My Date to London

 Ryan Air tickets to London...14 euros each way + Family (aka:  Babysitters) visiting = Darin and I get a fantastic 3 day Date to London!  I've never been away from the kids for that long EVER, Darin has due to the military life that we live, but being together was a first. 

This was the first time in 2 1/2 years in which I have felt smart while traveling.  I got off the plane and I totally understood the language.  I was able to read the signs.  I knew what the announcements were about and I knew what to do and where to go.  I knew how to ask for help or directions!  I felt my IQ rising with every step away from the airplane and towards the city.  I even offered to help Darin if he had any problems (I am nice like that).  England is Awesome!   I kind of wish that the rest of Europe was like England...kind of.

Right off the plane we decided to head to the Tower of London.  3 days without kids is great, but London has tons to do and so we needed to get seeing. The weather was chilly, but not unbearably cold.   We went to the British Museum, the British Library, and the Imperial War Museum; great ways to get out of the cold.  We went to museums (totally against the traveling with kids rule), we stayed up late watching musicals, and wondered all over.  It was a great date!

*Disclaimer: because we didn't have any kids with us, all the pictures will be of us.  Sorry not too exciting.

Tower of London "Beefeater."  Very funny tour of the Tower of London and the accent is just a big Bonus!  Tower is not free, but tour is.

Darin showing this young soldier how to stand correctly!  Look at that kid with his duck feet.

Tower Bridge

Anyone need a breast plate?

Learning how to take a selfie.

 

Watching Les Miserables!  Awesome.  (Although it was hard not to compare the appearance of Jean Valjean in the play with that of Hugh Jackman in the movie.  Jean may have appeared a little portly.)

 

London Eye

Big Ben and Big D

Westminster Abby.  We had planned to go in, but it was very expensive.  Like almost 20 pounds a person and that means over 30 bucks each to see inside a CHURCH.  We love to look at churches, but hate when they charge.  If we'd had more time we would have gone to the services and looked for free.

Trafalgar Square.  I love red buses.

A big blue chicken landed on my head in Trafalgar square! Yikes.

We went and watched Parliament in session and then went to the Supreme Court building.  The guard let Darin sit in the chairs and pretend.

 

Lunch in a crypt.  Peter in Chain's church has a cafeteria in the crypt.  Unique sitting on a grave while enjoying my soup.

Buckingham Palace. The Queen was home so we stopped in.

We also got to see Wicked!

Darin at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park.  Apparently they only "speak" on Sunday's.

British Museum- FREE!  All the National Museums are FREE! Yet, they charge for the churches?

Rosetta Stone.  We also saw  THE Magna Carta (different museum),but you can't take photos of that.

Guess why they call it the Tube.

Waterloo

 Waterloo, Belgium the site of Napoleon's defeat was kind of on our way home.  Every trip we go on, I look for places to eat and maybe neat places to shop and Darin looks for battle sites.  This was his stop.  It was 7 euro to hike to the top of the stairs and overlook the fields.  I stayed down with Jag and Anya (Noah was free) and we threw chestnuts at an old cup for the forty minutes the rest were looking at the fields.

And that is all that is at Waterloo...

Brussels, Belgium

If we are in a repeat area, we must do something new.  We left Bruge and headed to Brussels.  We hit the main Palace Square area, the Manneken Pis, a Christmas market, and a fabulous 1 euro waffle shack.  It was a little rainy, but Brussels was great for a short stop.  Best of all, we ate the best waffles we've ever had.  Except for Noah who said that he was tired of me only feeding him waffles in Belgium.  He wanted different food and not waffles.  What is wrong with that kid?

Manneken Pis (Peeing boy) is under 2 feet tall and a huge attraction.  Why?   Don't you just love how they dressed him up for the holiday?  Nice little costume with a hole in just the right spot. 

This is the unfortunate symbol of Brussels.

Just a bunch of sausage rings

Two of my favorite Belgium things...Fries and Waffels.  Darin insisted on reminding me over and over that I would never be there again.

Lane enjoying his twelfth waffle. 

Delicious Waffles...we ate many one right after another. 

Brugge, Belgium

 We have been to Brugge once before, but it was a place worth visiting twice (and it is only about 4 hours away).  Never warm (during our visits), but amazingly beautiful.  We went here for our Thanksgiving break.  It is small enough to be wandered through for a day or two and charming enough to end up with 300 pictures.  It looks like a fairy tale city, and sort of is because of all the delicious chocolate shops found there.

Any place that has swans instantly becomes a Jag Favorite.  He is such a bird boy.

Davis looks tortured. Funny boy.

Waffle truck

Lane with his little brat.

Waffles for lunch. 

Thanksgiving and a Velvet Cave

*I'm going to try to catch up with my posts!  Holidays, Travels, Guests, and an issue with the computer have put me a bit behind.  However, these are times worth posting about.

We always travel at Thanksgiving.  Living outside of the US means that Thanksgiving is really just known as Thursday.  Nothing is closed, nothing is different, but schools and work are out.  We like to take advantage of our available time.  However, we love Thanksgiving gathering and food.  Davis would cry if he didn't have the opportunity to get himself just sick with food.  So we always have dinner before we leave.  This time it was on a Sunday.  I really haven't had to balance cooking all the food and still going to church for 4+ hours on the same day.  Took some extra planning and advanced cooking.  If I'm going to cook, I'd like to have people around to eat.  This year the Fawcett folks decided to stop their European travels and visit for a bit.  They had been in Europe for 3 weeks before we saw them, and we were thrilled when they finally got to our house.  For years Lane has been "threatening" to come to Thanksgiving dinner at our house, it was nice to finally have him.  It was really, really nice that I didn't have to carve the turkey! (Darin won't touch the meat)

We also had the missionaries over and a single guy from the Branch.  It was a nice dinner.  On a side note, 2013 will go down as the year that I fell in love with sweet potatoes, I never liked them before.  Guess I'm growing up.   I love them seamed with butter and salt, but this year I learned to love them candied with coconut as well. 

I love the boys and their action shots.

Elder and Sister Smith from Rexburg, Idaho

Elder Givens from Virginia and Elder Palmer from Orderville, UT.  Dan Patterson.

On Thanksgiving Day we were in the Netherlands.  We went to a Christmas market in the Velvet Caves (sandy walls make them feel soft).  I'd heard many people rave about this market and it was on our way to Brugge, so we had to stop.  It was early so it was not crowded or else the cave would have been terrible.  The paths are sometimes narrow and they go on for quite some time.  I think that we were in the caves for an hour and a half.   The caves were cool with all the "paintings" on the cave walls.  It was warmer than it was outside and that was nice, but the market wasn't fabulous.  Who wants to buy sheet sets or aloe lotion at a cave Christmas market?  I wanted traditional handcrafted trinkets and yummy food.  I don't know what all the praise was about. 

Found a Santa giving out shaped marshmallows.  He told Jag to hold the bell and pose for the picture.  All the Dutch speak amazing English!  Another reason to love the Netherlands/Holland.

Neat "paintings."  I don't know what it is painted with, kind of looks like ash to me.