for the love of design.

if there was one thing that was abundant in london it was bold, light, ultralight, every single type of helvetica plastered everywhere! london was a hub of design (not just for the san-serif lovers out there but in general). on saturday afternoon mike and i headed to a different part of town to visit the Tate Modern Museum.

it was an amazing musuem, filled with contemporary and past works. so many artists and thinkers, so much inspiration. i personally don't like to take photographs inside art musuem because i believe it draws my focus away from actually appreciating the art, however, a few of the rooms needed documentation. after the museum we wandered around a bit, fell in love with a few one- of a kind shops, and had a wonderful little dinner.

tate modern museum entrance.

andy warhol installation room.

inside the gift shop. so many wonderful little things.

opened by her majesty the queen, may 2000

1000 euro note? it's wonderful people like that who keep these places going.

the refinery for dinner.

it was nice for us just to surround ourselves with all of the stuff we love as designers for the evening. once we took a bus back to the tube station, we got ready for a night out on the town.

fit for a Queen

day number two here in london started off with a tribute to one of the best bands of all time: the beatles. not only are they a music icon they are one of my personal favorites. so naturally, our first trip of the day had to be abbey road. made famous by the beatles' album.

not too shabby eh? we took about a million of these haha

after that it was back underground and off to start our checklist of all the places we still needed to hit! the girls split apart from us, while mike and i headed to buckingham palace to watch the changing of the guards ceremony. once again, it was so crowded! i couldn't believe how many people come to watch this every single day! it was definitely worth it to see though, although i was a bit dissapointed when i found out it's a myth you can go up to the guards and try to make them laugh. they're actually guarding the castle from the inside of the gates. oh well.

loving the england sunshine.

buckingham palace gates.

changing of the royal guard.

statue on top of the fountain at the palace. massive!

after buckingham it was off to see the london bridge and the tower of london, with a quick stop for some lunch. we had an interesting run-in with a giant ghoul trying to get us to take a tour through the "london bridge experience" apparently england's best haunted attraction. no thank you, but hey at least the tall man was a pleasant, quite witty chat. after i tripped and almost fell on the london bridge (and broke one my favorite pairs of shoes might i add!) we stopped for a lunch break. on our way to the tower bridge we found a small inside gallery of shops and resturants, very nice area.

it didn't fall down! that was just me...

the queen's walk. perfect for us :)

the london tower bridge is the one most people think of when they think "london bridge" it's the older of the two bridges and definitely the more ornate. if you walk across you are welcomed almost instantly by the tower of london, now turned into a museum and tourist attraction. inside you can see the crown jewels (completete with their own set of royal guards, apparently the most secure part of all london), the bloody tower, and even a reinactment. in addition, we got to witness a few guest arriving for a wedding occuring that afternoon as well! can you imagine? they must have been important. i almost couldn't believe all the history london has to offer, hundreds of years of royal families, allies, wars, etc. it's almost too much to keep track!

london tower bridge!

inside the tower of london, right before seeing all the crown jewels. sad we couldn't take pics in there but they were so gorgeous!

London baby!

yes! the land of the Queen, the Beatles, and double decker red busses, that's where i spent my last weekend. after no sleep on thursday night (having to catch an airport bus at 3 am!) and one of the busiest weekends ive ever had by the time we got back to dublin we were exhausted! but needless to say it was a wonderful trip.

friday, mike and i arrived at our hostel (after some mis-leading direction mayhem) we stored our stuff in the luggage shed and hit the town. we took the tube, the underground, etc. into westminster street. now, if anyone tells you london is huge! they're not lying. it's not the kind of city you can just walk around in one day, so naturally a transportation pass was needed. but after only a few hours we were pros, even giving a few people directions haha.

when we popped up at our stop we walked out into the sunshine and what did we see...big ben! parliament! the london eye! in all directions. not to mention a giant statue of a irish mythological warrior we learned about in lit. class haha. it was crazy, there were people everywhere! i almost forgot what country i was in because there were so many languages being spoken.

after site-seeing around on our own. a trip to the london film museum. and a quick bite to eat, mike and i met up with a few of our friends from the gvsu art dept. who are studying at kingston university. it was so nice to see a familiar face and we spent the rest of the day walking around with them. riding into piccadilly circus, going to harrods (the most fabulous shopping you will ever see. i kid you not!) and seeing the theatre district. they had dinner plans already so we said our goodbyes, had some dinner, and finished off our night with the national museum. once again-mind blowing. so many famous works and artists, it was exciting seeing so many greats all in one spot.

finally we headed back to hostel, and the first thing we see are bree, melissa, and lisa! three girls from our dublin group that came for the weekend as well. even though we were so exhausted from being up over 24 hours we forced ourselves out for a walk, some ice cream, and planned the next day.

hostel!

jubilee line, our best friend that weekend

yummmthe london eye and city pier

big ben!parliament buildings

the royal parks :)westminster abbey. it was so big it was difficult to take a picture of the entire building, this close up is amazing though!

aw gotta love our gvsu familyyes yes yes yes yes.

day one= success.