London: Day 3

Hello Everyone!

I hope this post finds everyone doing well. We have had yet another great day in London. It is hard to believe the London portion of my trip is just about over! This morning we met with some very very nice architects at the Nightingale Associates here in London. We met with them for about two hours and it was wonderful! They were very interested in Lindsay's research on the multi-bed patient room as well as my research on Post Occupancy Evaluation. They also wanted to know more about the private patient rooms as that seems to be what the UK is moving to. It was great to sit down and really just have an interesting dialog with great folks! They were eager to help us and we have offered to help them in any way possible.
After we finished meeting with them, we did what any two girls in London would want to do-- we went to Harrods! I had decided I wanted to buy something girly and special so bought myself a bottle of perfume. Linds and I both think it smells great so I was excited! After our walk through Harrods.... looking at all the Oscar de la Renta and Gucci, Armani... ah. Amazing. but way way way way way over my head! So after walking some through the store, we headed to find a quick bite to eat. We found a local place called Eat and had sandwiches there. After lunch we came back to the hotel for a little while. (We both accidentally fell asleep.... whoops-- we are worn out!) We woke up about an hour later and headed to go do a little more sightseeing before meeting Erin for dinner. So, we walked about 10 blocks up the road to St. Peter's Cathedral. We walked inside and had a bit of a look around. For me... it seemed so crazy that I was standing in a building that I had only seen in books and pictures in my art and architecture history classes. It was amazing. After that, we decided since it was getting close to when we were to meet Erin at our hotel, we would start walking back. Erin had invited us to her house for dinner, which was so wonderful. So we stopped on our walk back from the church to get a small token of gratitude... a cute little plant, which of course I don't have a picture of!

When Erin got off work, she met us at our hotel, which she goes by on her way home. So we met up with her, got back on the bus and headed over to her very cute little place! We made tacos and ate in her garden. It was very cute and the food was wonderful!! It was great to just sit in her garden and enjoy life and have more girl talk! We left her house about 930 and headed back to the hotel because we have a very early morning. Our flight leaves Heathrow about 7am and since that is about 45 mins from here and they told us to be there 1.5-2 hours early... get the picture. My alarm is set for 330am our time, 10pm EST. Yay.
Here are some pictures from the day!


1. St Peters

2 (and 3)- Harrods!!!

4 and 5- At Erin's house making dinner and eating in her lovely little garden!

More pictures will be posted in the next few days to facebook too because Blogger is not really liking the pictures. So I am going to only put a few on here for the rest of the trip and put most of then on facebook! :)

Love to all and please continue to keep us in your prayers for safe travel as we fly to Amsterdam tomorrow morning and then will catch the Eurail to Deventer and then onto Gronigen in a few days!

London Day 2

Hello Friends and Family!!!

Today has been a fun day. The weather today has not been as wonderful as it was yesterday, but we made the best of it and had a good time.

Our morning started a little later than planned (someone I am traveling with, who shall remain nameless) apparently turned the alarm clock off when it went off at 730. So..... we woke up about 915 when this person's friend, who lives here in London, called! So. After we got ready for the day, we got on the tour bus (our bus passes from yesterday were good for 24 hours... so they were good until this afternoon) and rode over to visit Evelina Children's Hospital. They were less than friendly.... and more or less asked us to leave. Disappointed we did not get a tour or really even see the hospital, but we made the best of it and went on our merry way!
We decided to walk from Evelina towards Buckingham Palace. Yesterday's tours took us by the palace several times, but had not seen it from the front. So we walked across the Thames River, passed the Parliament and Big Ben (who I was corrected... Big Ben is the bell itself not the tower...), past Westminster Abbey, and on to Buckingham Palace. After many pictures along the way, and many more at the palace, we walked up the long mall towards Trafalgar Square and our hotel. We stopped and had a quick bite to eat at a local deli. While we were eating, it started raining (and of course it was when I forgot my umbrella in the hotel room). So, after that we headed back to the hotel. Lindsay needed to send an email and we also just wanted a little break. We took our short break, ran out for a quick errand and then came back to the hotel for a few.
This evening, we met up with Lindsay's friend Erin, who was SO sweet, to watch her intramural softball team play a bit. She has been sick, so she was not able to play, but we had fun chatting with her! After we left the softball games, we headed to the pub they usually hang out at. We had dinner while the team finished their game. We had great girl chat and enjoyed a good beer and dinner. About an hour and half later, the team showed up. We stuck around for a few and then headed back to the hotel.
I think it is fair to say that today has been a good day, but we are both a bit tired as we are still adjusting to the time change. Tomorrow morning we have an early day as we are meeting with a local architecture firm at 930am London time, which is only 430am EST. After that, it will probably be more sightseeing since tomorrow is our last day in London. Friday morning we will check out of our hotel at about 430am and head to London Heathrow to catch our flight to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam, we will catch the Eurorail to Deventer and then, a few days later, on to Gronigen.



Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure! I Hope that everyone is doing well. Please continue to keep us in your prayers for safe travel. We are having a great time though!!!



1- Lindsay and I on our way to Evelina... over looking the River Thames and the Parliament Building. (The hospital is literally across the river from the Parliament building)




































2- After Evelina gave us the boot... we walked across the bridge to get a closer look at this building, the Parliament Building.

3-Buckingham Palace (no sights of the queen... she is off to Balmoral for the summer)

4-View down the mall towards Buckingham Palace and the fountain that sits right in front of it.

5- Evelina Children's Hospital... from the outside.

6- Lindsay on the tour bus heading over to Evelina.

7- Wellington Circle- Side view of the Arch at the circle. The statue on top of the arch is the Angle of Peace landing on the Chariot of War. I really liked it. It overlooks one of the many parks of the city.

8- Detail shot of the sculpture of the Angle of Peace landing on the Chariot of War

Laura and Lindsay's European Adventure- Day 1

So Yesterday (Monday), my good friend Lindsay and I left for a quick trip across the BIG pond for a little more than a week! Our flights were all screwed up, but none the less, we made it! Here we are just pulling out of London Heathrow Airport in the little taxi heading to our hotel in London. (Do realize we both only got a few hours of sleep on the plane and were grose and tired from traveling all evening and night! So dont judge the way we look!)

This is not our taxi... but this is what ours looked like! :)

Because our flight out of Atlanta did not leave until about 11pm Monday night, we did not land until noon London time (7am EST) on Tuesday. So... we were exhausted when we landed. BUT... we decided we would go and check-in to the hotel, get showers and freshen up, and then go out and explore some. We found the perfect way to see the city out expending too much energy-- A Bus Tour!! We rode all over the city in the top of an open-air double decker bus! We saw all the major sites of the city and got a good overview so we can decide what we want to go back to and see in more detail! We did the complete loop and ended back about a block from our hotel. After our tour, we went to dinner at The Bistro, which is was a strange little local restaurant. But it was very good... and relatively cheap. So it was a good fit for us!

Here are a few pictures from our tour!

1.) Trafalgar Square

2.) St. Thomas's Hospital (where Florence Nightingale really formulated and trained nurses in the ward-- for Architecture and Health people, this was exciting!)

3.) Parliament Building and Big Ben

4.) View of London proper.... Tower Bridge is just around the bend in the River Thames.

5.) Last but not least... here we are again, post shower on the bus tour. We still look tired, but at least we were clean!!!

More to come tomorrow!!!