The Time of My Life (Part 1 - London)

In late August / early September, Chris, his Mom, and I took a wonderful vacation to London and Paris.  When we were still making decisions about how long to stay and what sites to visit, my Mom's friend told us all about her trip to Paris and London and said that we'd never do all that we wanted to do.  In the words of Barney: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!  We planned each day down to the minute.  That's our vacation style - see as much and do as much as we can.  I created a time table spreadsheet - each column was a day, each row was an hour, it was color coded... and beautiful (nerd alert). 

On our first day, we arrived from the overnight flight (the splurge on 1st class tickets was worth every single penny), dropped our bags in our room, and headed out to see the Houses of Parliament.  The Houses of Parliament HAD to be first on our to-do list... it was, after all, the reason I wanted to go to London.  I was home sick from work for a few days this past summer, fell asleep on the couch, and woke up to James Bond riding down the River Thames with the Houses of Parliament in the background.  I called Chris, and said "let's go to London.  I want to see that place in the James Bond movie."  I'm fairly certain that he thought I was delirious from illness.  I searched through images of London online to determine the name of the building I saw in the movie.  The Houses of Parliament was very impressive to me - the beautiful woodwork and decor and the building's history narrated by our tour guide were everything I had dreamed of.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

We visited Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Wellington Arch, Wimbledon, and so many more places.  We stumbled upon a street carnival in Picadilly Circus called Picadilly Circus Circus that was complete with tight rope walkers and 20-foot tall opera singers.  We also took a Thames River Cruise and were told many times to "mind the gap".

Tower Bridge with ParaOlympic Symbol

Tower Bridge (with blackout filter/long exposure/motion - one of my fav. pics from the trip)

City outside of Windsor Castle

Picadilly Circus Circus (I can't explain why I like this picture.  I think that the blurry-ness reminds me of the massive crowds in the square, the excitement in the air (ha.. that rhymes), and the charging pace at which the jester band moved through the crowd)

Day 5 started e.a.r.l.y., but it was worth it.  We took a bus tour to Stonehenge, Lacock, and Bath.  Being at Stonehenge just after sunrise was so peaceful.  If I wasn't so busy snapping photos, I would have wished for a picnic and a good book to read.  Lacock was a quaint little town.  We stopped for coffee at a cafe that was simply some tables set up in a person's dining room and living room.  I'll probably spend my whole life without ever having cappuccino as delicious as that tiny cafe.  The city of Bath was bustling with tourists wanting to see the centuries-old Roman-style baths.  I was not as fascinated by the baths as I was by the beautiful shop-lined bridge crossing the river.

Stonehenge

Streets of Lacock

Pulteney Bridge in the city of Bath

Before sleeping our last night in London, Chris and I ventured out to capture London after dark and have some fun with HDR photos.


Big Ben at night (HDR photo)

London Eye at night (HDR photo)

I absolutely loved London.  The history, the crowds, and the accents were fabulous.  The next day we traveled to Paris via train...I'll write about that in The Time of My Life (Part 2 - Paris).

Title from (I've Had) The Time of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.

All images by Christopher & Kelly Watson of Peach Bayou Photography.