London

We left Sheffield on Monday to head to London for our last few days in England. We said sad goodbyes to John's family and took the train to London. Once we arrived in London we checked in our hotel and headed off on the tub to meet up with John's friend Arthur. Arthur had a great day planned for us. First we met up with him in Little Venice where we took a boat ride down one of the canals in town. The boat tour dropped us off at Camden Market where we ate lunch and walked through several of the interesting shops in the market. We left the market and shared a bottle of wine while we waited for Arthur's girlfriend Sara to get off work. Sara is Arabian so she took us to an Arabian restaurant for dinner. It was a new experience but I really enjoyed the food! Later that night we said goodbye to Arthur and settled back into our hotel for a good night's sleep.

The next morning John and I decided to take a tour around the city. Before we got on a tour bus we walked around town and saw several sights. We saw Big Ben, the London Eye, the Horse Guards, and Buckingham Palace. Afterward we went into Churchill's War Rooms which are bunkers under the city where Churchill and his staff stayed during the bombing raids on London in WWII. Next we wanted to see the Tower of London so we hopped on a Double-Decker tour bus to take us around the city. We saw many sights and learned a lot while we were on the bus, but due to traffic we ran out of time and had to get off before we made it to the Tower of London...I guess that will have to wait for another trip. We were in a hurry because we had a dinner and show to make that night.

After a quick shower in the hotel we headed off to meet John's brother Matt, his cousin David, and David's fiance Helen for dinner. It was really nice meeting them and I hope to see more of them in the future. After dinner Matt, John, and I headed to Her Majesty's Theater to see the Phantom of the Opera! John's dad treated us to tickets and I was ecstatic! The show was amazing...like I knew it would be. There is nothing better than seeing Broadway shows live! The band, the singing, the stage! I LOVE IT! I will be going to more shows in the future!

This morning John and I woke up early, 4:00 AM London time, and headed off to the airport to go back to America. We decided to hire a taxi service since the tub didn't run that early. I will preface the rest of this paragraph with this phrase...I have NEVER been so scared in my LIFE! Our driver was a maniac! First, he almost got us T-boned within the first 2 minutes of the ride because he ran a red light. Second, he drove 50 mph around the city of London weaving in and out of traffic. Third, he reached speeds up to 100 mph on the motor way (interstate). John just had to shut his eyes and put his head down because he was so scared for his life. Luckily, everyone survived the journey besides the two unfortunate pigeons who dared to get in the way of our out of control taxi driver. After a long flight we finally landed in Atlanta! Well, this concludes our month long journey of England, Scotland, and Italy! I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my blog! Ciao!