London's calling

On Evelyn's actual birthday Carmen and I headed off our own adventure to London! We were so excited and got to the airport in Seville (which is over an hour away) AND.....I had Mark's passport, not mine, :( :( :( :( I was SO upset and frustrated and it was a pretty stressful situation...I had my good friend Amy, who was helping watch my kiddos, very graciously ran to my house, got my passport and brought it all the way to the airport, which, even though my plane was delayed and hadn't even left the gate yet, I missed my flight :( :( :( After a small little break down I found a flight at an airport nearby (there weren't any from the Seville airport) so she took me quickly to that airport and I got on that flight and FINALLY got to London 7 hours later than originally planned. Carmen in the meantime got on our original flight and I got her a chaueffered car to take her to the hotel to wait for me. SO not exactly the way I wanted to start my trip there but overall it didn't affect too much of our plans and we had an awesome trip!

Our first day we wandered around London. First we went to the Lendenhall Market, which is one of the places that was used in the filming of Harry Potter (our trip was very Harry Potter based :) :) :) ). It was a beautiful market area and we got to see the door that was used for the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron in the movies. 

We wandered around a little more after that and came across the London Monument, which is a huge fluted Doric Column and the middle is a ridiculous, narrow spiral staircase. We figured, hey that would be cool- good view of the city and all that...but man was it a climb! It was deceptively taller than we expected and the super tight winding staircase didn't make it any easier. When we got down the guy handed us each a "certificate" that was basically a congratulatory certificate saying we climbed the London monument...kinda funny but we were actually like, heck yes! That was well deserved :) :) The view was pretty awesome though. London was SO different from Rome...Rome felt old and historic and had such quaint little streets and buildings. London is much more industrial and modern and "city". The skyline was full of skyscrapers and there were SO MANY cranes in the skyline...a lot of construction going on.

From there we headed towards the Tower of London/Tower Bridge area. We didn't go in the Tower of London place but walked around the outskirts of it along the river, which was really pretty! Then we headed up the Tower Bridge, which was pretty cool. In between the two towers they had walkways and in the middle of it the floor was a glass floor...it was honestly pretty scary to walk on!

view from Tower Bridge

this girl was so frustrating with her selfies sometimes so I had to mess with her ;) 

After that we headed off to a delicious lunch at a place Carmen found called Maggie Jones...which was this super cute, rustic little place with super good food. A lot of people have commented that it felt like Molly Weasley's home (another Harry Potter reference from those who don't know ;) )

After lunch we did some more wandering (we got pretty good going around town on the tube). She made us go to Kings Cross Station and see Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter) and I made us go to Baker Street so I could see 221b (Sherlock Holmes address). There's an actual Sherlock Holmes museum at that address but we didn't go in, figured I'd save that for some day when Mark and I go since he is more appreciative of S.H. 

Next we went back to our hotel room to get ready for our night out to see Wicked! We ate a delicious meal of Krispy Kreme donuts and gourmet pretzels and went to the theater. I was super excited to see Wicked, I've been a fan for awhile, although no version can beat the original duo of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. The London version was pretty awesome though and it was super awesome to see in person! I've never been to a big theater production before.

this was sooo good :) 

We started off our second day with a traditional English breakfast (they like to have baked beans with their breakfast...weird...) and then did a little more wandering! We went to Buckingham Palace and then really wandered around trying to see if we could find the London Guards...they weren't at Buckingham Palace and we didn't see them anywhere else the whole trip, so that was kind of a big bummer...that's such a London icon/must see! Gonna have to go back I guess ;)

We gave up on the guards though and went across the river to Westminster Abbey/Big Ben, which were pretty cool to see in person! We didn't go inside anything around there either though :) because....

our photo bomber :) 

Next up was our big ticket winner! :) The Warner Brothers Studio in London (well outside of London) has a Making of Harry Potter tour so we booked tickets to it. We got to ride a double decker bus (which we were in the front row of the top on our way back which was a LOT scarier than I would have liked ;) drivers are crazy there and then add being on a double decker bus on the OTHER side of the road...whooey! it was crazy). Anyway- this was the thing Carmen wanted to do most and it was amazing! There were two huge studio buildings (aptly named J & K) that were used in filming and they converted it into a tour full of things used in the actual movies. Whole sets were there as well as memorable items and displays of clothes/wigs/make up/accessories. It was so fun! We got to in the Great Hall, see Harry's dorm room, the Gryffindor Common Room, Hagrid's House, Snape's dungeon classroom, the Weasley's kitchen, and so much more! Total Harry Potter nerdiness going on there :) We drank butterbeer, ate Chocolate Frogs, walked along Diagon Alley, saw the Knight Bus, and saw the huge model of the Hogwarts castle, which was super awesome! Carmen even got to "ride" a broom and has a video to prove it ;)  It was so much fun and we loved it!

Our last day we started off with another delicious breakfast, this time at this Dutch Pancake place where they had these almost crepe like pancakes (crepe thin with toppings but they weren't rolled up) and ti was SO good! Then we did some wandering around trying to find the Christmas shop at the major department stores there. We tried Harrod's first (someone had told us there was a cool Halloween display there but it wasn't there so that sucked...and it was closed) so we went to a different one, Selfridges, which was HUGE! At last five stories and full of super high name brands, Gucci, Dolce & Gabana...super super expensive stuff. I got my Santa though so I was happy (if I haven't mentioned before I'm collecting a Santa and/or Nativity everywhere I go...I've gotten quite a few so far!!!). 

Selfridges had some cool window displays- these flowers were HUGE

Anyway- we were basically wasting time that morning until our "afternoon tea" that we had reservations for at The Orangery at Kensington Palace. That area is so gorgeous...surrounded by parks and ponds and actual FALL foliage! It was beautiful. We had our sophisticated tea time though, which was fun to do. Pretty casual but the food was good and it was a fun experience :)

The Organery

Kensington Palace

We didn't have much planned to do after that so we went to the Diwalli Festival that we saw advertised in the Tube Station. We thought that would be pretty cool to go to but ended up not staying long. It was SO CROWDED! I've never been in such a jam packed place before...we could barely move! We saw the main stage with the Indian dancers and decided just to leave and find somewhere to eat dinner, which we were both being indecisive and ended up eating huge slices of cake and then getting burgers at a place near our hotel. Which, one thing I loved about London was they had burger joints everywhere! YUM! I love me a good burger. Rome had pizzerias everywhere and London had burgers everywhere. London definitely was more fast paced/on the go type of place compared to everywhere else I've been in Europe so far....Italy and Spain are definitely more casual, take your time...not many fast food places or grab and go or quick service but in London they were all over. 

Sadly our trip had to end and we had an early early morning flight leaving London. It was an amazing trip and something I'll always remember with my little bestie Carmen! I've had such a fun time having her here and am so sad she's leaving me soon! She better be darn grateful to have such an awesome aunt to take her to such amazing places ;) ;) ;)