Copenhagen

Like usual, we ended up in Copenhagen because of a good flight deal.  =)  We were able to fly over on Friday morning and return on Saturday night so we only had one night of hotel cost too which is always nice.  Luckily all flights from England to Europe are pretty much around 2 hours so it wasn't too bad to do the one-night hop over. 

The weather was still a little cool, but we did get some nice sunshine on our harbour tour around the city which I thoroughly enjoyed!  It's been hard with it still being so cold and gray in England - this is when I miss Florida the most.  In addition to the harbour tour, we visited a church with a great rotunda you can climb (note, this is the first thing we've climbed that used ramps instead of stairs - they're both still evil and kill your legs by the time you get to the top!)  =)

With the exception of those two touristy things, we really just enjoyed hanging out in Copenhagen.  We ate picnic-style lunches on benches to people watch and just enjoyed the culture, particularly since Denmark was playing in the World Cup on Saturday.  It was so neat to see all of the festivities around the city - they set up these HUGE movie-style projection screens and have great parties with Carlsberg beer of course.  =)

Brian and I actually ended up at a Danish World Cup party.  It was funny watching a game where you didn't understand any of the commentary, but we still had a blast!  They ended up winning the night which we were happy about because we had a new affinity for Denmark after our wonderful trip.  Here are some pictures we hope you enjoy!

Showers of England & Europe

Yes, that's right, this entire blog is devoted to the showers we have seen while traveling through Europe and living in England, starting with our own.  It's one of the biggest topics of conversation when people come to visit because they can be so interesting and SMALL!

Starting with our showers, we have two of the common English kinds in our house.  First (on the left), we have the full bathtub with the less-than-half-glass partition that doesn't block water AT ALL, which means water kind of goes everywhere when you shower (I'm especially bad with doing that for some reason!)  I'm not sure who thought this was a good idea...  Next (on the right) we have the shower that is a standard size over here, but that is really small compared to what we have back home.  It's like a little capsule you get in - you don't have any room to move around at all! 

For traveling, we have seen it all - it's a joke now that Brian has to shower first whereever we go so he can figure out how the darn thing works and teach me before my shower!  There are Power Showers, which you push a button to start.  We've had one good one, but in general these types have NO water pressure and the temperature will vary between scalding hot and freezing cold throughout your shower!  Then there are the showers that have NO privacy - we're convinced they keep them so open so the room doesn't seem so small.  You'd better know your roommate well if you have one of these!

Here are a few of the other showers we have seen - hope you enjoy (or at least chuckle a bit!)  =)

Wicked and the Queen

This past weekend, Brian and I ventured into the Big City to do two things I have wanted to do for a long time - see Wicked the musical and see Royalty. 

Brian was looking online a couple of weeks ago and saw that the Queen's annual birthday parade was going to be on June 12.  We actually don't get into London that often, so I wanted to make the most of our trip into the city and see Wicked too.  I've heard so many amazing things about Wicked, and they were all true.  Brian and I normally aren't theatre people, but we LOVED the show and would definitely recommend it to others.

The next morning, we got up early for the Queen's Birthday Parade.  This event is known as "Trooping The Colour" and is a big celebration where the Queen and other members of the royal family travel by carriage from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade.  Once there, the Queen does her official inspection of the Guards and then travels back along the same route.  Then the royal family gathers on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for a "fly-past" (or fly-over as we would call it).  The jets and planes were amazing!  30 planes, in groups of small formations, flew over the Palace over the course of almost 4 minutes.

This was definitely a great experience to be a part of; that day, we not only saw the Queen, but also her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, and Prince William. Now I can check off royal sighting from my to-do list while I'm here! =)  Here are some photos Brian captured at the parade - hope you enjoy!

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh

The Royal Family watching the fly-past from Buckingham Palace

The Red Arrows flying over Buckingham Palace

5-Year Anniversary Vacation contd.

After we did a lot of exploring on our way to Newquay, Brian arranged for a few days of pure relaxation, which was a request of mine for this trip.  =)  We started this portion of the trip with a stop at Fistral Bay in Newquay along the coast.  The weather was just a bit too cold to actually go on the beach, but we did enjoy a beautiful sunset along the coast. 

The next day, Brian surprised me by arranging for a horseback ride.  I haven't done this since I was a little girl and Brian had never done it, so it was a fun adventure!  Our horses went on this great path that took us along sand and in water which was so much fun!  Our horses were pretty funny too.  My horse Lightning was described as "cranky" and kept wanting to stop to eat.  Brian's horse Comet was described as "lazy," but luckily he made it through the whole ride.

After Newquay, we headed down to St. Ives in the Cornwall area of England.  It was basically like a French or Italian riviera village but in England.  It was so beautiful!  We were able to go down on the beach one day, but we had to learn a new British term - WINDBREAK.  It's these fabric things you hammer into the sand to help protect you against the crazy wind.  We were very thankful for it because it was pretty chilly even though it was JUNE.  We were the only two in our bathing suits, which we did just out of spite and needing to be in the sunshine.  I went absolutely crazy when I saw people drinking HOT TEA on the beach!

While in St. Ives, we made a quick trip over to Land's End, the very southwest corner of England that made us feel close to home.  =) 

Finally, we began our drive back to Bury with a quick stop in Bristol to explore the town.  We found a great market with shops and food stalls where we ate a delicious Moroccan lunch. 

Overall, this was one of our best trips ever, which is nice since it was celebrating our anniversary!  Now on to planning what we will do for 10 years...  =)  In the meantime, here are more of our favorite photos.

Celebrating our 5-Year Wedding Anniversary

It's sometimes hard to believe, but on May 27, Brian and I celebrated five wonderful years of being married.  This was the milestone that we've always talked about, and it always seemed so far away.  Our initial plan was always to go back to Cozumel, Mexico, where we honeymooned, but obviously our life has changed a bit and that wasn't really feasible from the UK!  We still of course wanted to celebrate though and because our passports were unavailable for our visa renewals, we opted to stay in-country and do an 8-day road trip throughout England (definite benefit of being married on Memorial Day weekend is that you always know you'll get good vacation days around your anniversary!)  =)

Brian planned a beautiful trip for us that appealed to both of our interests - history/adventure/sightseeing for him and total relaxation for me.  =)  Our journey started with some coastal towns along the Jurassic Coast of England.  In each little town, we stayed in a beautiful B&B, which I've now officially decided I ALWAYS prefer to any hotel (more to come on this in a later post). 

As part of the first "adventure" part of the trip, we toured two British war ships, including the HMS Victory, which was launched in the 1700s.  This is the ship where Lord Admiral Nelson passed away too so it has a lot of historical significance.  We also toured the HMS Warrior from the 1800s which was beautiful as well. 

The next day, we continued the adventure by visiting Portchester Castle, a medieval castle along the coast.   Then it was on to Salisbury Cathedral, where we took an AMAZING tour that led us up hundreds of steps to the top where we could overlook the town.  Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest church spire in the UK, and we were lucky to have such a beautiful day to see it.

After this, we did some hiking along a coastal beach and then made our way to Newquay to begin the beach/relaxation part of our trip. 

More on "my part" of the trip soon!