Monday, July 7th

Abigail's Graduation Trip - Day #11

We woke up this morning around 9am so that we could travel by train to Olympic Park to watch Stage 3 of the Tour de France - a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience that we were all excited about, especially my dad. We hit the Underground for a long 1 hr ride to Olympic Park. Upon arrival, we realized we were pretty early, which was a good thing so that we could get a great spot to watch the race. It was about 11:30 am, and the riders were set to come by about 3pm. We spent the next one hour exploring Olympic Park, the site of the 2012 Olympics in London. While some of the stadiums have been taken down or are in the process now, we were able to see many still standing, including the Aquatic Center Michael Phelps won a few of his gold medals in. We then decided to get our seats for the race. We sat right on the edge of the street, first row, for about an hour and half. At this point, the crowd was huge (about 10 rows deep) and the caravan for the race was coming through. This included floats, police cars, and team cars for the bikers - almost like a parade. It was an awesome atmosphere, and everyone was super excited for the racers to come. After another hour, motorcycles, more police cars, and team cars carrying extra bikes for the racers came through, followed by the cyclists themselves. Although it was only about a 2 minute process, the crowd was electric, and it was totally worth the wait. We took a rainy walk back to the train station and headed back to our flat to grab some rain gear before our next destination.

We quickly changed clothes and walked back to the Hammersmith station (our home base for the tube) to go to a quick dinner and the Shakespeare Globe Theater. We had to go to this really random Asian style restaurant because all cafes/grocery store type places close pretty early here. My dad got sushi but the rest of us ate froyo for dinner. We bought some popcorn and headed across the Southwark Bridge for the Globe. We were set to watch Julius Caesar, a 2hr 45 min production. It was a really interesting experience. From the moment you walk through the doors, characters are playing instruments and interacting with the crowd. We had "groundling" seats, which meant we stood at the base of the stage with many other people. Actual stadium-style seating seats were sold out 2 months ago when we first decided to come - crazy!!! This was a really popular attraction. The play began, and we all found it to be really neat. The actors were awesome, the story was easier to follow than we originally thought, and it was good people watching. A great weather night, too.

We walked back to the train station with awesome views of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Thames River, and Millennium Bridge. We ended the night with some pizza and relaxing. Tomorrow marks our last full day in London. We're most excited to be able to sleep in:)))))

Sculpture created for 2012 Olympics in London - Olympic Park

 Kelly, Madeline, and Abigail by Aquatic Center

 Madeline and Abigail waiting for Tour to start

 Cyclists at Tour de France - Olympic Park

 Globe Theater

 Poster for Julius Caesar production at Globe Theater

Abigail on Southwark Bridge - runs parallel to Millennium Bridge near Globe

Sunday, July 6th

Abigail's Graduation Trip - Day #10

This morning was a little bittersweet - we all got up around 8am to say goodbye to Kyle as he headed to the airport for his flight back to Denver. We really did have an awesome time with him and were sad to see him leave. Three more days in London for the Ohlms' - lots of good stuff in the future.

We all have been moving pretty quickly the past few days in order to soak in all the top sites in London with Kyle. We used this Sunday to catch up and explore another small part of the city known for its shopping district - Covent Garden.

After Keith and Kelly returned from walking Kyle to the tube station, we went to mass at a Catholic church just a 10 minute walk from our flat at St. Augustine's. Following mass, we walked back to our flat for a quick lunch. We needed to stay at our apartment for the next couple of hours, as a repair man was coming to fix some of the flat's appliances. We watched the Wimbledon's Men's Singles Championship - awesome. Since our Wimbledon visit, we have all taken an interest to this tournament and its players. The final was a matchup between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic - two of the world's best and most famous. The match was close, and we didn't stay at the flat for its entirety. Instead, we headed to Covent Garden. Just a 30 min tube ride away, this district is a really neat part of the city. The streets are filled with people, and, in many cases, roads are completely blocked off for the crowds. There are hundreds of stores - those you can find in the States and a bunch unique to London/the UK. We enjoyed an afternoon of shopping, watching street performers, and trying new restaurants. After shopping for awhile, we had dinner at Joe's, an eatery known for its American food. We finished the night with some ice cream and headed back to the flat as it started to rain. Another great day in London.

Tomorrow brings a day we've all been looking forward to - Tour de France. Huge crowds are expected, but we're just excited to see what its all about. More to come.

 

Abigail and Madeline at the tube station for Covent Garden

 

Street performer

 Abigail post-shopping

 Dinner at Joe's

 Kelly and Madeline having some ice cream in Covent Garden

Saturday, July 5th

Abigail's Graduation Trip - Day #9

Final full day in Europe for me.  Tomorrow I'll be heading back to the states - departing London at 2:25pm.  Abigail and I have combined efforts on the blog over the past 9 days.  She will take over exclusively tomorrow -- as the Ohlms family will be staying in London through next Wednesday, July 9th.

This trip has been a blast!  Although I've been to both Paris and London on prior occasions - I was able to see a ton of new things.  The most fun was having the chance to spend the time with the Ohlms family.  Really, really special -- all great stuff!

The day started around 10am.  We took an extended metro ride across the city to the Tower Hill stop - to visit the Tower of London.  The Tower of London is an ancient fortress that has a unique history - including famous prisoners, executions, and royal strongholds.  It's amazing to see the fortress sitting within the new modern buildings that make up the area.  We circled the fort and then took a walk across the nearby London Bridge. We were able to see the drawbridge get lifted - stooping the traffic on both sides.  We had a unique perspective while standing only a couple meters away. 

We then decided to take the metro to the St. Paul Cathedral.  This makes the 4th significant church we've seen to date on the trip (Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur in Paris, and Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London).  We had a chance to walk inside and get a quick glimpse of the exquisite structure.  We weren't able to get a full tour without the entrance fee - but could really see everything from our view.  We next had lunch on the steps of the Cathedral.  A bride rolled up in a Rolls-Royce, taking a few pictures while we completed our lunch. We next walked across the nearby Millennium Bridge and took a few more pics.  Madeline grabbed some roasted peanuts and we took in more great views. 

Next up on our list was Harrods, a famous department store in London - the biggest in Europe. Our mission here was not to do a lot of shopping (huge crowds), but to see their Egyptian-themed escalator and Princess Diana memorial. A little history here - the owner of Harrods' son, Dodi Fayed, was Diana's boyfriend and with her at the time of her death, a car crash blamed on the paparazzi. On the bottom level of the store is a statue honoring both of them, along with a book of condolences. We checked this out and then decided to partake in afternoon tea at the Harrod's tea room. This was an awesome time - all five of us drank tea while eating small sweet cakes and scones. Harrods is famous for their afternoon tea and it was really a unique experience.

We then ended up walking the Victoria and Albert museum. Originally we planned to see the wedding dress exhibit, but were disappointed as it had already sold out. We also thought Kate Middleton's dress would be there, and it wasn't, so we moved on - instead looking at a few other highlights of the museum including various Raphael paintings and a Renaissance exhibit. At this point we (Abigail) was really tired because we had basically walked the length of London. However, we still wanted to see Kensington Palance, the home of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Located at the corner of Hyde Park, we walked all the way from the V&A museum to the palace and took in the site.We passed the playground dedicated to Princess Diana as well as a gate with birthday cards hung on the gate in honor of her birthday (July 1st). We walked past many embassies lining the same street as Kensington Palace and hit the metro to go back to our flat.

Another thing we all really wanted to do was to eat fish and chips, a typical English fare, while watching tonight's World Cup game - Netherlands vs. Coasta Rica. We all relaxed after a busy day, enjoying our last night with Kyle.

Tower of London - our first stop of the day

Abigail, Madeline, and Kelly at the London Bridge

 

 

Harrods Department Store

The five of us at afternoon tea

Kensington Palace

 

 

 

Abigail and Madeline on London Bridge

On Millenium Bridge - St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

Another pic of the Tower of London

London Bridge

Side view of London Bridge

 

 

 

Friday, July 4th

Abigail's Graduation Trip - Day #8

Happy 4th of July!!   It's always a different feeling being out of the US for the 4th - makes you appreciate the red, white & blue.

Today we took a day tour from London to 3 destinations:  Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge.
It's a nice change-up to take a day tour on occasion - allows you to sit back and enjoy the sites with little planning.

We started the day by taking the metro to the Victoria Station stop.  Our departure time was 9am.  We arrived a bit early - glad we did, as the Victoria Coach Station tool a few minutes to find.  Our tour bus was nice and completely full.  We had an older gentlemen as the tour guide. 

Our first stop was Windsor Castle.  Took us about 30 minutes to arrive at our destination.  We had about 1.5 hours to tour the Castle.  Interesting sites included Mary's Doll House, viewing the royal quarters for the Queen, the ornament state rooms, and the changing of the guard.  It was really interesting to see the pageantry around the changing of the guard ceremony.  It occurs at 11am each day -- taking about 15-20 minutes to complete.  We were just able to get this in before heading back to the bus.  One of the themes today was very quick timing while at the viewing destinations because of the lengthy drive time between each spot.

Next we headed to Bath, a city most commonly known in Shakespeare's writings as well as being the home of Jane Austen. We were there specifically to see the Roman Baths, a museum famous for holding the only hot spring in all of England. We took an audio guided tour here and moved at a pretty quick pace in order to get back on the bus to go to our next destination. Before we got on, we checked out the city of Bath, a really neat town full of shops, ice cream places, and cafes.

We hit the bus for another 1.5 hour ride, this time to a remote English countryside area home to the popular location, Stonehenge. We got off of our tour bus right onto another coach for a short shuttle to the famous rock formation. Another audio tour guided us through this attraction as well, and we took some cool pics as we circled around. This was a really cool experience - Stonehenge is a top site in the whole world and although it was windy and a little cold, we all enjoyed our time here. We hopped on the bus for a 2 hour ride back to our flat and finished the day with pizza and the Brazil/Columbia World Cup game. Another fantastic day in London.

Windsor Castle

Roman Baths in the city of Bath

Abigail and Madeline at the Roman Baths

Stonehenge

 

Abigail and Madeline at Stonehenge

Abigail, Kyle, and Madeline at Stonehenge

Changing of the guard at Windsor Castle

 

Roman Baths

 

Cool view of Windsor Castle

 

Thursday, July 3rd

Abigail's Graduation Trip - Day #7

Full day in London today.  All good stuff.  I do have to say the the allergy level must be at an all-time high --- a couple of us have had some struggles .  Nothing a Claritin can't fix.  All better now.

We started off the day a little bit later than we normally do. Keith and Kelly hit the grocery store to stock up the flat for the week. The rest of the crew slept in, and we hit the road about 12 o'clock. Right off the bat we hit a small dilema - Abigail's flip flop broke unexpectedly at the tube station. Keith ran back to the flat for a backup pair and we were ready to go. We first visited Buckingham Palace, where the Queen spends some of her time. The palace is really cool - a huge building with English guards surrounding. We then went across the street to Green Park which overlooked Buckingham Palace. Already tired and hungry, we ate a picnic lunch we had packed in the morning. Awesome views and a good break, we were ready to keep going. We walked down the National Mall, a long walkway where the English have parades and also where large crowds gathered post Royal Wedding. We passed the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square and made our way to Piccadilly Circus (which is not actually a circus). This is a big area with various souvenir shops, shops, restaurants, and billboards - kind of like Times Square in New York City. 

Pretty worn out, we decided to take the metro to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. This was a really neat part of the city. Cool picture spots and good information regarding the government in England. From this area, we could also view the top of the London Eye - especially neat because that was in the plan for later that evening.

We headed back to the flat to eat dinner and rest up before our night back in the heart of London. We took the metro back to the Westminster stop and very quickly walked to the London Eye in order to pick up our tickets for our ride at 9pm. This ferris wheel is HUGE, so tall, but very cool as it overlooks all of London. We had the perfect night with the perfect time for a ride. The sun was setting and we could see all of London at dusk. This was really cool because we had just seen Paris at this same time a few nights ago from the top of the Arc de Triumphe. We had a great 30 minute ride around the wheel and headed off for a few more pictures --  taking advantage of the awesome sunset.

We took the tube back to the flat and rested up for our day trip to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath tomorrow.

Awesome view of London Eye post ride

Broken shoe to start the day - approx 20 minutes delayed

Abigail and Madeline in front of Buckingham Palace

Abigail and Madeline at famous London telephone booths

Big Ben

View from the London Eye from Northern Bank

Picture from the peak of the London Eye

Abigail and Kyle at River Thames overlooking Big Ben

 

View from our lunch spot - Green Park across from Buckhingham Palace

Keith and Kyle at River Thames

Ohlms' at same location

Wednesday, July 2nd

Abigail's Graduation Trip  Day #6

Major travel day today with alot of incredible scenery and experiences along the way.  We awoke in Paris, France and took the metro train to the Gare du Nord station around 11am.  I kind of led us astray initially - as we took the metro in the wrong direction.  A little error-control - we were back on schedule. On arrival to Gare du Nord, we led our bags through the train station to the Euostar check-in.  You have to go through a baggage screening and custom check-in before boarding.

The trainride was outstanding.  About 2-1/2 hours to London.  Extremely fast and estremely smooth journey - no issues.  On arrival, we grabbed some British pounds and then went outside and caught the taxi we had reserved.  Keith was amazing at setting this up.  The cabby was waiting for us with the "Ohlms" name in the window.  We took about a 20 miinute ride to our flat for the week 

Our apartment (flat) is unbelievable - very comfy and spacious. We all have our own rooms, which is nice. Great location, as well. Although a little outside of the city - we are near a big tube station which can get us to downtown London pretty quickly.

After a quick snack at the station, we took the tube to Wimbledon. Awesome experience. We got some gear and headed into the "queue," a normally long line that allows people the chance to enter into the grounds without having already purchased tickets. We were really excited and surprised to only have to wait about 15 minutes before getting our tickets and walking in. There - we saw the end of the Federer game on the big screen, walked around the different courts, and watched a great mixed double match. It was awesome to see such a cool sports place that we'll all remember forever. We took some pics and headed back to our flat.

At this point, we were all pretty tired and hungry. We took a short walk to a great Italian restaurant and fueled up after a long day. The weather was beautiful and the walk around our new neighborhood was really nice. Looking forward to seeing some famous London spots tomorrow.

Living room inside our flat

Abigail and Madeline at the Wimbledon tube stop

Abigail, Kelly, and Keith watching the mixed doubles match at Wimbledon

The Ohlms' at Wimbledon

Abigail and Madeline at center court - where Roger Federer had just played

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Outside of our flat

Wimbledon Stadium

Tuesday, July 1st

Abigail's Graduation Trip - Day #5

Final full day in Paris.   It's amazing just how much we have seen in 3 days.  Great stuff!  We're all coming back from watching the US lose to Belgium in the Round of 16 of the World Cup.  Disappointed.  Dejected.  But - we had alot of fun at the local pub near our hotel.  We visited with a view locals and finished the night with a plate of olives.  An interesting mix with a few beers - it's all about the experience.

Today was really great - a rolling mix of emotions.  I woke up feeling very anxious that I still did not have my luggage.  I was going on Day #5 wearing the same attire.  Less than desired for sure.  The folks at the Baggage Claim Support Desk told me they had located my luggage and would be delivering "sometime today".  I was anxiously optimistic as we left the hotel mid-morning.

We started the day around 9am.  The weather continues to be very nice.   Temperatures rising to mid 70's in the afternoon and lows in the 50's in the morning and evening hours.  We're getting pretty lucky missing the excessive heat back in the states.  We've experienced a few bouts of rain -- but nothing too crazy and nothing keeping us from achieving our daily plans.

We started the day with a traditional French breakfast -- with croissants, bread, eggs, and coffee/juice.  We all did well with the ordering except for Kelly -- who tried hard for a bagel and creme cheese.  She couldn't swing the deal and ended up with only orange juice.  We all had a  little fun at her expense to get the day rolling.

Our first stop was the Museum de Orsay. (On the way we did make a side-stop to a popular chocolate shop called Angelina's.  We all partook in a rich piece of chocolate to get the adrenaline flowing).  The museum is located on the left bank of the Seine River. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Van Gogh.  I had never been inside this museum.  Very interesting.  We saw some original Van Gogh paintings, peered out to the River Seine behind the large clock on the 5th floor, and rested in an octopus leather chair to help the legs.

After our museum visit, we walked back up the south bank of the Seine to the lock bridge we had visited yesterday.  Everyone, minus me, purchased a lock and placed it on a specific site on the bridge.  Hoping one day to come back and see if they can find the lock and make wishes come true.

Our next bogey was a ride on the Seine.  We grabbed a few drinks and boarded the boat around 3:30pm.  A nice, relaxing ride up and down both banks of the Seine.  A few interesting nuggets were picked up -- bringing the city into better perspective.

Once departing the boat -- everyone was getting pretty hungry.  We had skipped lunch, having only a few snacks throughout the afternoon.  We walked around the Germain section of town - south of the Seine.  After a bit of debate - we settle on a nice outdoor cafe.  Dishes included everything from pasta to burgers.  After dinner -- we all grabbed a gelato cone and headed back to the metro.  We took the metro back to the hotel.  My luggage had arrived!!!!!!!  I could finally change clothes - the first time in 5 days. 

After a 30 minute rest, we headed out for some evening activity - departing the hotel around 7:45pm.  We journeyed to the Champs Elysees.  We decided we wanted to walk up the northern side of the street -partaking in a little souvenir shopping prior to our departure tomorrow.  I ended up getting a pair of shorts/shirts -- compliments of Delta Airlines.  We worked our way up to the Arc de Triomphe.  We wanted to climb to the peak of the Arc and take some pictures of the city.  I'm really glad we ascended the winding staircase to the top.  What an incredible view!  We got to see the lights come on the Eiffel Tower for a second straight night.   After a number of pictures - back to the metro and our section of town.

We ended the night at a local pub a couple blocks from our hotel watching the US in the World Cup.  We all agreed our time in Paris was fantastic - busy, interesting and rewarding.  Tomorrow we pack up and head to London.  A fine cup of hot tea awaits us! 

    Ohlms Family atop the Arc de Triomphe

 

        Agibail relaxing at the Museum de Orsay

 

Eiffel Tower - pic taken from top of Arc de Triomphe

      Abigail and Madeline in front of clock at Museum de Orsay

           Abigail at Lock Bridge

    Abigail and Madeline at Meseum de Orsay

Chocolate Shop - Angelina's