It’s very strange to be in a country where people speak English. You get off the plane and the signs are in English, the border guard speaks to you in English, you have to order your tea in English… A little taste of the culture shock in store whenever we move back to the US, I suppose. But waiting for us in the UK was a very special treat: My wonderful family, all the way from across the pond! It was their first time in London, so we spent our three days there hitting up all of the classics: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, Harrods, Oxford Street, Tower of London, afternoon tea… It was a whirlwind.

Highlights included our tour of the state rooms in Buckingham Palace, made possible by the queen spending her summer in Scotland. The interior is absolutely gorgeous and the audio tour was fantastic — My father declared it the best tour he has ever been on and filled out a comment card to let the queen know. We also enjoyed our tour of the Tower of London led by a very engaging beefeater named John and fell in love with afternoon tea at the lovely Dean Street Townhouse. Jam, clotted cream and biscuits… why hasn’t this tradition made it to the states? Then, of course, there was the time we were waiting in line to take a photo imitating the cover of the Beatles album on Abbey Road (such tourists, I know) and an oblivious Chinese family walked through the crosswalk alongside us. Somehow the photo was even better that way 🙂 Note the shot below of the under-renovation Victoria Palace, where Gui and I will be in the audience of Hamilton in March! The countdown continues…

In addition to London, we took a day trip to Bath, the Cotswolds and Stonehenge with Viator that was a lot of fun. We started the day in Bath where we opted to visit the ancient Roman baths, then went to the medieval town of Lacock where I gawked over some of the Harry Potter film sites and ended the day in Stonehenge, which was just unbelievably cool.

Enjoy the photos and stay tuned for a post on part two of our UK adventure: Edinburgh!