I'm Back!

I successfully returned from London and had an amazing time! Hooray! Jenna and I left Saturday early morning and flew basically all day, and met up with her sister Jamie there (whose study abroad semester in London had just ended). In total baller style, Jenna arranged for us to have a driver take us from the airport to the hotel.

Sunday, which was Easter, we walked around the city and walked the Tower Bridge, saw the Tate Museum (a modern art museum), Globe Theater, and Westminister Abbey. Monday we did the London Eye (which is huge ferris wheel that is all glass so you get spectacular views of the city!), Trafalgar Square, Parliament and Big Ben. Tuesday we went to an Ice Bar which was such a neat experience and saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, and Wednesday we did the Emirates Stadium Tour which was definitely a highlight for me! Thursday we saw Abbey Road and did Afternoon Tea which was so much fun. Friday was full of Royal Wedding craziness and Saturday we did the Portobello Market which is a huge outdoor market in Notting Hill for most of the day. Sunday we left to go home, and it was such a long day!

Adjusting to the time change was surprisingly super easy to deal with, but I guess our afternoon naps helped with any tiredness I would have been feeling. Arriving in London on Saturday evening around bed time made it easy to naturally go to bed (it was dark out, we were tired from travelling, etc), and Sunday when we headed back to the good ole USA we left super early in the morning, making it easy to go to bed very early last night. Going to bed at a (relatively) normal time yesterday helped make getting up for work today and getting back on track so much easier.

Below are a few pictures from London!

Jenna and I at the Ice Bar

Me in front of a London Taxicab - I love these things!

Big Ben

On the London Eye

Changing of the Guards

We saw Meredith filming the Today Show!!!

Posing with the Harrod's bear while shopping

Riding the Tube (Gloucester Road was the stop our hotel was near)

At Emirates Stadium

Complaint of the Day

I have come to find that the cabs in DC suck. In the middle of the day, especially downtown, cabbies will cut across 3 lanes of traffic the second your arm goes up. But at 2am, you have to beg them to take you home. Here is a typical weekend night: After having 10 cabs roll right on by you, one finally stops. The driver will roll their window down approximately one inch in order to ask "where you going" and unless you give them a satisfactory answer, they drive off. If you are lucky enough to have them actually agree to take you (you would think they were paying you by the attitude), then don't even think about trying to go to more than 1 location. Even though this actually works out better for the cabbie, they do not seem to understand the logic behind it. And then when you are finally able to reach your destination, they seem to think that you are dumb enough not to notice the fact that there are extra fees added on (they are supposed to charge $1 for every passenger after the 1st one, but they usually just add $1 for every person in the cab, and sometimes even add on 50 cents on just for fun).

Is it asking for too much for cabs to have their lights on if they are in service and lights off if they are out service? For them to just pull over and not play 20 questions about where you are headed to and just take you? For them to just charge you the amount that you should be charged? For them not to drive like maniacs on the road trying to get you to said destination? For them to arrive promptly when you call and request a cab? Apparently that is asking too much.

I will say that the system seems to have improved since the days of the zones, when one day your cab ride was $8 and then next day it was $14. Sigh, at least it's improving, right?