I'm just going to warn you that these posts about England are going to be long simply because I don't want to forget anything. Unfortunately, while we were in England, I noticed that most of the pictures we'd taken our first two days had disappeared. Ben and I have spent a lot of time trying to find/recover them with no luck. We are sick about it, but fortunately there's Google (which is never quite the same) and so we were able to find a lot of the same things we captured. But so many of the little things we loved are lost forever. :( Oh well. Fortunately I posted a few pictures on facebook each day to help. So here's a mixture of our pictures and google's pictures.
Back in September when I had my second miscarriage in a row, it was hard. It was hard on both of us. We truly went through a mourning period. I told Ben when I felt a cloud looming overhead that if we had a 3rd miscarriage in a row, we would need something to look forward to so that we wouldn't go through that type of mourning again. I suggested maybe going to Europe and I was surprised that Ben agreed right away. We've talked about our dreams of always wanting to explore Europe and our top three countries to visit are France, England, and Italy. I had been receiving daily emails about killer flight deals worldwide from a source called Scott's Cheap Flights for months and so I knew that we'd easily be able to find a cheap deal if we needed one.
I found out I was pregnant in February and my ob and I were prepared. I was put on really expensive medication ($700/month AFTER our incredible insurance) as well as other normal medications. I had blood work done every other day. I was only 6 weeks along when I miscarried. The day my miscarriage was confirmed by ultrasound I received an email from Scott's Cheap Flights about $400 tickets to London. Ben and I booked them that day.
It really did help the grieving process the third time around. Instead of focusing on what we had lost, I focused on planning our trip.
So when I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks before we were scheduled to fly to London and then I miscarried mere days before we flew out, the timing of our trip couldn't be better. Our England trip was truly meant to be one of healing for the two of us. Having four miscarriages in a row hasn't been easy.
So we got on an Air India flight (which was incredible by the way -- two full Indian meals on a 6 hour flight -- delish!) and made our way to London.
We took the tube from the airport to get to our hotel in the Kensington area of London. We were just a couple of blocks away from Hyde Park and if we were to go back to London I would stay there again. Our hotel room was a mere 100 square feet (bathroom and closet included) but for $80/night in central London, we'll take it! We loved that area. I like to imagine that all these old town homes were the summer homes for the wealthy a couple of hundred years ago.
We didn't have much time our first day since we didn't make it to our hotel until 2 PM, so we headed to the #1 place on my list: the National Gallery.
It was ironic that an art museum was practically a piece of art itself. Ben and I were in just as much awe with the architecture as we were with the actual art.
I'm mourning all the pictures of artwork I lost. *sob*
You can't tell very well from this photo, but the floors are made of mosaics. I mean, even the floors are made of art!
It was from this very spot that we facetimed the kids for the first time to check up on them.
I had taken a picture of that horse on the right just for Lily since she loves horses.
The following paintings are all ones I studied with my art class this year:
Seurat with his pointillism.
Van Eyck (with his self portrait in the reflection of the centered mirror in the background)
Degas. This depicts an acrobat, but the only Degas painting they had of a ballerina I wasn't very fond of.
Henri Rousseau's most famous piece, in my opinion.
Raphael
Monet. There were two whole walls dedicated to Monet. When we were in the impressionist section I was bouncing up and down a little bit. I think Ben had a little bit of a laugh about it, but honestly he was thrilled, too.
There was a small room dedicated to DaVinci where three of his pieces of artwork were framed. They were all huge. This is one of them.
Everything in England closes so early. So after the museum closed we walked through St. James's Park and came so close to Buckingham until Ben had to find a toilet -- until we realized we only had 20 pound notes and no 1 pound coins to use the toilet. (Notice how I say "toilet" instead of bathroom. Also, I never once heard anyone say "loo." Also, one of the greatest accomplishments of this trip is that we never once had to pay to use a toilet *virtual fist bump*)
We ended up eating at a pub near Big Ben and Parliament. I had learned beforehand that pubs aren't the equivalent of American bars. They're more like family restaurants. And it's true. We had incredible fish and chips there as well as delectable bangers and mash. Cool fact: all the gravy we had in England was sweet instead of salty. It could have been a coincidence, but I sort of doubt it. It sounds weird, but it was amaaaaazing.
We walked around Big Ben and Westminster and the local streets until it got so cold we decided to go back to our hotel because we weren't dressed warmly enough. After the overnight flight there and by taking melatonin we were out for the night.
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