this precious life.: London

{It's a good thing all this blogging doesn't relay the sound! I'm currently sneezing/blowing my nose every 2 minutes & wading through a pile of tissues thanks to spring allergies! not pretty!}

LONDON!!!!! ahhhhh!!!

There's no way I can sum up an incredible, super.fast.paced, jam-packed, three days in London! So just like Uganda posts, the pictures & notes/stories you see/read here are just the tip of the iceberg, folks! Enjoy!

Our midnight flight out of Entebbe brought us into London sometime after 6a. Thankfully all three of us had been able to catch some shut eye on the flight but we were still a little slow adjusting to things that morning! After all, it was technically 9a {Ugandan time} and we hadn't had a meal since 9p the day before! Heathrow airport is massive & sooo spread out. After a whole lot of walking + a bus ride + picking up our luggage + more walking, we finally arrived in the main terminal. The first thing we heard over the loudspeakers? Adele. Ohhhh lolly was that a beautiful sound! It took a while to get some itinerary details sorted out at then around 9a we headed out to our hotel- a 45 minute taxi ride.

It was rather a foggy ride {no pun intended- my brain was foggy, not the weather!} and all I remember was crisp, cold sunshine {once we got outside of the airport}, El & I *trying* not to laugh at our taxi driver {a middle eastern man who spoke very little english and seemed to use every english word he knew in one sentence to speak to us whether it pertained to the conversation at hand or not. Then he would get on the phone, have a rapid conversation with another driver, get off and proceed to tell us all the logistics having to do with *other* people waiting for taxis.}, both of us consuming almost a whole bag of ranch rice crackers because it was the only food we had and we were hungry, long rows of gorgeous, stately town homes, rush hour traffic {Londoners don't go into the office until 9a-- also don't eat dinner until 8p} and some of that awkward whispering that you do when you're sitting in the backseat of the car of someone you don't know and it's quite so you don't want to talk loud. haha Wait. How did I write a whole paragraph about a drive that I didn't even remember much about?!

Anyway! A friend of Uncle M's who travel's *all* the time & racks up points at hotels gave us some free rooms at the Park Lane Hotel on Piccadilly. Our room was ready when we got there {yay!} so we were able to go right in, freshen up & change from our sweaty, wrinkled travel clothes! Then we walked a few blocks behind our hotel to Shepherd's Tavern for a legit English Breakfast & tea! We're talkin', 2 fat sausage {that looked just like Ugandan sausage but *weren't* pink inside! haha}, two slices of ham, eggs, toast, roasted tomatoes, baked beans and a roasted mushroom. It was so good and we were so hungry! El & I almost cleared our plates, which surprised us both since it was a lot of food {for us}!
Over breakfast we discussed which show we wanted to see and finally settled on Phantom of the Opera. It just seems so "Londony"! haha Then when we had paid our breakfast bill, we headed out on the streets to explore. The whole area behind our hotel and near the tavern was full of little pubs, book shops, convenience stores, restaurants & boutiques and we found a few gifts.

At some point, we headed back to our hotel to purchase Phantom tickets for later that day and then walked down a few blocks to explore Harrods! Harrods is HUGE! And seriously has EVERYTHING! And everything is TOP NOTCH. The nicest you can get {and also expensive:/}. Needless to say, we did a whole lot of window shopping! haha They have a full grocery store, bridal boutique, toy store, make-up & perfumery, clothing for everyone, furniture & home decor, musical instruments, accessories of all kinds, electronics, pet store & boutique, jewelry... and the list goes on! Oh and more than 5 restaurants/cafes/tea rooms! Crazy place! We spent so much time in there exploring everything!

The three of us met Dan, Evelyn's husband, for afternoon tea at the Georgian in Harrods. He had a layover in London on his way TO Uganda and it worked out for us to meet him! Eleanna & I had gone off on our own for a bit & when we met the men for tea, Uncle M surprised us with two roses since it was our first tea in London!
We had decided to do a two meal thing during our time in London-- big breakfast & then big afternoon tea & no dinner-- so we ate pretty heartily! The food was so yummy! Only, we all filled up on the sandwiches & scones first {and clotted cream!!! mmmmmm!!!!} and then didn't have much room for the deserts!! When I told mama that later she said, "next time, you eat those deserts first and *then* the scones! You can get scones & sandwiches anytime!" haha
Though we had planned on enjoying afternoon tea all three days at different hotels or restaurants {including our own hotel}, our schedules on days two and three conflicted with that plan and the Georgian ended up being our only *real* afternoon tea.
We parted ways with Dan afterwards and hurried to our hotel to change for Phantom. We took a taxi to Her Majesty's Theater and then made our way to our seats for the production! Such a stunning theater! And so small and cozy too! There couldn't have been a bad seat in the house and they are sold out every night!
The show was incredible!! It was my first "real" theater production {the only plays I had seen before were community or high school productions} and I was in awe! There were points where I almost completely forgot that I was sitting in a theater! You know the scene where the Phantom is taking Christine down to his lair? You completely forgot it was on a stage! They had candles coming up from every part of the floor, the "boat" wove in and out of them throughout the whole stage while the gate slowly descended from the ceiling and ALL of the props moved in and out most seamlessly! Of course the music score was *amazing* and so well performed!! Ahhhh!! It was great!

Then while still in a dream from the play, we decided to walk back to our hotel, crossing through Leicester Square & Piccadilly Circus on the way. So beautiful!!
Upon arriving at our hotel, we showered and then El & I proceeded to journal as fast as we could before our eyes completely shut with exhaustion!

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stunning sunrise somewhere over France! we never had window seats on our long flights but there was a photographer sitting across the aisle from me and he took this on my camera for me. This is straight outta the camera y'all. No editing and it looked just like this in person!!

we're in LONDON!!!! eeeek!!

drivin'. from Heathrow to our hotel

posh cars everywhere!! BMWs & Mercedes are the "low-end" cars in London!

gorgeous architecture EVERYWHERE!!!

finally at our hotel!!

The Park Lane tea room-- The Palm Court --famous for it's afternoon tea that we never had a chance to enjoy:/

Shepherds Tavern

on the street/window displays

just a First Edition of recovered Jane Austen novels selling for over 10 grand. no biggy!

something with us and places called Shepherds! this papery & book binding shop was fantastic though!

and a set of First Edition C.S. Lewis books selling for over 12 grand! sheesh people!

the flowers were gorgeous! London had caught spring fever early and the bulbs were up everywhere we went! They were also extremely well kept!

tunnels for crossing under wide, busy streets

across the street from our hotel

these taxis are everywhere! London has an awesome transit system. Taxi drivers must take an intense 2 year training course before they are allowed to hit the streets. And they never use GPS's... they all know every road by memory.