I See London, I See France..

Europe Trip Part I

After months and months of planning, our trip to Europe has come and gone. We spent two weeks visiting London, Paris, Rome and Prague. Here's a recap of all of our adventures.

Trying on my new pack for size! 

We started our trip off strong with 3 hours of sleep the night before we left. This was due to our wonderful neighbors who thought it was a good idea to set off fireworks around 11pm. (It was only July 1st for crying out loud)

With my latest reminiscence of Full House, I thought this was an appropriate gif. 

This didn't make us very happy because we had to wake up at 3:15am to catch our flight to Minneapolis. Luckily, we were so excited and full of adrenaline that we quickly got over it and jumped out of bed that morning.

We made it to Minneapolis and spent our entire 12 hour layover in the Mall of America.

Mall of America

This was both of our first times there and we were equally impressed by this place. It left me wondering all day why Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh doesn't have roller coasters. 

We spent the day walking around the mall, eating, playing in Brookstone, going to the movie theater to see World War Z, and mini golfing. 

Fitting in our last "American Meal" at Johnny Rockets 

Trying out the head massager in Brookstone

Mini golfing at Moose Mountain

After successfully making it through our layover, it was finally time to go to our gate. When we were boarding the plane, my friend Jordan from BYU called out my name. Random, I know. He was with a group of BYU students who were going on a study abroad. 

Our flight to London-Heathrow took about 7 1/2 hours and it looked like I was the only one on the entire flight that wasn't able to fall asleep. Maybe I was too excited to be on our way to London!! 

Heading up the escalator in the London Metro! We made it! 

LONDON

When we got to London, we weren't able to check in to our hotel right away, so we went to Hyde Park and walked around. We were pretty much dead on our feet by that time, carrying our bags and going off of practically no sleep. But, it was still really pretty! 

Hyde Park

After walking around for a few hours, it was finally time to check in to our hotel. Brad had booked us a room at "easyHotel."

Our "hotel" in London

When we opened the door to our room, we just started laughing. This thing was tiny.

Our "Hotel room"

You could shower, wash your hands and pee all at the same time! 

After getting situated in our hotel, we ventured out to see some sights. 

Walking through Green Park

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

South Bank

Classic.

That night, we ate fish & chips at some random pub we found. Not too bad. 

We started off the next day with a tour of the Tower of London. 

Tower of London

Sporting my 4th of July attire.

Our hilarious tour guide

All I have to say is, I'm glad that I wasn't nobility in England back then, because it seems that they just put everyone to death, even if they didn't do anything wrong. Oh, and we got to go down to the torture chamber. Which resulted in me dreaming of getting crushed and stretched to death that night. Lovely. 

On a lighter note, our tour guide chose Brad and me to represent the couple in a story he told at the end of the tour. The story was about a husband who was supposed to be put to death but his wife helped disguise him and they escaped!

The story ended a little something like this. 

Just kidding.

London Bridge

After the tour, we made our way over to Harrods. I would be lying if I said I didn't want everything I laid eyes on in this store. 

Harrods

After spending hours at Harrods, Brad and I made our way back to the hotel to prepare for the "river walk" we had planned for that night. This was supposed to be a place where there were a lot of street performers and cool things to see. I couldn't understand why Brad kept hurrying me, and as I kept telling him, "it doesn't matter if we get to the river at exactly 7." 

Turns out, Brad's a big fat liar and made the whole thing up. On our way over to the "river walk," we just happened to walk by a theater where Wicked was showing. Brad had the idea to "check to see if there were any last minute tickets" and while we were standing in line, he pulled two tickets to Wicked out of his pocket and mischievously stated that "maybe we could just use these instead." 

It took me a few seconds minutes to realize what he was showing me because months before, he had told me that he looked at tickets to some shows that were playing and they were way too expensive. Naturally, I didn't question this and just forgot about it. 

Although he lied, I forgave him twice over because I love Wicked. 

Before the show! The lighting in this picture makes me look like Elphaba.

Taken the night after since we forgot to take a picture the night before

*As a funny side note, Brad purposefully avoided walking by this theater since the time we arrived in London so I wouldn't even realize it was playing. This resulted in us walking around the entire metro and doubling the time it took for us to get to our hotel for the first time. At first, I thought our hotel was really far away from the Metro. Nope, we just walked in a big circle without me realizing it. 

The next day, we made the trip out to Hampton Court, which turned out to be one of my favorite things we did in London (besides Wicked of course).

Hampton Court

Listening to my handy dandy recorder on our tour! 

Backyard of Hampton Court

Our favorite thing to eat in Europe

Strangely enough, one of our favorite things on the tour was learning about how they cooked for so many people in those kitchens. King Henry VIII seemed a bit excessive. 

After making the trip back from Hampton Court, we decided to be cultured and visit the British Museum.

British Museum

Like most of our museum visits on this trip, we didn't stay very long. Turns out, Brad and I aren't very cultured. 

After the museum, we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral, which we thought was pretty impressive.

St. Pauls' Cathedral

\

Millennium Bridge! 

Happy child. When I asked him why he was smiling like that, his response was "because pictures turn out better when you over exaggerate your smile!"

On the crazy streets of London. Word of advice, only walk when the little man tells you to. They don't stop. 

The next morning, we left for Paris! 

King's Cross!!

Boarding the Eurostar on our way to Paris! 

PARIS

After surviving going through the English Channel, we made it to our hotel in Paris and were able to check in right away. 

We forgot to take a picture of our room, but just imagine an average looking room with no AC and a really, really, loud squeaky fan. (at least it was bigger than our hotel in London!)

Once we were all set, it was time to see Paris! 

Our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower! 

Musée d'Orsay

Wish I could say we enjoyed this place, but that would be a lie. I think Brad and I made it in and out of there in record time. I can also say I have never seen so many paintings/sculptures of naked women in my life.

On a better note, David & Peggy treated us to a Segway Tour in the city of our choice. We chose Paris and we were so happy we did! We got to see so much of the city. Paris is beautiful. 

On our way to Segway Training! 

Golden Dome of Les Invalides

Military Academy

Our tour guide was an American named Josh. He was sort of a nervous wreck but had some interesting things to say. The dad in one of the families on our tour acted like a newly licensed 16 year old boy doing doughnuts in the parking lot.

Oh, and I may or may not have slightly run one of my segway tires in to a curb. Luckily, I was able to jump off before falling, haha. (Thankfully I wasn't the only one with a slight incident on the segway in our group)

Eiffel Tower

After we finished the tour, we tried our first French meal at a restaurant our tour guide recommended. It wasn't very good. Oh, and there was a mouse running around on the floor. 

Which reminded me of this little fella.

(In their defense, the restaurant was wide open and we were sitting halfway inside/halfway outside.) But still, ew. 

The next day was Sunday so we made our way to the church building and got to listen to testimony meeting in French. We weren't exactly sure how to get there but ended up just following a girl who looked like she was going to church. We were right.

After church was over, we started to head over to Notre Dame Cathedral.

We found this along the way. No clue what it is, but Paris is full of pretty buildings like this.

Notre Dame Cathedral

After going back to the hotel and changing out of our church clothes, we left for Versailles! 

Versailles

On a walking tour inside the palace

Adorable (expensive) purse I found in the gift shop

Oh, hey Brad

Some weird thing we found in the gardens

In King Louis XIV's back yard

Does this not look like the maze in Harry Potter? 

The best word to describe Versailles is Magnificent. Seriously, this place is incredible! 

The next day, we headed over to the Eiffel tower. 

Welcome to the Metro

Eiffel Tower!

On our way up! 

heading back down! 

After that, we headed over to the Army Museum, which was actually pretty cool. 

Army Museum

Napoleon's tomb! 

Brad imitating Napoleon's statue 

After the museum, we headed over to The Louvre and walked around. By that point, we were over museums and didn't care to go in. Oops? If we had our segways still, we totally would have! Instead, I took a picture of Brad in front of it! 

The Louvre

We spent our last night in Paris hanging out at the Eiffel Tower. It's beautiful at night!

The next morning, we left for Rome!

Stay tuned for Part II, Rome & Prague.