Europe!!

So much to write about that I am going to break this up into three separate posts! The first one will be the first weekend of our trip, which was in London! Neil and I left Chicago on Thursday and flew through the night to land in London at around 9:30 am local time. While we both tried, we did not sleep much on the way over, so we hit the ground running in London!

We were staying at my friend Chris's apartment in Mayfair and when we got there we had a slight issue with getting a key to Chris's so we stopped at the pub across the street from his place for our first London beer (please keep in mind we had been up all night...)

We then began touring London with a stop at Borough Market! Neil thought this would be a good first stop because of their great oyster and because of the markets appearance in Bridget Jones' Diary! So we had lunch there. The man working there was so impressive! He shucked those oysters at an insane rate!

We then did a mini walking tour through London, and stopped to get some beers along the way! Since you can drink on the streets in London, we thought we'd partake on our way to Tower bridge.

Shortly after this picture was taken the clouds rolled in and cut our site seeing short. We ended up meeting Chris after work for a drink, which turned into about 10 drinks! We met up with Neil's friend Aaron and some of Chris's friends at a pub. It was such a great group of people who all live in London, but are from different areas of the world. Everyone was super nice and welcoming to us! It was a great way to start the trip.

Saturday we started off by going to Buckingham Palace (pictures on my other camera) and then walking through London to get to Westminster Abbey. It was beautiful and I was so excited to see where Kate and Wills tied the knot!

We met up with Chris and went to Harrods and a few other stops along the way before heading to Notting Hill for Dinner at Churchill Arms.

We walked around Notting Hill after dinner and ended at another bar where Chris and I were able to get a picture together (the first in years)

On our way home we came across a store called "Z. Punjani's American Food Store." Probably one my favorite signs I saw in London.

Sunday I spent the day with Chris hopping around London! We started off with breakfast and drinks in Mayfair and actually ended up staying there most of the day! Chris's friend, Judy came and met us out as well! After staying at the first place for a bit too long, we walked through London seeing the sights and ended up in Soho. We went to this bar, which cracks me up when I see it. I'd like to know the name of the awards they won...

We also saw Jason Statham filming a movie (obviously an action film)

Great first weekend in London, now off to Rome bright and early Monday morning!!