died young, & for the next four decades, Victoria had his clothes set out every morning & a place for him at the table every night.  So lovely, so heartbreaking.  I was glad I'd seen this movie & learned about Victoria & Albert before visiting London!

After hopping onto our bus, we started to see the sights of the city.  As we approached Harrods, we looked at each other & knew we had to hop off to explore!

Harrods--what a place!  You could spend days in this incredible store!  Everything from equestrian clothing to the most expensive perfume you've ever seen!  Not to mention the beautiful food areas, complete with fresh cut meat sandwiches, sushi, chocolates, & teas!

Have you ever seen such a thing?  Trafalgar Square, my dears.  I have lots of photos from here, but I'm fascinated by the giant ship in a bottle.

Another view of Trafalgar Square, complete with posing children!  How quaint!  :)

We had fun on the top of the bus, seeing all the sights with the wind in our hair!  One of us ended up with lots of tangles!

We had lunch at a cute afternoon tea shop across from Harrods, then hopped back on our bus to see more of London's sights!  We made the entire loop, getting off only at Buckingham Palace, just to make sure that we saw everything!  We made mental notes of the places that we wanted to go back to: St. Paul's, Westminster Cathedral, Big Ben, etc.  There was so much to see, so many shops to explore!

Here's a slideshow to show you some more of our pictures from day one in London!  I hope I didn't put you into photo overload!

Too Many Photos, Too Little Time!

Bare with me, my lovely readers. I have so many photos from my trip to London, Salzburg, & Munich that I need some serious time to organize them all before I can decide which ones to share with you!  Tomorrow, I'm hoping to really start my London reviews!

We're enjoying some very nice, cool & rainy weather here in Bavaria.  It's a much welcomed break from the 90 degree temps & no air conditioning!  Phew!  Plus, my lawn is loving it too!

Tonight, my brother & I are {somewhat shamefully} going to see the new Twilight movie.  I read all the books before there was even a whisper to the public about the movies, so I'm a bit prejudiced.  Have you read the books?  Seen the movies?  What do you think?  ...Me?  The books are way better.  An easy & somewhat ridiculous storyline meant simply to entertain!  An easy beach read!  All this chaotic hype & craziness surrounding the actors is insane...  Wow!  I don't really feel that the movies are that good, but it is fun to watch them...  I guess all teenage girls have to be obsessed with something?!  Team Jacob!  *oh boy*

Happy weekend, lovelies!  ♥

Travel Reviews: London %

Wow, there is so much to say about London! Too much, I think, to fit into one blog post, or else you would surely get bored with me & move on to something else! So I think I will break my London review up into more than one post! Stay with me!

We arrived in foggy London town from our trusty Ryan Air flight & took the train into the heart of the city. We bought our tube tickets {ah, the tube!} & were immediately greeted by not one but two rude Londoners.  Eek, I thought, I've never encountered such rudeness in all my European travels!  Why, London?!  And let us just say that this wasn't the end of our sightings.  This was a disappointment, but we didn't let these unhappy blokes get between us & a good time!

After studying the map of the tube, we made our way to our hotel, The Trebovir.  This hotel was nothing fancy whatsoever, but I chose it for three reasons: it was close to a tube station, it was air conditioned, & it had free internet!  Yes, of course I brought a laptop!  To stay in touch with Don, of course!  Other than these three things, the hotel was nothing to get excited about.  And the price, well...London is expensive!!

Mmm!  Bulmer's & Beer!

We spent the rest of our evening exploring the area around our hotel, walking down Portobello Road, & eating our first fish & chips in a local pub, complete with local beer for my brother & a Bulmer's Apple & Pear Cider for me!

We were tired from our traveling & we wanted to make sure that we got a good start in the morning, so we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep!  Up next?  The Victoria & Albert Museum, our Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus Tour, Herrod's, Buckingham Palace, & more!  Phew!

3 Countries, 1 Week

11:30 am & 78 degrees. Thank goodness it has cooled down! The dogs are asleep on their beds {& are in need of a bath!}, my brother is asleep on the sofa, & although I could definitely take a nap myself, I feel like cleaning & mowing & doing laundry. What is wrong with me?! *** Don is doing great! He's in the location where he will be staying for the remainder of the deployment. He's roughing it a bit, but happy to be a bit more settled. No more living out of his ruck sack!

I'm home! We got back last night after driving from Salzburg to Munich {where we had dinner at the Hofbrauhaus} & finally home.  My brother sure got a kick out of driving on the autobahn!  We had a great time on our trip!  London, Munich, & Salzburg.  That's a good list!  I'm going to write more about our trip later, but for now, here's a picture of me jumping in front of the Tower of London!  Pretty good, huh?!  I'd like to think so :)

Did you know that the Tower of London is actually an entire castle?  Not just a Tower at all!

I'll do my reviews of the trip in my usual way: one city at a time!  So come back soon for my London review, which may even be split into a few parts!  What a huge city, & we did so much!  We even saw Stonehenge & Windsor Castle!  Don't you want to see pictures?!  Stop back by tomorrow!  ♥

Cheerio! To London, Munich & Salzburg We Go!

Our bags are packed, our boarding passes printed, & the doggies are ready to be dropped off at "camp"! It's time for some traveling!  And we've modified our trip a bit: we added Munich & Salzburg!  So after our return from London, we'll be stay a night in each of those wonderful cities!  It's going to be a great trip with my brother!

To London First...

Then A Night In Munich...

Then, our last night will be in Salzburg, Austria!

I promise to take lots of photos ♥

I hope that you all have a fabulous end to your week & a lovely weekend full of surprises & smiles!  I will be back around the 21st!  ♥

Travel Tuesdays % London Calling!

Welcome welcome to all of my wonderful new readers! It's lovely to have you here!

Next up in my European travels is London, & I'll be going there soon with my dear little brother {who just happens to be about 6'4"!}.  He's flying into Germany in a few days to keep me company for an entire month, & I couldn't be more excited!  We're going to have so much fun--I just know it!  He is two years younger than me, & we've always been very close.  Having him here to keep me busy & to liven up the house while Don is gone will be such a blessing!  And seeing London together will be fabulous!!  Here I come, fish & chips, double-decker busses, cherry red phone booths, afternoon tea & oh so much more!

We're going to be staying for 3.5 days, 4 nights--plenty of time to soak in London's sights & sounds!  I'm hoping {fingers crossed!} that we can also make our way down to Jane Austen's house in Chawton.  It'll take a train ride, a bus ride, & about a 15 minute walk to get there, but by golly, we can do that!  One of the hardest things for me about traveling is that you get so close to so many things you want to see, & yet...it's impossible to see it all.

 Have you been to London?  What must I make sure not to miss, dears?!