An Unexpected and Amazing Day in London

Sunday, April 6, 2008

We didn't really have any plans for today, except dinner plans at 6:30 p.m., so we weren't really sure of what we were going to do. When we got up we got a major surprise, almost 2 inches of snow on the ground, and more snow continuing to fall. It was so beautiful. We weren't going to let that stop us, we wanted to get out in it. We took the dogs out, and Daisy Adair enjoyed playing in the snow for the first time, while Willow continued her favorite past time of eating the snowballs.

Some of the snow around our place:


A beautiful snow covered tree:


When we got inside I looked on the internet to see what the best way to get to Benihana for dinner was and noticed that there were a few bus routes that were going to be interrupted today so I looked further and found out that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch Relay was passing through London at 11:00 am. As it was 11 am at that time we decided to get ready real quick and go into town to see it pass. We decided we would go to China Town to watch it. We were glad we did, there was so much more ambiance there than just on the main streets.

Greg at the torch relay:


Tami at the torch relay ceremonies:


There were Chinese dragons and tigers entertaining the massive crowd until the torch arrived. There were thousands of people in China Town to watch the torch go by, and lots of them with flags for Tibet. After the torch had gone by the 5 mascots for the Olympics went by as well, dancing and bouncing down the street in their inflatable constumes. My favorite is the panda bear, although the flame had a lot more bounce and energy.

Here is the main mascot:


The flame mascot:


The cute Panda mascot:


A 4th mascot:


Once the torch went by we decided we would go up to Trafalgar Square, since that was the next stop, to see it go by again. Here there had to be over 10,000 people around. When we got there we were trying to find a spot to watch the torch go by and about that time someone took off through the route and was tackled and dragged away by a bunch of cops. This was apparently the theme of the day, the "Free Tibet" protestors were constantly trying to get the flame or put the flame out, one person even tried to use a fire extinguisher to put it out, to no avail. We started walking down the stairs to the main part of Trafalgar Square and we saw some protestors who swam through the fountains to the top to wave their flags and shout.

Protestors in the fountain:


We began to wander through the massive crowds and realized that most of them were just there to protest and not really there for the torch, so we decided we didn't want to be any part of that and headed out of there.

We first walked over to Covent Garden and had a snack and some tea at Paul's, a great patisserie. We then caught a bus, one of the Old Routemasters, out to Harrods. This was exciting because it was the first time that we had actually gotten to ride on one of the old buses. When we got to Harrods we walked around and killed time, only buying some tea and triple sec, before heading across the street to rest our feet and have a drink.

The view from the window of the Old Routemaster:


After our drink we caught a bus down towards Regent Street and Oxford Street to kill some time before dinner. We went in to Godiva, Apple, and Hamley's. Hamley's is almost the equivalent of FAO Schwartz, it is London's very large and popular toy store. I was able to get a couple Hamley's Ty Beanie Babies and a pound puppie, I named him Torch. Then it was time for some food, we had both been looking forward to Benihana for a couple of days, and man was it worth it.

We were soooo stuffed when we left there but man was it good. When we got back to our flat we saw Jamie in his kitchen so we spent a few minutes with him, catching up, before heading back to the flat to finish watching the race and to get ready for bed.

A day in the life of William Shakespeare

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, we decided to take a bus trip out to the lovely town of Stratford-Upon-Avon, this is the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We arrived around 11:30 am and headed straight for the town centre and information center. We opted to take the hop on hop off bus around town, since we didn't have too much time. We were very glad we did, since some of the houses were quite a way's drive.

We started our journey at Anne Hathaway's cottage (William Shakespeare's wife). The cottage was very cute, and proved how small people used to be back then. Right about the time we arrived it started to rain, and it pretty much continued to rain the remainder of the day, oh well, you still make the best out of it. The cottage and the grounds were very nice, especially seeing the inside of the cottage. The beds were so small and the mattresses were basically suspended by ropes, not boards, I was surprised.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage:


We got back on the bus and went to Mary Arden's farm. This house was much larger than Anne Hathaway's cottage, mainly because it was an entire farm. The house itself was not bigger but there was much more on the land, more buildings, more space, and more animals. We started out by having a light lunch in the cafe before starting to wander the farm. After lunch we went to the falcon show, but we were disappointed because he would just have the kids take turns to put on the glove and have the falcon fly to them. We had seen much better bird shows so we decided to continue on around the farm. We went into the tudor house, which was very small, but the upstairs was not sturdy enough any longer for human traffic, so it was closed off.

Tami walking through a kid's maze, apparently, in the Orchard:


Outside of the tudor house was the stables, where there were 2 very cute cocker spaniels, and a pig sty. We got to the sty and there were no pigs to be seen, so I started making kissy noises for them to come out, and low and behold 2 very enormous pigs came charging and snorting out of their hiding place in my direction. Well, needless to say they scared me and I jumped back a few paces. Oh well, they were still cute.

The attacking pigs:


We then walked over to the open pastures and orchards to see lots of sheep, even baby sheep in jackets, donkeys, more pigs, horses, and even a few longhorns.

Cute baby sheep:


We then caught the bus to go back into town where we went to Shakespeare's birthplace. We toured the inside of the house and the grounds, it was very quaint inside and all of the furniture was still authentic. It was neat even seeing how the walls were kind of crooked, since everything was built by hand, with logs and mortar and such.

The back and grounds of Shakespeare's Birthplace:


Next door was the Creaky Cauldron, the museum of witchcraft and wizardry. We went inside but were running short on time so we did not take the tour, next time we will. They had lots of Harry Potter memorabilia in there, so I can't wait to be able to take the full tour.

We walked through town to see many old buildings, Nash's House and Gardens, the Old Theatre, the Avon River, and onto Holy Trinity Church. This is where William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway are both buried, so we went inside to see their very unimpressive graves. There was however a very impressive bust of William Shakespeare, along with a beautiful organ. I have realized that the organ is my favorite part of churches.

Shakespeare's grave:


Shakespeare's bust in the Holy Trinity Church:


We left the church and continued our walk through town heading by Hall's Croft, Mason's Court (a very very crooked house), and the American Fountain, which was very nice.

It was getting close to time to leave so we stopped in at the Pen & Parchment for a quick drink before catching the bus back to London.

Greg sitting back and enjoying his beer:

Put a Cork in it........

Sunday, March 16 2008

On our last day in Cork, we got up and had a full Irish Breakfast at the B&B we were staying at before heading into town. Everything was very quiet on Sunday morning, so we got a chance to go see many of the sites that we wanted to without worrying about a crowd. Our first stops were St. Patricks Catholic Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church, and St. Mary's Dominican Priory (you can hardly turn around in Cork without seeing a church.) We then walked over to the Cork Craft Center and St. Ann Shandons, which is also known as the "four-faced liar" since it has a clock on each side of the tower and the times on all of them don't always match up.

Greg with the Beamish brewery in the background



The four faced liar


We continued to walk through town, enjoying all of the colorful houses and buildings like the Cork Vision Center and Bishop Lucey Park which had a really nice crane fountain. We also went by the Beamish Brewery and I was surprised to see a Miller flag flying above the building.

St. Finnebarre's Cathedral


We then walked over to St. Finnbarre's Cathedral which had beautiful architecture and statues before walking over to Elizabeth Fort. On the way, we saw a really funky crane sitting on the wall, which was more exciting than the actual Fort. Afterwards, we headed down to the Red Abbey, which consists of the ruins of an Abbey that used to be on the site, and saw a small church that had a cute bell in the bell tower.

We then continued our tour of downtown by heading over to Holy Trinity Church, Parliament and some of the bridges in the area leading over to the National Monument, which would have been more impressive if they weren't doing repairs in the area which required them to put barricades around the actual monument. We walked by yet another cool looking church near Paul Street, and saw the Father Mathew Statue at St. Patricks Street.

Holy Trinity Church


One of the bridges around town


After we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see, we went to the small street market that was up for St. Patricks Day and had a hot chocolate (since it was cold). We walked around and looked at all of the vendors, then headed over to Clancy's, the oldest pub in Cork, for a drink and a little relaxing. After that, we headed back to the market and grabbed some lunch from the street market.... a tomato and cheese crepe for Tami and a toasted ham and cheese panini for Greg. While we were there, we also saw some people who had decorated their bicycles as animals and were driving them around, as well as some singers and a puppet show (which wasn't as creepy as you would have expected.) After that, it was time to collect our luggage and head to the airport to come back home.

One of the animal bikes roaming around the city

It's beginning to look alot a like Christmas!!....in April

Well, we woke up to the most beautiful white surprise, it had REALLY snowed over night, and everything was covered. So, what a way to torture the dogs, by taking them out in it, but they did have fun.

All 3 girls in the snow:


The spastic Daisy Adair:

Kiss my Blarney Stone

On Friday, March 14, 2008, we headed to Cork, Ireland, in preparation for Saint Patrick's Day. Friday was a pretty uneventful day as Greg had to work still, so we sat around a hotel lobby (not where we were staying) for some free wi-fi. I read and did crossword puzzles while Greg worked. Once he was done working we decided to walk around a bit and grab some dinner before heading to our hotel. I want to start off by saying that Cork was very odd in the fact that it was trying NOT to be Irish, therefore, it was impossible to find some good Irish food. Friday was Cork's late night shopping night so most stores were open to 9 or 10 pm, which was good for us. We went to several stores and Greg made up my boring day by buying me some Rocket Dog satin black ballet type shoes, they are so cute. After hitting all the major stores there (though not buying anything) we decided to have dinner at Star China, the first Chinese food we have had (other than Wagamama's) since we moved to London; even though we did have curry there, it was excellent Chinese food.

Saturday was a much more exciting day. We got up early and got on a bus to Blarney, we missed our stop and had to ride the bus to the end of the route and wait for him to come back, oh well 5 others on the bus missed the stop as well. So, we get to Blarney and we go to the Blarney Castle, before any of the major crowds. Right as we arrived it had just started to drizzle, but that was okay we were in Ireland and we expected that. We walked around the castle, making our way up to the very top. The Blarney Castle was more of ruins of a castle, rather than an actual castle, so there isn't a roof which meant that everything inside was wet, including the very slippery, spiral stairs. That's okay we took our time and finally made it all the way up. Once we got there we went to kiss the blarney stone.

The Blarney Castle:


Looking up at the top of the castle, where someone else is kissing the Blarney Stone (as you can see also it is pouring down rain):


For those of you who don't know about the Blarney stone, let me tell you, it is not a simple matter of walking up to a stone and kissing it. You have to lie down on your back, on the side wall of the castle, where someone will hold your feet while you grab on to 2 metal bars behind your head, and you slide backwards over the wall to kiss the blarney stone, you don't stay down very long as you would get a severe head rush. Once we both kissed the blarney stone we headed back down the castle and to the Rock Gardens, which was probably the coolest part of the castle.

Tami kissing the Blarney Stone:


There were 8 stones that make up the rock garden. My favorite ones were the Dolmen, Wishing Steps, Witches Kitchen, and the Witches Stone. The Dolmen was pretty cool, it was the large rock that was just kind of perched on a few other rocks and just suspended in air. It has been there for centuries and still kind of rocks back and forth but never actually falls.

Greg holding up the Dolmen:


The tree at the Witches Kitchen (the actual kitchen is underneath at the left of the picture, but it is very dark):


The Wishing Steps are rock steps that legend says if you go up and down them with your eyes closed and you think nothing of a wish the entire time then you will have a wish granted. It is also underneath a beautiful waterfall.

The Wishing Steps:


The Witches Kitchen was my favorite area. You walk to this very old creepy tree with lots of creeping roots coming out of the ground and going back in. The tree looks very dark and twisted, reminds me of Sleepy Hollow. Well, the best part is under the tree, the back side of the tree is on a hill and underneath that part of the tree the hill is carved out and there is a cave there. In the back of the cave is a dug out kitchen, where you can see things that have been burned, as in a kitchen.

The last favorite was the Witches Stone. This is a natural stone that looks like a witches face. The legend is that there was a witch that lived in the woods outside the castle grounds and would go in and steal things from the castle, including animals for food and plants.

The Witches Stone....see the face of the witch in the right side


We got back on a bus to Cork where we took another bus to Middleton. When we got to Middleton we actually got off the bus too early (afraid we were going to miss our stop again) and had to walk to into town, no big deal. Once we arrived it had really started raining and we were pretty soaked. We were trying to find the Middleton Distillery but were having no luck so we decided we needed to eat lunch and regroup. We went into a local shop that had pizza and sandwiches and such. Everyone in there eating was local, so we knew it was a decent place to eat. Once we were done we decided to look for the distillery again, and low and behold we were only a block away, oh well. We went in and got ready for the tour of the distillery. This Middleton Distillery was closed in 1975, and a new one is just down the road, but they keep this one open for tours and such. The Middleton Distillery is where Jameson is made. The tour was very cool, we got to see how they used to make whiskey and even see a large water wheel that was used to power the plant. There was the largest still in the world as well here, in held over 300,000 gallons, it was gigantic.

Not the largest still but a pretty big one, can you see Greg in the picture?


The large water wheel that powers the plant:


At the end of the tour they ask for 5 volunteers to do a whiskey taste test, I assumed that people would be jumping to fight for the chance to do the whiskey test, but no, only 4 people, including Greg volunteered, so I decided not to let the tasting be wasted so I did it as well, I was the only girl. It was good, you have 3 Irish whiskies, 1 Scotch, and 1 American whiskey, of course it was Jack Daniels. Greg still liked the Scotch the best and I chose the Jameson. During the tasting we met 3 people from Philly on vacation, Peter, Joey and Robert. We ended up riding back on the bus to Cork with them and just talking to them.

Our whiskey tasting:


When we got back to Cork we ended up walking to McCurtain Street where we went to a couple of pubs before heading to dinner. We ate supper at Isaac's, which was recommended in several places that we had seen, and the food was worth it. I had large crab claws and Greg had risotto cakes. We topped it off with a Banoffee Caramel Cake (to die for). We then went to another pub and met some people from Seattle, before heading back to our hotel for the evening.

Loving the snow......

Although it didn't stick we have had a lot of snow falling over the past two days. Thought I would share a picture and a few videos, since this was Daisy Adair's first time around snow (she didn't seem impressed).

Willow in what little snow did stick:




A short video of Daisy Adair sitting in the window while the snow is falling behind her:

Happy Easter...... It's Snowing!

Look what the Easter Bunny brought us



Isn't it supposed to be Spring?

Around London Town in March

The past couple of weekends have been a bit relaxing, just hanging around town and hanging out with friends.

This was Friday, February 29, 2008:


On Saturday, March 1, we headed out to Hammersmith to meet up with Rebecca and Dan. The 4 of us hopped a bus and headed to Richmond for some lunch and just to hang out. We walked around Richmond a bit first before grabbing a bite to eat and some drinks at The Slug and Lettuce. Man did we eat waaaaaayyyy too much food. Next we decided to go relax and watch a movie, Juno. It was so cute, I really enjoyed the movie. It was getting a little late and we had an hour trip home so we parted ways so we could get back to the dogs.

Sunday, March 2, was our day together, we decided to go to the Camden Market, we have lived her for about 8 months now and had never been, we live so close to it too. We had heard great things about it so we decided to go. We didn't get too much, just some books and a painting of Moulin Rouge on canvas. The best thing was all the food vendors, there were so many of them, and it all looked really good. They had everything from chinese, indian, mexican, english, greek, caribbean, and on and on. We started out with some plantains, then got some noodles from a chinese place, and then ended up with a chicken fajita, it was all very delicious. We can't wait to go back during the warmer months, they have a lot of outside seating on the water front, and lots of pubs on the canal, should be a good time to hang out. We did get a beer then got a coffee/hot chocolate for the journey home.

One of the bridges at the Camden Lock:


This is our favorite burrito place in Atlanta: Willy's


Now, this is the burrito place at the Camden Market:


Part of the market called The Stables:




The next weekend we had even more time with friends, starting out Friday with our neighbor Jamie. He is the one who got us into see the Harry Potter sets. We had to work until 9 so we got a late start (but Jamie started without us) by going to the Unicorn, a local pub that we have always gone by but never in, they have live music every weekend. It was a good band, kind of bluesy-rock. We had a couple drinks and hung out before heading next door for some late night Indian food, yummy! Jamie had to be up at 5:30 the next morning so we agreed to go on back so he could get some sleep.

Saturday, March 8, saw us going to a new area of London, called the Docklands. We went to Carolina and Phillips place (the couple we met in Bruges) for an afternoon cookout and just to hang out and get to know each other. We had a great time there, watching sports, eating, talking, drinking, and watching Run Fat Boy Run. Phil made a wonderful bbq for us that included, chicken, beef, pork chops, and 3 types of sausages, there was enough meat there to feed an army....I mean Troy. We also had a really good salad to go with it. We got along with them very well and even talked about getting together in a couple of weeks to go for a drive near the coast. That will be fun. We caught the train back to our side of town and got home around 10:30 to walk the dogs and watch some tv before heading to bed.

Here is Phil and Greg having a beer:


Me and Carolina with the sausages:


Sunday, March 9, started with Greg and me going to see The Other Boleyn girl, that was a good movie too. Afterwards we went to Borders and then met up with Rebecca & Dan for a late lunch and some wine at the Earl of Camden. We had attempted to go there on New Year's Eve but it was too loud, so they went there for lunch, and we joined them. It was a good lunch and we had a good time hanging out. We then took a walk up to Primrose Hill (always amazing scenery) and down to Chalk Farm before it started to rain (again!). Dan & Rebecca hopped a bus and Greg and I ran into a cafe for something warm to drink, and to get out of the rain. Once it quit raining we headed on back to the house.

As you can see we haven't been doing too much but keeping it low key, but we have been having a lot of fun just hanging out with our friends in London.

I even got to hang out on Monday with our neighbor Lisa, her daughter Lili and husband Terry, they are all such nice people.

Everyone asks about the dogs, they are doing great, so here are some pics of them:

Chewy has been more playful lately then she has been in years.


And here is the snow bunny herself, Willow:


Good ole' Daisy Adair, always the comedian:

more beer and chocolate.... Bruges Day 2

Sunday, February 24 2008

The next day, we figured we could sleep in a bit longer than 4:30, so we slept in a bit and had breakfast at the hotel before heading out into town. The cool thing about Bruges is that there is a lot of medieval architecture around, so when you walk around you are always seeing new things. Whenever we went back to areas we'd been before, we always made sure to take different routes, going down alleys that we hadn't been down before because you always see something different and interesting. We walked around in the morning before everything opened up (it was Sunday after all), and ended up having a hot chocolate at De Proeverie. They bring you a cup of hot milk with a little bowl of melted chocolate on top that you dump into the milk and make your own hot chocolate. After we finished our chocolate, we went into an Art Gallery and then into the Diamond Museum. The most interesting thing in the Museum was a large robot called Boris that made synthetic diamonds. It apparently still works, but they only run it for special occasions, so we didn't get to see it.

This is one of the places that the canal boats leave from


Our Hot Chocolate

After the Museum, we walked over to the Minnewater section of town which was very beautiful, and then over to the Half Moon Brewery (Halve Maan). The tour was pretty cool, although it involved more stairs. *sigh* The best part however was the pint of Bruges Zot that we got at the end. We enjoyed our beer with a couple that was also from London. We then had lunch at a little tearoom called t' Eekhoetje.

Tami at Minnewater

We had decided to grab a few chocolates from several different chocolatiers to see who was the best, so we headed over to Dumons, which had been recommended by Rick Steve's. The chocolate was really good, and the people inside were very friendly. We then walked over to a jewelry store, but Tami didn't see anything she wanted (or that I could afford). Then we were close to the Market where you can pick up a horsedrawn carriage, so we decided to do that. The ride was nice and relaxing. After the ride, we went to the Frietkot, a frites (french fries) stand in the center of town that had amazing fries. After that, we decided to get a little culture, so went to the Church of Our Lady, where the highlight was a statue called Madonna and Child that was created by Michelango and is the only statue of his to leave Italy while he was alive.

Greg at the Half Moon Brewery

We got more chocolate from the Chocolate Line shop, then walked way out to the other side of town, where there was a bar where everyone was very friendly. We didn't get the name, but we were told to look for the large champagne bottles in the window. We found it, and the staff was very friendly. After that, it was a hunt to find a place to eat. Places were starting to close, but we ended up finding a place called Poules Moules that was open, had good food, and wasn't too expensive. As a bonus, the staff was really friendly as well. Even though we were pretty stuffed, our time was almost up and we hadn't had a belgium waffle yet, so we went to a place that was open and had one with banana's and chocolate. It was excellent, but we were so full when we were done. We ended up walking back to the hotel since we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch the train and get back before we had to work.

Tami being attacked by the horse

In Bruges

Saturday, February 23 2008

We got up early on Saturday morning to for a quick weekend trip to Bruges which is in Belgium. We took the 7:00 am train so that we arrived in Brussels around 10:00am, where we picked up another train to have us in Bruges by around 11:30. We checked into our hotel and stashed our luggage, then had lunch at L'estaminet, a local place recommended by our hotel as not being a touristy place to eat. The food was good, I had a Croque Monsieur and Tami had a Toast Maison. The food was really good, and we even had a local beer with lunch to get us started (we are in a place known for it's beer after all).

Tami in front of the canals

After lunch, we walked around town a bit and saw the sights, going through a section of town called the Burg and then over to the Market, which is the central square. The Belfort is also located there, and it is a tower that has 47 bells. You can go up to the top of the bell tower, but it is 366 circular stairs. Unfortunately, we were not smart enough to heed the warnings and we made the trek up, but we were glad we did. We were at the top of the tower when it chimed the hour. Fortunately it was 2:00 and not 12:00 because it was loud.
A Statue in the Burg


A view of the Market

After making our way down all of the steps, we were a little rubber legged, but still had so much to see. We walked around the town, checking out a bunch of shops. We found a really cool tea and coffee shop that had a lot of different teas, so we bought a few to take back with us. We then took the long way over to the Chocolate Museum to see how they made chocolate. It was alright, but honestly we liked the demo in Brussels better, but we didn't turn down the free sample at the end! We'd been on our feet for way too long, so we found a little tea shop and had tea and a selection of mini cakes. Having rested, we headed over and took the canal boat tour through town, then walked around town a little bit more, buying some chocolate and looking at the Bottle Shop, a store that has hundreds of different beers, but we didn't buy any (yet.) Instead, we headed over to 't Brugsbeertje, a bar that has over 300 different types of Belgium beer on their menu. We tried some, although Tami got a Kriek beer that was sour which she wasn't terribly impressed with. After that, we headed back to the Bottle Shop to load up and ended up eating at a restaurant in the Market area. The food was excellent (I had Flemish Beef Stew and Tami had Schnitzel plus we split an appetizer of Mussels,) but honestly the place was a bit underhanded and a rip off. Even though the food was great, I would never go back to that place.

Tami on the canal boat


View from the canal boat