Spring Break Blog-a-Palooza, Part 1: Marturanos in London

It's been a while.
20 days (March 22-April 10) and 5 cities (London, Paris, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Brussels). We have a lot to cover.

I will be splitting my coverage of my spring break travels into a couple of sections. This first part covers London, March 22-27, which I shared entirely with my family.
Here it is in pictures and captions. Enjoy!

March 22-March 27: The Marturano Family in London

The Park Lane Hotel in London, where my family and I stayed during the duration of our time in London together. Definitely beats my dorm flat!

An old looking book at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I went to with my mom and sister. It makes me think of this

Inspirational, isn't it? Just kidding, this is painfully sad.

There was a David Bowie exhibit. We didn't go, but this poster more than made up for it. #neverforget

My brother Jimmy could carry my bag, even though it was nearly as big as he is!

A great place to be, no doubt.

We went to Oxford. The bookshop here, Blackwell, is one of the most highly regarded bookstores in the world.

Does it look familiar? Does it, Harry?

Latin isn't quite dead yet

Oxford is full of awesome architecture!

They fully embrace the Harry Potter movies/books at Oxford as well. Hogwarts U.

This is one of the "colleges", which is Oxford-British for "dormitory". Seriously, the best comparison are the houses in Harry Potter (except you get to pick for yourself). Students apply to one of the 30 or so "colleges" and basically live and participate socially there during their time as Oxford students. No, there isn't a Gryffindor, I asked.

On the way to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's Hometown), we stopped at Anne Hathaway's house. [the one that isn't the actress]

Stratford-upon-Avon. Kind of fun, if you like Shakespeare!

I'm one of the people who think that William Shakespeare didn't actually exist, so, for me, it's sort of like going into Mickey Mouse's house. Still fun though.

There it is! Thatched Roof and all. The snow is real, by the way, we had horrible weather during our time in London. Side note: for a place that gets a ton of precipitation (mostly rain), the people of England don't really handle snow well. I'm not sure why. They handle public transportation incredibly well, isn't fighting the elements just an extension of that? Oh well, I digress...

Easily the best beer I've had anywhere. I don't think I can say more than "Banana Bread Beer" to explain why.

Adding to the Shakespeare experience, we explored the Globe Theatre (in London), or at least the new replica they built and actually perform shows in. It's a pretty cool place if you're into, well, plays by Shakespeare.

Jimmy and me outside the Tower of London. I really enjoyed walking around this riverside fortress. Castles/fortresses in general will always be fun for me. England was a good choice to study abroad in.

Not the best picture of the Tower Bridge, but this is the view from the Tower of London.

My family and I decided to show our appreciation for the Beatles and (like many others) wrote our names on the wall outside Apple Studios, which of course is located on...

...Abbey Road! If you can't tell, cars don't particularly like everyone taking this picture all the time. I'm pretty sure I ruined this. Jimmy and my Dad nailed the poses. The real hero, though, is the lady who took our picture, because that is HARD to do with a zillion cars honking at you. Useful traffic tip in London: Don't take Abbey Road to and from work.

It was my birthday March 26. To celebrate we went to MASH Steak House, which has the best steaks in London in my opinion (at least the best meal that I had). I'm 21 now by the way. I'm also graduating college next year. I feel old.

Next stop: Paris!

Being in London with my family was a lot of fun. After spending three months here, it was really a unique experience to show them around a city in another country (given, the fact they speak English here helps a lot). I was really glad that they all came out to see me during my brother and sister's spring break. Fortunately, that wasn't the end of the fun - our family vacation continued through the English Channel into Paris! Stay tuned for more!