When we got back from Paris we crashed. The next day was Sunday and we didn't do much- just the usually Sunday meetings, nap, phone calls, etc. I was glad, because we were exhausted.
On the 15th we went back into London for some final sightseeing. We took some photos at Big Ben and walked around the outside of Westminster Abbey. My favorite part of the Abbey is the royal crests they have over the main enterance. The Windsor crest is front and center. It is hilarious because it has both a lion AND a unicorn... you know... for extra majesty.
We went from there to Southwark, which is a kind of low class side of town. Luis got a hot tip from a client at the bank where he works that Manze's Pie and Mash was worth going out of your way for. We searched all 2 weeks we were there trying to track down the locale and finally found it out on Tower Bridge Road on the wrong side of town. It took us about an hour on the tube and on foot to get there.
Manze's is real, authentic, English food. It has 4 things on the menu- Pie, Mash, Eels (boiled or pickled), and Sarsparilla. The pie is traditional Mutton in a pastry crust and the Mash is a mixture of turnips and mashed potatoes (we think). The whole plate is drowned in green Parsley gravy. The portions are generous, the beverages cold, and everything super cheap. Luis LOVED it. The only complaint we had about the place is that the food is pretty bland. English food typically tastes kind of like cardboard until you load it down with salt, pepper, and vinegar- which most places have out on the table. This was kind of disappointing for us until we realized it is essentially the same as eating at a Mexican restaurant- you have to add the condiments before eating. Once we drizzled on some malt vinegar the whole thing was delectible.
From there we went to do some shopping. We wanted to get some goodies to take back to the states since we had purchased literally NO souvenirs the entire trip aside from umbrellas (it really is *that* rainy in England), some cooking wine for Ana, and some Eiffel Tower keychains for the fam and friends back in the states. We went to *Tesco*, which is the most magical place in all of Britain. It's like Albertsons only everything is SUPER delicious. We bought candy, cookies, cheese, olive oil (which tastes TOTALLY different in England), and a few other things. We also went to Marks and Spencer (which is a chain store that is kind of like if Super Target married J.C. Penny and had a baby) to help Emily shop for the Royal Ascot races which she was attending that weekend.
We went back to Em's house and dropped off the goods, napped a bit, then met Brent for dinner at Nando's- a yummy Portugese restaurant. After dinner we packed, burned photo CD's, and tried to avoid thinking about having to go home the next day.
We woke up early and left around 9 to go to the airport. When we got there we found out our plane had been delayed because of a problem with the long-range radio. We waited for about 2 hours before boarding the plane, and once on the plane we had to wait about an hour more while they filed new flight plans that would allow us to fly over Greenland and close to North Pole to keep us in short-range radio distance. It was SUPER annoying. The flight was long and boring and I slept a lot of the way b/c there weren't many good movies on.
We were supposed to land in Chicago at 3 and make a connecting flight at 5:40, but due to the delay we didn't land until quarter after 6. We rushed through customs b/c there was a flight leaving at 6:40, but we missed it by about 10 minutes. This was bad because the only other flight going to Salt Lake that night was already overbooked so they couldn't guarantee us a flight until 6 the next morning. We would have liked to take advantage of a free hotel and dinner (courtesy of the airline) and do some sightseeing in Chicago, but Luis had a work meeting at 8:30 the next morning and we really *needed* to get on that 8:40 flight. They put us on standby and we waited nervously until 9:45 when they finally started boarding. Yes. The flight was also delayed by about an hour due to a terrible rainstorm that was pelting Chicago with brute force. We were the last 2 on the plane and only made it because a flight from Buffalo was delayed and 2 or 3 passengers didn't make their connection. We boarded and then waited in line on the runway for- wait for it- literally 2 hours. There were 30 planes in line for take off in front of us due to the storm delay. The flight was uncomfortable, bumpy, and nauseating, but we made it to Salt Lake around 12:50. We got home a little after 2 a.m. We did the math. With the seven hour time difference, we arrived in Provo at 9 a.m. London time- literally 24 hours after we left Emily's house.
IT WAS A TWENTY FOUR HOUR TRIP!!!!! Probably one of the most frustrating and uncomfortable days of my life, but it sure made me appreciate being home all the more.
It was a great trip and I'm really grateful that we got to go... and that we got to spend so much time there.
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