Thanksgiving in London/Oxford

I have looked forward to returning to England ever since my semester ended studying abroad in Oxford. That was six years ago. Nathan wanted to see England while we are here in Germany and I was more than happy to share my love of all things British with him : ) So we booked our trip for the Thanksgiving 4-day weekend, to include seeing Arsenal in an English Premiere League game and two shows - Les Miserables and The Mousetrap. We were both super pumped about it all. And our trip totally

delivered. We L.O.V.E.D it!

Our trip got off to a rough start though and we had to pay hundreds of extra dollars for our checked baggage early Thursday morning. Ryan Air allows you literally one carry-on and we both had a carry-on and a personal item. Total flub on our part. The upside was that it only cost us money and nothing else. So we sucked it up and vowed to not let it ruin our trip. We arrived at the London Stansted airport early Thanksgiving/my birthday morning. We had to take an hour bus ride into London and then take the tube (subway) to the place where we were staying in the south part of London. By the time we had done all that and stored our luggage (since we weren't able to check-in yet), it was about 11am. We jumped back on the tube and made our first stop at Picadilly Circus.

We ate lunch at an Italian place near there and then did our old standby move - riding the City Sightseeing tour bus. You can see a lot, get a feel for where things are/what you want to come back to, AND learn a lot about the city. That took up most of the afternoon.

We decided to hit up the British Museum before grabbing dinner. I had been before (but hadn't seen everything) and knew Nathan would love it. I think the best part was seeing a column, a caryatid and some friezes from the Acropolis in Athens, which we saw when we traveled to Greece back in May 2010. It was really neat to see pieces of one building in different parts of the world. I don't think the Greeks appreciate that. I am pretty sure they have recently been asking England to return what belongs to Greece.

After we explored the British Museum, we grabbed dinner at Subway. Don't judge. We were in a hurry to get our tickets before the show and we were trying to make up for the money we had lost on our checked baggage that morning. After our somewhat satisfying subs, we picked up our tickets for Les Mis at the Queen's Theatre and then went right across the street to Costa Coffee. Caffeine was necessary before the show since we had been up since 4am. But we absolutely loved Les Mis! I can't believe I was worried that we might not like it. The story and music are wonderful.

The next day we walked around near Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

We were then able to see most of the Changing of the Guard. Nathan wasn't too impressed, but since I had missed it when Sarah, Lisa and I had traveled to London for the day back in '05, I really wanted to see it and thought the ceremony/parade was neat. Now, I am about to confess something. Please don't laugh. Because the British guy at the bakery shop across from Buckingham Palace did. A lot. I did not realize you cannot tour Buckingham Palace any ol' time of year. For whatever reason, I didn't put it together that since the Queen lives there for most of the year, no one can go in when she's "home." Sarah, Lisa and I happened to be there in September and toured the palace. The Queen "summers" elsewhere in August and September.

Ok. So our plan to tour Buckingham Palace was shot, but we ended up touring the Tower of London instead and that was one of the highlights of our trip. The ticket to get in was quite a bit, but we were able to join a free tour given by an official Beefeater, or Yeoman Warder. He gets to live in the Tower of London! The guy was totally British and therefore hilarious. Nathan and I were rolling laughing the entire tour. (Ok, I just googled the official term for the tour guide guy and found this video on YouTube. Someone filmed our tour guide a few years ago. Pretty much the same tour/jokes. Watch it here. Looks like there are 5 parts.)

After the tour ended, we saw the crown jewels (so sparkly!) and some exhibits

inside the tower.

We relaxed for a little bit at a Starbucks across the street and then ate paella for dinner at a Spanish restaurant near Leicester Square. We saw The Mousetrap that night. I really thought I was going to enjoy it more. Of course, it didn't help that we were worn out and the seats were really uncomfortable.

On Saturday, we took a bus one hour northwest to Oxford. We only had a few hours there since we had to be back in London in time for the Arsenal game early that evening, but it was totally worth it. It felt completely surreal to walk around downtown, to stop in at places I frequented while there my sophomore year of college. Oxford has been enshrined as a really sacred part of college years and it felt like I was stepping back into a dream world. Those 3.5 months were and are so detached from anything else in my life, other than the friendships I made or strengthened while there. We ate lunch at On the Hoof, a sandwich shop one block over from the houses we lived in, and had ice cream at G&D's. It was all so tasty. I picked up some Digestives at 9 to 9, the little store a few doors down from On the Hoof, we stopped in to chat with Janine (our "house mom"/professor), and peeked in at the house I lived in. It still smells the same. Those few hours in Oxford didn't mean much to Nathan, although he thoroughly enjoyed the food, but they were precious to me. Sarah says she, Lisa and I should make a trip back for our 10 year anniversary, when we are 30, in 2015.

I think that would be really special : )

So after taking the bus back to London, we made it to the stadium via the tube. Arsenal played Fulham and it was an entertaining game. We were both really surprised they didn't have an Ultra (Die Hard Fan) Section, and therefore also didn't have loud group chants throughout the game. Totally foreign to us. Still super fun. I wish we could make it to more English club games. Every country has a bit of a different style of game. Nathan and I are both big fans of Portuguese and English soccer and not so much of German soccer.

After the game, we joined a million of our closest friends in trying to cram into the subway every time it would come by. It took us a long time to finally get in a car and make it back to Leicester Square, where we found a pub with an open table. We had fish and chips for the first time. I was prepared to choke down my entire meal, since I'm not a huge fan of fish, but it was AMAZING. Absolutely delicious. I know not every place can possibly make it so tasty, but o.m.g. it was good.

Sunday morning we packed up, ate breakfast, took the bus out to the airport, and flew back to Germany. We had a 2 hour drive back into Heidelberg and then we had to go straight to Nathan's office so he could do slides for the brief he had to give the next morning. Our trip was short and jam packed, but we loved every minute of it. Nathan asked if I would have preferred to have been stationed in England. I said definitely. I just like British culture a lot more than that of the Germans, plus no language barrier. (Not that I dislike living here by any means whatsoever.) But the upsides to living in Germany are that traveling to other countries is physically easier since we can drive to a lot of places and that we live on the Euro, not the Pound. Nathan said he is pretty sure he would have preferred Italy. He really liked being in Venice and Verona. We are both really itching to get to Rome soon!