Back from London!

Rob and I just spent a week in London! We left last Thursday and returned home today (Friday). What a great vacation! I'll add some photos later, but wanted to jot down a few things while they are still on my mind. Here goes:

Some of my favorite London memories:
1. London Walks Tours - we went on two of these great "walks", which were basically groups of people who all met at a tube station and spent two hours diving into a specific London topic. I loved the "Shakespeare's London" walk, where we went to the new Globe Theater, saw the site of the old and walked in Shakespeare's footsteps. We also did the "Jack the Ripper" walk, which was very interesting. Both of our guides were excellent and very entertaining. If you go to London, definitely go on a "London Walks" walk.
2. Visiting Stonehenge. I'd been before, but really enjoyed it this time and liked the audio guide (didn't have that 12 years ago!) that explained the history and mysteries.
3. Schweppes' lemonade. Seriously, I drank this everywhere! It's kind of like a lemony Sprite (that's how I ended up with it to begin with - I actually ordered a Sprite and got this instead). So yummy. Too bad I don't think they sell it in the US. :(
4. Rob yakking in front of Buckingham Palace. Yep, you read correctly. He ate something funky (we suspect it was a pork bun he got from a street cart in Chinatown) and ended up with food poisoning. He thought he felt okay to go to the changing of the guard, but ended up puking in the middle of it -- and in the middle of the crowd. Lovely. He'd already been trying to make his way out of the crowd when he puked (I was staying for the rest of the changing and was meeting him back at the hotel). Next thing I knew, a cop was pulling me out of the crowd and recommending that we leave. It was kind of scary! I felt horrible for him, and he spent the day sleeping. While he rested, I took a walk, went to Harrods and saw my new favorite musical...
5. WICKED! I love, love, love this show. I've been dying to see it for ages, and I walked down to the theater about 15 minutes before it started (Rob asked me to go so he could get some rest and I'd quit banging around in the dark room), and I ended up with a second row ticket for only 15 pounds. Excellent! Who cares that it was the very last seat on the row - I could see perfectly and really loved the whole thing. Walking back the 10 blocks to our hotel in the rain and dark kind of wigged me out, but it was worth it.

What I'm glad to leave behind:
1. People. Smoking. Everywhere.
2. Crowds, crowds, crowds. These weren't really in the sight-seeing areas, but on the tube and in the train stations. Chaos!
3. Rain. Sun for two hours, rain for 15 minutes. Repeat. It was so strange, but at least it stopped after about Tuesday, and we had a sunny (but still cold!) rest of the week.

More memories -- and photos -- to come!