Stop No. 1 ~ London
Whilst the winter has kept us at home and not traveling as much as we'd like and therefore making our 'perpetual adventures' slightly more brief, if not completely non-existent (*by the way, that isn't happening next year - I will go on both a ski trip and somewhere tropical during the winter hibernation period)...anyhow, I thought that I'd share some stories and photos from our honeymoon - our trip of a lifetime. Now before I get to London, the first leg of our ten city, five country trip, I must begin with a sweet little story about the planning that went into this trip.
Originally, the entire honeymoon was to be a surprise for me - Adam knows just how much I love surprises and since I was going a little overboard with all of the wedding planning, he figured that the best use of his time was in planning our celebratory trip to follow the wedding...or maybe I just told him to do that? Anyhow, I believe it was about April or May when we were driving to our church one Sunday morning and Adam said, "So, how badly did you want the honeymoon to actually be a surprise?" Understanding him the way I do I took this to meant that he was undecided about something and needed my help. I replied with, "I really love surprises you know, is there anyway you can just make a few decisions and keep me out of the loop?" He of course agreed to that - but brought the topic back up again a few minutes later so I figured there was something on his mind that he needed to share. And so I thought about it and realized, actually, I'm dying to know what the plan is!
Adam then preceded by telling me he had had a dream. This isn't a unique phenomenon I told him and he explained that he never dreams or at least he can rarely ever remember his dreams. At this point, as you might imagine, I'm totally intrigued by what he has to share with me. Without further ado, in his dream he was at some big party that was happening before our wedding and all of my closest friends and family were there, getting to know him, interrogating him a bit, etc. He thinks it was either Amy or Jordyn who asked him, "Where are you taking Melody on the honeymoon?" And as he told them the plan he said that they all started laughing hysterically and saying, "Don't you know Melody at all? She'll hate that." In the dream he specifically remembers looking at Jordyn, and all she had to do was raise those dramatic eyebrows of hers and he knew he had blown it.
And so, my poor hubby was experiencing a bit of anxiety prior to making the final arrangements for our honeymoon. I decided it was best to let the guy get the affirmation from me that he so desperately needed. He then described and unfolded the entire honeymoon in such an elaborate way, I couldn't help but be totally enthralled and more than ready to depart for our 14 day cruise covering the beautiful coastal cities along the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas. I guess the majority of his anxiety stemmed from a comment that I had made about hating the 'All Inclusive's' - I meant like Sandals - not a cruise! Especially not a cruise that is exposing me to some of the places that I have longed to visit! Here's the breakdown of the honeymoon: London to Venice to Debrovnik to Athens to Santorini to Naples to Rome to Florence/Pisa to Cannes to Barcelona. I mean, what's not to love about that? Besides...Athens of course :)
Sunday night, the day after our wedding we flew out from Seattle to London (approx 10+ hour flight). Now the cruise actually started in Venice, but Adam saw an opportunity to gain a country and one up me in our country competition, by choosing a flight with a layover in a city/country he had never been, one in which I had been several times! Needless to say, we arrived in the middle of the afternoon after our red eye and from all of the excitement with the wedding and everything, we didn't really sleep on the plane much so we were exhausted. Let me just say this, exhaustion has nothing on adrenaline and excitement, so we took on sightseeing and enjoying one of my favorite cities in the world.
Our first stop, checking into our hotel - the Sherlock Holmes hotel on Baker Street, naturally. Well, actually, it wasn't naturally, rather a sweet deal that Priceline set up for us but very fun nevertheless.
We immediately departed for Westminster and Big Ben, the London Eye, the Parliament, and of course, Westminster Abbey. Although this area can get a little crowded with all the tourists, etc, you can usually find a quiet bench nearby the abbey to read, sketch, enjoy your surroundings.
All of a sudden we heard Big Ben chime (seriously) and realized that it was almost six o'clock and we had to be at Queen's theatre for Les Miserables by seven o'clock and we were starving. We hopped on the Tube and made our way to the Picadilly Circus line and headed to the theatre (notice the English spelling of the word, my preferred spelling of the word as well) - arriving with only about 20 minutes prior to the start of our show and still starving. Yes, I'm proud to say that on our first night of our honeymoon we ate McDonald's. Please don't judge me, I love that place.
It's sad, but true...after our McDonalds chow down, the traveling, the wedding festivities and all, our adrenaline finally ran out and we both fell asleep during the second half of Les Mis. Sad. Oh well, both of us have seen the play (one of our shared favorites) approx ten times, so no biggy. After the show, it's dark out and late and even though we are tired and have to get up super early to make our flight to Venice, I convince him to wander over to St. Paul's Cathedral, which has the second highest dome in the world (we also saw the first highest on this trip, can you guess where?). St. Paul's is one of those sights that I particularly like to see in the evening. There is something hauntingly reverent about this place of worship, nestled in the hub of London's epicenter. I highly recommend visiting the cathedral in the evenings, folks are rarely around that area at night.
We decided after that to call it a night - no stops at the pub for warm beer or hot toddy's :( But I feel pretty confident that we will be back...
For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of fun pics that we took while in London: The much loved red telephone booth picture (I have a ton of these now) and of course the beginning of several self portraits because we are too frightened to ask anyone else to snag a pic, and finally, the first of several pictures intended to document the numerous subway rides we took on this honeymoon. I can now offer anyone who is interested a thoughtful and comprehensive reflection of the subways in Washington DC, New York City, London, Rome, Athens, and Barcelona.
Have you been to London before? What are you favorite things to do and see? Please share your thoughts - I love including highly recommended sights into my travel plans!
Cheers, Melody
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I want to go to there!
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