Over the next 4 weeks, I’ll be sharing bits and pieces of Tommy and I’s recent trip to Europe. It will be mostly photos accompanied by a short story from our experiences there. I can tell you right now that I could probably live over there for a year so if anyone who is reading this abroad wants to do one of those “house swap” things like that movie Cameron Diaz was in, let me know.

I’ve been to London once before. Tommy has never been to London, or Europe for that matter and I knew he would love the city. Especially since we were staying with one of his college friends who has lived there for 4 years. (Hey Fran + Neil!)

The second day we were in London (after we attempted to get adjusted to the time difference) Fran surprised us with hop on hop off bus tour tickets. You know, the ones with the open rooftop that are red? I always thought they were funny when I would see them around San Francisco, but they’re actually very informative and fun. Don’t believe me? Try one out for yourself. The hop on hop off aspect is amazing. Especially if you’re looking for a little Prosecco/bubbly to spice up your day. I might take one next time I’m in SF just to perhaps learn something I didn’t know about the city.

On the bus tour (and some walking) we managed to see all of the important sights like the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, etc. in one day. We felt like total tourists and I loved every minute of it. A couple of the buses had a real person talking whereas other buses just had a headphone jack to plug into and a recording you could listen too. The one that had the live speaker, talked about Harry Potter. Being a fan, it was very interesting to see where the scene from Gringotts bank was filmed, where Daniel Radcliffe went to school, and where platform 9 3/4 was. I’ve since begun re-reading the books.

The newest building added to the London skyline, the Shard is named for its open top and because it looks like a shard of glass.

The Tower Bridge as seen from the top of the bus tour…

The London Eye. The clouds were also putting on a pretty good show that day too.