Brighton and Greenwich

First of all I would like to say thank you for all of the comments! Its so much fun for me to get to read people's reactions to what I am saying, keep it up!

This weekend has been a whirlwind! We started off bright and early Friday morning on our way to Brighton. This is just a short 1 and a half hour bus ride outside of London. Brighton is the home to the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier. It was gorgeous! Brighton sits right on the ocean with a stone beach leading down to the waves. It was a very odd sensation to be standing on a beach where flats, a coat and a scarf. We definitely couldn't complain about the weather though it was about 45 and sunny! We got a tour of the Royal Pavilion that used to be used by Queen Victoria's uncle. I can say with confidence that this was the strangest looking building I have seen so far in England. It looked like it was air lifted right out of India! The King had it designed in this manner because the Eastern cultures were fascinating to them at that time. After the tour we were set loose to look around the city ourselves. Karen, Lindsey, Andrea and I stopped at an amazing Italian restaurants and got pizza. After eating we walked along and did a bit of shopping. The day went all to fast it seemed and we headed back to London. Brighton is a very beautiful place that most people will vacation to for its closeness to the ocean. I'm very glad we had the weather we did but the summer months would make it all the more better. It also had an amazing pier that had all kinds of rides and attractions. It is comparable to our Coney Island in New York.

Saturday morning brought us to Greenwich. This was especially great because we got to take a boat all the way there. Greenwich is about a 50 minute boat ride down the Thames from Westminster Pier in London. The boat was really nice with seating inside but also an open top for sight seeing. We got to travel down the river Thames past Big Ben, Parliament, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, etc. Seeing the sights from this angle was absolutely indescribable. My pictures definitely do not do it justice but I tried! When we arrived in Greenwich our tour guide Brit, walked us around and took us to several different sites. We got to see the Old Naval Academy that is now part of Greenwich University. We then got to hike up to the Royal Observatory. This is where you can straddle the Prime Meridian! It was actually quite funny because once we got to the top we all hustled to the line only to find that we had to wait in line to stand on the line... haha. Irony? But anyways it was a very cool feeling to know that I my right leg was in the Eastern Hemisphere and my left was in the Western. After taking about 50 pictures we headed back down the hill. Our tour guide pointed out to us that the grassy areas in front of the observatory is where the Equestrian events for the 2012 Olympics are going to be held. After a long day of time travel we decided we needed a good old fashioned burger. We found a place called Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and boy did it live up to its name. You have no idea if you haven't traveled far the kinds of things you miss. I can tell you right now I would do just about anything for a chicken quesadilla from TBell... but anyways, the food was amazing. We decided to head back and got back on the boat and in a short 50 minutes were back in London.

This weekend as been an absolute blast but it seems to come as a precursor for the fun to follow. This next week sets the arrival of Spring Break. We leave on Wednesday for Athens, Santorini and the end in Rome. So bare with me because there wont be any new posts for about a week and a half but I promise to have some good material after this bit of traveling. Missing you all!

Love