My Own Amazing Race - 3rd Pitstop - London

My flight to London Heathrow was uneventful and on time.  As much as I love France it was nice to hear airport announcements in English when I landed - makes it just a little less stressful - although I do enjoy the challenge of having to communicate in French to survive!  I had a quick dinner in Norfolk Square as I waited for my friends to arrive from Leeds via the not so timely British train system.  They got in quite late so we talked for a bit and went to bed so we could have a fun filled Saturday.

After a typical English breakfast, not my favorite, we were on our way to the Shakespeare Globe Theatre.  On our way to the theatre we took a stroll through Hyde Park.  The tour of the theatre was amazing.  There were bagpipers there prepping for the performance later than day so it was just lovely to listen to them in this historic place.  It was only fitting that there was a great big fair with many vendors and food stations along the Thames River as it was Brielle Day at home.  It was literally a carbon copy event of Brielle Day (minus the fire engine rides)!  We walked around the fair for a while before heading to West End.  We got tickets to see a traditional British play that night in a traditional British theatre.  We made a quick visit to the British Museum and raced through the museum to see the really neat Africa exhibit and Rosetta stone.  After a nice curry dinner we enjoyed seeing a play about Sherlock Holmes.  After such a long but fun day I needed to shower for a ridiculously long time because before I left for Europe I got a great new pair of jeans from Ann Taylor.  After sales and coupons I got an eighty dollar pair of jeans for $5!!!!!  They fit so nice - I loved them.  However, I failed to follow the instructions on the tag that said wash before wearing and my legs were so blue.  My skin was stained blue - it was crazy - I never saw anything like it.  So after a lot of scrubbing my legs were pretty clean but it still took another shower Sunday morning to take some of the leftover blue off. 

On Sunday we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and enjoyed relaxing and catching up in the beautiful courtyard at the museum.  The day was actually quite warm and sunny by London standards.  After some browsing in the Covent Square market place it was time to say good bye and go our separate ways.  I made my way to the London Gatwick airport hotel as I had a 6am flight the next morning back to France.  Since my flight was so early I decided to take a shower before heading to bed and yes, there was still blue coming off my legs and transferring to the beautiful white towels in the Marriott!  But I think that was it - and I will never have to worry about those pants again because they unfortunately did not make it back across the Atlantic with me.

Overall, London was great - everything from the company to the weather was perfect - even the memories of blue legs!