Home, Sweet Home. At least for a day....

It's Kevin, finally back in KY. Amber and I are still tired, even though we went to sleep at 8 last night. Of course, we woke up at 6 AM, and while 10 hours of sleep might sound like a lot, I still feel like I have cobwebs in my head.

Unfortunately, I am off to Bowling Green today for a 5-day AP English workshop. I am kind of looking forward to it, b/c I am a huge dork who wants to learn, but I wish I had a little more time to lie around and enjoy the beauty of the LEX.

We watched England pull out a 1-0 win of Ecuador this morning, and missed the atmosphere a little bit, but at this point wearing my David Beckham shirt on the couch is a much more comfortable option.

My hotel is BG is supposed to have a computer, and I will have a lot of free time in the evening, so I will try to put some more thoughts on the blog later on this week.

So, keep on checking up. We will probably change the focus to the wedding planning here soon, so if that is any interest to you, stay tuned!

The Final Leg.

It's Kevin. I am sitting here in the lobby of a London hotel near the airport, completely pooped. It was a long couple of plane rides back to London, at least they seemed long, as we all had a very late night and an early morning. Oh well, at least it was fun.

I have gotten a couple of emails about "the boys" not caring about food and letting Amber starve. Trust me, as I have told Amber on several occassions, when she is hungry the person who suffers the most is me. Anyway, we have been eating a local specialty, the 3 im weggler (sp?) it seems like everytime we turn around. We all got food pretty quickly after the blog posting, so don't worry. And the German food is great.

Germany was a lot of fun. It had a nice small town feel, even though one of the biggest events in the world was taking place. A lot like Stratford. And I already miss it, since I was quickly reminded I was back in England when I hit my head on the cab door. I swear to God, I have no idea how Peter Crouch (an England soccer player who is 6'7") survives in this country. Although I appreciate having a TV station in English that is not MTV or the ring-tone channel.

There are a lot more stories to tell, and even more that won't be, at least here on a public blog. I mean, come on people, my mom reads this! But I am tired, and hungry, so the stories will have to wait. I cannot wait to see KY!

BOO GHANA!!! TY PENNINGTON IS HOT IN PERSON!!! Well, we went to the big game today, and sadly, we lost. The penalty kick they were awarded was absolute crap, and Kevin and I both have problems with the Ghana players acting like whiny babies and falling down so much that he called them the Ghana swimming and diving team. But it was awesome seeing all the American fans decked out in gear, screaming and singing our anthem. I was pumped to see that Dempsey, my favorite player, score the lone American goal and Kevin and I promptly did the "Lean With It, Rock With It" dance (that Dempsey made famous a couple of games ago) and we think somewhere in the world on some station, we were caught doing that live. Hopefully nowhere in the US!!! I did get to have my picture taken with Ty Pennington (the HOT dude from Extreme Home Makeover). I think he was trying to be incognito, but he only had shades and a hat on, and I noticed his biceps instantly! He was very gracious when I asked for a picture! It was a great experience all around, even if my voice is gone and I'm heavily dissapointed. We're off to eat dinner....it's like 10 p.m. here. The boys never seem to care about food...I, however, am famished and weak with hunger ALL THE TIME!!!

Germans are Bigger Than the British

Kevin here. Amber filled you in on most of the details. The flight was pretty smooth, except for losing her luggage, and the hotel and area are very nice. You may know that The Lon and Mainous were originally were going to sleep on the floor. However, there are open rooms at our hotel, so they will have their own room. Which is nice for everyone involved.

One of the first things I noticed about Germay and our hotel is that it is much more accomodating to people over the height of five feet. I can only assume that Germans on whole, are just larger people throughout history than the British. Not to make a sweeping generalization, but hey, I have to call´em like I see´em.

I don`t think our little 'burg is used to American tourists just wandering around. At least that is the impression I got when The Lon and I were looking for a grocery store. Everyone just looked at us like we weren't wearing pants. But we were. I checked.

We are out exploring today, so it should be fun. Ther Germans were going bananas last night with their big 3-0 win over Ecuador. Lots of cheering, songs, honking, etc. We are supposed to meet up with Mainous tonight. Hopefully it will be as easz as running into The Lon.

Luggage Lost, But Now It´s Back!!!

Amber here. We got up early yesterday and flew out of London to Amsterdam, had a short layover there and arrived in Nuremberg, Germany around 2 p.m. And yes, Kevin's luggage made it, but mine did not. Needless to say, I was less than happy about this, but I reported it and the nice man at the Nuremberg Airport said there were several flights still coming in from Amsterdam and they would just deliver my bag to my hotel when it arrived in Germany. Kevin and I managed to find our way to the subway, buy tickets, etc. with the help of the lovely German ladies who are posted all around the town at FIFA World Cup 2006 Help Stattions. They gave us maps to our hotel, told us what subway and trains to take and even showed us how to buy tickets. Very helpful people! We got off at our train stop (close to our hotel) and who did we run into right there--Shevlin! Apparently, he was on the same train as us the whole time, just in a different car and so it was the easiest meet up in a foreign country I've ever expereinced. We found our hotel, the Park Hotel, and were delighted to discover that it's beautiful, quaint, and even has a REAL bathroom with a tub and a shower with a continuous flow of hot water!!! YIPPEE! The owners are very nice and live in a beautiful house right next to us. It's in the suburbs of a nice, upscale neighborhood, so it's quiet when it's time to sleep.

After showering and putting on the same thing I'd already had on, the three of us when down to Fan Fest, where FIFA has set up these massive television screens, food stands, etc. for World Cup fans to watch the games. It was great eating and drinking with fans from all over the world, all decked out in their country's gear and screaming and yelling. We watched the England v. Sweden game (2-2) and took pictures. Shevlin was treated like a god by another England fan who just couldn't believe he knew so much about football! Well, I let Kevin fill you in on the rest. We're off to explore Nuremeberg, the old town, today and then hit the game tomorrow afternoon. It comes on at 10 a.m. USA time, so look for us! We#ll be decked out in US gear!!!!

It's Amber!!!

This will be as quick as I can get it, so don't mind the punctuation, spelling, etc. I#we got five minutes before we need to head to the Tube to get to Heathrow Airport. Okay, so Kevin said I'm supposed to update about two days ago, etc. Two days ago, I about died of exhaustion because we walked the entire Hyde Park, looking for statues, memorial fountains, Kensington Gardens. I was amazed by the size of the park and the sheer volume of people skating, sunbathing, etc. We even saw a little dog, who was amazing at playing soccer with his owners! We also enjoyed the British Museum---I liked the mummified cats best! The jack the Ripper walk was great, hosted by the most famed author on the subject. We went to several places throughout the City of London, etc. where the murders took place, heard graphic details and much historical fact, and even saw the place where he left his chalk message to the police. It was pretty cool, but exhausting after all the other walking we did that day!

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity. We started the morning with a Shakespeare walk, which included a morning boat tour of the city. We got off on the South Side of London, which is where Shakespeare lived and worked and saw the old place where the original Globe Theatre stood and what remains of the original London Bridge, complete with Nancy's Steps from the Dicken's novel, Oliver Twist. Again, our guide was great, with a deep knowledge of the subject and London history--she had us imagining we were living in the 1500 and 1600s the whole way! She also had us perform parts of Shakespeare when we were at the old Globe site. I, of course, chose to do some Romeo! Later, we walked across millennium Bridge to St. Peter's, which was nothing short of breathtaking. We hiked all the way to the top of the dome and got some awesome pictures. I could even hear Kevin whispering to me through the wall when we were in the lower gallery, even though he was on the opposite side if it. The Tower of London was fun, mainly because we went on the Beafeaters tour, and our guide was hilarious and entertaining. We saw where Ann Boleyn was killed and buried and learned of countless other imprisonments, tortures and killings. The Crown Jewels were brilliant, but I think I expected to see more. Oh well. Covent Garden later for shopping. I went into my favorite bath shop, Lush, and purchased some goodies and had shrimp for dinner. Yummy! Now it's off to Germany. World Cup---here we come!

Off to Germany!

Kevin again. Don't look so diappointed. Anyway, it is about 5:20 AM and we are on our way to the Tube to go to the airport and head to Germany. The computer has been pretty busy, so we were not able to post what we wanted to last night. In the interest of time, I will hit some bullet points and we can fill in the rest later.

Jack the Ripper tour was very cool and informative. Maybe too informative.

The Shakespeare Walk on Mon. morning included a boat ride down the river Thames. A little on the cold side, but a good way to see a lot of old London, or the City as the original area is still called.

St. Paul's was overwhelming. We climbed 530!! steps to the top of the dome.

The tour guide for the Tower of London may have been the best of the trip. It was interesting to realize that since I'm Catholic, the only way I would have been in there a couple of hundred years ago would be as a prisoner. Fortunately, they did not detain me.

A quick run home to settle a problem with my 5/3 bank card, apparantley they flagged it for fraud b/c it was being used in London, and we headed to Covent Garden, a shopping/eating area. We stumbled across the European premiere for "The Lakehouse" starring Sandra BUllock and Keanu Reeves. We waited awhile in hope of catching a glimpse, but we were starving. After wandering around, we just ate at a pub. FIsh and chips for me! We also went into Lush, an extremely nice soap store.

We have to head out. Yet ANOTHER water problem at the George, last night there wasn't any and this morning it is cold. Let's hope Germany offers better accomodations.

Next stop, Germany!

The Museum, the parks, and Jack the Ripper

Kevin here. Yesterday was the first day Amber and I actually felt worn out. We hit the British Museum early, it is within walking distance so it wasn't that big of a journey. A couple of hours in there was fun, we saw the Rosetta Stone, marbles from the Parthenon, and even Cleopatra's mummy. No sign of her daddy. Sorry, bad joke.

We also saw this group of Tibetan monks, who we had also seen in Stratford. Is it possible they are following us? Who knows, stay tuned!

Next was Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Hyde Park is the largest park in London, sort of their version of Central Park, and Kensington is pretty much connected to it. It was a nice stroll, seeing Speaker's Corner, where people were screaming about different subjects, too loud for Amber or I to actually make it out. And this is where the "worn out wave" began to strike.

Kensington Gardens has the Peter Pan statue and a fountai memorial to Princess Di. The memorial was a little difficult to find, and I was quite ready to just call it a day. In the grand scheme of historical figures you encounter in London, for me anyway, Di is pretty far down the list. But find it we did, and I cooled my feet in the flowing water. Very strange fountain and memorial, it felt a lot more like a picnic spot.

We also saw the alrgest freakin' statue here, in honor of King Albert. It is across from Royal ALbert Hall. Super big. But I guess he and Queen Victoria did do a lot for the arts and the city. But still.....

A quick walk around the palace and it was off to Piccadilly Circus, London's version of TImes Square, excpet not as much. We ate at Wagamamma's, which was highly recommended by more than a few people, and it was extremely tasty. We had a Jack the Ripper walk that night, and decided that we were walked out at that point. We headed back to the hotel, and took a nap.

THe Jack the RIpper walk was pretty cool, I'll let Amber talk more about it. It is about time for breakfast, and I have some laundry to do, or else I will have to start wearing my underwear inside out!

USA 1 - Italy 1

It's Kevin. Well, the USA stayed alive last night with a 1-1 tie against Italy. We watched it at a nearby pub, where we met some Americans from the ATL. They went to Emory, same conference as Centre, so we talked a little. It was fun, but I feel a like the US got hosed a little by the refs. The last 45 min. of the game was 9 on 10, with the US being the 9. A tie was a good showing, but a win, which was possible, would have been better.

Unfortunately, we got so wrapped up in the game, we forgot to order our food before the kitchen closed. We ended up eating a couple bags of potato chips, and then hitting the convenience store for some late night sandwiches. Amber was not happy that I overlooked the time of the kitchen closing..