England

A spontaneous urge to ride the Chunnel led J and I to London this past weekend.

We started off the trip just right, even before leaving Paris. I had the girls over Thursday night for a mini movie night and we ended up watching Moulin Rouge while filling ourselves with Champagne, a gigantic bag of Madeleines, and Cheese Doodles (courtesy of J's mom). As you might imagine, all of these elements, though wonderful on their own, create what can only be described as an epic tummy-quake when combined. Now, for some reason, when J and I woke up the next morning and were about to head out for the train station, we were craving madeleines. So we grabbed the rest of the giant bag (which was finished within the hour) and off we were to Gare du Nord.

One of the conditions attached to this spontaneous trip was the idea that we were going to take full advantage of our two hour train rides and get work done. Needless to say we passed out for the entire trip and did no such work. Homework fail.

We arrived in London with the whole day ahead of us. Yay super early trains! After checking into our incredibly awesome hostel (Palmer's Lodge - highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in London), we were off to center city and hopped onto a double decker bus tour to reacquaint ourselves with the city. This lead us to Westminster Abbey and Parliament, and a tour of the Abbey capped off our morning of typical sight-seeing.

J and I enjoying the sun :)

Parliament (and a head..)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is where the real fun began. Now, J and I have come to realize that we are actually ten years old at heart, and thus conducted extensive research on how best to see all of the real sights of London - the HARRY POTTER SIGHTS of course!

Off we were from one random location to another, lovingly guided by an online walking tour via my blackberry. We must have looked like idiots, but it was all worth it. Jealous yet? We got a glimpse of Diagon Alley, The Leaky Cauldron, Gringotts, and much much more. Oh, and of course we couldn't help ourselves - we just happened to walk into King's Cross Station and just happened to search the station and just happened to find Platform 9 3/4... (which is actually between platforms 8 and 9. Hmm...) Anyway, we also just happened to snap some souvenir pics of us on our way to Hogwarts:

Diagon Alley - Leaky Cauldron Side

Later that evening, I got a chance to catch up with DH, a long lost friend from Edgewood who waltzed off to England for college (or "uni" as they all call it). It was great to see him (and his new gf!).

Saturday brought a little more regression as we spend the morning, wide-eyed, in the epic Natural History Museum. There were dinosaurs. Robot dinosaurs. Enough said.

After having our fill of childhood nostalgia, we changed pace a little and found ourselves in Vinopolis, a wine tasting museum discovered by my family the last time I was in London...I think I was about twelve at the time. It was nice to actually be offered wine this time around, although I did miss the excitement of stealthily sneaking tastes here and there, as any mischievous twelve-year-old would do.

The highlight of the trip came Saturday night with a trip to the O2 arena to see.....Dave Matthews Band! Again, this spontaneous trip just happened to be planned on the same weekend DMB was playing London. (This one was actually a HUGE coincidence). Dave Concert = perfect end to a weekend excursion.

Epic Fish and Chips meal purchased at a "Dodgy Chippy"