My Favorite Things

This is it.  We leave England in 4 days.  We have had an amazing time here, but are definitely ready to head back to the States.  Jake has been consumed with finals for the last couple weeks, so we haven't really been able to get out and tour very much.  So for this post, I decided to show you some of my favorite things that I have seen while being over here.  Some I am putting up just because they make me laugh. 

There are a few buildings like this scattered throughout the city.  I think it is cool that they leave some of the damage to remind people what happened.  It is a big part of history that they are keeping alive.

A whole store just for umbrellas and walking sticks!

Yes, in answer to your question, this is a cucumber portion.  I could have bought a whole cucumber, but I really just wanted a portion of it.

This beauty of a shop is just a short walk away from our house.  They sell, among other things, the glorious things that are pictured below.

Beautiful right?  I know, these look absolutely disgusting, but these have been a lifesaver some nights.  "Chips" and malt vinegar.  You can't go wrong.

Gherkins.  This just makes me laugh.  Pickles here are actually relish back in the States.  Chips are fries, crisps are chips, biscuits are cookies, cookies are actually not good at all here.  It is just they way they do things.

This also probably doesn't look like much, but it makes my mouth water.  This wonderful lasagna can be found in a little family owned business at the top of a mountain in a little city called Erice.  But only if you are completely lost...

That's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed our adventure!  We sure have:)

Down to the last few days...

I am going to apologize in advance for this post.  I don't have many new pictures from this last weekend.  We are down to less than 2 weeks left here, which means that Jake is consumed with finals.  I'm afraid we won't get much touristing (is that a word?) in over the next 12 days.  We were however able to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament and Commons, as well as the Supreme Court.  We weren't able to take pictures inside the buildings though, so you will just have to take my word for it when I tell you that they were amazing.  The Houses of Parliament and Commons are located in the building that is attached to Big Ben, then the Supreme Court is just on the other side of the block.

And this actually has nothing to do with either of the other buildings.  I took a little field trip to St. Paul's Cathedral, and this is it:)

This was the only place they would let us take pictures in.  It is where we went in to the Houses of Parliament and Commons.

Good old Abraham Lincoln outside of the Supreme Court.

Our Temple Story

Okay so here is how the story goes.  I thought it would be really nice for Jake and I to go to the temple while we were here.  I mean, how many times would we have the opportunity to go to the London Temple right?  So I asked Jake if this last weekend would be okay.  He agreed, no problem.  The temple itself is about 25 miles outside of the city, so we had to take an hour long train ride to get there.  After arriving in the town, you have to take a 3 mile cab ride to the actual building.  No problem.  The cab driver drops us off at the gates and drives away.  It wasn't until then that we see the signs saying that the temple is closed for its regular 2 week period.  The security guard was nice enough to let us walk around the grounds for a few minutes though.  Moral of the story is, if you choose to go to the temple, while on vacation, please, please, please check and see if it is actual open during the time that you are trying to go!  At least we tried, right?

Also this weekend, we decided to go to the Russian Maslenitsa Festival in Trafalgar Square this weekend.  It was full of people, booths, music, and lots and lots of beer!  I had a lot of fun, and I think Jake just tolerated it because I was having fun:)  Anyway, here's a few pictures.

The biggest ship in a bottle I have ever seen.

Sicily

We were off to Trapani, Sicily for the weekend.  We thought, going south, we would see the sun a little bit and maybe even be a little bit warm.  What we got though was a very chilly weekend where we actually saw snow for the first time since leaving Utah 2 months ago.  We did however see the sun for a few minutes on Sunday.  We were still wearing our winter clothes, but at least it was there:)

Other than the cold, we had a wonderful weekend of Italian food and gelato.  There were many times that we were laughing at a restaurant because we had no idea what kind of food we were ordering.  Most turned out to be good, but I had an incident with some seafood that didn't sit too well with my stomach (Jake however loved it).

A building just around the corner from our hotel.

We went up to the city Erice.  It's on the top of a mile high mountain just a little ways away from the city we were staying in.  When we got there, we were literally in a cloud.  It was absolutely freezing, and completely spectacular.  There is a really old Norman Castle there that parts of kept disappearing as the cloud shifted.  There is also a really old town where the streets just keep winding.  We got lost walking through them, but we stumbled upon this little restaurant where we had some of the best lasagna I have ever eaten in my life.

An alley way full of a cloud.

The view.  We couldn't see very far for part of the time we were up there.

Part of the castle.

Just a doorway.  Jake was curious how the fit through the doors there.

We were just so happy to see the sun!

This was on an island we went to the last day we were there.

View of Trapani from the western most tip.