The best way to start summer- Europe! {warning: lots of pictures!}

Hello friends,

I am finally back to reality and ready to blog about the wonderful experiences Noah and I have had since summer began!

I really feel like I missed the whole month of May, and I cannot believe that it is already my birthday week, but here we are.

A week after graduation, Noah and I took an amazing trip to Europe.  I know, crazy right!  Back in late October, Noah and his accounting group signed up for a competition that had to do with accounting stuff (I know very detailed :). ) They competed against other groups that were in their Jr. Core program and they won the BYU portion.  By winning this they went to the "national" competition which was the final part of this competiton which was held in San Jose, CA.  They competed against other schools in the Western United States and where they each gave a presentation on a topic that had to do with helping Ernst and Young (the accounting firm holding the competition) foster a global mindset in their employees.  They gave their presentation and found out that same day that they had won the competition!

The grand prize for winning this competition was a trip to London to tour  Ernst and Young's  headquarters and $1,000 spending cash (which turned into my plane ticket!)

Noah's Jr. Core Accounting Group

These guys are so great!  We loved spending so much time with them!

It was so much fun and still doesn't seem real!  We were able to visit London for 5 days (aka the grand prize of winning the competiton) and since we were over there, we found a really cheap flight to Germany where we visited Munich and Berlin (they are on opposite sides of the country.)

This was my first time ever visiting outside of the United States- if you don't count Victoria, Canada :)

It took months of planning to figure out what clothes I was going to bring with me, because Noah and I figured with how much walking and traveling we would be doing it would be best to only bring 1 carry on suitcase- Yes. ONE Carry on Suitcase!!!  I thought I was going to die!  But thanks to this blog here, I was able to pack quite light and brought less than Noah.  Impressed? :)  Not only did I not have a ton of room to bring all my "getting ready essentials" but the plugs are different in London and in Germany, so to save time, space- and I KNEW it was going to be much more humid than good old Utah, I decided just to take my sea salt spray and gel with me and let my hair have it's own adventure. Oh goodness!

When we arrived in London, we were bound and determined to stay awake the whole day so that we could avoid jet lag.  I only slept a few hours on the plane, and our flight landed at 9:00am, so already feeling tired and dirty, we tried to have as much fun as possible.  As we stepped out onto the first street in London near the Victoria train station, I realized that it was freezing cold and wet, which was how the rest of our London stay decided to be.  I was super grateful that Noah had surprised me with a beautiful trench coat for graduation.  Which is not only waterproof and warm, but EVERYONE in London was wearing one and so I felt like I fit in just perfectly!  We made it until 4:00pm and I realized that I had been awake for 28 hours straight.  I was so tired!!!

The next day we were planning on going to the temple, so that night we stayed at an apartment that is located on the temple grounds and it was so nice!  We took a train and a taxi to the temple and it was in the middle of English country side which was so Beautiful.  I fell asleep at 8:00pm that night and slept 10 hours.  The next morning we did a session and were also able to do some sealings which was a really spiritual experience!  It is amazing that the spirit is the same all over the world.  Looking back Noah and I have to say that visiting the temple in London was probably one of our favorite things that we did!

After the temple, we rode the train back to London and met up with Noah's accounting group.  We walked around Kensington and ate at a cute Italian restauraunt that was SO good!

We thought it would be fun on our first Sunday to visit the local ward and then visit some of the museums, because they are on the same street!  It was so cool to see the church so strong in London and to listen to their testimonies!  We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum (or the V&A) which is a museum on contemporary art.  Since working at the MOA at BYU, I have gained such an appriciation and love for museums.  I loved the V&A because not only did they have some amazing exhibitions, and history of London but because it was founded by Victoria and Albert who I love!  (Side note: If any of you have not seen The Young Victoria, you are missing out on my favorite love story ever!!!!)  

This wall was just out side the V&A- such amazing history.

 Latter that evening, we met up with our group and took a ride outside our hotel on the London Eye!  It was breath taking.  For the 30-45 minutes we were on the ride, the clouds cleared and we were able to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.  It was seriously like I was dreaming, or watching something on TV.

Here are a few pictures I rook from our pod on the London Eye:

This was the hotel we stayed at and the London Eye.  It was so fun staying in the heart of Downtown London

Beautiful Big Ben

My favorite View from outside our hotel-
Big Ben and the Themes River

Visiting Windsor Castle- SO much fun!

Make Way for the Royal Guards!

 Beautiful Windsor- the Queen was there that day! 

While in London, we were lucky to see two Musicals!  Wicked and Les Miserables! I loved them both.  It was my first time seeing them and I fell in love with Broadway and musicals all over again!

 London really is such a beautiful place!  At first (on my tired first day) I was disappointed that it was just a busy, dirty city.  I think I was expecting more of a Disneyland experience where everything was magical and you settled down each night with your Dole Whip icecream, Mickey Mouse ears and tired feet ready for the next days adventures.  While it grew on me as the days past and the "magic" of the city appeared, I came to realize that it is just a city where people live and work.  The "magic" I guess that I found was seeing the history and the future of this beautiful city come together as a beautiful masterpiece.  

Part II- Germany: Munich and Berlin coming up next! 

Stay tuned...

Kate