Thursday, July 22, 2010

Coming to America TODAY!!!

Well folks, we have come to the conclusion of the international travel portion of our World Tour 2010 blog. It's a sad day but we knew it would eventually come. We are so grateful for being able to have had this amazing opportunity to travel the world. It has been hard being away from friends and family so THANKS for all of your comments, emails, and prayers along the way.

The good news is the adventures won't be stopping anytime soon! John is off to New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania while Sara is off to New York, Utah, Idaho, Oregon Coast, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Rhode Island and hopefully Colorado. Tune in every once in awhile for an update on the US portion of World Tour 2010. It's bound to be filled with exciting stories. In the meantime, here are some interesting facts from our international travels:

Countries visited: 14
Continents: 6
Flights: 30
Trains: 10
Rental cars: 2
Boats/ferries: 14
City metro/tram: 7
Miles traveled: approximately 44,000

Last day in a foreign land - London

We spent our last day in London sucking up the last bit of culture we could. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral and were appalled that they were charging 12 pounds to enter. Seriously, when did churches in Europe start charging outrageous entrance fees? We refused to pay so we just took a sneak peak from the entrance. Then we headed over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. We spent a few hours enjoying some crazy and amazing modern art. We had a farewell dinner with Genevieve, Lauren and Marcus (Lauren's husband) at Bodeans, a Kansas City BBQ restaurant. The food was yummy and the company was fantastic. Now we don't have to run to the nearest Five Guys to get our meat fix when we arrive in NYC!















Treated like royalty - London

The next day Sara, John, Melanie, and Genevieve headed out to explore Windsor Castle. Yeah, the famous Windsor castle we hear so much about! Windsor is one of the many castles the royal family occupies throughout the year. The queen wasn't in town that day but the grounds were bustling since three hundred people work there year round. As we toured the grounds, state apartments, and church, Genevieve gave us history lesson. Afterwards we walked across the bridge to the charming town of Eton. This town is home to the famous school, Eton, where very privileged boys are educated. We ended the day eating dinner at Cote, a tasty French restaurant in Soho.




















Sunday Roast - London

The next day was very relaxing. Sara, John, and Ashley walked to Harrods department store to see what the hype was all about. Let's just say that Harrods puts Macy's to shame. We escaped without any major purchases! Afterwards, we walked through Hyde Park and then headed out to meet Lauren (John's friend who moved to London a few years ago). Lauren had reserved us a table at The Albion so we could experience a traditional Sunday roast. We sat in a beautiful garden and ate roast beef, carrots, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and dessert. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we stayed there for five hours!!








London Bridge is Falling Down - London

We had four lovely days in London. The weather was absolutely perfect and believe it or not, we had some yummy meals there. We met up with several friends so there was never a dull moment.

We spent our first day with Ashley (a friend of Sara's from NY who was in Europe on business). We hit the pavement and gave ourselves a walking tour of the city. We walked to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament buildings, London Eye, and Trafalgar Square. We met up with Genevieve (another friend of Sara's who used to live in NY but recently moved back to London) for dinner in Soho. We went to a delicious Indian restaurant called Red Fort. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Melanie (you might remember her from the Morocco trip).