Even though we have been home from the UK for 5 days, our bodies are still recovering a bit. David actually woke up around 6:45 this morning and I was wide awake by 7:30. So much for sleeping in! But at the same time, this was such a busy week that our trip seems so long ago. Before I forget anymore details I want to share some stories and pictures.
We actually spent 4 days in London and then 4 days in Scotland - split between Edinburgh and St. Andrews. And then a whole day of travel getting home. Today I will just write about our first 2 days in London.
So why did we go to the UK at all? Believe it or not, this was a WORK trip for me! (read: almost all expenses paid and no vacation time used! David did have to take the week off to accompany me but it was a much-needed vacation from his crazy work schedule.) My Headmaster - Jonathan - and College Counseling Director - Judy - and I were all going to attend some North American Counselor events and meet with a wide range of UK universities to better equip and counsel our diverse student body. This was IMMENSELY helpful and I have already used some of the information I learned to counsel a few specific students this week. In addition, three of the schools we visited are coming to see OUR school in the next month. So all-in-all a very worthwhile work trip. In general, it was a lot more WORK and a lot less PLAY than I was expected, but we did manage to squeeze in a little fun while in London.....
We took an overnight flight to London and arrive a little bleary eyed on Saturday morning. After checking into the hotel and grabbing a quick breakfast/lunch, we immediately headed to Leicester Square to buy some cheap theatre tickets for that night. Sadly, they were not as cheap as we hoped but we still managed to get 2 matinee tickets to see Jersey Boys that afternoon. The only problem was it was 1:00 pm, we were still in our nasty plane clothes, and the play started in 2 hours! So we rushed back to the hotel to shower and change into something more theatre worthy (which wasn't totally necessary, but we wanted to grab a nice dinner afterwards) and made it back just in time for the play.
You can kind of see the stage in the background. We actually had great lower-level balcony seats. And this theatre lets you bring snacks in during the show, which was a new experience for me. Jersey Boys was great - fantastic music and not too girly (so David enjoyed it).
Here is a picture of the outside of Prince Edward Theatre.
After the matinee, we explored the area a little bit to find a fun dinner place. A few times we ventured a little bit too deeply into Soho (where the male population greatly outweighed the female, if you get what I am saying). We ended up at a great Italian place called Pulcinella that brought back memories of our favorite whole-in-the-wall Italian college spot of the same namesake.
On Sunday, we explored Hyde Park a bit since it was actually SUNNY!
Here is the Marble Arch.
Us in Hyde Park.
The brown trail was for the horses and the man-made lake was full of paddle boats. I wish we had had more time to explore.
On Sunday afternoon, we joined up with our group (Judy, her husband Rob, and Jonathan) and drove up to see Cambridge. Although the drive took twice as long as we expected, it was beautiful!
Walking into one of the historic Cambridge colleges. (Rob is on the left, Jonathan in the middle and Judy on the right)
How beautiful is that? The lighting was perfect!
The "dining hall" for this particular college.
One of the "quads"! This was actually right before we got kicked out because apparently they close to visitors after 4 pm. Oops.
Our drive back to London took about 3 hours (double what it should have) and there was some hilarious but tense moments trying to use the GPS. But we made it back, all parted ways for dinner and tried to rest up for our meetings the next morning.
Stay tuned for pictures from Monday and Tuesday in London....
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