Shannon's visit and Royal Wedding

St James Park

Regent St. getting ready for the wedding

Shannon in front of St Michel fountain in Paris

Notre Dame

The Louvre

Shannon in front of the Eiffel Tower

Parliament

Westminster Abbey

At Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey courtyard

The ladies at the oh so english pub - Sports Cafe

Shannon and me at the bar

Sacre Coeur in Paris

Shannon and I in front of Sacre Coeur, just a body shot, why include the famous church in the background.

Shannon in front of Sacre Coeur

Shakespeare and Company! Cutest bookstore I have ever seen.

Trafalgar Square getting ready for the royal wedding

Eager beavers camping outside the Mall, hoping to get a glimpse of the bride, in two days.

Day before the wedding outside Westminster Abbey, complete madhouse

More campers

Off to Hogwarts

Ladies at Hyde Park for the wedding

Royal wedding viewers at Hyde Park

More of Hyde Park

Kelly and me waiting for Kate

Harrods, just about as inviting and friendly as Saks on Michigan Ave

View of Big Ben and Parliament from the London Eye

View from the London Eye

The London Eye at night, the only way to experience it

Shannon came to visit a couple weeks ago.  It was a ton of fun, I am pretty sure we did not fight or argue once.  We did some touristy things; hop on hop off tour, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, but mostly just wandered London.  It was absolutely gorgeous weather when she was here, in the upper 70's and not a cloud in the sky, not the stereotypical London gloom.  We also ventured to Paris.  After a quite late night out and Paris' hot summer weather, Europe's dislike of what Americans take the most for granted in the states - free water and free refills - was definitely much noticed.  We did more wandering around in Paris, which is a surprisingly small city.  We walked from Notre Dame, to the Louvre, laid with our feet in the fountain at the Louvre for a bit, took many cafe breaks, and walked to the Eiffel Tower.  Afterwards we met my two friends who are studying in Paris for dinner.  The next morning my two friends showed us around the lesser known areas of Paris and ate some delicious falafel where Johnny Depp is known to frequent, unfortunately did not see him.  Then headed back to London on the late train.


Once we got back to London, we did some more wandering and although Shannon could not have picked a better week concerning the weather, the fact that it was a holy week meant all of London's numerous markets were closed.  A couple days after Shannon went back to Chicago, the two friends from Paris came to London to celebrate the Royal Wedding.  The Thursday and Friday of the wedding, it seemed as if every foreign person (Americans especially) was coming into the city while every British person left the city.  


We decided on watching the wedding on one of the jumbotrons in Hyde Park.  I was expecting the atmosphere to be quite similar to that of Grant Park in Chicago when it was announced that Obama had become President.  Not at all the same. It was really crowded, just no where near as crowded as Grant Park.  It was still really fun, we stayed long enough to see Kate's dress, which was absolutely beautiful.  After the dress a group of us headed to Buckingham Palace to see the first kiss.  This was unsuccessful.  Everything was closed off near the Palace.  So instead we decided to go celebrate this great british event at a very authentic british restaurant, Chipotle.  The only one in Europe in fact.  The guests from Paris were going through withdrawals so we decided to head there for lunch.  After Chipotle we all went back to Nido and took naps and then continued the celebration into the night.  The rest of the weekend I did touristy things with my Parisian visitors, including the London Eye, which I recommend to everyone that goes to London, and at night.  During the day would not be that great.  Tomorrow my parents come and I could not be any more excited!  It has been over four months since I have seen them in person.  I cannot wait to show off how amazing London is to them!  The day after they leave I head off to Mykonos, Athens, Rome, Florence, and Barcelona.