London: In pictures and words. Wonderful English words.

Me being on time!

This is an important picture, because as a wonderful start to my trip, as I may have said, I missed my bus to Rome. Instead I hopped a but to Pesaro, train to Rome, plane to London. Whoa. What a day.

Falconara! Whenever I go to Rome, or come back, this is my change station. I know it all too well. But the bathrooms are free and there's a cafe. Can't complain.

Chilling out in Rome for the afternoon. With the palm trees. (Awesome.)

Monument in Latin.

There was this one spot, on the way to the Church you'll see in a second, that was called Via di Quattro Fontane (Road of four fountains) and this was one of the fountains! There was an intersection that had one on each corner 

Then I chilled here and checked out our current passing from Winter to Summer. Flowers planted in the ground, but no leaves on the trees quite yet. I mean, not there is, but when I took this picture there wasn't.

Ah, another constant reminder of the passing of time. Construction.

And here is Santa Maria Maggiore. It's very large, very blocked off by fences, and has a very large pile of chairs sitting outside the door. I have no idea what was going on, but maybe it was spring cleaning. Either way, I couldnt go in.

Another Church neat the station, which I returned to in order to catch a train to the airport

So, then I got on the train, then to the airport, at which I went through security twice for security reasons, then our plane left a nice hour late, which got me into London at 2 in the morning. I believe I mentioned this already, too.

But anyways, I got up and had a look around the place!

My first London photo: The Bus! I took this guy from the hostel, which isn't as close to the center as I would have preferred, to Victoria Station, and bummed aroung the major sights for my first day.

The Shakespeare! I bet they serve things like ale.

Maybe my favourite photo from the trip:

Ha! I relaly did need these, though. I kept looking the wrong way, and then a car would come from the other direction, and then all hell broke loose. Really I just screamed and stepped back.

Did I know you could win an award for Cornish Pasties? No. Know I do. This is why we travel, folks.

Man on a Horse!

Ha!

This is the station I arrived at, the station I used as a referance point, and the station I left from. Nice place. They're doing some remodelling, though.

Little Ben!

There was no Simon's.

Check this out! You wanna pee? Do it here. In the classiest public bathrooms in the world, or so I think.

Buckingham!

There was an this exhibit that opened the day I got there! I took it as fate! But I never went.

Buckingham gates! There were tons of people, even though it was March, chilly and there was no changing of the guard that day. I'd hate to push through the crowd on a hot day in the summer!

The gates. Plated in gold and adorned with crests.

The fountain outside of Buckingham Palace.

The Palace itself

Some gates leading to Green Park

A sweet behind look at a statue

Here are some more gates attached to the Square. Each pillar represents another of the Colonies.

Some closeups of the fountain. I liked these folks.

And these ducks! There are SO MANY birds in this town. You just wait.

The other side.

View of the Eye from the Palace! Everthing is so close and you can see such wonderful views of all the sights from all the sights' views. (That last sentance totally makes sense.) 

The fountain and a clean up crewman.

There we go! The pillar of Canada! With the Albertan crest and everything.

Heading away from the Palace to Green Park...

...which looks like a wonderland.

Which is where I found this monument, which I mention in the last post.

And there was one perfect Maple leaf, that just happened to settle on the plaque. Pretty perfect, sometimes, this world of ours.

So! That did not condlude my first day, but I am going to do this trip in Blog parts. Like I did with Paris. And some of you may say, "Well, Carrie, you didn't actually finish your Paris trip in the Blog." That may be true, but I'll do better by you all this time!

Real Time Update: I have, in fact, arrived back in Urbino, and things are back to normal. Or as normal as they can be here! I missed the kids a lot, and when I arrived back, I was surprised with two days alone here, too. Ales and the kids were at Livorno, where Guido lives. I enjoyed some time in the house alone, but I was antsy to see everyone again! Anyways, they arrived, and it was weird because the kids' voices seemed odd to me. I suppose not hearing kids for a week, the ear gets unused to it. But, they talk enough, so I got used to it right quick. They told me all about thier trip, and I told them all about mine. Sounds like we all had a good time!

They kids had school for a few days, but now Easter break has started and I am currently, honestly, working, but Sarah is having a nap and the two older kids are playing games, so I took this opportunity to chat with you guys!

I also saw Giorgia and Lucia the day after I got back, who then left the day after that for their holidays at home. They secretly bought me an Easter present while we were out, which was a Chocolate egg, and inside was a cute charm that I made into a neclace! I also had a great dinner with Val and Andy and their friend Nando, who is a hoot. We ate delicious pasta with delicious mushroom sauce. I had gotten them a London dart game, all magnetic and cheap, so as we played in broke, but then we found a plastic leap frog and made an obstacle course on the table for it. It was awesome.

Anyways, on the 3, 4 or 5, I am leaving for Switzerland! I knew these two trips would be really close together, so I'm trying to take it easy and relax while I'm here. Been playing at lot with the kids! I am here with all three of them today, so we made cookies and we might go to the park altogether.

The weather: It is springtime. The flowers are out, the leaves are budding, the dog is back (she was at a kennel while everyone was away) and the kids are seemingly more mature and more immature. That's the way they are contantly changing, keeping my life interesting! I am glad to be back with them and to my normal life. Now, when I first said that to myself, I was like, Yep, all is back to normal. Uh. No. Then it slapped me in the face that this is not, in fact, my life. It is now, but in just over two months, I'll be back in Edmonton. Weird to think about, so I don't. Constantly excited to be getting home, with the coinsiding excitement of being here, with the impending new-home sickness I'll have, with the joy of seeing Canada and all its inhabitants. It's weird. But, I'm happy in this moment, and really that's all we have.

Oh, and my status on Facebook was, in fact, an April Fool's joke, just so anyone who saw it knows. Pretty good, though, hey?