God Save the Queen

Similar to my first Paris trip with my mother 3 and a half years ago, my London trip was a whirlwind of experience! 48 hours packed to the brim with tourism. We took the night bus out Friday night and arrived early, early, early on Saturday morning. We quickly found a Starbucks, of course, to map out our day. I've decided to adapt to each different Starbucks culture and change my name according to what country I'm in so in Paris, I'm Isabelle and in London I decided to be Abby. Tayler stuck with "Tayler" and this is what happened:

Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to EVERY destination on our proposed list, as there was just not enough time. Nor enough strength in my legs to keep walking... But here are some highlights of what we were able to do.

On our way to the London Tower we of course crossed over the London bridge! And it wasn't falling down which is good. 

The London Eye

Big Ben!

Westminster Abby

And of course... had to take one of these.

And then my camera died right after this. And of course I forgot to bring my charger so I couldn't charge the battery so the rest of my trip I used my iPhone to document our awesome Harry Potter walk through London, which was also full of historical information, our trip to Buckingham palace to watch the changing of the guards, our walk through Hyde Park.

BUT.....

Then a terrible thing happened. The one thing that you pray never happens...

We were visiting the Industrial War Museum and I had just walked through the spy section, learning about all the spy techniques and actual spies of World War II. As I headed back downstairs to the main entrance I pulled my phone out of my purse and as I stepped down, my precious iPhone took flight. I tried to catch it mid air but only further propelled it forwards. It hit the side railing and fell just slightly too far right.. It slipped right between the elevator and the stair case, falling three flights, hitting the elevator at one point and then smashing onto hard concrete at the bottom. I only wish someone could have photographed my face when it happened. I stood there a few moments just looking over the railing in shock. Not believing that that had actually just happened. I finally snapped out of it when someone asked me if I had dropped something and I could only mutter out... "My...phone..." I knew it was a lost cause. Of course there was construction going on so the museum staff had to find the correct key to go all the way to the bottom to even collect my phone. 

Jennifer was sweet and let me borrow her camera for the rest of the trip since my Nikon was dead and I didn't have my phone! After I collected the pieces of my phone, we headed back towards the Thames to the London Eye. We stumbled upon an open air market where a bunch of different local sellers had tents up. So much good food! I had tasty Indian food for dinner from there and I also bought some really yummy butternut squash pesto... It is so so good and if I know anyone going to London I am going to have them buy more!!

That pretty much sums up the trip :)) For future plans, the night bus was a hard transportation method. It was convenient because it only took up time that I would have been sleeping, but it was long and I did not get much sleep! I would recommend trying to take the 2 hour train instead, it will be worth it! 

His love never fails.