Weekend in London

Who needs a cell phone when you have a cute telephone booth?

The British parliament and Big Ben

The White Cliff of Dover

Scott and Lacy's London Top 10

10) The Channel Tunnel: riding via train,underneath the North Sea, while sitting in our car for 30 minutes.

9) British Royalty and English History: We visited the parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, Kensington, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, St. Paul's Cathedral and much much more!

8) Everything is Backwards! Props to Scott for doing a fantastic job driving in England. It's not as easy as it looks. We just worked together and I kept saying "tight left" or "wide right" or watch the round-a-bout. The slow lane is on the left and the fast lane is on the right. The exits are on the left side. What else is backward: the money - we found out the hard way - the larger the coin the smaller the amount. Even when you are walking you walk on the left . I can't tell you how many times I ran into people in the tube!

7) The TUBE: London did an excellent job with their underground train system. Everything is color-coded and takes you everywhere you could want. Very easy to navigate though we still managed to make mistakes that would have cost us on the Amazing Race. We used the TUBE all weekend and wouldn't have made it without it.

6) Mamma Mia! Scott is no longer a Mamma Mia virgin. He saw it for his first time and loved it. More risque than the American version and more British humor. Everyone enjoyed the encore of Waterloo!

5) Our Hotel: We knew when booking our hotel that hotel ratings in Europe are different. You can't go lower than a 3-star or you'll be sharing bathrooms and bedrooms with others. We chose a 3 1/2 star and we might as well have been staying in jail or the local hostel. The room was smaller than the smallest room on a cruise ship. At least the cruise ship gives you a dresser and a nightstand. The phone was just sitting on the floor. Our bed had a metal frame with one lumpy mattress (where was the box spring?) that we both barely fit on. I refused to shower in the tiny stand-up shower. (Don't worry, I bathed in the sink - with a TOWEL - b/c they didn't supply washcloths. Good thing I brought my own soap!) It's 4 1/2 stars or higher for us from now on!

4) American Food - Sure when you're in England your suppose to have Fish n Chips and Meat pies and stuff but when you haven't had American food in so long you just gravitate toward it. Here's was our selection of restaurants for the weekend: McDonald's (sure Belgium has McDonald's but this was the American menu), SUBWAY, TJI Fridays (Boy, were we in heaven!), Burger King and Pizza Hut. Good thing we got our exercise while we were there!

3) The White Cliffs of Dover and The Dover Castle: Probably my favorite part of the trip. Completely Breathtaking!

2) THEY SPEAK ENGLISH! We're coming along in our Flemish/Dutch lessons but it's so good to speak English and have people understand you without hand signals or speaking very sl-ooo-www-l-yy. Oh, and to be able to read the road signs - what a relief!

1) KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS: Thank you Harrods for putting the kiosk in your store. It doesn't matter that we paid $4.00 for 2 doughnuts - they were just so good. Even the HOT light was on!

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