Crumpets are everything I'd ever dreamed they'd be and more

Kait's feet in the Irish Sea in Harlech, North Wales

 I spent about  a week in England with Wilkey, from August 17- 23, and I learned a few new things while I was there:

• If someone advises you to go somewhere called The Golden Nugget, you go. You just can't argue with the reasoning that "it's golden... and it's a nugget... what's not to like??". (The Nugget ended up being a casino where I won money for the first time ever... besides the 2 cents in Monte Carlo)
• You should always drink tea with a little bit of milk in it, or else its bad for your stomach (thanks Richard).
• Welsh is a ridiculous language.
• The Tower of London is not really a tower, but a series of small connected buildings that we definitely could have escaped from.
• What I've always thought was the London Bridge is actually the Tower Bridge, and the London Bridge is pretty much your basic bridge.
• Crumpets are like English Muffins made out of pancake batter. Needless to say, they are amazing.
• Wilkey secretly loves musicals.

The first two nights Kait and I stayed in a hostel close to Russel Square in London, and got shown around by a friend of hers, who explained to us the story of Tower 

Bridge:

Apparently, a few decades ago us Americans, being American, decided we wanted that beautiful bridge in the background to be in America. So we went through a whole negotiation process to buy what we thought was the London Bridge. The Brits, knowing exactly what they were doing, went through the whole process and sold us the completely unremarkable London Bridge, instead of the Tower Bridge that we wanted. The London Bridge that we bought is now located somewhere in Arizona... I'm guessing that was England's way of getting us back for winning the Revolutionary War. Now we're even.

We went to see Les Mis one night and afterwards we stumbled on a bar nearby called "Walkabout"... after about 10 seconds of being there I realized that Walkabout was the same bar we had gone to during our 1 day in London in 2007... and we just happened to find it twice. So strange.

We spent the next few days touring England and Wales, and I can't believe what beautiful countries they are... we went to Bath and saw the Roman baths (and drank "Bath water", which is supposed to be really good for you but tasted like lead), saw the Clifton Bridge, spent some time in Cheltenham and Brewood, where Wilkey is staying with Richard and Stewart, and visited Wales for a day, where we went to the most confusing and beautiful little town I've ever seen, Port Meirion.

Below is a picture of the not so tower-y Tower of London...

And an ice cream truck that apparently doesn't only cater to kids.

We stopped in Tetbury- where Will and Harry play polo- for breakfast, and found a Chef's Table!

We spent the rest of the day in Bath, hands down one of the prettiest places I've seen, besides Port Meirion (and Florence :] ). Behind us is a famous bridge that I forget the name of.... we saw a lot of bridges.

 

Kait hanging out at the Roman baths...

We stopped by the Clifton Bridge, the world's first suspension bridge, on the way home to Brewood

...and caught the beginning of an amazing sunset

Then we spent a day in Wales, which was impossible to describe in words, especially Welsh words, which are pretty much all consonants.

Sheep were everywhere, including in the middle of the road...

We spent the afternoon in Port Meirion, Wales... an colorful little town built on  the water that nobody actually lives in but you have to pay 7 pounds to walk around it. I know... I don't get it either. Still, it was the coolest place I've ever seen.

After Portmeirion we visited Harlech, where we put our feet in the Irish Sea and ate dinner at a Castle.

And in between all of that, we found time to go see a production of High School Musical put on by 5 to 11 year old British kids in Brewood. Not kidding. Best week ever. One more week until Wilkey is back where she belongs in Florence. :]