Cotswolds Day 2

 Well, these are backwards again, but my 10 readers will understand. Haha!

Day 2 in the Cotswolds took us to Stonehenge in the pouring rain, which was way different than any of us expected, but totally worth doing. We then went to Bath and toured the Roman baths and the darling town. We had a delightful walk around the little town before heading back to our Michelin star rated dinner. There is only one hotel in the little town we were staying in & we booked reservations at the hotel restaurant having absolutely no clue what we were getting into. We had 4 tiny courses (main course pictured 😂😂😂) that were all so fancy we had no idea what we were eating, but it was em, not that impressive. I won't tell you how much it cost, but I will tell you we laughed our way through the entire thing and it is an experience we will not forget anytime soon. We went back to our little cottage and ate chips and dip, crackers and cheese, and all the candy we could find. 

Highlights of the day: finding sticky toffee pudding, which we had been looking for the whole trip (delicious!!), the entire Michelin star restaurant experience, and laughing all night about it while we played our favorite game, The Crew. 

London Day 4 (except I mean Cotswolds Day 1)

 

Day 4: We got to see the darling little village where we were staying for the first time in the daylight! Bottom picture is our amazing airbnb, a 600 year old used-to-be courthouse. So cool. We toured several villages this day, including ours of Castle Combe, Bourton-on-the-Water, and Oxford, a college town. The architecture and old buildings are just so cool and beyond description. We finally got our scones with clotted cream and had a real live afternoon tea. Everything was so amazing and quaint. We saw many sights over the days where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed, which was super fun. Everything was just a dream.

Highlights of the day: Devin's left side of the road driving through the amazing English country side, the scones and clotted cream (not that they were amazing- just that we finally got them!) And the walk at sunset in gorgeous Oxford. 

London, Day 3!

 

Day 3! These pictures are out of order, but meh. I'm on my phone so hard to fix. This day was Friday, and it started with Che', Devin, and I taking a jog along the Thames. I don't really love running, but I gotta admit this was a pretty neat experience. Dev and I ran 4 miles and Che' went further. We had to get back and get showered so we could meet my former clients, Matt and Joanna, for a traditional English breakfast. They now live in London and it was super fun to have breakfast with them and catch up. We then toured St. Paul's cathedral and participated in a euchrist service there, which was pretty neat. We then hopped on a train and took ourselves out to the airport where we picked up our rental car and headed out to the Cotswolds. This was our first experience with Devin driving on the left side of the road and with the steering wheel on the right- he did great- even as it got dark! We had dinner in a quaint little hotel on the way- my favorite dinner of the trip, then checked into our 600 year old airbnb- it was a former courthouse in the little town of Castle Combe. Amazing. 

Favorites of the day: chicken dinner at the hotel restaurant, great conversation with Matt and Joanna, running along the Thames and thinking "Is this really my life!?" 

London, day 2

 

 

This day we packed it in! We saw and did everything. We started by walking across the London Bridge to the Burrough Market, the cutest little farmers market type deal, where we had breakfast and walked around. We then made our way by train and taxi to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, and the London Eye. We saw the Crown Jewels with hardly anyone there and it was amazing. So much history and amazing stories in these places. Westminster Abbey was really neat too. We had wanted to do the London Eye at Sunset, but needed to hurry for our dinner plans, so we went earlier. However, on our way down, we had timed it just perfectly to see the most stunning sunset over the whole city. Accidentally, our plans worked. We then had dinner at an Argentinian restaurant on the west end and headed to the play Hamilton. We have all seen it before, but it was fantastic. Especially fun to see it in England, and their cast I think was my favorite I've ever seen. It capped off a perfect day. 

Favorites of the day: crown jewels with no line, London Eye sunset, and Hamilton. 🔥

LONDON! Day 1

Since I'm now on a 10 hour flight back home and I have nothing better to do, let's recap our most magical time in England! 

This was our every other year 360 Landscapes trip, something I always look forward to. The company is always amazing- we travel so well together & have a ton of laughs, adventures, and the best conversations. I'm filled with awe at how amazing the world is out there and that I get to see it.

We had a direct flight from SLC that left at 5 PM and put is into London about 3 AM our time, 10 AM theirs. Thanks to a little ambien, we all got a little sleep on the flight and we wanted to use our time wisely, so we just hit the ground running when we got there. We did a Hop on Hop off Bus and got the lay of the land. We said several times how amazing it was. We stopped at a local pub for lunch, saw the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (plus the changing of the Guards!) and all the sites. We went straight from there to a Crystal Palace soccer game (when in Rome, right?) that night. The atmosphere was electric and it was so much fun. We learned some new ways to call others names at the game, some of which i wont say here. But we did learn "sausages!!" Is a good one when your team is performing poorly and you want to call them out. Haha. It was so late by the time we got done that we went straight to bed in our little flat right by the London Tower. 

Favorites of the day: top of the tour bus, front row, looking out the big glass windows at the entire city around us. Amazing. And, fearful he would be cold, Landon's 7 layers he wore to the soccer game, when two would have sufficed. :)