Where there is love... there is life: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Europe - - The London Eye

We rode the London Eye Monday Night. The London Eye is the largest Ferris Wheel in the world.

It is so pretty at night. The pictures don't do it justice.

Here is a picture of the group of us that rode the London Eye. (The lighting/reflection is kinda bad)

The London Eye welcomes an average of 3.5 million customers every year. You would need 6,680 fully booked British Airways Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to move that number of fliers!
The London Eye can carry 800 passengers per revolution - equivalent to 11 London red doubled-decker buses
Each rotation takes about 30 minutes, meaning a capsule travels at a stately 26cm per second, or 0.9km (0.6 miles) per hour - twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting; allowing passengers to step on and off without the wheel having to stop
The height of the London Eye is 135m (equivalent to 64 red telephone boxes piled on top of each other) making it the fourth tallest structure in London
The spindle holds the wheel structure and the hub rotates it around the spindle. At 23 metres tall, the spindle is around the size of a church spire and, together with the hub, weighs in at 330 tonnes: over 20 times heavier than Big Ben

I got all these facts from http://www.londoneye.com/, in case you want to learn more information about it.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Left -- "Black & White Wednesday"

In London they drive on the opposite side.

They say its the "right" side... meaning the correct side to drive on.

The Left Side.

Make sure when you cross the street...

Instead of right.

To see more Black & White Photos visit...

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Europe - - London Day 1

I love London. The city is so old and full of history. The buildings are beautiful.

We began our trip in London. When we arrived we were too tired to do much of anything except sleep. Monday morning we started our adventure on the bus with a tour guide that gave us a brief history as we drove around seeing the sights.

Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. The flag wasn't flying which means that the Queen was not home. Also the guards were not out because I guess they don't work during March....

Hannah, me and Amanda in front of the Buckingham Palace Gates

Next we headed to Saint Paul's Cathedral where Princess Diana was married. We didn't get to go inside but the outside was pretty cool. We all loved the big doors :)

Partial Group Picture

Next we went to the Tower Bridge & Tower Hill. We didn't have time to go in and explore but our tour guide gave us a brief history. The Tower of London was built in 1078

For a quick history lesson, Wikipedia says "The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury (UK spelling), a treasury, a menagerie (aka zoo), the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and home of the Crown Jewels of the UK."

After our little site seeing tour we hopped on the underground and went to a little area called Greenwich. It was a cute little area where we walked around and did a little bit of shopping. Then we got on a boat and headed back towards London.

We ended the evening with dinner at the hard rock cafe and the London Eye.
Pictures of the London Eye and More London coming soon!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Europe- - Eiffel Tower

Back from Europe.

Had a blast!

Today is the first day of my last quarter ever!

I have a feeling its going to go by way too fast

So I took about 1000 pictures while I was in Europe... It's going to take me a while to go through them all

But for now, here are a few of my favorites of the Eiffel Tower

We climbed the Eiffel Tower at night, it was a four hour ordeal.

We had to wait in line forever because the stairs were closed.

The view from the top was quite pretty though :)

I'll post more pictures later!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Spring Break-Europe!

Today is the day!

My countdown is at zero!

In a few hours I will be getting on a plane to London.

We will be spending the first three days exploring London. We will be visiting Thames River, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery Visit , Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Soho,

Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Harrods, and a few other unique places. Because this is an educational trip sponsored by the business department, we will also be visiting BP Headquarter, the mini cooper plant, and the BBC studio where we get to be an audience member on a TV show.

We also have time to explore the city on our own so I'm looking forward to that!

We will be traveling to Paris on the Eurostar channel crossing. Underwater train!

Our itinerary for Paris includes:

Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, École Militaire, Les Invalides, Conciergerie, Tuileries, Place Vendôme, Opera House, Ile de la Cité, Notre Dame Cathedral visit, Ile St. Louis, and Latin Quarter visit.

The educational visits in Paris include a trip to the L’Oreal Headquarters and Café Procupe. We will also be going to a fashion show, which should be quite interesting.

There is wifi at both of our hotels but I think only the one in Paris is free. I will try to blog and post some pictures!

Bon Voyage!