Yesterday was New Years Eve so we slept in a bit and ate a later breakfast in hopes of being able to stay up until midnight. Yes, I realize this makes me sound old but when you are walking all day long, you are ready for bed early! Once we left the house, we went to visit the Churchill War Rooms which was incredible. These are the Cabinet War Rooms which lie beneath London that were used by Winston Churchill and his staff to protect themselves during World War II. At this time, Churchill was prime minister of Britain. Along with being able to view all of the war rooms, there is a Churchill Museum which taught us both so much. I learned a lot about that man. He led an extremely intriguing life that you should look into sometime!
We spent hours in these rooms so when we came back up to ground level, it was already dark! The daylight goes quick around these parts, sun up at about 8 and down at about 4:30. Short days. We found a pub to have a snack in and then walked around watching all of the people crowd into the areas at the River Thames to get ready for London's big NYE fireworks display. After we were hungry again, we decided to eat dinner at a local pizza place. It was alright, Matt ordered a pizza with anchovies on it and I thought he was going to barf as soon as he took a bite. I decided against trying them. After dinner, we went to see Wicked!! I've been wanting to see this musical forever. It was in Seattle last year and I just never got around to going which I later regretted. It was the perfect way to spend our NYE in London although. It was an amazing performance that I highly recommend! After the musical, we walked as close as we could to the London Eye (where the fireworks were) and stood for about an hour amazed at the amount of people showing up to watch. I never realized how big Greater London is...population of approximately 8 million...falling just short of New York City's population. Soon, it was midnight, and the fireworks were worth the wait. Great 2011 NYE...one that we will always remember.
Today was a rough morning only sleeping for a handful of hours before getting up for our 8:30am breakfast. We first went to do some more shopping at Zara, I can't get enough. Then, we took a river cruise to Greenwich, a northern part of London to see one of the 2012 summer olympic parks. Once we arrived, it was pouring rain and very cold so we first camped out in an Asian restaurant eating some noodle soup, then found a small cafe to sip on some coffee and wait out the rain. After it became apparent that it was not going to let up, we decided to just take the tube back into London and explore Oxford Circus which is another part of town known for their high end department stores. After window shopping, we wandered into China town and found a Vietnamese restaurant. For those of you who have had the privilege of enjoying PHO, you know why this made me oh so excited! Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup that Matt discovered in Vietnam in college. He loved it and in Seattle, we lived down the sidewalk from an incredible Pho restaurant. I, too, grew to love it and now that we live in Charleston, I haven't had my weekly dosage in about 5 months. It was long overdue! We enjoyed some Pho and bubble tea and then came home. It has been a long day because we were still exhausted from last night.
Tomorrow is our last day in the UK. We will wake up early, eat breakfast, go back to Buckingham to watch the changing of the guards, visit the National Gallery, and hopefully spend the afternoon at Harrods. We leave bright and early on Tuesday morning. It's slightly bittersweet but I miss my students and most of all, Raleigh Belle. I can't wait to see her! Two weeks is too long to be without your puppy.
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