the rudys

Alright, here I am - almost halfway through my journey. Kind-of sad to think really, although no matter what I know that someday I have to come home and face reality - so, might as well make it next week. So far I've had the best time. There is so much to see here - everywhere I turn it seems there are giant castles, magnificent gardens, beautiful architecture. I think to stop and take a picture, then I realize that there is so much if I tried taking pictures of all of it I might end up all day walking down just a few streets - no time for that!

Anyway, I would think that maybe one of two of those reading would like to know what I've done so far - something I could write on forever and ever about. So I will try to made this as brief as possible, and sorry but there will be no visual stimulation this blog as my laptop does not seem to like the British internet connection available to it. For the tourist-y things: First day I landed and was going off about 4-5 hours of sleep in two days (time zones differing 7 hours). I was actually so excited I didn't feel too tired at all...until I got to my friend Miriam's house and totally had a crash moment. So I opted for the smart choice and took a "quick" nap, which turned out to be a couple of hours. So by this time it was evening and so we just went to the town near her house and had dinner and looked for an outlet converter (brought all my chargers and such - but totally forgot about the whole UK outlet difference).

Then next day (since my phone couldn't be charged I had no way to set an alarm) I ended up sleeping in until noon! I figure my body must have really needed to rest up. So after getting up and ready we headed out and visited Hampton Court Palace - where Henry VIII lived. Exciting points of the day for me: being rushed up a stairway because they were trying to film a BBC movie and we were in the background & having a scone with jam and clotted cream (my new most favorite thing).

Saturday we visited Windsor Castle - said to be the most famous castle, and one that the royal family still lives in on occasion. We toured the castle, walked around the shops in Windsor and then off to Eaton - where they have Eaton College, famous for teaching Prince Henry and Prince William.

Sunday we took the train to London to attend church. I would compare London to New York except London has more wonderfully old buildings. After church we walked through Hyde Park and stopped to eat our lunch while listening to a concert in the background. Apparently they were having a birthday party for Andrew Lloyd Webber so there was a concert in the park where all these famous people were singing his songs. From there we mosied around London a little more before catching our train back home.

And that would bring us to today...We visited the town of Wimbledon. We did some shopping, went sightseeing at a stately house surrounded by parks and gardens and ended with a lovely meal at a place called Giraffe (which I wish they had in the states). The highlight of today, besides the shopping of course, would have to be the dessert I had. It was called Banana Waffle Split - and I love it. Back in my college days, living at the dorms, we used to have all-day access to a waffle machine in the cafeteria. It soon came to my attention that the most delicious way to eat said waffles was with the soft ice cream located just beside the machine. I normally went one step further by adding sliced bananas or strawberries to it. So you see, when I saw this dessert on the menu I just had to try it - never before had I actually seen anyone else do this combination. And it was delicious - the most gourmet tasting waffle topped with slightly cooked bananas, very yummy vanilla ice cream & topped off with a little chocolate drizzle. Oh, and I finally found myself a outlet converter...