Last Full Day in London!

Today was our last full day in London!  We saved a visit to Buckingham Palace for the last day.  Our hotel is just down the street from the palace.  There's only 2 hotels on the same road leading into Buckingham Palace and we are staying in one of those two hotels.  It was an easy walk.  Definitely a highlight of our trip.  It was quite busy of course.  I'm sure more busy than usual since the royal baby was born yesterday.  I took a picture of all the media tents set up off in the distance.  I've never known there's a huge fountain in front of Buckingham Palace.  When you see pics of the palace you see just the palace and gates but a wider angle of the area would reveal a massive fountain a little ways in front of the palace.  Around that fountain is a circular driveway closed off from vehicle traffic.  There's a set of gates you first must pass through that allows you access to the palace and fountain area.  The second set of gates is closer to the palace, those are the "real" gates clearly visible in pics and live TV shots.  Brad really enjoyed seeing the palace.  I was surprised he was so into looking around.  I was worried it would be somewhat boring to him as he's not exactly into keeping up with royalty. 

Next up for the day we visited the 2 palace gift shops. They had "Christmas in July" Christmas ornaments, and guess what? They already had Christmas ornaments marking the occasion of the royal birth...we bought one! I love to collect Christmas ornaments from our travels!  It's my thing I do!  To me nothing is better than hanging ornaments on our Christmas tree that remind us of our travels we've shared together. The ornament we bought is a blue stroller with the date on it. 

Later on in the day we went to Piccadilly Circus. It's not a circus in the American sense of the word.  It's a circus as in lots to do and lots of people! We first visited Piccadilly Circus last week late at night.  It was nuts!  We were hoping it would be a little calmer this time around since we went in the mid-afternoon.  It's still a busy area.  Tons to do there so people just flock to it as it appears.  We had to visit the M&M's candy store.  I've never seen an M&M's candy store before.  I came out with a shirt!  But no candy.  Impressive huh? We went into a candy store and bought zero candy!  On second thought that might not be impressive that might be sad that we didn't buy candy...what's wrong with us?  Oh well!  Lol!  The M&M's candy store is massive, at least 5 stories.  Each color of the M&M's candies has there own section with their own memorabilia.  You name it, they have put the M&M's characters on it.  Everything from coffee mugs to oven mitts to t-shirts to board games.  The store features a lot more than just candy.  A must-see just for the heck of it!  There's only 4 M&M's stores in the world and London has one of them. 

We did some other souvenir shopping while we were out.  My mom can expect a collection of British teas to arrive in the mail soon after we get home and have time to ship them to her.  Brad and I actually tried each of the teas that are in the collection at various times during this trip.  We also did our best to spoil Brad's granny a bit!  She's got a little something special that will be coming her way too.   My in-laws can look forward to some French gifts!  As we purchased them stuff while still in Paris!  And thanks to my sweet husband after a stop at a jewelry store here in London I'm coming home with a lovely new pair of earrings.  Yay!

While in the Piccadilly Circus area we decided to go back to our hotel area.  Soon after that we decided to go back to our hotel to figure out our evening plans.  Upon returning to our hotel room, we walked into a room filled with candlelight and rose petals.  It was definitely a nice touch!  Hotel staff had used rose petals to form a heart on the floor near the entry way.  This has definitely been an awesome hotel.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  Not just a great hotel but a great area with easy access to Buckingham Palace, the Tube station, and other sights.  The first London hotel was awesome too, but this one has a better location overall.  So this one wins out in our opinion!

Well tomorrow we head home!  It's been a wonderful honeymoon with numerous moments that exceeded our expectations.  After visiting London and Paris we do agree that of the two we could live in London but we could never live in France.  France was "enchanting" as my husband put it!  But once you get past the loveliness of the architecture and the popular sights, there isn't enough to hold our attention for long.  I'm so glad we did not book Paris longer than London, 4 days was my max, I was ready to leave. I think if the French people were more hospitable it would be easier to deal with.  I certainly believe Paris is a must-see.  I would recommend visiting Paris to anyone.  But I'd also recommend limiting the amount of time there and aim high when booking your hotel.  French standards are very different than American standards....book 5 star if at all possible. We were more impressed with London on the return trip here.  We chose a hotel in a different and less busy area.  Plus we knew what to expect the second time around.  We also traveled out to the outer areas near Wimbledon so we got to see typical residential sections.

Buckingham Palace Pics:

media tents in the distance

 

From the M&M store:

 

 

Our hotel room prepared for the honeymooners:

  

Well it's been a good time indeed!  Next up is a return trip to Dallas.  I was of course born and raised in Phoenix but no city I've lived in has ever excited me as much as Dallas.  So tomorrow the adrenaline to see the place we call home will be flowing!  Woo-hoo!  Honey, it's okay now to break out the Cowboys shirt.  We're heading home.  We look forward to seeing everyone at home!  I look forward to seeing my in-laws tomorrow as we typically see and talk to them a lot so I feel like we need to catch up.  And of course I look forward to seeing my baby boys!  I've had those boys since college days.  I'm super attached to them.  This is the longest time I've ever been away from them.  Until this trip my max time away from the boys has been 5 days. 

A side story to end with....while packing to come to Europe I asked Brad if he was taking any Dallas shirts.  He didn't know.  We then laughed about not wanting to over advertise that we are tourists in a foreign country. In the end he couldn't fathom leaving home without at least one Cowboys shirt packed in his suitcase.  He's only worn the Cowboys shirt in the hotel never out in public.  But he's likely to be sporting his Cowboys shirt on the return flight!