One Last Day In London

We woke up yesterday and decided to make a nice relaxed trip to the exchange place and get the rest of our GBP travelers cheques cashed. The first one that we went to was run by a guy who I'm pretty sure was either high or retarded. I wanted to cash my cheques and he didn't seem to want my business so he suggested that we go to the place at the next tube station and when I asked him the exact address and name of said place he literally stared off in the distance like he was lost or something. That lasted almost 3 minutes until i got frustrated and said. "hello?"

After the banking fiasco we decided to go on a photo walk and check out the science museum.









After the science museum we continued on our photo walk and took lots of pictures. all or most of the photos were taken on film so you will have to wait to see most of those however I will post some from the digital here after the videos :)

After our photo walk we decided to head home and have a little dinner and get some sleep. We took a train to Paris this morning and tomorrow we will be going on the hop-on hop-off tour. until then keep it unreal

 :D

Stonehenge and the Castle

Sorry about the late update everyone.

We woke up early the other day and headed straight for the marriot hotel to meet our tour bus. It was a lot easier this time because we knew where we were going. with a little time on our hands Jasmine was able to get a coffee :D



After a little confusion with WHO exactly our tour guide was we made our way on the bus toward Windsor Castle. The Queens ACTUAL house (Buckingham Palace is just her office apparently)






The castle is HUGE and there is only about 2 hours to look around so the whole thing seemed a little rushed. we saw the queens doll house and the artifacts and some suits of armour and the meeting rooms of the king and what not. unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures in the castle so it was kind of a bust in that sense.





having no cameras allowed kind of makes it hard to show everyone how cool everything was but you'll just have to take our word for it :P

After grabbing a bag full of pastries and a bottle of diet coke and a water it was back on the bus to head to the city of Bath which I thought was the most beautiful city I've ever seen, it was all old timey and stuff. There we saw the roman baths which was interesting enough but it was not the highlight of the tour.





the whole bath is fed by a hot spring which according to legend cured a kings leprosy. he was the one who turned it into an actual bath.



we left the bath a little early and I was feeling hungry so I grabbed a pizza. I thought it was going to be a small pizza but it was quite large. I still managed to eat it in just under 10 mins. I really was that hungry.

we saw these people doing a statue street performance. be ready to tilt your head to the left





very cool city and very dependent on the local tourism, I think it would be a nice place to live if you were on the edge of town or up the hill a little bit.

After Bath we got back on the bus again and drove for about another hour until we came to the part that Jasmine and I were both looking forward to the most.







We enjoyed the splendor of Stonehenge for about an hour and then headed back to the gift shop area where I wanted to buy a souvenir but it was a little too expensive for what it was so I passed. it was basically a plastic model of the area and it was like 16 pounds

We had a really good time but it was a really long day with lots of driving and waiting. I would recommend maybe taking a day for each of the three parts of the tour so you can really soak it in.

Wax People and Oil Paintings

HELLO ALL!

Sorry about the delay in the post but you will get a double helping today :D

We started off yesterday with a little bit of a sleep in. it was still raining a little bit but within about 30 mins we made it down to Madame Tussuad's wax museum. We got into yet another line up and although it seemed to drag on it turns out that the line that we were in was actually the FAST line. the other option was the 4 hour line up that regular people had to take (thank god we bought tickets in advance)




We got in and immediately were greeted by a loud and annoying guy who seemed to work the door and it also seemed that his sole job was to hassle people coming into the museum. Very Strange. He even came into the mens room and yelled at me for taking too long. once inside the museum we started checking out the sculptures. some were really cool, some were less then perfect. the place was PACKED with people and it was very hard to get a decent picture. but we got a couple.

Heres me and Johnny Depp one of the first that we managed to get a picture of. Apparently people were lined up to take pics with this one and I jumped the line. I didn't realize there was a line until it was too late and some lady was all "thats not how you que!" I felt bad.

here are some more pics from the first room.

this next one is for Juliane :P

 some of them did not look very realistic "I dont look anything like John Travolta ohmaigahd"

 And some more.... :D

 me looking creeped out by Julia Roberts and Jasmine With Marilyn :D

Me with Super Man, James Bond "BUCKFUTTER" and the Terminator

 Jasmine and Audry Hepburn

Me and the Beatles, on a side note, JUST as we got the the Beatles the Digital camera battery died so this was shot on film.

Jasmine looking unimpressed by the Princes of England

There are a bunch more pictures. Once we finished the tour though the museum we made our way back home and unwound a little bit then decided to go and see this really fun and cool movie. we both liked it a lot probably because we are both so nerdy and also because it takes place in Toronto and there's a lot of Canadian references in it so that was fun. Pizza Pizza FTW

after the movie we went to a local burger joint that was a lot like "The Works" in Ottawa but a little different. VERY tasty and super big (Jasmine had a little trouble with hers)

That was the end of out day we went to bed a both had WEIRD dreams until this morning... or should I say afternoon.

 We woke up a little late and decided to make ourselves some proper breakfast we both had scrambled eggs and croissants and I had some bacon which is twice as wide here (I'm not complaining just observing) after breakfast we decided to head downtown to SOHO and try and find me a copy of the new MEW album on vinyl. with no luck.





After the failed music shop shopping we went to a comic book store and bought a few souvenirs for our friends and family and made our way to the National Gallery.

we got a little turned around and ended up on a bridge about 10 city blocks from our destination. we were not in any kind of rush so it was ok we just had to walk a lot :P





once we made it to the museum everything was ok. we got in and saw paintings from people like Van Gough, Renoir, Cezan, Monet and a BUNCH more. Really Amazing stuff that picture would do NO justice to. I didn't take any pictures inside the museum mostly out of respect but also because I know the flash damages the paint.

After the gallery we went home and made some dinner. We didn't do a lot today but the things we did do were totally fun and amazing.

Tomorrow we are headed to Stone Henge and Windsor Castle I have to get some sleep now because we have to wake up in 5 hours. Jasmine has been asleep for a while now.

until then Hope all is well in Canada.

Busy Day

Hello ALL!
We woke up on time (kind of) to get ready and head toward the Marriott London to meet our tout bus this morning. I had planned the walk to the hotel on mai i Pod though Google maps and it was seriously wrong. we raced up and down the road asking everyone we saw if they knew where the hotel was. Not very helpful when you are half awake and only half the people speak English and half of those people are from around the area. FINALLY we made it (just in time) we had about 10 mins so we decided to order coffee from the lobby restaurant. 1 minute before boarding we were informed that we could not bring beverages on to the bus. I had to shamefully ask the bartender to throw out the coffees he had just made and offered to pay anyway. he let us go without paying... i felt like an asshole



The bus drivers in this town are impressive to say the least. Imagine if you will an area where the average street is only one lane wide, divided into two lanes and there are people parked on the side streets. there are only 90 degree turns available into equally narrow streets, you are driving a bus.



The bus took us to a main terminal where we had about 10 minutes to have a snack and drink something before we had to get on the actual tour bus and see the sights.

not enough time for a coffee...



We took the tour bus to around the area where we are staying and learned a lot about the central area of London. including a brand new Condo building that is a couple of blocks from the area where we are staying. for those who live in a major Canadian City you know that High-end condo's go for like 1 or 2 million bucks. I know this chick owns a condo on Sussex that is a penthouse and is worth like 5 million

Well that crazy wash up has nothing on London. We passed by a new building that is VERY close to Buckingham Palace that has the average cost of £22,000,000 and the penthouse, which is owned by a Saudi Arabian Oil Tycoon is worth £148,000,000

... WTF
anyway we continued our tour and saw a lot of really cool places and learned a lot about the area. we even managed to see the monument from yesterday that we never made it back to...



We enjoyed more touring and looking at the richer area of London and we were soon taken to the entrance to Buckingham Palace...



Jasmine was happy because I found her some coffee...





after we finished the bus tour we had lunch at a place downtown and headed toward the Ripley's believe it or not museum but decided not to go because it was like £30 each to get in so we walked back down to Big Ben...



After the whole downtown fiasco we headed home to unwind a little bit and headed toward the Natural History Museum it was VERY BUSY but once we got in we realized why. This building was built in 1881 when architects gave a shit. It was AMAZING







We went into a number of exhibits however it was way too busy and crowded. the main events were the deep sea exhibit and the dinosaur exhibit. the mineral exhibit was pretty impressive too but there are no pics from that because we were getting VERY tired by then.

Jasmine and I went into the Dino Exhibit expeciting something special because there was a HUGE line up, even when we got in it was just another slow moving line up to see this.. It was kinda cool but not really worth the wait...



All in all it was a REALLY long day and REALLY fun. Tomorrow we are going to the wax museum and going to see a movie probably and have our first dinner OUT. Can't wait. until then KEEP IT UNREAL!

Lots of walking and A little History

Day two of the trip.

I had set my alarm to wake us up at 8:30 so we could get an early start on the day. Like my non-vacation life the snooze button was pressed until I felt like waking up. Who cares we are on vacation, we are allowed to sleep in. We gnoshed on some bread and some cheese before we got ready and headed out into the city for a little exploring. about half way down Old Bromton Rd it started raining and we went back to the flat for an umbrella. The weather could not decide what it wanted to do until about 2pm so it was a good move to grab the umbrella. We walked toward Kensington Park Which as far as I can tell is a slightly smaller version of Central park but british.

After a long amount of walking and some on and off rain. taking pictures and videos all along we finally came to Abby Road :D

I was uber excited and there were a lot of people there. It occurred to me: I wonder if there has been a day since that picture was taken where there were not people at Abby Road going gaga just because the Beatles walked across one day in September 1969. I sort of felt sorry for the buses and cars that frequent that stretch of road because traffic was obstructed at least 10 times while we were there and we were only there for like 15 or 20 mins.

We tried to get closer so that I could get a picture of myself on the steps of Abby Road Studio but I got yelled at by a studio worker guy. so we left and had coffee instead.



After the coffee and a quick stop at a Beatles Garage sale-of-sorts we made our way to the Underground and headed to the most interesting part of our day. The Masonic Hall.

We made it in time for the last tour of the day and we were lucky. To say the building is beautiful is an understatement. A giant temple in the middle of the city it was something to behold. Jasmine was all a flutter while we were taken into the Temple of the Lodge. Giant cast-bronze doors weighing 2 tons each and a ceiling mosaic that would drive someone insane if they tried to comprehend the work involved accented only with the whit and charm of our elderly tour guide. We got to look at all the artifacts and library that are available to the public to look at and Jasmine grabbed a souvenir at the gift shop. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in the hall so we only have this google images image to show you the inside. I also took a picture of Jasmine outside of the hall but I used my film camera so you will have to WAIT... god. you think EVERYTHING is instant?!?

Just Jokin. Here's a picture from Google of the inside of the hall. and it does NO justice to the real beauty.

We made our way home and did a little grocery shopping.
On a side note if you are ever here don't mess with the public transit in London unless you want to relive a scene from The Borne Identity.  check this out...

THEY WILL SEND A GODDAM HELECOPTER AFTER YOU!!!!

We had pasta for dinner and I FAILED hard because I accidentally grabbed sauce with little chunks of sausage in it. but Jasmine was a trooper and just picked around it.

We are going on the hop on hop off tour tomorrow so until then have a good time in Canada.... I miss good Canadian beer.

FINALLY HERE! :D

We arrived at Heathrow airport on time and after a LONG lineup at customs and a short interrogation from a less then cherry customs officer we made our way into the belly of the beast known as Heathrow airport. after getting a little turned around we finally found our way into the Underground station and hopped on the Picadilly line toward our final destination. With a friendly conversation with a local lady on the subway which turned quickly creepy after she offered to put us up in a hotel for free and give us her phone. we got off and found our way to the flat. We decided to take a short nap (HAHA) which turned into a 4 hour sleep. once we woke up we went and explored the local shops for about an hour and bought some small groceries and a Pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow we plan to explore the area more throughly with our cameras and make our way through Kensington Gardens and over to Abby Road so I can get my Beatles NERD on.

Everyone has been SUPER friendly so far and the pizza place we found is quite tasty.

On a financial note I've found that although the exchange rate sucks the price of things is comparable. Example I got a bottle of coke for 1.50 pounds which works out to just about $2 Canadian. NOT BAD :D

Here is a little video for everyone to see our new place :D

Waiting at the airport

that is what we are doing

So Close To the Day!

First of all we would like to say a BIG thanks to all of our friends and family that made it to the wedding and for all the contributions that made this trip possible. I've heard a lot of people don't ever get to actually take a honeymoon so this is definitely appreciated.

This blogspot is getting setup so that everyone and anyone can come here and see how everything is going with all the pictures and movies and stuff that we are going to take while we are there.

To start things off I'm going to link to Jasmine's Youtube videos that she has done up until now documenting our long and tiresome wait.








There will be blog entries and photos uploaded as often as possible so that everyone can check us out while we are on our adventure.

We are going to be leaving in less then 11 days
Neither of us can wait... More to come in the near future.

Mike