I see London, I see France...Part One

For those who don't know, Henry and I went on a European trip extravaganza for about two weeks and went to London, Paris, The Black Forest, and Rome.

We got back about a week ago and have so many stories to tell. In the next few posts, I am going to try to focus on London and then move onto to Paris without leaving out the details. So before you read on, you must understand that on our trip, Henry and I spent the most time in London, England.

We did this for two reasons:
1.) Henry really wanted to go to London
2.) I am slightly obsessed with London since I studied there in the fall of 2002. (Shout out to the Daniel House.)

Anyways, on the flight to London, I knew that I wanted to be completely refreshed, so I had travel sickness medicine, sleeping medicine, ear plugs, neck pillow, and an eye cover so I could sleep on the plane and get up and go once we landed. Henry, on the other hand, decided to stay awake and before the day was over, had been awake for 36 hours. Henry on no sleep kind of reminds me of 7 th grader who has spend the night playing video games. You know, glazed eyes, random twitching, and trying to fall asleep standing up.

Well, during our 36 hour day we went to a bunch of London landmarks and the first one we went to was the Daniel House. For those who don't know, that is the house in London where the Samford students are housed and nothing about it has changed. Henry took a few photos of me at the house, but another landmark that Henry took a lot of pictures of were....cars.

Just one of the many landmarks Henry found interesting.

My dad even commented on these car pictures and wondered why we took so many. Like I said, if you know Henry, you understand why he took pictures of cars. After the Daniel House, we walked around London and saw many of the traditional landmarks, grabbed some food, and then went back to the hotel.

On the next day, Henry and I went to one of my favorite museums and that was the Imperial War Museum. I know it is kind of a "dark" place for me to like, but it has three really neat exhibits that just give me chills whenever I go in them.

1.) World War II Blitzkrieg reenactment shelter- Basically, you go inside this bomb shelter and a whole story plays out in front of you...including the shaking of the shelter when the bombs hit.

2.) World War I Trench walk through model- You walk through this trench that has everything that you would find in a trench, including the mustrady gas smell.

3.) Holocaust Exhibit- Amazing and bone-chilling every time. Whenever I walk out of it, it makes me so thankful that we were of part of WWII and that we stood up to this evil.

Henry enjoyed it as well, but he also found some things that I wouldn't necessarily get into..like the real tanks! Henry got really excited about this one because "my grandfather rode in one of these when he was riding through Germany!"

I didn't want my picture taken in front of the tank, because frankly, I have not interest in them, but I did want my picture taken in front of this little piece of the Berlin Wall. The message on it is especially relevant to my life right now.

After we left the museum, we ended up walking around London once again and made a mental note to come back to Buckingham palace when there was a changing of the guard. This is before the crowd showed up...

Then this video shows when the crowd showed up and just how many people were there. We really didn't get a very good view of the guard changing, but we did get an excellent view of the band that played before the guard changed.

During this scene, Henry and I are having the following conversation that was not recorded.

Henry: Marj, do they do this EVERY day?

Me: Yeah, I think so.

Henry: But why??? Such a waste of money. The U.S. would never waste money like that.

Me: Well, people enjoy it.

Henry: Ah, so they only do it for the tourists...to draw in money.

Me: NO! The British are just like this, they are very ceremonial.

Henry: If you say so...but I think it is for the tourists.

Me: You'll see, once this trip is over you will understand.

Once the band got inside of the gate, their tune changed and Henry won his argument. Can anyone guess what movie this song is from???

Yep, the theme of Mission Impossible. I was left speechless. I really could not explain why they were playing this song except for the delight of the tourists...which they were delighted. I think would have even threw money through the bars if there was a way to collect it.

I guess things have changed since I have last been to London.

Moving on, Henry and I took a day trip to Windsor, Oxford, and Stonehenge and below are some of the pictures of Windsor.

The castle is beautiful and it makes me wish that I had a "country" home that looked like this.

Well, I will add more later, apparantly I can only add so many photos on blogger, but I will leave you with this.

We went to Stonehenge on the summer solstice and the druids were out in full force.

Very Interesting.

Harry Potter Chaos

I am going to talk about my trip a little bit out of order because I want to start with some of the craziest things that happened first and work my way towards the not so surprising stuff.



One of the last stops on our European Extravaganza was Rome and while we were walking around the city, we stumbled into a "mall" that had hundreds of people waiting near Harry Potter posters. Now, using my deductive reasoning, I figured out that these people were waiting for actors that were promoting the movie and I was absolutely right. I verified my conclusion by talking to the Vodaphone salesgirl who informed me that three major characters from the movie were coming.



For those who know me, you all know that I am Harry Potter enthusiast, so I insisted to Henry that we stay. He agreed and so we joined the masses and started to wait. Now, I did not know which 3 major characters would appear, but I used my deductive reasoning skills again and I just assumed that it would be the THREE major characters from the movie.



Well, I was wrong, it was actually the twins and the wierd blonde hair girl that can see dead things and they walked past me in such a blur that only Henry could get a really great picture.





It was kind of neat...for like 3 seconds, but then all of those Harry Potter crazed teenagers just couldn't quite contain themselves. They started to scream...and push. Here is the video before things got a little...um, hairy.

Once this video was over, Henry decided to pull us out of the crowd because it was pressing on us so much that we almost fell over. Apparantly, it got so bad that the Harry Potter actors had to be escorted away early and the fans almost rioted. Check out this article...you will need to scroll down to the bottom to read what is relevant.

http://www.snitchseeker.com/harry-potter-news/video-evanna-lynch-phelps-twins-apologise-for-rome-harry-potter-event-crisis-82433/

Anyways, I know I a little bit of a crazy Harry Potter fan, but I had nothing on these fans.

Thank goodenss Twilight isn't out yet, or Henry and I might not have made it back.

Where Did my Muse Go?

Well, it happened again...the blog has been neglected and it has been several months since I have last written on it.

However, I have a really good reason and that has been I have been completely uninspired to write.

Where did this lack of inspiration come from?

It didn't come from a busy life or having nothing to write about because I have tons to write about.

It came from a big life change that came suddenly and completely threw me for a loop.

I. am. moving. to. Memphis.

Away from my family.

Away from my friends.

Away from my job that I love and have spent six years making a second home.

Away from a life that I have built with my husband.

Away from everything that I love.

Now, this isn't bad news, it is quite exciting, but it just kind of came out of nowhere and smacked me out of my comfort zone.

Wait, smacked isn't the right word...more like yanked.

Anyways, with this big life change looming in the future, my inspiration to celebrate the life I am living now by writing about it on the blog just disappeared.

All I could think about was that I am moving in July and all of things that I had to do to get ready for it.

Now, Henry and I move next weekend, mostly everything is done, and my inspiration is slowly coming back.

One of the main reasons my inspiration is coming back is because I finally acknowledged this move for what it is actually is...meant to be.

I am meant to move to Memphis.

I will move to a new family.

I will move to new friends.

I will move to a job that I will make into a second home.

I will move to build a new life with my husband.

Instead of having only one place that I will love, I will have two and both will be equal parts of me.

It took a lot to get me to this point, but now I am excited to see what doors God will open for me.

And my inspiration is slowly starting to come back, so I am sure more things will happen in my life besides more entries on the blog.

Now, on a completely unrelated note, Henry and I have been quite busy and that includes a trip to Europe. Here are some pictures to tie everyone over until I write about it.

Eiffel Tower

The Daniel House