Westminster to Greenwich on the River Thames for £8/each return! I think prices go up in the Summer but I recommend it! Westminster to Tower Bridge is all good but I got insanely excited that we went UNDER THE TOWER BRIDGE on this ride. #lifecomplete

A foggy day in Londontown!

Elegant Whitehall

St Paul's is incredible. DO NOT leave this off of your London to-see list

London Bridge has fallen down, burned down and been torn down. The current London Bridge isn't that old.

Between Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf are some interesting riverside, remodeled old factories and such.... Some historic buildings of note but mostly this is the section of river where I rested my camera finger.

Foggy Canary Wharf

Old Royal Naval College, current home of University of Greenwich campus.
These two beautiful sections were designed by my favourite architect Sir Christopher Wren.
You can see a bit of the treeline on the hill back there where the Royal Observatory sits. The line that marks the beginning of time, Greenwich Royal Mean time's home.

I think we both concluded that for size and quality of food/stalls.......I can't believe I'm saying this.... but we prefer Greenwich to Borough Market!

In the end we got these dumplings ( AMAZING ), empanada to share, a Portuguese egg tart and a churro each. Happy mouths and bellies!

Happy Birthday to my love

The Nativity

Directly above baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph you'll see the tree of life. It looks like a real life tree!

THEN YOU STEP INSIDE

The whole building is like a living, breathing thing. Trees instead columns stretch to the ceiling which is covered in stone vegetation. Gaudi was inspired by three passions: architecture, nature and religion.

An interesting thing I read about him: he preferred to create 3-D models of his designs and rarely drew any plans, molding the details as it came to him. He followed the organic forms found in nature.

And can we just talk about the stained glass for a minute?

There is so much light allowed to flow through this giant main room that the feeling is unlike any other cathedral/abbey/basilica that I have ever visited.

He thought of every single detail, down to the thickness of the glass; varying the thickness to control the light's intensity.

It's not hard to see why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 5th on the World's Top Landmarks. I see a Gaudi-specific trip in our future....

Our hotel was in the center of the city, just a block from Plaza Catalunya.

I love the colours!

La Sagrada Familia from our hotel rooftop.

It was gorgeous weather, chilly but not nearly as cold as London. Look at all the blue!!!
This is just a teaser. All about our trip, favourite bits and all the pictures coming soon.

Suffice it to say while I'm working on the next post...we WILL be going back to Barcelona. Cracked into the top 3 trips we've made.

Heavy rain had delayed play on Friday during the Second Round. 3 inches in 48 hours made little lakes on the fairways so we were just praying the weather cleared so that our day at the Open wouldn't be affected.

We made it!

A beautiful and historic course. This course is nearly 600 years old. St Andrews is the Home of Golf. Amazing to be here.

HOME OF GOLF
We took to exploring the town while there was nothing to watch at the Old Course.

I did as much research as I could for the short time we had to prepare and I found this bakery on Trip Adviser. The most recommended thing was gone by the time we wandered over there, of course. So no fudge doughnuts for us and it makes me sad :(

We did get a couple of treats in lieu of the fudge doughnut and if this shortbread and jam Open biscuit is any indication of the overall product, I'm sure it was INCREDIBLE! Worth a trip back for the doughnut... ;) We got this and a chocolate caramel shortbread bar. Those bars are very common sweets so they are usually just OK but the one from here was outstanding! Caramel was perfectly salty to offset the chocolate.

Market Street and the fountain

Wandering at the right place at the right time caused us to cross paths with John Anderson! He was in town on the job and if anyone would recognise a Sports Center celeb, it would be Taylor. I was bold enough to stop him for a picture and everyone was pretty excited about it.

I don't even know but it's so pretty!

St Andrews Cathedral (allllll the heart eyes)
Right by the water on a perfect day. (minus the wind)

St Andrews Castle

Opposite the Castle. I want to live here.

St Andrews University
I would not even be mad if our children want to study here. I'll go with them!

The department of Logic and Metaphysics building
Couldn't be more beautiful.

The University Cathedral and Square.
Taylor is in there for some perspective :)

Back at the course at 5:30pm at the winds have finally calmed down and the players are ready to finish Round 2 from the day before!

Because of the delay and the fact that very few groups were actually playing, the crowds were massive in very concentrated areas. This is 17th hole where very kind people let the short girl up to the front :) Dustin Johnson can drive the ball a mile. This twist makes me believe it!

Tiger Woods crossing the famous Swilken Bridge. Tiger in real life.
Too bad he was the 8th from the bottom out of 150 players...including amateurs...

We took a nice long drive along the coast on the way to our airbnb in Edinburgh. Favourite spot was this little harbour. The tide was so low that these boats were tipped on their side in the sand. Gorgeous sunset. Well done, Scotland.