Wednesday we went on the Thames River tour…over rated because we saw just as much and more when we walked the Southbank.  Then the Tower of London tour which was interesting and amazing to see the crown jewels.  They are incredibly fancy and so expensive it is almost unreal.  After that was lunch at a pub where we met Em after she got off work.  I have decided that for the most part all the pubs are the same.  Doug and the girls went to St. Paul’s for the afternoon while Em, Ad, and I went to go see if we could buy cheap tickets to the Lion King musical.  

No luck finding tickets to Lion King or Billy Elliot but we had fun exploring Lester Square.  It looked way different when there wasn’t the Harry Potter Premier going on.  After our tickets search Em had to leave us and go to class.  Ad and I were going to do the London Eye and Bus tour but it was rainy and cloudy so we said no to that.  Then we went down to the aquarium to go in there for a little bit but the line was super long and we didn’t want to wait.  On our way home we stopped at Harrods, the big department store to check it out.  It was enormous and the items were a range of everything from 150+ carrot diamonds to cheap socks.  Crazy.  There are also fresh food markets of every kind of food from cheese to fruit to beef to fish and more.  We stopped at the chocolate bar to split a chocolate milkshake but it wasn’t creamy like we are used to…it was almost like drinking chocolate power.  I didn’t finish it because it was so intensely chocolate.

Once we were finished with Harrods we went back to the hotel to pack our bags because so they would be ready to go.  I also wrote a paper and sent off some emails, nothing too exciting.  Then we got a call from Doug and Janet to go to The Blue Elephant which is suppose to be this really good Thai food place.  We made plans to meet up with them at 730 and Em came too.  It was quite the experience.  We got tons of food to share and got a taste of everything.  It was nice to simply eat and have good conversation.  Not to mention it was like we were sitting in a jungle because there were so many plants.  It was great.  Ad got some duck that was amazing and I also got some duck that wasn’t my favorite.  It was roasted duck curry with fruit in it.  I tasted the lamb dish Janet got and I liked that along with the mint soup and their pad thai was great.

Back home to go to bed and get up in the morning for checkout.

This morning started out a little differently than planned since we slept through the alarm but it worked out just fine.  Instead of getting up at 8 to get ready and go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace we ended up meeting Em at the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral for lunch.  We ate at a small sandwich shop, then she had to go back to work and Ad and I went to tour the cathedral.  Like most of the churches they are simply spectacular.  You literally walk in and immediately look up because you are mesmerized by the size, decorations, and architecture of the building.  It isn’t really anything like I have seen in the states.  This is centuries of additions, renovations, and improvements, which all together makes a site to see.  In addition to the tour Ad and I walked up to the top Whispering gallery and tiptop rotunda of the church to get a birds eye view of London.  It was for sure worth the walk up there.  The trip up to the top is an experience, you take small, tight stairs round and round for about 15 minutes until you get to the top.  Going down is much faster. 

While we were up top we got a call from Emily to say she got off work early.  She met us at the steps and we went to the National Gallery to see Monet’s, Renoir’s, and van Gogh’s artwork.  There were others too that I can’t remember the names of but they were all impressive.  It was raining today and a bit chilly so we were glad to have jackets.  As we got done with the gallery we decided to walk around Trafalgar square but got cut short due to a downpour.  We took in the sites from a coffee shop window where it was dry. 

After that we walked to Lester Square to look for cheap day of the show tickets to the theater.   However, on our way there we heard screaming girls and a crowd of people.  Upon further investigator we realized that it was the Harry Potter World Premier so we joined in on the fun.  It was fun to see the stars getting out of their cars and walking the red carpet.  While we were in the massive crowd when it really started to rain, torrential!!  Our umbrellas worked a little bit there were too many people to use umbrellas and they were splashing all their water right onto you so we got soaked.  Enough was enough and went to get our show tickets.  Initially we were looking for the show Warhorse but they didn’t have any so we bought tickets to Jersey Boys instead.  That meant we had 45 min to go home on the tube, change, and make it back to the theater.    We did manage to make it back in time and really enjoyed the show.  I have to admit that we didn’t know exactly what the show was about our what the songs were going to be but in the end I really enjoyed it and knew almost all of the songs.  The beginning was a tad slow but picked up pretty quickly.

Our seats were good too and we sat next to a family from Seattle.  It was nice to talk to some friendlier people who didn’t mind having a conversation.  After the musical was over we headed back to Hogarth Road.  Em went to her flat to sleep while Ad and I decided to go grab some dinner down the street.  We ate at gourmet burger, which is a chain in London and ordered it take away (to-go) and guess who we saw while we were there?  It was the Seattle Family, kind of small world, by the was we were like 8 tube stations away from the theater so it isn’t like it was just down the street.

Today was fun even though plans changed from the initial plans.  I really enjoyed just exploring London.  Tomorrow we are meeting up with Doug, Janet, and the girls to go see the city by boat and the crown jewels.  I can’t wait.

Today I feel like we got a lot done.   I got up, showered, proofread my nutrition paper, emailed it to my professor and got ready.  Ad went and got delicious pastries for breakfast with coffee.  He got breakfast for Em too but she ended up not coming over. So we ate hers too.  After we ate we headed for the tube to meet the other Rau’s at Westminster Abbey.  However, we realized that we got on the wrong district line so had to get off and catch the Circle Line.  Once we did that we were all set. 

We made it to the Abby and met Doug, Janet, and the girls to tour the church.  It was unlike anything I have seen before and there was so much to take in.  It was the most decorative, exquisite; awing burial ground I have ever seen.  What else that makes it unique is that it still functions as a church and is still used for coronation of the royalty, weddings, funerals, etc.  It was also hard to wrap my head around how old some parts of the church are.  Most of it looks amazing for being hundreds of years old.  There is also that creepy factor that you are walking and gawking at graves with the remains of hundred-year-old corpses.  Overall I was very impressed.

While we were in that section of London we took time to admire Big Ben, look at Parliament and get some lunch.  The sites were spectacular to see.  Lunch was at a little pub down one of the side streets and was good.  After that Doug had to leave for work in a city south of London.  He will be gone the tomorrow but back on Wed.   As we walked back to the tube station Janet and the girls went one way while we went the other.  Ad and I caught a train to go visit the museum, Tate Britain. 

Tate Britain was interesting and I liked the old British art a lot.  Yet I really couldn’t appreciate the significance of everything because I don’t know enough about who is who or what is what.  It was still cool to walk around and admire the beautiful paintings.  It made me want to actually take advantage of the museums in St. Louis.

After the Tate we took the tube up to the British Museum.  While we were walking Ad and I got caught in a rainstorm.  We hung out under a tree to try and avoid the driving rain.  When it let up a little bit we ran to the museum.  It was awesome and we didn’t even cover much at all.  We saw the Egyptian, Greek, Money, and Clock exhibits before we were shooed out because they were closing.  Back to the tube station and hotel where we met up with Em for dinner.  We went to a pub around the corner and had more bar food.

If there is something that I am not impressed with in London it is the food.  I may not be looking in the right places but so far not too impressive.  The nice part about the food is that there is a wide variety of the types of food.  Em and I are going to try some Thai food and Indian food later this week. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and are having some down time watching a British movie that we don’t know the name of.  It is entertaining.

Today we got to sleep in because we needed to recover a little bit.  Ad and I slept until 11:15, it was great.  We then had to scurry to get ready pack our bags and move to the other hotel.  It wasn’t too bad and the taxi we took to the other hotel was a nice change.  It has been a while since I was in a car.  The driver was really nice and bashed Pres. Bush a few times.  It was kind of amusing that he disliked him so much and loved Obama. The new hotel is right across from Em’s flat and so much better.  We actually have room to move and the bathroom there is room to stand.

We met up with Em and ate lunch in at an authentic Italian place called Dino’s, it was delicious!  Then onto the Tate Britain museum via the tube.  We got off at St. Paul’s cathedral and realized that the Tate Britain was way far away so instead we crossed over the millennium bridge and went to the Tate Modern.  I guess I am not that much of an art aficionado because I don’t understand the significance of a lot of the modern art in that museum.  It is neat and looks cool but the meaning behind it all surpasses me.  I just haven’t learned that much about it.  I did get to see some Picassos, Andy Warhol’s, and a Monet that were beautiful.  It was crazy to think I was looking at originals of some of the most famous works of art.  

Ad didn’t last long in the Tate Modern so we met him outside when we were done.  From there we walked down the South Shore boardwalk towards the Tower Bridge.  Along the way we stopped to look at the Globe Theater, which is a replica of Shakespeare’s theatre.  We then also stopped into a pub to watch the final set between Roddick and Federer.  It was sad to see Roddick lose but we were rooting him on the entire time.   The pub was actually split half and half in their cheering sections.

We continued on our walk along the shore, saw the H&M Bellfast ship which was the largest navy ship in the British army.  It was in at the D-Day battle and is now docked on the Thames River in London.  It was closed so we didn’t go in but just looking at it was great.  After that we walked further and stopped for some coffee and a cookie, the wind was beginning to pick up and it got a bit chilly.  After the warm up we got really close to the Tower Bridge and took some pictures.  While taking some pictures a boat needed to pass under so the gates were raised.  It is spectacular to see the bridge in motion.  Once the gates were down be walked across the bridge looking for somewhere to eat dinner.  To our dismay there was nothing open on the north shore so we had to wait until another bridge where we walked back to the south shore for a restaurant.  

It was called Founders Arm and they had amazing chips (French fries) however the rest of their food left something to be desired, such as good flavor.  I had what was supposed to be a crispy duck ciabatta with cucumbers and onions.  It turned out to look like a flat smashed sandwich will raw onions, 2 cucumber slivers, and a brown duck paste that Emily said looked more like something from the toilet.  It was gross and I ate it after I covered it in ketchup.  Em had a brie sandwich which was all white bread.   The slices were so thick it looked like 1/4^th of a loaf of bread.   Ad got the standard fish and chips but they kind of left some of the skin on the fish and the bottom part was very wet and mushy.  I think the place was more known for their drinks rather than there food.  It was an experience though and sitting right on the river was a pretty cool way to watch the sunset over the London Tower, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Tower Bridge.  After that we caught to tube home for some R and R.  More to come tomorrow.  We are going to Westminster Abby and some museums.

Meg

July 4th (sorry for the format, I was very tired)

All I can say is wow, Winsor Castle is truly a castle to marvel at and the items inside are priceless.  It is hard to even wrap your mind around how big this house is.  Then there is all of the fancy, beautiful artwork, furniture, dollhouse, and more.  I was very glad that we were able to go with my aunt uncle and cousins.  It was fun. 

Jet lag was a bit more noticeable this morning but we had to get up to meet Doug, Janet, the girls, and Emily at the Waterloo train station to go out to Winsor and Eaton.  Em met us at the train station, Doug bought tickets, we had a wonderful muffin, and it was too hot to have coffee so far this trip.

The train ride out went quickly and looked like Missouri if you can get past the hundred year old houses.  After about 50 minutes we were there and walked up the hill to the magnificent castle that was glowing on top of the hill.  Once inside we had our audio tour guide but first met a live tour guide who walked us around the grounds and gave us history.  Next we went to the staterooms with the audio tour and learned about the significance of each room.  There were artifacts, paintings, swords, badges, and so much more to take in.  It was ridiculous the history of the building.  And to even imagine that this is someone’s house is crazy.  PS the Queen was somewhere in the castle since it was the weekend and Winsor is where she spends the weekends. 

Around 1pm had some ice cream and went into the dollhouse and publications room, the dollhouse was neat and looked like an architects model today.  Everything was real, even plumbing and silver flatware.

I wonder about the ideas of spending the taxpayer’s money back in day and how they are just now starting to change.   Now the public doesn’t seem to like their money spent on lavish gifts that sit in other countries palaces.  Who knows.

The state room that had a huge fire was incredible, holds a table for 160 big room

Documents were very interesting and cool to see DaVinci’s sketches and letters written in the 1500

Went to St. Georges church….which is the home of the guarder knights.  Very cool, amazing, and luxurious.  The Queen still goes to church there.

After walked through the Winsor town and shops.  Very quant and would be a overnight trip just sampling food at the various restaurants.  We walked over to Eaton where we ate a great restaurant. Em and I split a brie and roasted vegetable wrap  & a goat cheese/feta, and artichoke sandwich.  It was great but hot in the sun when there were no clouds.  The weather went from hot to cold hot to cold, very bizarre.  Had 2 beers and was tipsy.

Went to the train station to catch train, Serena won Wimbledon, train ride home slept.

At Waterloo station we walked around the Thames on the river walk past the Tate modern and over the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  We caught the tube back to our hotel and Em came with us

Just chilled, Ad napped I worked on my paper, Em freshened up

Around 930 caught the tube down the Piccadilly Circus to go to a bar for the 4th.  It was crowed, very very hot, and the Irish band played little American music for the 4th of July party.  It was fun but almost too crowded for me.  Would like to go back when it is less crowed.  There was a gay pride weekend and celebration of Michael Jackson.  Never seen so many men making out with each other, I guess I am sheltered.

Ride home my feet were killing me because I was in heels.  Bad idea.  We ended up stopping to get dinner at the Burger King by Paddington station since nothing was open and sitting on a generator outside for dinner.  Everywhere else was not serving food.  Tomorrow we will plan food better because when I get so hungry I don’t do well.  Very tired and going to sleep in tomorrow.  More later

Meg

Today was a long day but after Adam and I dropped off the luggage at the hotel we decided to walk around for a bit.  Went to Paddington station, got money and free donut, then walked toward Hyde Park to check it out.  It was actually really neat but my first impression of London and its people was kind of mixed.  They are for sure not open and bubbly to strangers on the street and there was a lot of trash everywhere.  On the other hand if you take the time to talk to them in a restaurant or store they are cheery and nice.  That could just be a results of their job but I want to believe that they are just cold/standoffish on the streets.  The houses and apartment buildings are pretty neat from the outside.  They are old, grand and beautiful with columns, pillars, and window flowers made of ivy and purple-pinkish petunias flowing over.

Ad and I spent quit awhile in Hyde park and Kensington Garden.  They are basically in the same fenced in area but called two different parts.  We got to see this amazing gold embellished multistory statue to Prince Albert, a Peter Pan statue in the park and one of the originally planned trees from the 1700s.  We learned about the tree when we tagged on the back of a park tour with an elderly group.  That didn’t last long because they walk too slow with their canes and walkers. 

After we made it across the park we decided to walk to Em’s apartment to surprise her when she got finished with class at 1.  On the way to her place we stopped at Holy Trinity Church when we stumbled upon it by accident.  We went in the back gate and walked around to the front where they were having some kind of photo shoot inside.  That didn’t stop us, we walked in and the splendor and detail that went into the decoration of the church were magnificent.

Finally after about 3 hours of walking Adam and had to stop for a little snack.  We didn’t want a large lunch yet because we wanted to wait for Em.  The decision was made to run quickly into a grocery store where we split this delicious garden chicken baguette, fabulous and refreshing.  That gave us enough energy to walk the rest of the way to Emily’s apartment, which by the way is way more than a quick 10-minute walk.

As we were walking we ran into a group of Mizzou kids in the same program as Emily but Em wasn’t there.  We went to the flat and she wasn’t there either.   Her friend Liz let us use her phone and we called.  Em was surprising us at the hotel on the other side of the park.  We were a bit frustrated at this point because the original hotel I thought we booked was seriously directly across the street from Emily’s flat.  So while we were waiting for Em to come back to the flat, Ad and walked over to the hotel to see if they had any open rooms.  Turns out they were booked for the next two nights but after that we could transfer over.  Great!  That really made my day because now Em will be able to stay with us.

She finally got back and the three of us set out for some fish and chips for lunch.  We found a small corner pub and had their special of fish, chips, peas, and tarter sauce.  They were mouthwatering delicious but for sure fried.  Not something I could do every day.  In this restaurant was when we encountered an American who gives every other American the bad stereotype.  He was in his early thirties, perhaps homosexual, drinking, and yelling loudly.  At one point he began talking about how he needed to pass gas, the whole restaurant could hear him since we were in the bar area.  Thankfully his friends talked him into going outside.

With full stomachs it was time to run errands.  We went to the phone warehouse store and bought a phone for Adam and me to use.  It is a Samsung basic phone for 5 pounds and you had to buy 10 pounds worth of minutes.   The guy at the store told us that it only costs 4 pence to call the US and costs 15 pence to call Em in London.  Kind of weird.  After that we went and got tube cards.  With our tube cards Ad and I went back to the hotel for a little rest and shower.  It felt so nice to check into our room and take a shower after spending so much time traveling.  The room is very tiny thought.  I think it is the entire size of my kitchen in Columbia, no joke.  The bathroom is like a closet.  I think a fridge is bigger than the shower.  Oh well I am happy to have a room with a shower, bed and AC.

After showers, naps, we were ready for dinner.  Em met us at the hotel and we took the tube down to Covent Gardens for dinner.  We went to a restaurant called Porters where we decided to try new things. Em and I went for traditional English pies, mine was chicken and corn, and hers was beef, genius, and mushrooms.  They were delicious; the first home cooked meal I have had in a long time.  Adam also picked something new, wild boar made into sausages.  They were fabulous and the time talking was wonderful too.  There will be pictures of our meals and beers thanks to Adam who camera obsessed at dinner.  Those will come later when I figure out how to upload pictures to the website in mass number, not using flicker.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with my Uncle Doug, Janet, and my three cousins!  I am excited because we are going to Windsor Castle.  That means I need to get up in 6 hours, yikes, tomorrow I will need another nap but it is one of my favorite holidays…4th of July!!  Everyone shoot off some fire works for me and don’t blow off your fingers.

Ad and I left Wash MO around 9am on Thursday to head for the airport.  We probably should have left a little bit earlier but since we had a connection in Chicago we considered it a domestic flight.  That means you should only get there an hour before your flight instead of two for international.  Doesn't matter we made it on the plane, to Chicago O'Hare (not many power outlets there) and onto our flight headed to London.  That is where we sat for about an extra 45 minutes while cargo and standby passengers where being loaded.  


I don't mind sitting in coach, maybe that is because I haven't sat in first class. Yet if I did sit in first class I won't have the opportunity to walk down the isle to the back of the plane and people watch.  First class is especially fun for me to watch.  You can almost always count on at least one married women with a huge rock that just happens to be talking on the phone or waving to someone showing it off.  Then there is the man who is completely absorbed in a newspaper or book, usually older while the younger generations are typing/talking/video chatting on devices that I have only seen in skymall magazine.  It is always an entertaining start to a flight and sometimes a conversation started with the person sitting next to you.


On the flight to London it wasn't near as bad as I expected it to be.  The seats are the same size as normal flights just a lot more of them and you have your own personal TV in the seat back in front of you.  I didn't watch anything except the flight tracker because I spend the flight sleeping.  This made it go by very quickly with one exception, the temperature.  Here is what I wrote about it last night while on the plane.


I am surprised how loud the plane is in general.  I haven't been listening to my iPod because I have to turn the volume all the way up to hear it and don't want to go deaf.  For me I would much rather her the monotonous droning of the engines than the little children screaming in the rows behind us (yes kids were screaming).  The food service was wasn't terrible either, not fantastic but not bad.  The flight attendants do keep you well hydrated, it seemed like every 10 minutes they were asking if you needed another beverage in seat 36D, I couldn't drink my hot tea fast enough.  The lady next to me wasn't much of a beverage drinker either, she wasn't very talkative at all.  I was initially nervous about keeping bumping into her thigh but now I don't care, it is in my seat.  Then I realized there is a hidden benefit to sitting that close to someone...warmth.  Additionally I was thankful that I was not out in the -59 degree F air at 3


The flight ended and we took the London Express to our hotel.  It was only 10-am meaning check in is at 2.  We left our luggage at the hotel and went to explore the city on foot without a plan, without a map (mistake), and without pounds.  More to come on how the day ended up.  We are going somewhere to eat dinner.


Meg

Can you believe that now when you write the date you will be using the number 7, that’s crazy.  But what that means is we still have one more month of summer to make the best of.  I have had a lot of fun this summer already and am excited for what the next month will bring.  That also means my summer nutrition class is over, I took the final today.  It wasn’t difficult in the sense that I needed to memorize or figure out some concept.  Instead it was like a race to the finish, 50 questions, 60 minutes, open book, and open notes. 

Simple right…well the questions were sneaky.  She would ask a very specific question that you had to get the answer off the caption of a random picture in one of the speaker presentations.  It wasn’t like this was stuff we had actually talked about in class, for example there was a question about what percent of Missouri’s WIC program was spent on administrative costs.  Who cares?  If you were wondering I found the answer is some financial report handout one of the speakers gave us, I don’t remember the answer. I did fine on the test but there was a lot of rapid page flipping and usage of the index.  And by the way I think nutritionists use way too many acronyms…WIC, SNAP, FNP, EFNP, CFAP, OHAH…the list goes on.

Anyway, I finally got everything packed today which was kind of odd trying to pack two bags.  My bag to London is small with not much in it because most of my stuff is in the Rwanda bag.  I had to fight the urge to fill up the London bag with more stuff since there was extra room.  That doesn’t happen much when I pack…I admit, I’m an overpacker, please don’t judge.  Packing was actually easier that I thought it would be.  I have been putting it off as if it would get easier as I got closer to departure.  Really it was easy because I basically have just t-shirts and a couple pairs of pants.

There is one problem though, I have this feeling lurking in the back of my mind that I forgot something.  Of course if I really did forget something I probably won’t figure it out until I am in Africa and need it.  I am not sure if I will be able to go down to the corner store and get what I need.  However, if they don’t have it that means I really don’t need it anyway.