london

*I’m planning on making a separate blog post with iPhone photos to fill in the rest of the details as it was much more handy to use than lugging out the camera at times! Also get ready for some lengthy posts. I don’t expect anyone to actually read the words I write.*

Our flight on Virgin Atlantic left Newark close to 8pm, which was nice to get a full days work in before leaving. That also involved me updating my iPad to the newest iOS update (I’m anal about the little red circle on any app). About 20 minutes before our ride came, the update stalled and told me that I needed to connect the iPad to my computer. UGH! This isn’t how I wanted the last few minutes before going across the ocean to be spent!! I did what I needed but it had to do a full recovery. Normally I wouldn’t care but I had two books I was planning on reading on the kindle app. So all I cared about was getting the kindle app on the damn thing. I had no time to spare when our ride pulled up. Expletives would have come out of my mouth had it just be A + I. Yikes, then I was stressed + anxious (I’m not one to stress about flying either). By the time we got to the airport, my nerves calmed and I figured I wouldn’t be reading on the plane anyways, with it being an overnight flight that there was no need to fret about technology failing me.

Luckily our fight was smooth and had no problems other than lack of sleeping. Towards the end of the flight, the head attendant asked me to fill out a survey for the company. As a “reward”, he gave me a fast-pass for Anthony + I to get through customs. I felt like I was winning at that moment. Oh boy, does the story get fun now! We arrived at  London Heathrow at 7:30 am local time. We both felt dread of having a whole day ahead of us of trying to stay awake. We arrived into the “fast” lane of customs and found out that it would have been much faster to stay in with the “peasants”. They were getting through there so fast. About 20 minutes in, I kept hearing this extremely annoying beeping noise and kept thinking that someone needs to turn it off. The alarm never stopped people. It was getting on my lack of sleep nerves. Another 30 minutes pass and we are just about to see a border patrol. Hallelujah. I was gearing up to answer the drill of questions and all he asked was if we’d been in the UK before and when we plan on returning to America. It took less than one minute – woohoo!!

We walk the extreme underground tunnels for the tube, hop on the appropriate one and the alarm is following us. You see where this is headed right? Come to find out, I have an alarm on my iPad that normally plays a song, but with the factory reset earlier, it erased all my music. The default was this annoying sound. Yep, that was my iPad folks! Our hotel’s on the east side of London which meant we spent the rest of the morning working our way east (Heathrow is on the far west side of London) on the tube. Goodness were we exhausted and we couldn’t even check into the hotel when we got there (our hopes were they’d at least let us leave our luggage + they thankfully did!).

Anthony was interested in seeing the Royal Observatory, so we made our way there after dropping the luggage off. We made it just in time for the red ball to drop right at 1:00 pm local time. I’ll be honest, I was confused as can be seeing everyone with cameras pointed up at the building but like any good tourist, I pointed my camera on it too. Then proceeded to ask a couple near us what just happened. They kindly explained that this happens every day at 1300, being the official time at the Prime Meridian. It was anticlimactic, no noise was sounded (unlike at Edinburgh Castle that a cannon is shot off at 1300 which we experienced in 2012), and everyone scattered within 5 seconds after the drop. We paid the astronomical admission fee and enjoyed our first afternoon in the UK.

Upon our return to check in at the hotel, I found out that some friends of ours were in London too. We decided to meet up the next day (we had zero plans anyways) to take a walking tour and be in good company! We were fortunate that the weather was gorgeous the majority of our trip! Two years ago when we visited, the Olympics were about to begin. There were many locations that we weren’t able to access including Horse Guards Parade. Luckily our walking tour took us right there which gave me the opportunity to finally get out the big-girl-camera!! At the end of the tour, we ended up at Parliament and experienced the first demonstration of our trip (it wasn’t the only one!). I pray that we weren’t on the nightly news as camera crew were there!!

We finished the tour, grabbed lunch, then headed to find Harry Potter filming inspirations (Lisa is a huge HP fan!). I only grabbed some shots of Diagon Alley at Leadenhall Market which obviously my favorite was the hanging books from the ceiling. I can see this happening in our forever home. I mistakenly packed the wrong lenses for this trip, with a 16-35 and then the 85. I meant to pack the 50 which is a much more versatile lens. When your hubby is carrying the camera bag, you end up just going with the lens that’s already on the camera, even if you aren’t able to capture what you want. That’s when the iPhone comes in handy.
St. Paul’s Cathedral is exquisitely beautiful. Plus we arrived just as the sun started going down to peak through the trees. Then we walked over the Millennium Bridge, you know the same bridge that they shut down the day it opened and remained closed for two more years.

At the Royal Observatory, I noticed these colorful benches placed throughout the exterior. My curiosity was peaked but I didn’t go much further than look briefly and continue on. Then, a friend on FB posted a link about the Book Benches stationed throughout all of London. Now I was on a mission to spot them on our walks. We found the Mary Poppins one above, Lisa + I sat down for a photo, then two teenage gals come up about to do a news piece on the benches. We were asked if we didn’t mind being interviewed. Um, yes and yes! I highly doubt that it was usable, with wind and lots of background noise, but I felt special. 😀 London also has Rock the Boat street guitars strategically placed. Luckily we walked past one that had two people playing + singing. I love that there are so many interactive and unique things around town!

When I booked the hotel we stayed in, I didn’t think too much on it’s location. But once we arrived and realized we were within walking distance to the 2012 Olympic site, I knew we’d be making a trek out there. Before we checked out of our hotel for Oxford, we walked extremely fast to get to the park, take it all in, walk around for 5 minutes, then catch the DLR back. I love that our last time here, this was all barricaded off, and we had to go to the mall to get a glimpse. I’m hoping that one day soon I’ll post photos from 2012 on here. Surprisingly on one of our train rides, I finally edited all those photos!

*disclaimer: I tend to process my photos fairly neutrally (i.e. how you see it when you are there) but there were a few images that spoke to me to switch it up a bit. Enjoy!