Today, we got to see Hampton Court Palace – which was amazing! I must say that this has been the highlight of our trip to London (so far). However, we had high hopes of getting to see five different attractions today, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Our first stop was Hampton Court – but we also wanted to see Kew Gardens, The Mews, The London Aquarium, and Vinopolis (a museum about winemaking). We quickly ruled our Kew Gardens because the gardens at Hampton Court were amazing (see gallery) and Kew gardens were a bit far out. We then tried to venture to the Mews (where the Palace horses and carriages are kept), but we missed the last tour by 20 minutes (because we misread the book). We then went to the London Aquarium. It was a bit small, but still had a lot of good stuff. We also got to touch a stingray. At this point we ventured out to Vinopolis. It took us about 25 minutes of travel and about 15 minutes of walking, but we finally arrived. However, when we arrived we realized that they had closed several hours early for a private event. We were livid. However, we can’t say enough about how cool Hampton Court was. We also got to have afternoon tea at a restaurant on the grounds. That was great.

We made it to London without any issues at all. Once we got it – it took a while to find the place to buy a London Pass. The pass is super cool – because it gives you free admissions to tons of places. If you order it ahead – you can get it with a transportation option. However, we just bought a day pass for the Tube (Zones 1-4) and it worked fine. So our stops today were: The Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Kensington Palace. Finally, after a day of not having real meals – we ate at our hotel (which is just a bar with some rooms attached to it). They serve Thai food, and it was amazing. We have full bellies – and now we are sleepy. Good night.

We awoke at 5:30am this morning, so we could catch the early train to London. We got the 6:10 am bus to Leeds Railway Station and boarded the 7am GNRE Train to London King’s Cross. This train is amazing compared to the regional trains that we have ridden so far. First, there is a complete restaurant aboard. First class looks more like a gourmet restaurant than a train car. Alas, we are not in first class. However, standard class is good too. We have to walk to the next car for the restaurant where we can get coffee, toast, bacon, etc… The trip is a little over two hours. This is the “fast train”, which means that is makes minimal stops between Leeds and London. We also will be taking the fast train when we go to Edinburgh, Scotland later this week.

I want to give a quick Happy Anniversary to mom and dad today. They are probably traveling all about Nova Scotia today in the land of Tim Horton’s (have to go to Canada to figure that one out). Mom and Dad – I hope that you guys are having an amazing time on your trip. I tried to call you guys last night (I was the one who called – but you couldn’t hear me). I will try again today, if I can find a Skype headset somewhere (I left mine at home).

Cheers.

We woke up this morning, and quickly realized that we were still thoroughly exhausted. We spent some time this morning planning out trek to London (which will be Wednesday through Friday). We have realized that any trip here takes quite a bit of planning (if you want to avoid the public transit nightmare). However, after gaining a bit of energy, we took the train back to York (where we briefly visited on our first day here. We have some more pictures below. We visited the crypt and treasure at York Minster (which is the largest gothic cathedral in Europe). We also ate at a pub and spent some time shopping.

Day 2 was really great. However, as mentioned previously, the public transit system has a steep learning curve. Sizergh Castle is really more of a large manor house. The same family has been on this estate property since the late 1200’s. The house itself is an accurate representation of houses from the 1400’s (in the older sections) – and as they have added on rooms – it gives you a view into architecture and style of later centuries. Oh, and by the way, we couldn’t take pictures outside the house, but we snapped away in the gardens.

Public transportation is great, but only when you know how to use it! The day started in an interesting manner. We took the correct bus number – but in the wrong direction. Then when we finally got on the right train – we got off a stop early (and the next train was an hour later). To avoid the wait, we took a cab (and the cab driver helped us quite a bit). Today we were on 4 trains, 3 buses, 1 cab, and mostly two feet.

We got here – and we were bound and determined to not go to sleep. Every article that we read said that you needed to tough the first day out if you truly want to defeat the jet lag. Corrine and Martijne were an enormous help. We wanted to go tour somewhere local – somewhere that we could get to by car. We went to York and man was it amazing. The highlight for me was York Minster (you can see some pictures in the gallery). It just was an awesome day … but it is SO tough to fight “the lag”.

After a seven hour flight, we touched ground in the United Kingdom. The flight was uneventful and uncomfortable – but overall very bearable. We got to catch up on some movies that we hadn’t seen (I got to see “Breach” – it was pretty good).

Probably the weirdest thing was seeing the sun rise at 2am (Savannah time) on the plane ride over. We didn’t have dinner last night until 10:30pm – so I can officially say that my internal clock is amazingly messed up.

The line to customs / immigration took forever. I felt like I was waiting for space mountain. Two hours later we got through – after taking some lip from the immigration lady. Tucker and Martijne picked us up – and we are now chillin at their cool English crib.

Yeah, things were pretty delayed coming out of Savannah. The other interesting thing is that neither Shannon or I had ever been to the Philly airport. If you look at a map of the Philadelphia airport and pick the two gates that are the furthest apart…that is what we had to travel to get to our flight. We made it to our gate, and they were doing final boarding.

UPDATE: We rushed to get on the plane, but we sat in the plane for 45 minutes before we moved at all. Not such a rush after all (hopefully it allowed our bags to get on board).

We are currently coasting above the clouds somewhere in South Carolina. The airport was crazy. So many flights were delayed. We managed to get off about 45 minutes late. Assuming that we get there on time – we should catch the connecting flight to Manchester. However, our hope is that our baggage also catches the next flight. This flight should only take about 1.5 hours (nothing compared to the 7.5 hour flight that we have coming up). To pass the time, I figured we would share some pictures of our wonderful puppy Nala (until we get somewhere that we can take pictures of something, lol).