Honeymoon Tour - London: Day Four

On our final day in London we tried to move in with Kate Middleton returned to Kensington Palace for a tour. I learned something as we were waiting to go inside: the royal grass is cut by royal horses. Think I'm joking?

There is the royal lawn crew. Seriously.

I guess they don't want to disturb the royals' precious beauty sleep! Kensington Palace was having an special exhibition of Princess Diana's various dresses that she wore during her lifetime. But first we toured the King's and Queen's Apartments. This is me on the Queen's staircase. I'm ready to move in any time!

Just check out these ceilings!

And I got to tend to official royal business. Lol.

After Kensington Palace (which is FAR from Buckingham Palace, even by cab), we headed to the train station for our next adventure: Leavesden. What's in Leavesden you ask? 

Leavesden is home to the studios where all the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Since they finished shooting they opened up the studios to us mere muggles for "The Making of Harry Potter" self-guided tours. It.was.epic.

You get off the train and board a shuttle that is right there waiting for you to whisk you off to Hogwarts the studios. You are greeted immediately by Wizard Chess pieces (yes, the actual pieces from the movie).

Then you go inside and there's a short video welcoming you to the studios and then you enter the great hall. This is the door to Hogwarts, literally.

From there it's kind of a choose-your-own-adventure. Everything is in two warehouses and you can spend as long as you like going through. They have all the sets, props, wigs, costumes, etc and you can see and read about it all.  The exhibit that was being shown while we were there were costumes. Between Kensington Palace and Harry Potter it was a regular clothing theme!

You can also get audio guides to tell you about everything. Be warned, the audio guides are LONG. We ended up sitting in the butter beer cafeteria listening and watching all of them so we could then walk around and enjoy what we were seeing. They also had the various backdrops from the movies. For example, Dumbledore's office:

and Diagon Alley.

And last but not least, le piece de resistance.....a full to-scale model of Hogwarts. This thing could have inspired tears from the right fan. I was just in awe from its size.

It doesn't look like it would be very large but check out the people on the right side of the photo. That will show you the scale. It was incredible to see.

After we made it back from the Harry Potter studio we swung by Abbey Road. Naturally, we had to pose on the crosswalk.

And that marks the end of our London leg of the Honeymoon Tour. The next day we headed to Liverpool. If you're not interested in the Beatles you may want to skip that post!

Christmas Plaid

It's time to get festive here on the blog since Christmas is OH MY GOSH less than a week away! Have you wrapped all your presents yet?? I still have to get my dad and my brother-in-law something. I know what gifts to get them, I just haven't bought them yet. Eesh. Where did time go?! Anyway, today's nails are a Christmas-color themed manicure with red, green, and white. Simple, you know?

2017 Snowflakes

This morning brought us our second round of snow flurries for winter 2017. It was nothing crazy--the road were fine and it was hardly two inches BUT I still wore my new snow boots from last year since I am obsessed with them. Here are my barely there snowfall nails:

Also, Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish visitors!

NOTD: Mix'n'Match with Essie

My buddy gifted me five polishes from Essie's Summer 2017 line as part of my bridal shower gift. Therefore, I had to give each polish a try to see which I liked the most. Swatch posts will be coming soon--promise!

The cuticles are a little messy....let's just say I was in a hurry to add some paint to my nails before rushing out the door. Have you heard of these polish names,though? They are too cute! On my big thumb is Blue-La-La. Then from my pointer to my pinky is Eclair My Love,

Nails of the Day: Sweater Weather

The positives to this time of year? Boots, hot chocolate, gloves, scarves, furry blankets, and fabulous coats. The negatives? Snow, ice, frostbite, and dry skin. Over this weekend we even had our first snowfall here on the east coast. My sister and I were binging on season two of The Crown on Netflix though so the snow didn't get too much attention until were done. During the show we were getting hopelessly lost in the luxurious life of Queen Elizabeth and snacking on tea sandwiches and scones.

Of course when we were finished watching The Crown I decided it was time for a new nail design. I chose sweater nails:

Swatch: China Glaze Heart of Africa

This China Glaze polish is the perfect winter red if you ask me. It's not a fire engine bright red but it's not so vampy that it's red-black. It's an oldie but goodie I bought years ago from China Glaze. I usually wear it around the Christmas holiday but honestly you could wear this red any time you want.

It applies smoothly and dries quickly, and the slight shimmer really gives the color some pizzazz. I know some people hate red nail polish because they consider it trampy (I beg to differ!). How do you feel about red polish?

Christmas Nails 2017

It's officially December now so that means I can start in on the holiday nails, right? Good. Here are some easy stamped green and red holiday nails to get this party started. I have noticed that ever since Thanksgiving I have started to incorporate a lot more reds and greens in my wardrobe so clearly I am ready to get my festive on!

Also, I got a new cell phone and I was experimenting with it's settings when I took this photo so let's just say I didn't have a good handle on the settings when I took this sort of trippy blurry shot, mmmmkay?

In other news, how is everyone doing? Has anyone finished their holiday shopping? ...or is it more like has anyone started it? Lol.

Thanksgiving 2017

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American visitors! I will be spending today with family and delicious food. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Not sure if this was a fail or not....I think I should have left out the turkey and just left the various fall leaves.

Honeymoon Tour - London: Day Three

Our third day in London proved to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Is it odd to you that I didn't notice it rain at all during our time in London?? Anyway, we spent day three doing some historic exploring and filling ourselves to the max on tea. We started at the Tower of London, which was a short walk from our hotel. By the way, The Tower of London is not just a tower. It's like a little community of buildings ranging from old, very old, and ruins.  

One of the first things we saw when we entered the tower was "Traitor's Gate," where the various prisoners would arrive. In case you didn't know, tower prisoners included Anne Boleyn, Sir Walter Raleigh, and even Elizabeth I.

I think it's safe to say that's not a gate I would want to come through! 
Next up was the White Tower, which to be honest was the first thing I noticed and is the most attention-demanding building inside.

The White Tower was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 (uhm, wow!). Fun fact, the staircase (you can see it in the photo above) was made of wood so that if the tower was ever under siege they could burn the stairs and there would be no way for people to get in. Good to know. Fortunately, we were assured that the stairs would not be burned while we were inside.

The White Tower has also served as an armoury, treasury, prison, menagerie, Royal Mint, public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of London (though now they are on their own about fifty feet away). It was also believed to be where the "two princes in the tower" were killed and it is also the site of executions and imprisonments of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Hence the nickname Bloody Tower. 

The Tower of London still houses the Crown Jewels (which you can't take photos inside UGH) but the jewels are not located in the White Tower anymore. The crown jewels were so neat and some were SO SO beautiful that I reallllly wanted to take photos of everything. I learned my lesson in Buckingham Palace though and I wasn't going to mess with the Beefeaters at the Tower of London. So I left my phone in my purse and just walked around the jewels. Turns out there is much more than just jewels and crowns inside. They have Maces and the items used to carry and distribute the oil for coronations. So cool!  Also, the State Sword of Ireland was out being used on the day we walked through. We were told that if an item was missing that it was out on official business. I have to ask though -- what official business required the Sword of Ireland?? Fascinating.

My sister told me to look for the ravens at the Tower of London. Legend has it that if the ravens ever to leave the Tower of London, the White Tower would crumble and a great tragedy would befall England. At first I was disappointed to see cages for the ravens, but then I realized the cages were open to the outside and the birds could move freely. I saw one proudly sitting at the top of the cage. 

 

On the other side of the community is a bunch of tudor style homes. In fact, these are the only remaining original tudor style homes in England because the rest burned in the Great Fire. One of the tudor homes is the "Queen's Residence." Your know, in case Her Majesty ever decided to have a sleepover or something. See the right most windows? That is where Anne Boleyn stayed before her coronation...and then a few years later before her execution.  Yikes.

The little red fleck you see by the tree in the photo is a guard. The Queen's Residence is guarded at all times, even when no royalty is present, which is pretty much always. We also learned about the Ceremony of the Keys, which occurs nightly.

After the Tower of London we walked over to Tower Bridge. You can see how close together they are!

Tower Bridge was really neat because you could walk across the upper part (you can see in the photo above) above the cars and water. Here's another photo of me hamming while Andrew is....doing something. 

I feel like Tower Bridge is one of the most recognizable spots in England. Everyone has seen this bridge before.

We went up into the top level where you could walk across and portions of the floor were see-through! They were made of a material that was strong enough to hold 6 elephants. I took a selfie and used the mirrored ceiling for a variety of photos.  It looks like we're floating.

 

We then stopped by the boiler room which housed all the old mechanics for raising the bridge. Now the bridge is raised by more modern means but Andrew wanted to see all the old stuff. The gears were HUGE but oddly enough I don't have any photos. Afterwards, we decided to act like Brits and go for some tea.

Let me just say, if you go to London be sure to book a tea tasting somewhere. You will not regret it. We booked ours at Fortnum & Mason's Tea Salon. How cute is this table?!

The menu had all the tea and tea sandwich choices. Andrew went with the sweet option and I went with the savory selection. Look how happy he as among his tea and tea sandwiches, scones, and desserts! See that three-tired tower of deliciousness? We EACH got one. We were in foodie heaven.  

And bonus points, everything was replenishable! So, I could have eaten 40 tea sandwiches and all would have been fine. Don't worry, I did not eat 40 tea sandwiches. But how cute is this ceasar salad in an egg cup with cheese straw? Adorable. And very delicious!

I think that's all we did on day three in London. We walked around a bit more after our tea extravaganza but we were really feeling tired (and full!) so we ended up just going back to the hotel, cracking open some of our French champagne, and calling it a night.  

See what we were up to on day four in London when I post next time! We're headed back to Kensington Palace!

Honeymoon Tour: London - Day Two

On our second full day in London we decided to visit Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and end the day with a showing of the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. We walked to Buckingham Palace because it was only 10 minutes or so from our hotel. Honestly, it was a very pleasant walk and the weather was really nice. We didn't see the changing of the guards because it was every other day (and not on the day we were there) but we did get tickets to tour the palace so...that was awesome. We spent most of the day going through the palace. 

And here we are in front of the gates surrounding Buckingham Palace.

Fun fact for you: You are 100% not allowed to take ANY photographs inside Buckingham Palace. No exceptions. If you are caught with a phone out you are told by employees of "the household" to put your phone away. If you have your camera out they make you put it away. It was insane. I'm a rebel though and figured this is the only time I will ever get to tour Buckingham Palace so I am taking a picture! So I snapped this photo of the interior courtyard. (It's essentially the interior of the wing seen in the photo above).

I was caught though and the woman just shook her head at me. Obviously, she's seen people sneak a photo or two. I never took another photo even though I desperately wanted to in the throne room. In case you don't know, the throne room is seen in Kate Middleton and Prince William's wedding photos. For example, here:

I STOOD RIGHT THERE! I LITERALLY STOOD WHERE THEY ARE POSED. Even though it happened weeks ago I am still over here hyperventilating about that. The throne room really does look like that. I had trouble containing my excitement. I also learned that they have a virtual tour of the palace which is really neat. I recommend using your phone for the virtual tour because it's interactive and you can spin your phone around and see the whole room.

Although we couldn't take photos of the palace interior we were allowed to take as many photos as we wanted outside. We saw where all of Her Majesty The Queen's garden parties are held. Can I pleeeeease get invited to one of those? Lol. 

I'll just be in the back yard. Lol.

Of course they had a gift shop and we had to walk around it and see all the goodies. I was even able to try on one of those fuzzy black hats! I'm ready to guard the Queen now!

After Buckingham Palace we went to Kensington Palace, which is about 15 minutes away by cab. We didn't have tickets to do a tour so we planned to return the following day. However, we could walk around the grounds and stuff so naturally I took some photos.

Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed with the overall look of Kensington Palace. I guess I was expecting so much more after seeing Buckingham Palace but Kensington Palace looked like it was in disrepair (I'm sure it's not) and it did not look like a royal residence at all. Still, I'd move in any time... Haha. We even saw the Prince Diana Garden, which had been replanted with all white flowers to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her passing.

We walked around outside of the palace and stumbled upon Kensington Palace Gardens, which ended up being the coolest street ever. It was closed to public cars (but not pedestrians) and had security at both ends. We quickly learned the street was home to various embassies, uber-wealthy individuals, and even Saudi royalty. I later googled the street and found it referred to as the "Boulevard of Billionaires." I stood on the street for a little too long (no photographs allowed) and then we continued on our way back to the hotel. We walked down the most expensive street in London. Imagine that. Nice. Can I move in??

We later went to see theThe Lion King. The show was absolutely fantastic. Sure, we could see The Lion King on Broadway in New York but it was really cool to see it in another country. 

Such attractive photos, right? Lol.

Join me next time for Day Three of our honeymoon adventure in London! And in case you missed anything that came before it:

Paris Day One

Paris Day Two

Paris Day Three

Paris Day Four

London Day One