Our very last stop in Europe was London. We were excited. Darren had been to London before and wanted to show me around. They speak English {obviously} so we figured it would be easier to know what was going on. We had navigated our way all over Italy by train so we figured England would be easy.
And yet…the minute we walked through customs and stepped into England, we were lost and confused. Let me just say that England English is not always very much like American English and the difference in our accents made understanding each other downright comical sometimes. We still had lots of fun though.
We had to blitz London because we were only there with a few hours between flights so we decided to see all the big sites in central London and took off on the train for Big Ben.
The train ended up being my favorite part because of the people watching. London was so dramatically different from Italy, especially on the trains. Italy was loud and hot and busting at the seams. London was cool and rainy and so, so quiet. Everyone was dressed for work and man did they look sharp. They all wore black like they knew something I didn’t and every one of them looked like James Bond with an umbrella. No kidding. Like James Bond with ear buds and a book. It was impressive.
I felt so underdressed and I’m pretty sure I was the only person in all of England wearing flip-flops that day in the cold rain. People even had coats on. Coats! In June! But I didn’t mind the cold or the rain because it gave me an excuse to get a proper hot English tea and I just don’t think I could have come home satisfied otherwise.
The people at the tea place laughed at me because {a} I probably sounded like a hick {b} I was wearing flip-flops {c} I didn’t know the answer to any of their many questions about what kind of tea I wanted. What do you mean what kind of tea do I want? I want the kind you put in hot water. So they pointed to an elaborate collection of tea varieties and I’m like, errr, Earl Grey, yep that sounds familiar. {d} There was a lot of confusion about how to put milk in my tea…I know that doesn’t sound complicated, but seriously {e} The tea bag went on the fritz and all the loose leaf stuff started getting in the water and I was panicking and Darren was laughing.
It was exhausting.
But yummy :]
Anywayyyyyyy….here’s what we saw.
London bridges falling down…nah, just kidding, they didn’t fall down.
Parliament
Westminster Abbey…which I keep wanting to call Downton Abbey…but it’s not.
The London Eye
The Tower of London and some fancy pants building in the background
Look at the set up for tea in our hotel room! I pocketed all the tea bags as a souvenir and Darren was like, did you steal all of that from the hotel room? And I was like, yes…no…yes…leave me alone, it’s mine.
And that kids, was London and the completion of our little European adventure. Now I want to go back…forever…and live under a lemon tree in Italy…but Darren says I can’t…men, marriage…sigh.
If you missed any of the earlier posts in this series about Europe, you can still read them here:
Outside Air 
I would love a proper English tea… sounds delightful. Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It was an honor to see and get a peek at what you experienced. Loved it!
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Thanks for reading along and leaving me so many sweet, encouraging comments!
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A simple thank you for pieces you wrote for your European vacation. I loved it all and your writing. Yes, we all want a tree in Italy to go to, make our own and just live in its shade.
All the best, Michael
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Thanks for reading along and leaving me an encouraging word. Maybe someday I’ll get my lemon tree…we’ll see :]
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Dammit. I just did a whole comment concerning the lemon grove plan etc and now it has disappeared. The long and short of it is that the pic above is of Tower Bridge, not London Bridge (Danda, being a taxi driver, is quite precise about his London knowledge and insists I inform you 🙂 ) and that some of Downton Abbey was filmed in Ham House, the big 17th century house where I volunteer as a baker. And also, Danda says he’ll come along to the lemon grove in Tuscany so long as he’s allowed to sit round doing nothing. Suggest the same to Darren and maybe he’ll be up for it?
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What? You mean I missed the real London Bridge? Dang it, now I have to go back. Fine, fine, I’ll drag my feet back to Europe. I guess I can hit up the “Real” London Bridge on the way to Tuscany. But you can tell Mr. Danda that he is hereby sentenced to work the land on our farm as a punishment for destroying my belief that I had in fact walked across the London Bridge. Don’t worry though, Darren will help him because he’s the one who told me it was the London Bridge and he also needs to be punished. We make the law so they can’t really argue. If we ever feel merciful we could make them a little lemonade with the lemons they spend their days picking…but we don’t want to spoil them.
What if one day you’re working at Ham House and the cast of Downton walks in to film something? Would you lose your mind or just sneak into the shot?
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Sneak in. Talk all northern and that and just work in the background making a cake with Mrs Patmore or something. Mind you, I’d probably get headhunted and I’m not sure a life of celebrity and screaming fans is for me. As for the Tuscany plan, I’m on it. Danda and Darren will work. We will blog. They will not complain. Ps London Bridge is the next one along. You were almost there!
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Almost. There. Dang it. Ok, next time I’ll go to London alone and walk all the way to the right bridge. I’ll be watching for you in Downton but I do understand how you don’t want to be a big rich star with screaming fans and stuff…how awful. Yes, lemons are the thing and Tuscany is the place…especially now that we have man slaves and are career bloggers and all.
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It’s a real pleasure reading each of your episodes, and I think this one on London was the most amusing. From my experience, it is certainly different from America. But what’s best about these adventures, is how much you enjoyed the trip. That’s just wonderful.
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The trip really was wonderful and I miss each place we visited for different reasons. It was wonderful seeing how people live in different parts of the world and I am so thankful to have had such an opportunity.
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I loved this post! I’m glad you were able to have see London, even if it was a whistle-stop tour!
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Thanks, London was awesome….hope I get to see more of it someday!
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Your photos brought back some wonderful memories. The last time I was in London, two thuggish-looking men sat next to me on the Tube and engaged me in conversation. I was quite nervous about the way they looked, but I pretended they were the most fascinating people in the world…which they turned out to be, sort of. They told me I had a “bully accent” – whatever that means – and I told them it was the nicest thing anyone said to me all day. Anyway, wouldn’t you know it, when their stop came, they actually patted me on the head (?!), and told me to take care of myself. Awww! It was so sweet.
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Haha, that’s hilarious. The trains all over Europe were my favorite part of the trip…you see so much of the local flavor of life and meet so many fascinating people.
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