Europe! Europe! Europe!

The above picture is of Westminster Abbey.  We couldn't go in because of services but we got to walk around the building and lawn.  I loved all the design elements on the building that you rarely see anymore in modern architecture.  The gargoyles, the flying buttresses, the cinqefoils!  The grounds were covered with people relaxing, reading, talking, taking photos and having picnics.
Here we are in front of Buckingham Palace.  We didn't get to see the changing of the guards because we didn't plan our time right.   Nor were we invited to tea with the queen.  Check out the guy to my left.  Do you ever wonder how many photos you are in of strangers and what you are doing in them?
Here is Big Ben and the Parliament building.  Again the architecture was magnificent.  You can also see the Thames.  We did take a boat tour along the Thames.
I went to Stonehenge without Shawn.  The day was rainy and cool.  I really enjoyed Stonehenge. I love the fact that there are so many theories and yet no definitive answer as to how the stones were put here.  All I know is that must have been some back breaking work!
This last picture is a street in Lacock Village.  If you like to watch Pride & Prejudice (the BBC version with Colin Firth) then you will recognize this street (picture it w/o cars and dirt roads) as Meryton where Elizabeth and her sisters and Darcy have a chance meeting!

I have to share with you some of my pictures and experiences of England and France.  With Shawn's current job as senior consultant he spent a month in England working.  I was lucky enough to get to fly out for 10 days to be with him.  On the weekends we toured London, England and Paris, France.  During the week days Shawn worked and the first days I lounged and enjoyed the hotel and it's gorgeous landscape.  I finally got itchy and went into Bath, England for day trips and had a blast touring some of the beautiful english countryside and it's villages.  It was sooo gorgeous.  For a dork like me that loves Jane Austen, going to Bath was a dream come true.  Bath was amazing and quite an experience.  Shawn and I would wake up at 5:30 am.  We would drive to a cark park and I would take the bus into town.  The first morning in Bath, I got off the bus headed down the street with a map in hand and no sense of direction.  I found a coffee shop (I have to be honest, it was a Starbucks!).  I got a hot chocolate and muffin, checked out the map, did some Sudoku and waited for shops to open and the city to warm up a bit.  The first morning was typical english weather-rainy.  I found the location of a day tour and was lucky enough to grab the last spot.  We headed off to Stonehenge, Avebury Henge, Lacock Village (where we had lunch and saw locations shot in Pride & Prejudice BBC version, and Harry Potter), and Castle Combe.  I found a friend Mari, (japanese, mother of 3 adult children) who had been traveling alone for 4 months (visiting Germany, England, France).  We had a great time.  She was so sweet and kind and a great conversationalist.  After touring all these sights I returned to Bath and visited the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and walked around the city.  The second day in Bath I walked around (at one point I was walking through an alley and stepped over a bum sleeping in a doorway!).  The architecture was such a sight.   I cannot even explain how beautiful (so check out my pictures instead!).  The abbey in Bath was so beautiful.  There is so much texture, depth in the design that your eyes and brain can't possibly take all of it in.  I did go into the little Jane Austen museum.  If I couldn't make it to Pemberly in Derbyshire or the birthplace of Jane then this was good enough.  She lived in Bath and wrote about Bath so it was fun to actually see the streets and buildings and stores that she actually wrote about and experienced.  

Paris was a dream.  I don't think Shawn and I realized how big Paris is!  Again the architecture was the best eye candy!  I love America and we have beautiful landscape and architecture, but it doesn't compare the history and the design that we saw in England and Paris.

I have at least 395 more pictures but don't you worry, we won't torture you with all of them.  You can check more out on Facebook or wait for an update!