We'll just start this blog post with a picture of our free breakfast, because food always makes everything better, especially when it's free. The main purpose of this blog is to share the wonderful things we will get to experience, but it wouldn't be real if we didn't share our thoughts, frustrations, and learning experiences (aka mistakes which make us say very bad words). With that being said, the first couple of hours this particular morning were very frustrating.
Today was the day we realized that we could have served ourselves a little less. You know, just like when you're at a family gathering in which your aunts and grandma do all the cooking and you end up getting chastised because you can't eat everything on your plate. This MUST mean you didn't like it... No. At this point, almost a week into our trip, we realize that we have swollen feet, heavy backpacks, and screwed up sleeping schedules. We've been to three different cities, flown with a terrible airline that made us check our lives (backpacks) at the gate for 60€, and realized we are never traveling by plane more than we absolutely have to (at the beginning and end of our trip) ever again. And why are we ranting about this right now? Well, for starters, we realized we bought a plane ticket out of the Stansted airport instead of Heathrow. This means we couldn't use the day underground tube passes we had already bought. We had to buy a separate bus ticket to get out of the city. The website we had to use kept "declining" our credit cards so we decided to just pay cash at the bus station (which was more expensive). We later realized that all seven earlier attempts were actually charged to our credit cards. Cool right? At this point we had already wasted oven an hour, and were still no closer to getting to the airport. We just decided to leave the hostel and start our last day in the city. Still frustrated, we yelled at each other and followed that by five minutes of silence on the underground. Sometimes, you just have to take five minutes to be mad, take a deep breath, and let it go. This is healthy, people.
The walk towards Buckingham Palace was very relaxing. It was scenic and it helped clear our heads. As we got closer, we realized that there was an obscene amount of people heading the same direction. If we have learned anything on this trip, it has been to ask. Ask everyone everything. Most of the cool things we've learned, seen, and done have resulted from asking people around us. Someone informed us that it was twenty minutes until Changing of the Guards. This was exciting news. In the midst of all the chaos that morning, we didn't even think about making sure we got to see this. We just stumbled upon it. Yay.
There was a parade with a band an the block guards following close behind. This was a really cool thing to see. It was hot, sweaty, loud, and a little annoying with everyone pushing you around, but it was well worth it.
We tried to go inside the palace but apparently it wouldn't be acceptable to disturb the Queen during tea time according to the guard. Whatever.
Following the Changing of the Guards, they marched over to another site to do some more drills.
Eating a baguette (shock!) outside of Westminster Abby.
There were signs that said "No Photography" but this wouldn't be the first time Kara doesn't obey by these. Beautiful pictures.
Although Westminster Abby was a wonderful thing to see, if this is something you want to do, we suggest you get up early enough to attend one of their communion services or go to evening mass. We paid 14€ to get in and the environment wasn't what we expected. People with audio guides, children screaming, not something you expect at a place which should be treated with great respect and reverence.
Claudia being an awkward American.
Stopped by the palace one more time to wave goodbye to the Queen.
Not sure if this was actually allowed.
Here you'll see a bunch of tents. Each tent had cameras, equipment, and people hanging around them. We obviously had to ask a few more questions. Apparently these news stations have been camping out "waiting for the baby" (you have to read that in the strongest British accent you can imagine), apparently the baby is coming any day now. We learned that its tradition to display the baby from the balcony.
Wish we had a better picture map.
As if wasting hours with the bus ticket situation wasn't enough, the bus was a million degrees and we ended up sitting in a puddle of our own sweat for the entire hour ride to the airport.
If you ever have to fly in Europe, fly Airberlin. They were AWESOME.
Siting on the plane listening to everyone around us, it dawned upon us that here is where the real adventure would start. We've been to English speaking countries up until now. It's time to put our big girl pants on.
We are once again lucky enough to have somebody welcome us upon arrival in Düsseldorf. Thanks to a friend from home (shout out to Jeff!) we connected with a great guy, Dominik, who volunteered to be our own personal tour guide during our stay. He was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and drive us to our hostel to drop off our things. It was almost 11p.m. at this point so we just walked around the downtown area for a couple of hours, grabbed a snack (obviously) and some local beer.
We chose the perfect time to be in Düsseldorf. This is a beautiful view of the Biggest Funfair on the Rhine. This is a week-long Oktoberfest-like event that has been happening for 112 years! We are very excited to spend the evening there tomorrow.
Cheers!
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