16 Years Later

It’s been 16 years, 3 graduations, 6 apartments, 1 condo & 1 wedding and Mo and I are still having fun.

I have been highly anticipating Mo’s arrival in London since she booked her flight a few months ago.

Mo arrived in London early Thursday morning. We had a low key day of catching up, girl talk and roaming the Chelsea shops. To my surprise, Mo didn’t buy any shoes. I thought for sure she would make a purchase on King’s Road.

On Thursday night, we went to Brick Lane and met up with my Irish friend Jo (yes, we are friends now) and a few of the guys. The food was again fabulous and no one was disappointed. After dinner we had a few drinks, but then we headed home to get our rest so we were fresh for the big day of touring.

On Friday, we toured the entire city. We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Tower of London, The London Dungeon, Covent Garden Market and Buckingham Palace. We passed Parliament & Big Ben, walked through St. James Park and learned a little history along the way.

Some thoughts:

- I was disappointed with St. Paul’s Cathedral. I am not sure if I should be saying that about a church, but there I said it. It wasn’t as beautiful as I imaged. Actually, my immediate thought was of Princess Diana walking down the isle to marry that loser.

- The London Dungeon: Total disappointment. I was told that it’s a must visit. For some reason I thought we would get to see actual torture chambers and weapons. What we really saw were scary looking British people with bad teeth dressed in costumes, full of makeup pretending like they were dead. We were then passed from room to room where we witnessed very poor acting. The rooms just never ended. Until finally, Mo and I escaped through a back door. $60 later--we were out of there. If you visit London, it’s definitely a skip it. I think the most enjoyable part was the people watching. Mo and I always enjoy a good stare.

- Buckingham Palace: You have to love the royal atmosphere. We were there for the changing of the guards. Those little buggers with the dorky hats even played “Hey Jude” while they marched out. Check out the photos. We loved it.


On Saturday we went for a fish & chips lunch (must have meal when visiting) and roamed Portobello Market in Notting Hill.

That is where we had a very exciting tourist moment! Mo spotted the “Travel Bookshop” from the movie Notting Hill. Who knew it was actually a real bookstore? It was exact to what you see in the movie, inside and out. Of course we had to take a photo.

Sunday was the Chelsea game! We went to lunch with my friend Justin and then headed to the Chelsea pub. As soon as we walked in everyone was already bouncing. It might have frightened and surprised Mo for a second, but 10 minutes later she was ready to bring the tradition to the states. Well, not quite...but she was fascinated.

We had front row seats to the game & we were so close that we even had a fabulous view of the player’s abs and calf muscles. Wow. Major highlight.

It was a very fun day and I think Mo is happy to come back for another game. Next time, Mo's husband Justin will have to join.

Things Mo learned while she was here:

- It takes 10 minutes for the food to arrive at a restaurant and about 45 minutes to get the check
- Crossing the street takes getting used to
- You automatically get the Heathrow injection
- Mayo comes with every meal
- There is no such thing as urgent. If there is maintenance on the tube, the work gets done during rush hour and not when it’s closed for 5 hours every night
- There is no shame in being naked here. Especially on TV
- One beer in London = 2 in the US

Drinks were had, food was eaten and there were lots of laughs over the last four days.

I was so sad to see Mo go, but I was so glad we got to experience the sights together.

Cheers to another 16 years of friendship. and then some…

Until the next one...