Wicked the Musical/Play

So good we had to watch it twice. Apparently the wicked witch of the west is not so wicked.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam...the place we least looked forward to visiting. So much so we decided not to spend any money on any of the museums and instead spent about 20 euros in our hotel room the first night on soda alone. We spent most of our time walking from one end of the city to the other. Walking along the canals was very pretty. There was alot of walking and sitting down in random places - benches, canal ledges, national monuments. We took a boat tour around the city. Fasiha got a little seasick.

We were excited to go to Jummah (Friday Service/Prayer), where we heard the Khutbah (Sermon) in Arabic and then in Dutch...which was pretty AWESOME....even though we only understood a few words in Arabic, we got the general idea.

Amsterdam has amazing french fries.

HARRY POTTER Premiere

July 7th - We were walking around Leicester Square looking for the Underground (metro) when we saw a large group of people milling around. As we approached them we saw a few people pushing through the crowds with triumphant faces, holding large Harry Potter posters. We then realized that we had come upon the end of the Harry Potter Primiere. The start were in the building, and the poeple were waiting for them to come out. We deicded to hang around to catch a glimpse of Harry Potter.

Some one had existed the builidng and the crowd started cheering so Fasiha starts screaming and running towards the crowd camera in hand, while Fariha keeps yelling "Its Gordon Ramsey...the Hells Kitchen guy...who you hate." Unfortunatly we never saw Harry Potter but did see Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy. It was pretty exciting.

Parliament, Covent Garden, and Leicester Square

July 7th - Saw a session at Parliament and then met up with Fasiha's British cousin who took us around for the day.

Brick Lane & Regent's Park

Brick Lane - street representative of the larger Bangla town.

Detour to Old Bailey and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Regent's Park - our favorite park in London.

Note, we'll be adding more details later. Just getting the pictures up for now :)

Hampton Court & King Henry VIII's Wedding (6th and last)

June 30th - Hampton Court was King Henry VIII's primary place of residence.

Westminster Abbey Walk

June 29th - Following the trusty Rick Steves' guidebook, we took the Westminster Walk, starting from Westminster Abbey and ending at Trafalgar Square. Spend the most time at Westminster Abbey. The Poets' Corner, which housed the tombs or plaques of famous poets and authors, was pretty neat. We saw our friend Jane. Fasiha had a moment when she walked through the tomb of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. As an aside, it was pretty messed up that they were buried together since they were lifelong rivals, PLUS Queen Elizabeth was buried on top of Mary, so Mary's tomb is hidden. Ouch. Incidentally, Princess Diana is NOT buried here, despite some conspiracy theorists assertions.

We then went to the Queen's Horse Guards (?) Museum. There were guards posted who looked straight ahead and tourists took pictures with them. It was very uncomfortable seeing as how one of the guards did NOT appreciate the picture taking. Hence, we took a picture of the people sideling up next to him as he fumed. We then strolled in St. James Park, which was very pretty and quiet. Ended at Trafalgar Square, where rude kids took our seats. We won because we eventually got a bench to ourselves.