Yanks in the UK

I realize how delinquent I have been with any updates and keeping in touch. My lazy weekend outlook has motivated me to send an update and trick myself in feeling like I am having a chat to catch up with everyone.
The UK survived the Smalley Triple and me, Hollee and Hope had a fantastic time. I played the role of tour guide and packed a five day London itinerary into three, and while they were both sad for the trip to end, I think they were also secretly happy to depart for home and have the feeling in their feet return. We covered a mix of the typical touristy attractions and even found a few unique places. Part of our travels included a tour of Buckingham Palace since the girls were here during the brief open season and I had never been to visit either. I convinced them to abandon the headset audio tour in favor of my dramatic reading of my guide book. A small group of Asian tourists also found my tour more appealing and started to follow us since clearly my description of the various palace rooms was much better than what that dusty headset was giving out.
We took a risk on the accommodations and rented a room at the London School of Political Science and Economics. During the summer months they rent the rooms to tourists while the students are away. Definitely redefines what we would think of when you see Bed and Breakfast. Also confirms that it is a good thing there are so many years between each of us since three Smalley girls at college living together would definitely be a disaster (or a really lucrative idea for reality TV).
During this visit I also discovered a new found favorite – guided walking tours. I always knew they existed but passed over in favor of my own pace and itinerary. However, we joined one in Oxford and I now have a new found appreciation for following someone else around for 2 hours, sipping on a coffee and pausing to take a picture every now and again. I found this especially interesting since I have been living in Oxford for almost a year and had no idea about how much was surrounding me. Turns out my daily walk to the train station and back to my apartment does not contain as much rich history as some of the other parts of the town. We lucked out and had an enthusiastic (AKA manic) Austrian woman who has been living in Oxford for 50 years and during that time has developed some serious underground connections. She was sneaking us into closed university property, had us skulking down alleys and whispering. I’m convinced she was making up some of the facts, but we enjoyed every minute of it and confirms my thinking that history is a little more interesting when you exaggerate some parts.
I really enjoyed showing a new city to my sisters and pointing out history, reading stories from our guide book, or making up new tourist information (can anyone really confirm what the Queen does in all of those rooms – I think not).
Next up – Oktoberfest. Auf Wiedersehen!