London

For Bailey's 10 birthday we surprised her with a trip to London (just she and I)! We both truly enjoyed all of the sights and the hussle and bustle of the city. I think she especially loved the one on one time without her brother and sister (even though by the end of the trip, she admitted to missing them a little bit :-) Never having been to London before, it was such a fun time getting to visit so many famous sights. The Tower of London, Big Ben and Parliment, Westminster Abbey, Kensington, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Hyde Park were among our destinations and it was so much fun seeing the such historical and famous places. We even got to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace as well as unexpectedly discovered London's Best kept secret in Shopping - a store called - Primark. The biggest shock to us was enjoying the English Speaking city (yes the English Accents were great, but what I'm talking about is the fact that we have lived the last 5 months in a country where every question asked or announcement heard is difficult because we are not completely fluent in German. The Bookstores were also a highlight because all of the words were in English! We got a big kick out of the fact that in Hyde Park they had a German Christmas Market complete with Bavarian gifts and food. It was cute that here in this Big famous city they had an entire section of Hyde Park set aside to celebrate what we have in our own little city in Germany. The hardest thing to get used to was watching for cars going the wrong way down the street (well the wrong way for us, but the right way for them)and drivers on the opposite side of the car - we almost got run over a few times - notice the picture that reminds you which direction to look - Bailey had to keep me straight :-). Overall we had such an incredible time and I hope Bailey remembers our trip forever and always - I know I sure will!