Longest Month Ever

I hate January. No offense to those of you who were born this month ( I still love you), but January in Provo is one of my least favorite things. It is cold, and long and the inversion feels like it's never going to go away. I miss summer, I miss Pinkberry, and I miss walking down to the beach whenever I want to. So, I am posting a few pics from the good old days in San Diego, because I miss it, and I want to reminisce. Humor me will you?

I miss this Temple

I miss running alongside this everyday

I miss palm trees

I miss walking by the yellow house on the way to the beach and dreaming about living there

I miss bonfires and hanging out at the beach at night

I miss sunsets over the water

And I miss these people. A lot

Good thing the month is almost over. Birthday month is upon us and I can't wait. 

Last Day in London

   Yes, I knew it had to come to an end sometime, but I still wasn't happy about it. The night before my last full day in London I was gchatting with Brad and asked him what I should do on my last day. He mentioned the British Library. Genius! How had this not been on my list? I love libraries and this particular one has a gallery containing some amazing works. So, the morning of the 30th, Denise and I headed out to see the library.
   The library, by the way, is right by King's Cross Station. For you Harry Potter fans out there, yes, they do have a platform 9 and three quarters. We went by so Denise could take a picture. I had one from my previous visit, but it still makes me happy.

   After maneuvering our way around the station, we made it to the British Library. interesting fact- if you looked at five items in the library a day, it would take you over 80,000 years to view the entire collection.

 

Anyway here's a list of the highlights...

1. One of the four copies of the 1215 Magna Carta

2. The original manuscript of Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground

 

3. The Gutenberg Bible

4. The original manuscript of Jane Austen's Persuasion as well as her writing desk. (loved this!)

5. Original lyrics on cards, envelopes...from the Beatles

And I'm done finding pictures, but I was also able to see the original score of Handel's Messiah, the original Beowulf, Notebooks from Leonardo da Vinci (so cool to see his mirrored writing), Charlotte Bronte's original Jane Eyre, and scores from Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart. I could have spent forever in this library!

   But we had to move on, so we went to Harrods. Also amazing but in a completely different way. This place is out of control but so much fun! I did buy a new journal so I could have a green Harrods bag (and I really did need a new journal).

   After Harrods Denise and I went to meet her friends at the Tate Modern. Saw a few cool things, but we all know modern art isn't my favorite (sorry Brad).We had all worked up an appetite after the museum so we wandered around and finally found an Italian place for dinner.

So much fun! Denise, thank you for everything. Mom and dad, thank you for letting me go. Such a great Christmas present. I'm already planning an agenda for next time...

Thank You Jeff and April

So, I am almost done with the London posts, but I thought I would take a break from them to share with you a conversation I had with my brother, my sister-in-law, and my five year old nephew last weekend. It was so good to see them, and quite entertaining.
My nephew loves to be told stories, but he will correct you if you are telling them wrong. For instance, he asked me to tell him a Christmas story but when I told him it was about a boy who was five, he told me he was five so I had to change it. He also had friends who were four, six, seven and eight so the story ended up being about an 800 year old girl named Andy. Anyway, he also seems to be going through a phase where all the stories end the same- with no clothes on. Hence the following.
April: Well, we have to let Melanie drive back to Provo because she has a date.
Jeff: Sorry boys, you have to say goodbye so she can leave.
Tyler: You're not coming back with us?
April: No, she has to go meet this boy and fall in love with him so they can live happily ever after.
Tyler: With no clothes on.
Jeff: Melanie, please wait till you get married for that part.

Thanks for the entertainment guys. So good to see you. 

The 29th was Denise's birthday. We had been planning on going to the Tower of London for her birthday and I was really excited about it. Kind of a twisted history, but one I find fascinating. Unfortunately I only have about two pictures from this day because it was one of the coldest and rainiest days I spent in London. Here's a picture of the tower from the river the day we took the Thames cruise.

The tower was a fortress, a palace, and a prison. Famous guests of the prison include Thomas More, Anne Boleyn, and Guy Fawkes. We saw Tower green where seven nobles were beheaded...

We also listened to a Yeomen Warder tell us stories in the chapel where the bodies (headless) were buried. On a less macabre note, we also had a chance to see the crowned jewels just before the tower closed. Pretty impressive stuff. Maybe one day daddy will get me something similar...Anyway, that really is pretty much it for this post. Like I said, coldest day ever so we tried to spend as much time inside as possible.

Next time we go to the British Library, which was pretty awesome, so get excited...if you're a nerd like me that is.

Evan Evans Tours

Denise had to work on Monday so Jason and I decided to take a bus tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford. It was so nice! It was great to just be a tourist for a day, to not have to worry about what underground we had to take, or how to get places. All we had to do was be on the bus and we were transported everywhere. It was lovely for a day. The first place we went was Windsor Castle.

To me, this place is like Buckingham, an impressive building yes but not really that pretty on the outside. The inside of the castle however was beautiful! And it probably helped that they still had Christmas decorations up so it was all festive. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I'll see if I can find any online...

After Windsor we got back on the bus (yay!) and drove to Stonehenge. I think Stonehenge is one of the weirdest things ever. I mean, kinda cool to see, but really weird. I guess that's part of the whole mysterious thing...

After Stonehenge was the town of Oxford. Very cool. Now I expected one university, little did I know that Oxford University is actually made up of 38 separate colleges.

Perhaps a Phd there one day...

Part Something

Sunday morning we woke up, went to church and then decided to make it a museum day. This worked out perfectly since both the Science and Natural History museums were across the street from the church building. First we went to the Science museum. Pretty cool (but I'm a nerd). We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition on plastic...

Next we ventured to the Natural History Museum which I also loved (but again, nerd). This museum was amazing not only because of the things to see, but because of how beautiful the building was.

After the Natural History Museum, we split ways. Denise and Jason went to the British Museum and I, having been there before, decided to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I loved it! Lots of fashion, jewelery, and accessories. After the V&A I met up with Jason and Denise again at the National Gallery. No photos allowed at this one but here are the highlights...

van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

and his Chair

Boxing Day

Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, in London is the equivalent to Black Friday in the States, only a lot scarier. We decided to avoid London for as long as possible to so that morning we went to Greenwich instead. We went to the Royal Observatory and saw where Greenwich Mean Time is set.

Then we took a boat cruise on the Thames to get back to downtown London. It was freezing on the water and we braved the top deck for a little while and only to get pictures before we ran back downstairs.

After the boat dropped us off we walked to Buckingham Palace and then Hyde Park to check out a German Christmas Festival going on. I introduced Denise to schnitzel, and we walked around the park.

 

From Hyde we walked through Kensington Gardens and then to Portobello Road to see the market going on. Side note: I loved all the parks and gardens in London! This is also what I miss about Paris. Their parks are huge, and they are gorgeous ( maybe because they all used to be land from palaces but whatever). Anyway, I miss that. Turns out there are over 1700 parks and gardens in London. Amazing!

 

After walking around all day we decided to brave Oxford Street (huge shopping street) on our way to find fish and chips for dinner. It was terrifying. This is a picture from about 4pm and the crowds were still out. The pedestrian traffic on the sidewalks was scarier than the street traffic in the road, so that's where we walked.

Finally made it to Wellingtons where we had fish and chips, and this mashed peas thing (turned out to be pretty good actually).

After dinner we walked to the Somerset house where an ice skating rink had been set up. Also, a giant tree sponsored by Tiffany's.  I very much enjoyed this.

 

That night, Denise and I let Jason go see Phantom (which is amazing but we had both already seen in London), and we went to see a movie - Me and Orson Welles- kinda different, but we saw it where it premiered and still enjoyed Zac Effron.

After the movie we decided to call it a night, especially since we had church bright and early the next morning and we had walked ridiculous amounts that day. So worth it. 

Happy Christmas

Christmas morning we slept in and then opened a few presents. Denise had bought Union Jack socks for all of us to sport that day. We loved them! Transportation doesn't run on Christmas so we decided to walk into the city from Denise's. It took us about 35 minutes to walk to Tower Bridge from her flat.

From there we walked about another 45 minutes to St. Paul's for a Christmas Evensong service. We sat right under the dome but unfortunately couldn't take pictures inside the Cathedral. Take my word for it- it was amazing! They sang a few carols- one was to a tune I didn't know, but beautiful nonetheless.

After the service we booked it back to Denise's flat as it was freezing outside! We had Christmas dinner with her roommates of roast pork, veggies, and lots of yummy desserts, and then attempted to watch Elf. It was my third attempt of the trip, and I fell asleep, again.

Part Four: Day One in London

So, the first whole day we spent in London was Christmas Eve. Denise worked the night before so we let her sleep in and Jason and I went to explore the city. Unfortunately most things were closed due to the holiday so we took ourselves on a walking tour. We started in Trafalgar Square where we saw the National Gallery and a Chrismas tree that has been given annually to the people of London from the people of Norway in gratitude for their support during World War II.

Next we walked through St. James Park, saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, and then crossed the river to get a better look at Parliament. 

 

After we walked around we went to St. Paul's to try and get into a Christmas concert. The line was out of control and we barely missed getting in, so we did the next best thing- shopping. Shopping on Christmas Eve is always a fun adventure, especially at Primark. Once we had worked up an appetite we went to Witherspoon's for a traditional Christmas dinner. We opened out Christmas crackers, put on our crowns and ate turkey, stuffing, and yorkshire pudding (which is not pudding at all but more of a bread like dish served with gravy). It was a great night!

 

Part Three

Rome day two. On our second day in Rome we went to Vatican City.

The Vatican Museum houses some incredible artwork including Raphael's The School of Athens. Painted in this piece were philosophers, artists and scholars including Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Michelangelo.

We also saw the Sistine Chapel (twice thanks to the museum being incredibly difficult to navigate when certain rooms are closed).  This was my second (and third) time being in the Sistine Chapel and it never got old. I am amazed by the work in that chapel. I love the details and the bright colors that Michelangelo chose to use on the ceiling.

I especially love the well known middle scene of the ceiling. I love the strength in God's finger and the nonchalance in Adam's. I love that the cloth surrounding God takes the shape of a brain showing his supreme knowledge. And I love that God is portrayed as a man just like Adam.

After the Vatican Museum, we made our way over to St. Peter's.

St. Peter's houses another one of my favorite artworks from Michelangelo, the Pieta.This sculpture shows the broken body of Christ held by Mary after His crucifixion.

 

After we explored the enormous cathedral, we went to find the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. I never knew why the Spanish Steps were famous, I just knew they were and that they were a definite must see. Turns out they are the longest and widest stairs in Europe. When we were there they were setting up for some Christmas concert which meant poinsettias everywhere. It was gorgeous.

After the steps we made our way over to the Trevi Fountain which we thoroughly enjoyed despite the rain. We all took turns throwing coins into the fountain because the story is that if you do so, you will come back one day. It worked for me ( and will again).

I believe we also finished this night up with more gelato before heading to Switzerland. So, we drove to Switzerland, which was really fun since there was a blizzard, and even more fun since they don't really clear the roads there like we do here. Anyway, we finally made it to Zermatt, this darling ski town in the Alps. Denise and Jason went snowboarding and got up close and personal with the Matterhorn. I, not being a skier or a snowboarder, opted to explore the town, browse the shops, buy a book, and drink hot chocolate.

 

I still got to see the Matterhorn, just not quite as up close...It's that insanely tall peak in the background...

After Switzerland we drove back to Milan where we boarded a plane back to London. The adventures there are coming next.