Happy Holidays!!

Well here we are in December, and we were able to get a tree up for Christmas!  Now for those of you who have seen our trees in the past...we know, it's not as grand as those but we think it's cute nonetheless.  It was funny though, because before we got the lights and ornaments on it was looking a little bit more like a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree LOL  However, we do think it turned out pretty well. 

It is unbelievable how time just flies...it seems like it was just yesterday that we had moved here to London, but that was 8 months ago.  Crazy!!!  I know...I've been terrible at keeping the blog up.  I really have no excuse other than I just haven't been doing it.  I do hope to start posting in this more frequently.  I don't know if I'll get to it every day, but I do hope to post more frequently than every 3 months LOL

It does feel a little weird being over here during the holidays.  For those of you wondering, we were able to do a 'proper' Thanksgiving Dinner.  We invited two of our friends over for dinner...Joseph who is another expat from San Fran and is on the volleyball team that I played on briefly, and the other is our friend Martin who is British.  Martin was very very excited because it was the first time he was invited to a proper American Thanksgiving.  So we had to cook a turkey and all the trimmings...I even ended up cooking a green bean casserole to give him the true experience.  What is funny, is that we found a couple of specialty stores here in London that stock a lot of American products, so we were to find everything we needed.  One is a store called Partridges and the other is WholeFoods. Yes, it is the same WholeFoods that are found in the States and we have the only one (for the time being) about 3 blocks away from our flat. We found our turkey at WholeFoods and brought it home.  When we were getting ready to stuff the turkey, we unwrapped it and something just didn't look right...we had a turkey that had no legs!  We kinda chuckled, and thought it was weird but went ahead and stuffed and cooked it nonetheless.  When we served dinner and said we were a little taken aback about the turkey having no legs...Martin didn't blink an eye and said "Well, that's because you bought the crown and not the whole bird", like it was the most normal thing in the world.  It must be a British thing!!  LOL  Anyways...the dinner turned out really well and we had a really nice and memorable day.

I think that is all I'm going to write about right now...in the next couple of days I'll try and update you all on our travels over the past couple of months and also the plays/musicals we've seen (there has been quite a lot).

Irish eyes are a'smilin

I haven't had a chance yet to do the second part of the cruise update, because Darrel and I went to Dublin this past weekend.  Seeing that it is a  little bit more recent (and the cruise update is already way past due)...I figured I would tell you all about our adventure in Ireland before I finish talking about the cruise.  It might also have something to do with the fact that I still have a lot of pics to pare down from the cruise, and I'm procrastinating.  LOL!  You can believe any excuse you want :-).

OK...on to Dublin.  On Friday, we took an early morning flight from Heathrow and were in Dublin by 9:30am.  Neither one of us had been there before, and we didn't really know what to expect.  What we found was a very cute, extremely friendly and very walkable city.  Once we got a cab to our hotel, we found that we couldn't check-in to our room because we got in so early.  Seeing that we really didn't have any plans (mainly because we decided to go to Dublin at kinda the last minute...meaning earlier in the week), we just dropped our bags off and start walking aimlessly around the city.  It's funny, but since moving here to London, we tend to walk a whole helluva lot more than we did in the States.  It's a great way to see different cities, and we also get some good exercise as well. 

We ended up walking a good amount of the city on Friday.  One part of town that we walked through is called The Temple Bar, which is a small stretch of about 5 blocks that kinda reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans...meaning there were a lot of small bars and pubs (along with restaurants) that were advertising live music.  Now, we were there around noon, so these bars weren't really open (that only happens IN New Orleans) but I could imagine that it would've been probably a lot like Bourbon Street.  I had thought about trying to get back down there at night, but we never did...I guess we'll have to do that next time. 

 

Further along on our walking tour, we stumbled upon something very interesting.  We had seen a very pretty stone church in the distance...

...so we decided to walk in that direction.  Once we made it up to it, we discovered that it was Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral and it was built in the 1100's.  When we went to enter the church, we saw a posting stating that a tour of the bell tower was going to be happening within the next 10 mins.  Since our timing was impeccable (we probably couldn't have timed it better), we joined the tour and found out that we would be able to ring one of the 19 bells within the bell tower.  If you are wondering, it is quite tiring to ring one of those bells!  It was interesting, and how many people actually can say they were able to ring a church bell?!?!  LOL

On Saturday, we got up and decided to go and see The Book of Kells in the Old Library of Trinity College.  Now, you might be asking yourself what is The Book of Kells...I know I was before going to see them.  So, I thought that I would copy and paste what the website says about them...

The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin) is celebrated for its lavish decoration. The manuscript contains the four Gospels in Latin based on a Vulgate text, written on vellum (prepared calfskin), in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular majuscule".

The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location.

It has been on display in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin from the mid 19th century, and attracts over 500,000 visitors a year. Since 1953 it has been bound in four volumes. Two volumes are on public view, one opened to display a major decorated page, and one to show two pages of script. The volumes are changed at regular intervals.

I figured that would be a better definition of them for you :-) They were very interesting, but you only really got to see 2 pages from them...thankfully, we got there a little early and didn't have to wait in the queue very long.  However, the grounds of Trinity College were quite beautiful and the long hall within the Old Library was very grand (unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture within the Library), but I did take a couple of Trinity College...

Courtyard in front of the Old Library (on the left)...see the queue to get into see The Book of Kells

After Trinity College, we contiuned on our walk and went to the Guinness Storehouse. 

We both expected the Storehouse to be more of a tour of the Brewery and actually see Guinness being brewed, but in reality the Storehouse is really a tourist trap where you walk up 7 floors and get to have a "free" pint of Guiness at the bar at the top of the building.  I put free in quotes because it was a little expensive to get into the Storehouse, and there were a TON of tourists elbowing and pushing to get their "free" pint.  Needless to say...nothing is ever free ;-)  I guess it's something we can say we never have to go to again.  Now, they say that Guinness tastes better in Ireland than anywhere. That might be true...it actually wasn't as bitter nor heavy as either one of us was expecting, but neither Darrel nor I are huge fans of Guinness.  We both like Smithwicks a lot better, which is another Irish Red Ale.

On Sunday, we again walked around the city.  Below I've posted some random pics from our walks...

St. Stevens Green...it is a beautiful park about a block away from our hotel

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Random Church

I loved the ivy growing up the side of this building

After lunch on Sunday, we decided to go to an Irish Pub for a pint of Smithwicks and we stumbled upon a great Ceili (pronounced kaylee) Band.  What this is, is a band that consisted of around 7 musicians (there were a couple of guitars, a banjo, a fiddle and an accordian) who played traditional irish folksongs.  They would alternate instramental songs with singing (each member took turns singing), and even a couple of times a woman from the audience would come up and sing a song with them. 

Very blurry pic of the band...but I thought it would give you an idea of what it was like.

They were really good, and we really enjoyed it...it was a great way to end our trip to Dublin.

The Cruise Update (Part 1)

It's been awhile since I've posted on here.  I can't believe how time flies, and it's been over a month since posting last.  I know I know, I've been bad...but we have been traveling a little.  Not only on the cruise that I mentioned, but also both of us had traveled back to the States.  Well, enough excuses, on to the update...

We had a great time on our cruise.  The weather was brilliant and it was great to finally get out in the sun and have some warm weather (well, other than when we were in Tunis...but more about that in a little bit).  Surprisingly, the cruise was actually pretty relaxing.  Seeing that both Darrel and I had been on Mediterranean Cruises before, we didn't feel the need to pack so much into all the ports we went to.  It made for a much more relaxing cruise and not such a whirlwind one.  I ended up taking about 600 pics, and I still haven't edited them down yet.  However, I am posting some of them within this post...

Our first port was La Spazia, which is an Italian Port in the north part of the country.  For our excursion, we decided to get on a motorboat and travel up the coast to the Cinque Terre region.  This region consists of 5 (Cinque means 5 in Italian) small fishing towns, and we were able to visit 4 of the 5 towns (the 5th one is actually too small to really visit).  The map below is the region of Cinque Terre...it is the region between the two points with the blue squares on them.  The Italian woman in front of the map was our guide.

It is a very beautiful region of Italy...

After La Spazia, we travelled to the french port of Nice...

The ship was too large for the docks, so we had to take a tender from the ship to the above port.  Once we got to the port, we chose a bus excursion to Cannes, Grasse and St. Paul in the French Rivera.  Cannes is a port city like Nice, and Grasse and St. Paul are further up in the hills.  Grasse is supposedly the perfume capital of the world, and we were able to tour one of the factories that produce perfumes.  It actually sounds better than it was...it was more like a tourist trap than anything, and I didn't take any pictures in the factory.  However, Cannes and St. Paul were quite spectacular.  St. Paul is an old fortified town up in the hills.  There are no cars allowed within the city walls, and it is a very cute town with many shops and galleries.  Here are some of the pics I took in Cannes and St. Paul...

The Grand Auditorium where the Cannes Film Festival takes place every May

I'm standing on the red carpet of the Grand Auditorium

Darrel on the Croisette (the high rent part of town)

The town of St. Paul

You enter the town of St. Paul through this
little tunnel

All the streets were very narrow and cobble stoned...shops on either side of the street

The drinking well in the center of the town

Darrel sitting on the city wall at the highest point in St. Paul



Ditto for me...look at the hills in the background

Our boat in the bay of Nice, which I took from the bus on our way back.  I thought that it was a good pic to show the size of our boat

Ok...I've decided to break this up into two parts.  I will hopefully get part 2 finished and posted today as well.  Stay tuned...



Off to the Mediterranean...

At the moment, we are packing for our first big trip while being in London.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Rome, and then we are taking a 10-day Mediterranean Cruise.  We will be in Rome for 2 nights, then we travel to Cinque Terra (Italy), Nice (France), Barcelona (Spain), Ibiza (Spain), Tunis (Tunisia), Naples (Italy), Ajaccio (Corsica) and return to Rome on Aug 10th.  We are going to be on the brand new Celebrity Silhouette, which was just launched on July 23rd (we are the 2nd voyage for the ship).  I doubt I will have any new posts while on the cruise, but will definitely post pictures as soon as possible.

Here is a picture of the ship that I found online

Rubbing Elbows and the Palace

On Saturday, we met up and had dinner with our friend Erik and his friends David and Sebastian.  After dinner, we made it to a couple of bars and then decided to go to a private members club called The Groucho Club that Sebastian is a member of.  In London, there are several of these clubs wherein you have to be a member in order to gain access, and The Groucho Club was started for people in the arts and media.  Inside, there were a couple of bars, a restaurant and several bedrooms. It was very interesting and the crowd was very eclectic.  After we were there for a little bit, we all looked up and suddenly Rufus Wainwright walked in.  For those of you who don't know him, he is a singer/songwriter who is probably best known for his song "Complainte De La Butte" on the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack (the french song).  We were all very happy to see him, and even got to meet him as he was leaving...no, we weren't stalking.

Last night, we went to Buckingham Palace and took a tour.  During the summer when the Queen is not in residence, they open the Palace to tourists.  You can either take tours during the day, or you can choose to take a semi private evening tour.  What is great about the evening tours is that it is limited to 30 people you have a guide, and you don't have to wait in the long lines (our guide told us that on average there is about 5000 people per day that visit the Palace).  We were able to see all 19 State Rooms, and also 2 special exhibits....The Royale Faberge Collection and Kate's wedding dress.  The dress was displayed in the Royal Ball Room, and it was great to be able to see it up close...it really is quite beautiful.  At the end of the tour, we were all given a glass of champaigne which we enjoyed on the terrace overlooking the Royal Gardens.  It was a brilliant tour and evening....unfortunately, they didn't allow us to take pictures.  

Last night...

Looked out the window of our flat, and there was the biggest and clearest rainbow that we have ever seen.  :-)

Trip to Bath

Not only are we trying to see as much of London as we possibly can, but we are also trying to see a lot of the UK as well.  On Saturday, we decided to get a train and go out to Bath in Summerset, which is about an hour and a half west of London.  As you can see from the picture below, it was rainy and kinda cold (yes, I'm wearing a jacket and a long sleeve t-shirt in the middle of July).  It is true that the English weather is not all that warm.  In fact, we only have really had about half a dozen days where we could actually wear shorts.  We now know why everyone was looking at us as if we were crazy when we kept asking for a flat with air conditioning...you never really get a chance to use it here. 

  

The Royal Crescent...you can't really tell from the picture, but this row of flats are in a shape of a half moon.  It's actually quite impressive, and they say it is one of the best examples of Georgian Archetecture in the country.  The picture really doesn't do it justice 



Here is a better picture of The Royal Crescent that I found on the web.

Three Blind Mice

Last night, Darrel and I went to see Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.  It is the longest running play ever, and as you can see from above it has been around for 59 years.  Opening night for the play was on November 25, 1952 (at the Ambassador Theater next door) and it transferred to The St Martins Theater on March 23rd, 1974.  It was good, but we both think that the reason for the longevity of the play is because of it's longevity.  However, it was interesting to see such a staple of London's West End.

Harry Potter Mania

The British have many national treasures...and Harry Potter is definitely one of them.  All week long  newscasters have been talking about the World Premier of the final film taking place here in London tonight.  For the Premier, a red carpet starts in Trafalgar Square, wraps itself around the National Gallery and ends at one of the cinemas in Leicester Square (the length is probably 2-3 football fields long).  Also, a gate was erected around the whole square, and organizers were handing out around 3000 wristbands to people letting them into this gated area.  What is crazy is that people have been camping out in the square since Monday, in hopes to get a wristband. 

No, I didn't get a wristband...I managed to make my way up to the National Gallery to take these pictures :-)

The Castle, Whiskey and a Queen

This past weekend, we took the train up to Edinburgh, Scotland....the English countryside is beautiful! 

Berwyck upon Tweed...a small town we went through right before we got to Edinburgh.

We left London at Noon and arrived in Edinburgh 4 1/2 hrs later...

On Saturday, we got up and ventured up to the Castle. As you can see from the pictures below, it is set high up on a hill/cliff, and overlooks the whole city. 

The front gate of the Castle

St. Margaret's Chapel...the oldest building on
the grounds of the Castle and in Edinburgh. 
It was built around 1130.

The back of the National Shrine...inside it names the scottish soldiers killed in WWI and in later conflicts.

The front of The National Shrine

Since we arrived in Scotland, I wanted to find a place to try some different Scotches (a little side note...in Scotland they don't call it Scotch, they just call it Whiskey).  After our trip up to the Castle and lunch, we did find a place offering tours called The Scotch Whiskey Experience.  It was more of a tourist trap (if you couldn't tell by the name), fairly expensive and you only were able to try 1 whiskey.  However, they did have a restaurant and bar in the same complex...so instead of taking their tour, we just went to their bar and had our own little tasting.  They had probably over a hundred different kinds of Whiskeys, and we had the bartender gives us tastings of the ones she thought we'd like.  We tried 5 different ones, and it was a really great way to try some we had never heard of before.

On Sunday, we had some time to kill before we had to be at the train station and decided just to walk around seeing more of the city...

The Royal Mile (aka High Street) leading up to the Castle

St Giles' Cathedral

Inside St Giles

During our trek, we stumbled upon this church...

What is so special about this Church you might ask?  Well, we were thinking the same thing.  It was odd because the church had policeman in front checking id's and names of those trying to enter.  Also, you can somewhat see all the petitions being set up in the picture. 

Well, an hour later we had our answer...

That's right...we found ourselves about 6 feet away from the Queen!!!  We had heard on the news that she was in Edinburgh a couple of days before to open the Scottish Parliament.  What we didn't know is that she was staying  for the week and that we happened to be at her church at the perfect time :-)  We couldn't have planned it any better. 

We were very lucky not only because we got to see the Queen, but also because the whole time we were up in Scotland it never rained. If you know Scotland, you know that it rains probably 85% of the time. So our track record of bringing good weather is still with us ;-) 

We had a brilliant weekend, and hope to get back up to Scotland again.