EUROPE TRIP: Greenwich, England

I have seen Nick excited for a lot of things, but nothing compares to how excited he was to see the Prime Meridian of the World.  I had to have a review on what exactly that was, and Nick was shocked because he has "dreamed of seeing it since he was a kid."  Who knew?!?!  

Well the Prime Meridian is a line of longitude at zero degrees that separates the earth into two hemispheres and gives us directions of East and West.  I was impressed that Nick knew so much history of this imaginary line and how early sailors used it for orientation and it is even used in construction.  Again, who knew?!?..I certainly did not know.  

We had to climb the steepest hill in all of England to see this line!!  It is located in Greenwich, outside of London, and despite the climb to the top it did offer an amazing view of the city of London.  Nick couldn't contain his excitement and sprinted up this hill.  Nathan and I were laughing so hard watching him that I could hardly make it up the hill myself.

We made it up the hill

The worthwhile view.  Down below in all the greenspace is where all the equestrian events for the 2012 summer Olympics were held.

See that red line...there it is!! Sadly, the gates were locked to go inside, but Nick was still excited to see it.

Not everyone can say they have shared a kiss from different hemispheres

Two places at once!

We soaked it all in by finally resting our feet!

The royal observatory behind us

Such a beautiful park at the bottom of that massive hill

Just a perfect day!

Seriously, Greenwich had the most adorable sweet shop.  Of course we had to buy some of the famous black currant bon bon candy that is the most popular treat of the locals.

This guy told us his front tooth rotted out from all the sugar and candy he eats!!

Greenwich was perfect.  Nick can check this off his boyhood dreams list :)

EUROPE TRIP: London Edition -The Original Tour Bus

Thursday April 25, 2013:

As we were planning this European trip we couldn't have a conversation without Nick begging to go to London.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't want to go there, but my vote was to spend the rest of our time in Paris.  The more we talked about the trip, the more apparent it became that Nick was going to win this debate and it was off to London next, under one exception he had to plan this part of the trip :)

One big reason to go to London was to see one of Nick's old mission companions, Nathan Bowles.  They served together as missionaries in the Salt Lake City mission and have not seen each other since-10 years ago!  We flew from Zurich to London and arrived to this great sign from Elder Bowles.  It made me laugh so hard.  Look at the smile on Nick's face, he was happy to see this guy again.

Nathan was kind enough to have us stay at his house, about 45 minutes south of London, despite them having a new 3 week old baby!!!  He insisted on taking off work and going sightseeing with us.  In fact, most of the "touristy" things we did, he had never done despite living there his entire life!!!  I was the only one feeling rested due to the fact that Nick and Nathan stayed up until nearly 6am talking the first night, but somehow they still manage to get up for the big day ahead.

The first day was all about packing it in!!  We decided to do the hop on hop off double decker tour bus ride to see all the sights.  Instead of getting off anywhere we stayed on the whole time to see everything so we knew what we wanted to go back and explore more.  This was such a great idea as then we had a better idea where everything was and go to listen to suggestions from the tour guide.  It was the perfect day to be on an open air bus.  Just two weeks before it was snowing...and we were enjoying a 70 degree day!!  Nathan reminded us that this was not normal for London of course :)

Nathan and I bright and early!

Riding the underground and studying the maps

Wow---literally the "ask a mormon" campaign is everywhere there.  This was in one of the train stations.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much we walked!!  I lost weight on this trip if you can believe it.

The Queen and I

First thing we headed to see was the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  Again, Nathan, has never seen this!!  We got down there and people were lined up and crowds were overflowing, it was crazy.  It is hard to believe that so many people come to watch this happen when it is a daily thing!  Nathan, couldn't get over why Americans thought this was a big deal.  It was pretty funny seeing his reaction to it all.

The beautiful grounds at Buckingham Palace

We went to Borough Market for lunch.  It was incredible.  Every type of food from a street vendor you could imagine.  The smell was out of this world.  It was so hard to pick just one thing to eat!!...so we had to try a few things :)

Look at these treats

This was the company that we did our open air double decker bus tour with.  It was great and again worth the money! FYI-having a local buy your tickets, not from online, was so much cheaper.

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

London Eye

Big Ben..now called the Elizabeth Tower in tribute to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Westminster Abbey-where Prince William and Kate were married

The boys with the houses of Parliament behind them

We had this bus practically to ourselves.  It was great.  We were definitely being a rowdy bunch of kids!

After the tour, we got off and went to what Nathan calls the best kept secret right in the middle of London.  St. Katharine Docks is where big yachts are parked and has a gorgeous water view.  You didn't see any tourists in this area-just locals enjoying the view and some tea.

The Dicken's Inn

This is right before a security guard came and kicked them out!!  I can only imagine how wild these two were as missionaries together.

The bus tour was such a great idea to see everything first.  We decided from that what we had to go back and see and those adventures are up next!

EUROPE TRIP: Lucerne, Switzerland

Lucerne was not a far drive from Engelberg, and since it is Rochelle's favorite city in Switzerland we knew we had to stop there.  I can see why she loves it so much.  Again, the architecture of the buildings, the lake, the view of the surrounding mountains, the old Chapel bridge that was built in the 14th century, and the Lion Monument were all what make this city so great!

This covered wooden bridge is the oldest in all of Europe-built in 1333 with some of it having to be rebuilt after a fire in 1993 from a cigarette (one more reason why smoking is bad)!

One day I'm going to have a gate like this in front of my house :)

The Lion Monument was so neat to see.  I have seen this carving of the dying lion before but never knew it was in Switzerland or what it meant.  The quiet park away from all the hustle and bustle holds this carving that was done to commemorate the hundreds of Swiss guards who were killed during the French Revolution.

Seriously, such a gorgeous day.  Somehow everywhere we went the perfect weather followed us

Pretty sure the Swiss know how to make ice cream!!  

This church with the two spires in the picture was first built in 735, and was added upon in 1633.  The spires are original to 735....isn't that crazy to think about!

One thing I loved about Switzerland so much was that they are some proud people.  There were Swiss flags everywhere!!!  I wonder if people come to the US and think the same thing.  This was our last day in Switzerland, and it was by far the highlight of the trip.  I had no idea that a country the size of Idaho could have so much to see.  We could have easily stayed here for two weeks exploring.  I loved every minute of it, and cannot wait to go back someday.