Farewell London

What a wonderful (semi-) gap year this has been.  So many new experiences, great adventures, memories to last a life time.  Here is a quick look back at the past nine months:

We knew we wanted to travel while living abroad. We had great trips to Glasgow Scotland, Dublin & Galway Ireland, Amsterdam, Lisbon & Porto Portugal as well as to Bath, York, Brighton Beach and Dover in England.  We’ve become much more experienced at train travel as well as air travel (often different than air travel in the US); we’ve also become very proficient at riding the tube, the buses, ridden on several boat rides up and down the Thames, and of course have called a black cab or two on occasion.  We are avid fans of the British transportation system, despite the occasional strike.  We thought we would travel more, but found that there was so much to do in London, that we stayed in the city more than we anticipated.

We ate at a wide range of restaurants, including those with Michelin stars, the oldest restaurant in London, several found in a basement, the oldest wine bar, famous places and hole in the wall places, and even grocery store meals/sandwiches.  We’ve eaten Italian, Mediterranean, Thai, French, American, Goan, and of course British.  I’m often asked what I think of the british food in London.  Many told me to beware, that it would be pretty boring.  I have to say, it’s much better than I expected.  The London food scene is definitely expanding and includes farm-to-table and lots of gastropubs and eclectic dining.

I can’t even begin to count the number of pubs we’ve visited.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again – I will definitely miss the pub culture.  It is so relaxed and easy-going.  Nothing like the American bar culture.  People are welcome to come in, have a pint, read the paper (or in my case, a book), catch up with neighbors, and relax.  They are often filled with couches and comfortable chairs to encourage a homey feeling.

I have visited so many wonderful places in London.  I’ll try to think of most of them.  I’ve been to the Tower of London, Westminster Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge Experience, the Monument, the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the War Museum, the Winston Churchill War Rooms, Big Ben, Parliament (not inside unfortunately), Marble Arch, Speakers Corner, Selfridge’s, Harrods, Fleet Street, Buckingham Palace (again, not inside), Windsor Castle (yes inside), St. James Park, Green Park, Convent Gardens, Soho, Camden Town, the National Gallery, Berkeley Square (no nightingale was singing), Chinatown, the London Eye, 221B Baker Street, South Bank, Globe Theater, Piccadilly Circus, Lambeth, the Cutty Sark, 10 Downing Street, Highclere Castle,Trafalgar Square, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, of course Greenwich too, Abbey Road, Hyde Park, Kensington Palace and Kensington Gardens, St. James Palace, Spencer House, Somerset House, and Kew Gardens.  Just to name a few.  😉 I’m sure I’ve left something out.

This doesn’t include all of the “behind the scenes” things I’ve seen while doing a walk with London Walks.  They really rock!  If you are ever in London, you really must go on at least one of their walks.  They are fabulous for the most part and a great way to be entertained while learning about the history and characters of London and England.

We saw  4 west-end musicals – The Lion King, Wicked, The Book of Mormon and Beautiful.  All were fabulous.  We also went to a great comedy club.

I’ve written 38 blog posts (39 now counting this one), walked over 300 miles, and read  45 books while here as well as trying to keep up with work by conducting webinars, doing planning, and serving on the board of two organizations.  I also did some volunteer work for SOBUS while living in Fulham.

I’d say its been a successful year!

I remember when we moved here how stressful it was trying to learn how to live here.  Not knowing what brands to buy, not understanding the measurement system, struggling to figure out transportation and where things were located, learning the cable and utility companies, figuring out what all those british coins were.  Now it is second nature and we will actually miss much of it.  I think learning a new way to live helps you expand your understanding of the world (and yourself) as well as pull you out of any rut you might have in how you regularly live your life.  One of my accomplishments – learning to be alone without being lonely.  Not 100%, but I got much better.

I took one last stroll yesterday.  I got off the tube at Westminster and took one last look at majestic Big Ben.  Then walked over to the river, admired the Westminster Bridge and the London Eye, and strolled down to Embankment.  Stopped to see Gerard and buy a Gordons Wine Bar t-shirt.  Had a glass of wine with him and met some interesting characters – a nurse practitioner, a man who sings tenor, and a guy who runs a restaurant across from the Savoy.  We met so many interesting people while living here.  I wish I could thank them for sharing a part of their lives with us.

 

So today I am  packed and ready to go.  We will have one last farewell dinner at The Tommy Tucker and call it done.  I’ll be out the door in the morning early to catch the tube to get to Heathrow by 9:30 for my 11:30 flight.  I’ll be home in SC tomorrow night.  I am excited to be going home as well as very sad to be leaving.

In british terminology, cheers really means thanks and “see you later” all at the same time.  I’ve signed off each of these blogs by saying Cheers Mates, which has been my way of saying thanks friends for joining me on my adventures and until next time, good-bye.  So let me say it one last time…..

Cheers Mates!

Tunnels, Pubs & The Beatles

Another week of fun in lovely London.  Well – to be honest, its been more like a week and a half. A lot included again in this blog, but it covers my last adventures here in London.

First up, a London Walk dedicated to the Brunels.  OK, I’m with most of you – never heard of the Brunels.  But the tour as described sounded interesting, so I gave it a shot.  Here are some of the things I discovered.

Several generations of men of the Brunel family were very famous successful engineers.  Isambard Brunel is considered one of the most prolific civil engineers of all time (named to the top 100 most influential Brits in history).  He built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, the first propeller driven iron ships, and numerous important bridges and tunnels in London.  His father, Marc, was the chief engineer in charge of building the Thames Tunnel.  It was the first tunnel known to have been constructed successfully underneath a navigable river.  The tunnel was originally designed for, but never used by, horse-drawn carriages. It was initially used by pedestrians and for a short time had shop/kiosks throughout.  It now forms part of the London Overground railway network.  He also designed Paddington Station.

So our tour began on a very dreary and chilly day by boarding a Thames Clipper for a 40 minute ride up the river.  As we rode along,we heard stories about the Brunels, saw some of the remnants of bridges they built, as well as hearing about other interesting trivia along the river.  For example, we saw a church where Harvard attended. Harvard was a butcher in London, but after 5 members of his family died in quick succession, he decided to move to the US.  He was the first to donate to the university named after him, but died before he could even see the foundation laid for the first building.  We passed Drake’s Steps, where the famous sea captain returned after circumnavigating the world and where he was knighted by the Queen.  Learned that all the stairways on the Thames used to have names and they were used very much like bus stops today by boat passengers. Another building we passed had a big “E” on top; it was where pirates were executed after having their last drink at the pub next door (which is still there).  They were executed by being placed in a cage and dunked into the river.  As the tide came up, they were covered in water.  They were kept there for 3 high tides to assure they were dead – won’t tell you the rest of the story, just a bit too gruesome.  We also passed the church where the pilgrims met before leaving on the Mayflower as well as the dock where the Mayflower sailed from.

Pilgram’s Church

Where the Mayflower sailed – on the right

View back down the Thames of the Gherkin

We disembarked to go see where one of Brunel’s shipyards was located and where you can still see the launch pad.  Our next stop was across from Greenwich.  You could see the old British Royal Hospital which is now part of the university as well as what remains of Greenwich Palace where Henry VIII was born.

Where ships were launched

A brief history

Chains from the ships

Thames Sailing Barge

British Royal Hospital (And the Observatory at Greenwich in the far background)

Next up, a ride on the London Overground Railway to see the infamous Thames Tunnel.  The tunnel is considered one of the origins of the world’s subway systems.  We then went to where the Brunel Museum is located to see where the tunnel was built.  Interesting tour and definitely a learning experience.  Afterwards, I walked over to the Mayflower Pub – yes where the ship sailed from – to have a lovely lunch out on the porch.

The Thames Tunnel

How the tunnel was originally envisioned

Deep in the pit of where they worked to dig the tunnel

Lovely spot for lunch

One of the few places to fly the American Flat

The next day, Friday, began our last weekend in London.  Tim and I decided to do a proper weekend pub tour and visit some places we’ve never been and others that are old favorites.  Friday night we started in St. James, which is a very ritzy part of town near Buckingham Palace and St. James’ Palace.  Our first stop was at Dukes Bar, located in the Dukes Hotel – a very posh, elegant boutique hotel 5 minutes from Buckingham.  The legendary Dukes Bar is known for its famous martinis.  It was frequented by James Bond author Ian Fleming and is said to be the inspiration for his “shaken, not stirred” martini choice.  The Queen Mum was also known to have enjoyed a martini or two here.  It was a bit of a stuffy kind of place (maybe I should say highbrow?) and very small (cozy?).  We were seated and the bartender came over to take our orders – martinis of course!  He then brought over a trolley and made the drinks table-side.  Interesting.  Also very expensive – 18 pounds per drink (about $27).  They were good, but not sure they were THAT good.  I’m not a huge martini fan anyway, but Tim definitely is.  He suggested I have a martini a week to acquire a taste for them.  What do you think?

Next up was The American Bar, located in the Stafford Hotel which is one of the oldest hotels located near Buckingham Palace.  Interesting bit of history:  It was originally built as a private residence in the 17th century and owned at one time by Lord and Lady Lyttleton.  She was the daughter of the Earl Spencer and was pressed in serving as nanny for Queen Victoria’s children.  During WWII the wine cellars underneath were used as air raid shelters (great place to be stuck, don’t you think?)  During the war, many American and Canadian officers visited the club, which may have the origin of the name.  The courtyard out back is in front of converted horse stables (now rooms) where many famous horses were kept, including the Duke of Wellington’s horse.  When you walk in, the first thing you notice is that the walls are crammed with a huge collection of artifacts, knickknacks and photographs of famous guests.  There are helmets and hats hanging from the ceilings.  You’ll see if you click the link above.  Service was much friendlier here.  Enjoyed a very good glass of rose.     Also very expensive – 14 pounds a glass (21 dollars).  So we decided we needed to move on to a more affordable part of town, Piccadilly Circus

Unfortunately, when we left it started to rain.  We did not have umbrellas with us, just raincoats.  Still, got pretty wet walking the 10 minutes it took to get to Piccadilly Circus.  We had thought we would wander a bit, but given our wet status, we popped into a pub we’ve visited before  Jewel.  A very nice cocktail bar and a great place to wait out the rain.  Happy hour meant half price on wine bottles, which made us very happy after the prices we had been paying!  Met numerous lovely people while sitting there and thankfully the rain did finally end.  We jumped on the tube and headed back towards home.  BUT we decided to visit one more place – so stayed on the tube past our stop and got off at Parsons Green to visit the White Horse.  This is a great local pub, known as “The Stone Pony” to locals.  They have a really fabulous outdoor seating area in front, facing Parsons Green park, which on this particular evening was very crowded.  But we got a glass of wine at the bar and headed outside anyway.  Found a spot to stand and met some great guys from the area.  Once we were done, we decided to walk back through Eels Brook Commons (the park behind our flat) on our way home.  Great start to the weekend!

On to Saturday and more pub crawling.   Took the tube down to Embankment Station and walked over to Tatterhshall Castle, which is not a castle at  all but actually a docked boat.  We sat outside in the sunshine (mostly sunny although can’t really tell from the pictures) enjoying the view.  Had a quick bite to eat here as well.

The view from port side of the boat

The view from the bow of the ship

Next stop, one of our perennial favorites, The Sherlock Holmes Pub.  The place was packed but we fortunately got a table inside.  Although it was sunny out, it was very cold, especially sitting on the water, so we needed to warm up.  Met some more lovely people who sat at the same table as we did (this is a common occurence here.  If you are two people and sit at a table for 4, two other people will ask to also sit at the table).

The pub was very crowded

We then headed to Trafalgar Square, where the feast of St. George was going on.  St. George is the patron saint of England and was known as being a dragon slayer as well as fighting in the Crusades.  Lots of people at the festival, but not much really going on.  We headed over to St. Martin’s in the Fields cafe to have a quick drink and met a really nice family; the dad wanted desperately to talk American politics with us (happens quite frequently).

From here, we headed to our favorite spot, Gordon’s Wine Bar.  Got a table and enjoyed a very nice Malbec along with a cheese and bread plate.  We will both really miss this place very much.    As we were walking out, Tim saw Gerard the manager.  Such a wonderful guy.  We of course went back in to say hello and chat with him a bit.  He ended up buying us an even nicer Malbec and we sat for quite some time talking about everything and anything.  From here we headed home (after calling our friend Natalie to wish her a happy birthday!) – that one last wine was enough for us to call it an evening.

Our last Sunday started out a bit slow (can you imagine why?) 🙂  We did make reservations at The Rose Pub for our last Sunday roast.  Such a great place, sorry we didn’t find it sooner.  Food was very good, great service, even better atmosphere.  The lamb roast is heavenly!  We were sad to see the weekend coming to a close…..so we went to one last pub. Well, not really a pub.  We went to Vagabond Wines, a wine tasting and wine store.   You get a little card and load whatever amount of money you want on it.  Then you go to their wine walls where there is a selection of over 100 wines to choose from.  You can get a tasting or a full glass.  We opted for two glasses and sat and reminisced about our weekend.  We then headed home to call it a day – and to do a little binge watching of Breaking Bad (currently on season 4).

I decided to do one last London Walk this week – and opted to do a Beatles tour on Tuesday.  How could I live in London and not do at least one Beatles thing?  The tour  was a bit disappointing; our guide was extremely knowledgeable about all things Beatles but didn’t have a great presentation style, plus there was an excessive amount of walking for just a couple of things to see.  The tour met at Marylebone Station where numerous scenes from the movie Help! were filmed. We then walked over to the Registry office where Paul and Linda were married as were Ringo and Barbara Bach (Paul also married his third wife here).  Unfortunately, the building was covered in construction so it was a bit of an underwhelming stop.  Next we went to see an apartment where Ringo lived with his first wife and where his first child was born (well – not born actually born in the apartment).  When Ringo moved out, Paul lived in the basement for a few months.  After he moved out, Jimi Hendrix moved in (he was subsequently asked to leave because the neighbors complained about all the loud parties he was having).  Later John and Yoko moved in to the flat.  In 1968 the police raided the place looking for marijuana.  John, having been tipped off that the police planned the raid, emptied the apartment completely.  And yet the police still managed to find some (some say it was planted), which resulted in them eventually moving to New York City.  Next stop was the first Apple Store, which was located on Baker Street.  The building originally had a huge psychedelic mural painted on it, which the local businesses did not like.  The store was not successful and after a year they decided to close down.  The last day they just left the doors open and allowed anyone to come in and take whatever they wanted.  We next saw the flat where Paul lived with long time girlfriend Jane Asher and where he and John wrote I Want to Hold Your Hand and Paul later wrote Yesterday.  We then got on the tube and rode one stop down to visit the famous Abbey Road Studios – and of course the famous crosswalk.  As luck would have it, there is construction going on so only one half of the walkway can be crossed.  Had to walk across anyway of course!

Opening scene from Help!

Flat where Ringo and Paul lived

Original Apple store

So there you have it – the last of my big adventures in London.  Its time to start packing up in preparation to head home.  I’ll do one last blog though before I go.  So until then,

Cheers Mates!

 

 

Sherlock Holmes, York & Bath

What could possibly follow my fabulous trip to Highclere Castle last week?  I had to find something totally different that would appeal in very different ways.  And I think I did.  Before I could continue my fun, however, I first had proposals to finish, webinars to complete, surveys to write and committee meetings to schedule and attend.   Have to remind myself that it is necessary to do my “other” work also.

So I waited until Friday to head off on another adventure.  This time I did the London Walks  In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes.  Now I must admit, I have never read any Sherlock Holmes stories.  But I have enjoyed several different movie versions as well both the English and American television series.  The walk was very interesting, led by the extremely knowledgeable Richard IV (IV because London Walks has so many guides named Richard).  I didn’t take any pictures this time;  I don’t believe pictures would have helped describe the walk much.  Do you want to see a picture of Charing Cross Police Station, that used to be the Charing Cross hospital where Sherlock was said to have visited in two different stories?  We did see where Arthur Conan Doyle lived for a time (right outside of Gordon’s Wine Bar, which my friends and fans know is one of my very favorite places in London.  In fact, the marble gates in the alleyway of Gordons used to be an entrance to the street from the Thames).  We saw both locations of where the magazine The Strand was located; The Strand is the magazine that published the Sherlock Holmes stories.  I never realized that there were only 4 SH novels initially, but there were 56 short stories (the 56 short stories have since been published in 5 additional books).  Arthur Conan Doyle was originally a physician (didn’t know that either!) and, in addition to writing SH, also wrote numerous other stories and books as well as several plays.  I learned a great deal about the character, the author and the stories and should I decide to read them, certainly will enjoy knowing I’ve seen places that relate to the stories.

On Saturday Tim and I headed to visit the town of York.  We didn’t decide until Friday evening, so purchased our tickets but couldn’t get reserved seats.  Huge mistake; when we got on the train, almost every seat was reserved.  We ended up sitting in some reserved seats for people who weren’t getting on until Newark.  Once they got on, we got up and took the seats of some people who got off in Newark.  Phew!  Otherwise we would have ended up sitting by ourselves in different cars.

York is a town that has significant history.  It is a walled city that was founded by the Romans.  It has a huge 13th century cathedral , York Minster.  You can walk on top of the walls 2.5 miles all the way around the city.  Guy Fawkes was born and raised here.  It was a delightful medieval city to wander.  When we got there, we walked over to York Minster to take a look and then walked down the street to where Guy Fawkes was born.

Beautiful wall around the town

York Minster

York Minster

Where Guy Fawkes was born

We then took a right down a small winding street and stopped at Ye Olde Starre Inne for lunch, the oldest licensed inn in York.  Delicious steak and ale pie!  And wonderful warm cozy atmosphere.  We then spent a wonderful afternoon wandering down small crooked streets and lanes, including The Shambles which is renowned in York.  We found interesting little shops, several wine cafes, and an open air market.  Lots of “hen parties” which are what they call bachelorette parties here.  Numerous groups of ladies were having a great deal of fun apparently.  Talked to two lovely bobbies who told us about the parties as well as what to watch out for at the train station.

When this was first put up, the owner had to pay rent to the buildings this sign is attached to.

A little history of the Inne

View of the Minster from the back garden of the Inn

Such interesting names for pubs

The Shambles

We ended up at “the castle”, which is really only what remains of the castle.  There is a castle museum that is supposed to be very cool, but expensive, so we opted to have a drink at the Hilton next door instead 🙂  Continuing our “hotel tour”.  We then headed back to the train station and promptly got lost.  I knew we needed to go back following the river, but turned the wrong way down the river.  Thank goodness for Google Maps; we stopped after 10 minutes and turned back around. So we had a longer walk back than we had planned, but such a pretty town that it didn’t really matter all that much.  In fact, still got back way too early, so had another drink at the pub next the train station.

Beautiful buildings preserved – this one is a Barclays Bank

In front of the “castle”

You stumble across beautiful churches everywhere you turn

Even the cafes use old buildings, this one on the river

Nuclear plant on the way home?

Finally boarded – we went back in the first class car!  What fun!!  Decided we wanted to do that just once while we were here.  Much more comfortable seats, trolley car to bring you food and drinks.  Lovely experience.  Saw the disturbing nuclear-type columns pictured above; who knew they had those in the English countryside?  We got back to Fulham around 8:30, so stopped by The Tommy Tucker to say hello only to discover that our very favorite bartender Patrick was leaving for a new job.  So glad we were able to stop and say goodbye.  We wish him much success!

I forgot to mention that Tim left his phone on the train on our way to York.  We realized it when we sat down to eat lunch.  Immediately called and the phone was answered by Stefan, our good Samaritan.  He turned the phone in to the train office when he got off  in Newcastle.  I spent Monday on the phone trying to track down where the phone was and how we could retrieve it.  Finally got it figured out and I spent Tuesday back on the train heading to Newark, where the lost property office was.  Thankfully was able to get the phone and head back, but it was truly a wasted day.  Only highlight was seeing Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross Station

I didn’t do any walks for the rest of the week (had planned one for Tuesday, but clearly that had to be rescheduled).  On Thursday instead I went out in search of what I had decided I want for my “London souvenir” – I want a fleece jacket that has a small Mind The Gap logo on the front to commemorate not only our trip but also this blog.  Thought I might find one at the London Transportation Museum gift shop. Stopped for lunch first at Rules.  I learned about this oldest restaurant in London on one of my London Walks (maybe the one on Covington Gardens?).  Please click on the link to learn of its history, its pretty cool.  Anyway, I wanted to go back and try it, so decided today was the day I would treat myself.  Had a phenomenal lunch of roasted cod with wild garlic mashers and carrots, followed by a sticky toffee chocolate pudding (cake).  Oh, and a nice glass of french rose of course. Was very expensive, but really delicious.  It had rained while I was having lunch, but thankfully began to clear as I began my walk.  Got to the museum shop, but no luck.  No clothing really to speak of.  But I was in Covington Gardens, so decided to stay and wander around a bit  I do love this area.  Ended up at Punch and Judy’s on the balcony watching the street performers in front of St. John’s Church – the Actor’s Church – which is in the first scene in My Fair Lady.  Met a lovely woman visiting for the day from Amsterdam and then another woman who was celebrating her birthday.  Saw some pirates roaming around the Gardens.  Afterwards I walked down to the Coal Hole to meet Tim and some of his work colleagues for a few drinks before we headed home.

Grilled cod with wild garlic mashers and carrots

Sticky toffee chocolate pudding with creme freshe

St. Paul’s Church – the Actor’s Church – first scene in My Fair Lady

Found some pirates roaming the Gardens

Friday night we stayed in Fulham.  Had dinner at The Malt House.  We’ve eaten here before; its in a lovely old 18th century building and the food is typically very good (and of course a very decent wine list).  Can’t recall what we had, but you can look at the menu to see how yummy it sounds.  We left and visited a couple of pubs; first we tried Vagabond Wines, which is a wine bar & wine store right across the street fromm The Malt House.  You can do tastings of over 100 wines there – or just have a glass of something different.  Unfortunately, they were packed with a private party so we couldn’t go in.    We then tried a place called The Lucky Pig.  Mistake!  Clearly this is a young singles kind of place where a disco ball turned and the music coincided.  We were definitely the oldest ones in the place.  Tried one more spot – The Cock Tavern – with much better luck.   Slightly older crowd, much less noisy, better quality of wine.  Once we were done, we called it an evening and walked back to our flat so we could get up early for our day adventure on Saturday.

Saturday we got up really early and headed to the train station to go to Bath.  We were very excited about this trip, as everyone who lives here says it is definitely a place to visit.  And they were absolutely right!  Probably one of our favorite towns that we have visited, for may reasons.  Bath is located in southwest England on the Avon River and has a natural hot springs located under the city.  It is another World Heritage Site.  The Romans built large bath houses to take advantage of the springs; the city (or whomever it is that is responsible) has done a really phenomenal job of preserving the ruins.  There is also the Bath Abbey that originated in the 7th century.  The English nobility decided that the springs in Bath had restorative power, so it became quite a fashionable place in the 17th century.

When we arrived, we headed immediately for the baths.  It was very chilly and it had started to rain, but luckily the baths were not too far from the train station and when we got there, the line was still inside the building (just 10 minutes later it had already snaked outside).  You get listening devises when you pay your fee, which was quite nice.  The first things you encounter is an upper terrace that goes around the main bath pool and then some extremely well done exhibits about life at the baths during Roman times.

Statues of Roman Emporers surround the upper terrace

Tim listening to his device

Remnants of the entrance to the baths

Stone coffin

The lettering on this was so clear

Part of a tile floor

Next on to the baths themselves.  In addition to the main bath pool, there are changing rooms, smaller heated pools and even a cold plunge pool.  To see a map of the baths, click here.  One of the things they did that was quite ingenious (I think) was they piled tiles to serve as the foundation of the floors and then pumped warm steam under the floor where it could circulate and therefore keep the floors warm also.  Although you are not allowed to go into the baths, you do get a chance to have a drink of the “restorative” waters at the end.  I took quite a number of pictures, as you will see below.  Couldn’t help myself, it was just so COOL!

View of the baths from the terrace

Plunge pool

hallway to the main bath pool

View of the Abbey from the baths

tiles stacked to support the floor and to help keep them warm

Having our “portrait” made

Second bath

Once we left the baths, we headed to lunch.  We made a reservation at the Bathwick Boatman, based on a recommendation from a colleague of Tim’s who actually lives in Bath. It was a bit of a walk, but we got to see residential Bath, which was really quite lovely.  Beautiful Georgian houses and smaller quaint homes.  We also passed where Jane Austin lived, totally by accident.  That’s always fun.  The restaurant is located right on the river, and if you ever go, apparently they also have guesthouses that can be rented to stay.  Might be a pretty cool way to visit Bath.  The food was just phenomenal.  I had the soup of the day which was tomato chili.  Warm, filling with just the right touch of heat.  Tim had the calamari with homemade tartar sauce that was delicious.  My main course was creamy smoked salmon tagliatelle – I wish I had taken a picture, as it was truly beautiful as well as tasty.  Tim had Thai curry chicken, also very good.  If you go to Bath, we highly recommend this place!!  It is also possible to get here by boat, but water levels were too high, so we ended up walking back to town.

Once done (and very full!) we headed back into town.  The Pulteney Bridge that crosses the Avon River was designed so that it has shops on either side.  The Avon River is beautiful.  We wandered the pedestrian streets of Bath all afternoon, stopping to shop once in a while.  We stopped into the smallest pub in Bath and sat outside enjoying the fact that the sun was finally coming out and enjoyed people watching.

We ended up at the Roman Baths Kitchen  Prime location – right in front of the baths and right next to the Bath Abbey, which is just absolutely gorgeous.  We sat outside and listened to a variety of street performers (from opera to trumpet player to guitar player who sounded like Jim Croce) while we enjoyed a bottle of malbec and a chartcuterie plate.  Service was spot-on; again, we would highly recommend a stop here.  Sadly, our afternoon was over way too quickly and we had to head back to the train station to go back home.

Once we got back to Fulham, it was fairly early so we decided to stop by the Broadway Bar and Grill for a nightcap.  This has been a local favorite of ours. Bad decision.  Lately we’ve noticed a significant decline, which makes us sad.  On this particular evening Chelsea had a home game, so the pub was full.  There are bouncers at the door who aren’t terribly nice and almost no tables to sit at.  That in and of itself isn’t all that bad. But I ordered two glasses of malbec and the bill came to 24 pounds (that’s 36 dollars) for wine that was only so-so!  When I asked if I could just purchase the bottle instead (only 12 pounds more for the bottle, which would have been 2 more glasses), the bartender couldn’t figure out how to do that and actually was pretty rude, claiming to have been at work for 18 hours.  Oh well, we drank our very expensive, only mediocre wine and went home.

Its been a very fun two weeks.  It’s hard to believe that my time is quickly coming to an end.  I imagine I will do a couple more walks and then next weekend Tim & I plan to do a “favorite haunts” weekend.  So you can look forward to that, I know I am.  Until then,

Cheers mates!

 

 

 

 

Downton Abbey!

So excited about this week’s trip to Highclere Castle, the home of Downton Abbey.  I’ve been a huge fan for many years, so this was a real treat for me.

I decided to take an organized tour and after reviewing all of the options, chose Premium Tours.  They offered a full day tour to Oxford, Bampton (the village where outdoor scenes were filmed for Downton Abbey) and then Highclere Castle.  They really did a fabulous job and I highly recommend them for any day trips leaving from London.

To begin with, they do a hotel pick-up service, which was really quite lovely.   They picked me up right outside of the Earl’s Court station, which was very convenient for me, and took us all to Victoria Station.  Now, if you’ve never been to Victoria Coach Station, you  might be a bit put off.  It’s really not a nice place. Dirty, smelly & crowded.  But its the only place for buses that leave out of London, so you just have to suffer through if you want to take a tour.

Thankfully I only had a 15 minute wait before boarding our Premium Tours bus.  Very comfortable,  clean, spacious and roomy.  It was a double-decker bus, but I opted to sit downstairs as I wanted some quiet time to take a short nap (had to get up pretty darn early to get the hotel pick-up).  I can’t recall our tour guide’s name, but she was really quite wonderful, providing narrative pretty much the whole way. Told us about things we were passing, about the Cotswolds as an area, background on places we would visit.  No worries, I was able to get a nap in even while she was talking 🙂

We arrived fairly quickly at Oxford, which is one of the oldest universities in the english speaking world (St. Andrews in Scotland is the oldest I believe).  It’s interesting to note that Oxford University is made up of 38 totally independent self-governing colleges.  The university provides support services like administrative support, exams and graduation, and teaching resources.  The first college was established in the 12th century.  In the 13th century, there were riots between the townspeople and student scholars (and perhaps even a murder) at Oxford and some of the students fled west and became established at what would later become Cambridge University.  There really is quite some competition between the two; you aren’t supposed to say the “C” word while at Oxford.  It is a very pretty university, as you can see from the pictures below.  Christ Church is where Harry Potter dining hall scenes were filmed, for those of you who are fans. Students still raise livestock, as well as play sports, on Christ Church Meadows.

Sheldonian

History of Science building

Trinity College

Oriel

Radcliff Camera

Christ Church Meadows

Christ Church Meadows

Christ Church

After our tour of the University, we had some free time to stroll through the town of Oxford.  There was a lovely open air market with a wide range of items, from fresh produce to jewelry stores, to meat markets to ladies fine clothing.  Very interesting.  Stopped and grabbed a bite to eat to have on the bus before we left at 12:15 for our next stop.

Bampton is a beautiful quaint little village on the edge of the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire.  Our bus stopped at St. Mary the Virgin Church, which was the site of St. Michael and All Angels Church, the Crawley’s place of worship and where several weddings took place.

St. Michael and All Angels church

Inside the church

Think of all the characters who have sat in these seats

Pictures of Edith’s wedding that didn’t happen

Pictures of Mary’s second wedding

This is where Mary took her vows (see previvous picture)

Outside of the church,many scenes filmed here among the gravestones

From here, we had free time to walk the streets where we could view the outside of Mrs. (Isobel) Crawley’s house, then the village green (much smaller than it appeared on TV), then the site of the hospital, the post office, the Dog and Duck Inn, and the Grantham Arms.  I wish I could describe for you how fun this was, to wander where some of my favorite characters roamed.  So many things that were instantly recognizable.  Really a treat.  Please enjoy the pictures – each has a caption describing the picture.

Mrs Crawley’s house:

The wall in front of Mrs. Crawley’s house

The front of the house, as seen from behind the wall

Street view of Mrs. Crawley’s House

The Village Green and the hospital

The Village Green

Front of the hospital

The post office,the Dog & Duck Inn, Church Street and Grantham Arms

The post office

Dog & Duck Inn

Church Street

Grantham Arms

I also walked through the center of the village to enjoy the character of a small english village.

Last street scene when filming the church view

Thatch roofed house

Of course, our next stop was the highlight of the trip….Highclere Castle. The current Highclere was built in 1842 and designed by the same architect that designed the current House of Parliament (you can see similarities).  It is currently the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.  The family has lived here for over 300 years.  The current family lives in the castle during winter months and moves to another residence on the property during the summer.  Lady Almina, who was an illegitimate child of a Rothschild, married the 5th Earl with a huge dowry.  When the First World War broke out, Almina turned Highclere Castle into a hospital and admitted patients coming back from the trenches.  After the war, her husband, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun with Howard Carter in 1922.  The next Earl married Lady Catherine, who was a wealthy American who helped save the castle from being sold.

As we drove up the long winding drive, the bus started playing the theme song to Downton Abbey.  A little cheesy I know, and yet it got everyone really excited.  Walking up the drive to the main entrance was like a dream.

Our first view of the castle

So excited to be here!

Highclere Castle

The entrance – feel as though I could be waiting for a carraige to arrive

Front door Downton Abbey

Knocker on the front door

Here is the biggest disappointment….you can’t take pictures inside the castle.  So sorry I can’t share what the inside looked like.  But you’ve seen it all on the television, so perhaps you can use your imagination because it mostly looked just like it does on TV.  We walked in the front door and turned left to go into the library, the scene of so many conversations over tea.  Remember the picture of the young boy that Cora says she doesn’t know who it is in the episode where they all give tours to the townsfolk?  Yup, it’s there, along with over 5600 books, some dating back to the 18th century.   The tea-table is set up as though we would all sit down and have a nice conversation (of course, the seating is roped off so we really couldn’t even if we wanted to….and trust me, I wanted to!)  Lord Grantham’s desk is there too.  We then walked through the Music Room and the Drawing Room (where the Countesses would conduct their work of running the house; the walls are lined with green silk) and then on to the Grand Saloon – the huge room in the center of the castle.  The walls are lined with leather!  Such a magnificent room in person.  We also walked through the Dining Room where there is a portrait of Charles I and where the Crawley family held all of their meals.  Finally, up the servants stairs to view Cora’s bedroom, Syble’s bedroom and the bedroom where the count died while in a compromising position with Mary in the first season.  And then down the beautiful grand staircase.  I must admit, I walked down twice just for the experience.  Sadly, the tour of the house was over way too soon.

We walked down the servants stairs to the “downstairs” area.  Downton Abbey scenes were not filmed here, but it is the location of the Tea Room.  I of course felt I must have tea while at Highclere, so I ordered tea and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam and sat outside to enjoy them.  Lovely experience.

I then wandered the lawn of the castle.  The stables have been turned into a gift shop where I did a little shopping.  The lawn is beautiful and I imagined myself walking down paths much as the characters did, particularly Mary with her various beau’s.  The gardens are just beautiful; I unfortunately did not have time to see them all (I spent most of my time in the house I must admit).  I did wander down to Jackdaw’s Castle, a folly built in 1743 (a folly is an ornamental building in a garden or park with no purpose).

 

Sadly, the day was over too soon.  It was a tremendously fun and entertaining tour that I enjoyed very much.  If you get a chance, and you love the series, this is a must-do tour!

Next week, I will tell you all about our trips to York and Bath.  Until then,

Cheers Mates!

Portugal Part 2: Porto

(Note to readers:  As I mentioned in last week’s blog, Portuguese was a much harder language for us to try to interpret.  So one of the things Tim & I did to compensate was to change names that were hard to pronounce and/or remember into something more “anglicized”.  So for example,the town of Obidos became Obi Wan. Sintra became Sinatra.  Farol was Pharrol.  Even simple things like Commercio became Commercial.  So as you are reading this week’s blog, see if you can figure out what we called various places)

So last we were together, Tim and I had just checked out of the Doubletree Hotel in Lisbon and were headed to Porto.

We decided to turn the 3 hour drive into a day trip.  Our first stop – beautiful Obidos.  The day before we left, while in Sintra, we met a woman and her daughter from Chicago.  They highly recommended Obidos as a great place to visit.  And they were right!  Obidos is an incredible walled medieval village less than an hour away from  Lisbon.  It’s hard to believe it once was a fishing village since it is now 6 miles inland from the ocean.  There weren’t very many people there, I guess because it was a Tuesday, so we were able to park very close to the entrance.  Loved seeing the aqueducts running behind the parking lot that were built in the 16th century.  Such a beautiful arched gate into the village (built around 1380)!  As you walk through, you feel as though you’re being transported into a different time.  The Rua Direita is the very quaint narrow main street lined with small shops and houses that runs from the gate to the cathedral (traced back to 13th & 14th century).  We meandered down the street, wandering into various shops, admiring the tile work on sale.  Had a shot of ginja cherry liquor that Obidos is famous for.  They pour it into a chocolate cup (ours was dark chocolate); you first drink the liquor and then eat the chocolate.  YUM!  At the top of the hill, after admiring the cathedral, we stopped at Pousada Castelo (another stop on our hotel tour – pousadas are state-run hotels in restored castles, palaces, monasteries, convents and other historic buildings) for a light snack of olives and cheese along with a glass of wine.  The view was spectacular.  We headed back down Rua Direita, stopping to buy a some ginja and wine, and headed out once again.

Aquaduct

Inside the gate

Rua Direita

Fabulous view!

The Castle remains

Castle remains next to St. James’ Church

St. Mary’s Church

St. James’ Church

We thought we would go to Tomas next where the Knights Templar were located, but discovered in our guidebook that the cost was pretty substantial.  We decided to go to Fatima instead. For my non-Catholic readers, Fatima is an important pilgrimage site for our faith.  In 1917 three young shepherds reported seeing the Virgin Mary in a field near the village of Fatima.  The Virgin promised to return on the 13th of each month for the next five months – and the children reported that she did.  The Virgin is said to have revealed three secrets to them; two were interpreted to foretell the coming of World War II and the spread of communism and atheism.  The third foretold of an attempt o the life of the pope.

Fatima is a very small village, and yet we managed to get very turned around and lost trying to find the Cathedral.  We finally found it and toured the church and the outside where there is significant space for the large number of pilgrims that come on the 13th of every month.

This is the actual shed where the visions were said to occur

Once we left Fatima, we were off to find Porto.  Porto is the second largest city in Portugal (I think) and is where port wine is from.  In fact, if the wine doesn’t come from Porto, it can’t be called port.  It is a crazy awful city to drive in.  We rented an apartment through Airbnb that was located right in the midst of the historic area.  We ended up driving by it and had to figure out how to go around and find it again.  Ended up parking almost a mile away and walking to the apartment to check in.  Wonderful Luis, our host, went back to the car with Tim, helped him navigate to the back door of the apartment to unload the suitcases and then direct him to the parking garage.  It was a bit of a “to-do” to get settled in, but we finally did.  Fabulous apartment – click here to see it.  Gorgeous ceiling, plenty of space.  Luis provided us with a map and a large list of recommended restaurants so we picked the one that was closest and headed out for dinner.  I’m sorry I can’t recall the name of the restaurant; it was a very small place and the outdoor dining was on platforms built to allow level seating on a very steep hill.  Food was delicious – I had chicken roasted in red wine and Tim had salmon that was very fresh.  After dinner we wandered a bit, but were worried about getting lost in unfamiliar streets in the dark, so we headed back and called it a night fairly early.

Wednesday we awoke to fresh bakery items hanging on our door – rolls and croissants and some delicious tarts.  What a great way to start the day!  We decided to do the hop on/hop off bus to help us get oriented to the city.  Plus, the city is incredibly hilly – and when I say hilly, I mean steep hills everywhere!  Serious calf burning kind of steep.  We figured getting oriented by bus would assure that when we climbed, we would be going somewhere we wanted to be.  Unfortunately, the tour was not very good.  The narrative did not do a very good job of telling us what we were seeing and when it did, it was very difficult to understand.  Well, at least we got a ride around the city. Here are some pictures I took from the bus.

The bus took us to Cockburn where we got off to take a tour and to taste their port.  Learned some things about port that I didn’t know.  Like ruby and tawny ports stop aging when they leave the cask but there are other ports called vintages that continue to age in the bottle.  Ruby port gets lighter in color as they age but tawny’s get darker in color. Afterwards, we walked down the hill (did I mention that the hills are extremely steep?) and had a really wonderful lunch (at 3:00) of Brazilian style steak on a skewer.  It came with black beans, rice, fries, peppers and some brown powdery stuff to put on the beans (delicious!).  We wandered down the Rua Diogo Leife which is the riverside street in Vila Noa de Gaia where all the port houses are.  Since the 17th  century, wine has been transported from the vineyards down the Douro River to the cellars located here for the port to age.  We did a “personal” tasting at Cruz that was very nice.  I never have been a huge fan of port, but after our tastings I discovered there are some that I did enjoy.  Then it started to rain – hard!  We had planned to take the hop on/hop off bus back to near our apartment, but when the rain started the buses seemed to disappear.  Luckily, a gentleman from a restaurant called out to us to come in and get dry and warm, so we did.  Had a nice bottle of wine from the Douro region and watched people running through the rain.  Finally ended up taking a cab back to our apartment and had a snack at a restaurant near our apartment, Cris Bar.  Had a lovely conversation with a couple from San Fransisco while there and the wait staff was extremely friendly and helpful.  Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Thursday was Tim’s birthday, and the day was really centered on celebrating him.  We slept in a little in the morning, had more delicious fresh bakery items for breakfast (delivered every morning!) and then left through the back door of the apartment building to look around the “old” section of town.  Walked up to the Se cathedral and admired the architecture inside as well as the view from outside.  Just wandered through the narrow streets until we ended back down at the river

We ended in an area called Cais da Ribeira which is the street and pier along the river.  We stopped and had lunch at Terreiro– lovely outdoor cafe where we had the most fabulous portuguese sandwich called a francesinha (the official portuguese sandwich originating from Porto).  It had ham and two difference kinds of sausage with lots of melted cheese between two large pieces of bread covered in a beer gravy – and always served with fries.  Sound decadent?  It was!  Spent the afternoon wandering up and down the river.  Stopped at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed some more Portuguese wine and did more people watching, which is actually Tim’s favorite thing to do.  Ended the afternoon by going to a wine tasting at The Wine Box (regular wine this time, not port).

Fabulous sandwich

Enjoying the sunshine and the people watching

Wine tasting flight

The winner!

Friday we did a river cruise along the Douro River.  Had to get up really early and head down to the river to board.  It was a very cold and foggy start to the day.  Breakfast was served – a roll and a croissant with some pretty awful coffee.  The initial scenery was gorgeous along the river.

Foggy start to the day

Fishing on the river

We had to go through two locks, the second of which was 33 meters high.  Took lots of pictures, tried to pick out the best below.  Click on the captions for the pictures so you can tell  where we are in the process of going through the lock.

Initial approach to the lock

Another boat ahead of us entering the lock

As we enter the lock

Front of the boat view as we go up

Back of the boat, the lock closing

The view from the back of the boat, its a long way up

View from the front, almost to the top

View from the back, getting close

And we are up

The tour ended up in the town of Rioja where we had an hour to ourselves before taking the train back to Porto.  We expected to find shops and cafes – this is where all the river boat trips end or start.  But there was absolutely nothing!  And believe me, we tried to find something.  It was probably one of the most boring towns we experienced the entire trip.  We ended up buying a bottle of wine in the train station for six euros (was actually decent wine) and got on the train as soon as we could. The train station in Porto is really beautiful, full of azulejo (tile) pictures of the history of Portugal; I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture of it, but you can see it by clicking here.  Once we arrived back in Porto, we had planned to take a cab back to our apartment, but there was a very nice pedestrian street leading away from the train station so we wandered a bit and did a little shopping.  Our apartment ended up not being that far away; We stopped at Cruz Bar to have an uneventful dinner before calling it a day.

We decided we wouldn’t let our last day in Portugal just be a travel day (we needed to drive back from Porto to Lisbon Airport).  We made it another road trip and took a few detours.  First stop Aveiro, which was recommended to us by a work colleague of Tim’s.  It has numerous canals running through the town, so is often compared to Venice (very pretty, but honestly not even close to Venice).  The sidewalks and squares are paved with hand-laid pavement (called calcada) in nautical patterns.  We again had problems finding parking and then made a homeless person mad by not giving her enough money for “helping us” parallel park.  We walked around a little bit, had a really nice lunch before heading back out.

We decided we wanted to go back to Obidos to do a little shopping.  We really wanted to buy some tile work and didn’t find any that we liked more than what we had seen there.  As luck would have it, Obidos was having a huge chocolate festival.  Parking was much more difficult to find, but we managed very well since we had already been there.  Walked in to the aroma of chocolate everywhere.  Found the tiles we wanted – got address tiles for our Tybee house and a few others to use as wall art.  Bought a few gifts as well – and of course had one more taste of ginja before hitting the road.

Last view of Obidos

We made great time and got to the airport with lots of time to spare….unfortunately.  Things went downhill quickly once we turned in our car.  When we went to our bag check with EasyJet (this one wasn’t self-service) we were told by the airline representative that our flight was delayed an hour.  Went through security and found complete bedlam.  There were thousands of people in a very small terminal.  Well, seemed like thousands.  All of the seats were taken, people were sitting on the floor.  There were two very crowded cafes and a McDonald’s (which we refuse to go to).  Finally were able to secure a couple of seats at one of the cafes.  I went to the gift shop and bought a pack of cards and we sat there for 2.5 hours playing gin, drinking wine and eating sandwiches.  They finally called our flight (2.5 hours late – if they are delayed by 3 hours, they have to reimburse us).  We went to the gate that was called and waited and waited and waited some more.  Got through that line and was herded to a holding area where we waited some more, only to get on a bus that just sat on the tarmac for 15 minutes once we got to our plane.  I thought one poor woman was going to pass out.  They finally let us out and on the plane.  Still was as crowded as the first plane.  Couldn’t get comfortable to get any sleep.  When we finally landed at Gatwick, we were too late to catch the Gatwick Express because it of course went on strike at 1:00 am and we got in at 2 am.   The tubes were no longer running – too late.  Our only options were to wait another hour for a train to get us to Victoria Station where we could take a cab, we could just take a cab the whole way (very expensive) or we could find a hotel and call it a night.  There was a Hampton Inn in the airport…so you guessed it, that was the option we picked.  Got checked in, washed up and in bed within 15 minutes extremely exhausted.

The next morning we got up, enjoyed the complimentary breakfast and went back to bed and took a nap.  The hotel was kind enough to give us a very late check-out.  We were then able to shower and get a train back to town, then it was a short tube ride back to our home 14 hours after we thought we would.  Horrible ending to a really wonderful vacation.

Hope you’ve enjoyed sharing our adventures in Portugal.  If we had it to do again, I think we would go to Porto first and spend just a couple of, then Lisbon for 4 days and then perhaps go to the southern coast to spend a day or two relaxing at one of the beach resorts.  Lisbon and Obidos were our favorite places to visit.  We’ve developed a new love for Portuguese wine.  We walked 46 miles (or 102,437 steps), most of which was the first 5 days of the trip.  Portugal will always hold a special place in our memories.

I am way behind on my travel blogs, so will try to do another within the next few days on my activities the week after returning from Portugal.  Until then,

Cheers mates!

Portugal Part 1: Lisbon

(Note:  I am a week late in writing about our fabulous trip to Portugal.  But there was so much to see and do and it has taken quite awhile to get it all down on paper – and to download all the pictures!  I’ve decided to split the trip into two separate blogs.  As some of you know, this was our trip to celebrate 30 years of marriage.  So there are LOTS and LOTS of pictures.  Hope you enjoy.)

So we were off on our Portugal adventure early on Friday morning.  Had to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the tube to go to Gatwick Airport.  We met a very nice man on the tube who was chatty – that NEVER happens on the London tube.  He was worker for the transit authority and he and Tim had a great conversation about politics (once he knew we were Americans of course – they ALL want to know about Donald Trump).  We haven’t flown out of Gatwick before, so that was an interesting experience.  They do a “bag drop” where you register ahead of time that you plan to check luggage and then you go to a self-serve kiosk to weigh the bag and put the ticket on yourself.  Lots of visible security before going through the security gates.  Machine guns and dogs everywhere, which of course shouldn’t have been surprising given the bombing in Brussels.  We stopped to have breakfast and even had a dog walk through the restaurant.  A bit unnerving and yet reassuring at the same time.  We got through security without a problem and had plenty of time before they announced our gate (It’s not a huge airport, but there were plenty of things to keep you occupied while waiting).  We flew on EasyJet, which is one of Europe’s low cost carriers.  Boarding was a bit of a hassle – very long lines, they don’t call you by zones.  Plane was very crowded, even less leg room or seat space than on American carriers I think.  And you have to buy all refreshments, so no coffee for me!

We got to Lisbon without a hitch, got our suitcase, found the car rental place (separate building) and got upgraded to a BMW small SUV.  When we got to the garage to get the car, we had to find someone to help us figure out the navigation system because it was all in Portuguese!   Thankfully we were able to switch it to English.  After a short tutorial on the navigation system, we headed to our hotel, the Lisbon Hilton, and got all checked in.  Not in the most convenient part of town for touring, really nice staff though; very Scandinavian kind of décor, very minimalist.  Check out this picture of the hall going to our room

Once settled in, we headed for the subway station to see if we could figure out the Lisbon transport system.  Very easy actually – only four lines (red, green, yellow and blue – even color coded in case you couldn’t read the words) and you can set the ticket kiosks to English.  Took the yellow line down to the Parque das Nacoes (Park of Nations).  To get ready for the 1998 World Exposition, Lisbon revitalized this area on the banks of the Rio Tejo – it apparently originally was full of empty warehouses and industrial waste.  There is a lovely walkway along the river – interesting that we had to walk through a shopping mall to get there.  The walkway is split down the middle by a very pretty park.  Brrrr – it was very cold down by the water.   Not very many people out on a Friday afternoon either.  We found a little café by the water but were disappointed to find they didn’t sell wine.  We were eager to try some Portuguese wine!  (No fear readers, we found plenty to try throughout the trip).     As usual, we adapted, had a pitcher of sangria instead, and then wandered down the walk along the river.  At the end was a beautiful hotel – the Myriad – that looked a little bit like that famous one in Dubai the Burj Al Arab.  Anyway, the Myriad started our “hotel tour” (we found that if we were having trouble finding decent wine, we would pop into a hotel; they all had fabulous wine available and great service).  The bartender at the Myriad told us a little bit about the different wine regions in Portugal and made a great recommendation.  From there, we walked back down the opposite side of the walkway and found lots of little restaurants, cafes and bars.  Surprisingly, most of the places were pretty empty, so we stopped at an Irish bar that seemed to be lively, but the bartender definitely did not seem happy to see us, so we finished our drinks and left.   At this point we were cold, so decided to head back to the hotel.  Stopped at the bar there for a nightcap and met Gi who was a wonderful bartender who also offered good Portuguese wine choices and was a really great resource with fabulous tips for us regarding each of our days’ travels.  AND he gave us drinks on the house to celebrate our anniversary!

Beautiful walkway along the Tejo River

Enjoying some Sangria

Our first bottle of delicious Portuguese wine

Very strange statue in the Park. Is that Leigh?

Gi, our fabulous bartender at the Hilton

Saturday was our day to wander the city of Lisbon.  Dreary day threatening rain, but we headed out anyway.  After all, we’ve been living in London for a long time now, so what’s a little rain?  We wanted our first stop to be St.George’s Castle (or Castelo de S. Jorge).  It is way way way high up on a hill and all the travel information said only the very fittest should try to walk up.  So we went to find streetcar 28, which was the recommended way to get up.  Took the subway (different color today), came out of the exit and found the streetcar stop – and the line was so incredibly long it was unbelievable.  So we made a quick decision and took the Red Tram up instead.  It was kind of a hop on/hop off thing, except we learned you didn’t dare hop off or you wouldn’t get another seat for along time.  Apparently the “real” yellow line hop on/hop off drivers were on strike.  Poor man selling tickets had no idea what was really going on – it was his first day.  But he tried valiantly and got us on a tram earlier than expected.  Anyway, this gave us a lovely tour of three of the areas of Lisbon – Alfama (which is the old Moorish quarter), The Bairro Alto (lots of bars, restaurants and cool stores), and Baixa (downtown) with headphones to listen to narrative about what we were passing.  Highly recommend using this instead of Streetcar 28!  Fodor’s describes Alfama as “narrow twisting streets and soaring flights of steps wind up to an imposing castle on one of the city’s highest hills”.  It is absolutely beautiful!  In the 18th century there was a tremendous earthquake and a massive tidal wave that wiped out a good portion of Lisbon (not Alfama!).  Baixa was rebuilt in a very neoclassical manner.  Bairro Alto’s streets follow the contours of the hills and have many small churches, shops, cafes, etc.    We saw just beautiful tile work everywhere we went.

Just a sample of the tile work:

We took the tram all the way around its circuit and then started again so we could get off up by the castle.  At this point, it started to rain, so we ducked into a café for a bite to eat and to try to stay dry.  Pretty bad wine, but good bread and cheese and fairly decent food.

Interesting little side note.  While sitting at our table, we could smell the unmistakable odor of marijuana wafting by.  Looked to our right and standing there, leaning against the wall, was a guy smoking a joint.  Apparently Portugal decriminalized drug use in 1991 and uses its public funds to support prevention and treatment instead.  They have seen a huge reduction in drug related problems such as sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV) and deaths, although drug use remains about the same as before.  So I guess this guy wasn’t too worried about getting caught.

Anyway, once the rain had dwindled down to a drizzle, we headed back out to walk down the hillside.  Meandered about, taking pictures (see below).  We stopped at a fado place and had a glass of wine and chatted with the waiter for a bit.  Fado is like their national music, very emotional and soulful .  Back out to visit the Se de Lisboa (Lisbon Cathedral), a beautiful cathedral built in 1150 to commemorate the defeat of the Moors.   They were getting ready for Easter Sunday.  Farther down the street we could hear some great jazz being played, so we ducked in to try some different Portuguese wine and have a bite to eat (not so great tapas – a “pig puff” and some fish & chips).  Great music though at the Rosa de Lancester.  From here we walked down to the Commercio Square where the royal palace once was until the great earthquake.  You can still walk on the steps that led from the river to the palace.  It was getting pretty late, so decided to head back.  Tried to find somewhere for a nightcap near our hotel, but there was absolutely nothing to be found.  So we ended up back with Gi, who gave us some great suggestions for our trip on Sunday.

Front of the Se

Beautiful altar

Side view of the Se as we walked down the hill

Enjoying the music at the Rose of Lancaster

Steps that originally led from the palace to the river

Love they had a baby elephant on the statue

Where the palace used to stand

Hard to believe we haven’t even been here for two days yet!

Easter Sunday we headed to Cascais to visit the beaches of Lisbon.  It was a beautiful day for an outing to the shore!  Cascais was once a small fishing village that has developed into a resort area of sorts.  It maintains its small village charm though and has a beautiful harbor.  We had to take the tube down  to Lisbon harbor where we caught a train; thankfully there was a young woman there to help us figure out the ticket kiosk (Portuguese is very different from Spanish, so we had a lot of trouble trying to translate).  The train took about 40 minutes into the lovely center of the village.  We wandered a bit and stopped at a roof top café to have a glass of rose.  Initially they really didn’t seem to want us because it was lunch time and we only wanted a drink….but being the outspoken American I am (no snide comments please from the peanut gallery), I said “so what you are saying is that we aren’t welcome here?” and they were very gracious from that point on. There really wasn’t that much lunch traffic either, so we weren’t taking anyone’s spot to be honest.  We then walked along the harbor and down a path along the water and enjoyed the views.

Stopped to watch the water crash against the rocks.  Absolutely gorgeous. Pictures don’t do this justice.

Final destination was the Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell), which is a grotto where the waves crash against the rocks.

Walking back, we stopped at the Farol Hotel, a hotel that had breathtaking views (more of our hotel tour!).  Had a great bottle of wine and a snack – chicken wraps that were absolutely delicious.  If we came back, I might want to stay here instead of downtown Lisbon.  Called the Bozards to wish them a Happy Easter and then walked back through town.  Stopped at a café by the harbor and called the kids.  Really great day, although Tim got sunburned.  Probably one of our favorite days.  Took the train back and unfortunately got lost leaving our subway station.  There are numerous options and we obviously picked the wrong one.  Ended up in a kind of scary area, very dark.  After about 10 anxious minutes, we found our way back (thank goodness for Google Maps!).  Gi was very kind and considerate and helped calm our nerves.

On our last full day in Lisbon, we headed to Sintra, which is an area renowned for its castles, gardens and beautiful landscape (its a UNESCO World Heritage Site).   The Sintra mountains have been inhabited since prehistoric times.  The Moors were the first to build a castle in the area (you can visit it, but we opted not to).  Later, Portuguese royalty made it their summer residence.  We were planning to drive there, but everything we read said parking was very difficult and we both were a bit tired after all of our Lisbon adventures.  So we took the train instead.  Had to change seats three times to get more room.  Once we arrived, we took a bus to the National Palace, where we had lunch in a charming old inn.  I had a really great Portuguese pork dish and Tim had a not very good Bass.

Train to Sintra

Inn where we had lunch

Sintra Palace

Beautiful Sintra

Then we took another bus up to the Pena Palace.  All I can say is Wow.  The pictures don’t even do justice to how gorgeous this palace was.  It very much looked like a Disney castle.  It originally was a monastery that fell into ruins.  It was purchased by Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg (the consort of Maria II) who renovated the monastery, inspired very much by Bavarian castles of his homeland.  The last royal to live here was Queen Amalia, who left and went into exile when Portugal became a Republic.

After our tour, we stopped and had a nice rose in the palace café before heading back to the bus and then the train back to Lisbon.  We stopped at one more hotel on our way to the Hilton (it had a huge arm outside, see picture below), had one final nightcap, and then headed back to the hotel to say good-bye to Gi and call it a night.

We had a really wonderful time in Lisbon and we highly recommend it to anyone considering a trip to Portugal!  There are hills everywhere, so be prepared for burning calf muscles 🙂  For the most part the food was delicious and the wine even better.  The scenery everywhere we went was just beautiful. Great historical preservation, fabulous architecture, gorgeous squares and parks.  We found 4.5 days to be the perfect amount of time – with one additional day, we might have wandered other areas of the city.  But we were pleased with everything we did and all that we saw.

Next up will be Portugal Part Two – Porto.  Until then,

Cheers Mates!

 

 

 

 

 

Old Palace Quarter

London Walk

Another week and another London Walk!  This week I did the Old Palace Quarter, which was a really lovely walk around areas just outside of Buckingham Palace, places where those who wanted to be close to Court would live.  The park also linked Piccadilly with the palace.  Our tour guide was Isobel, who had really lovely stories to tell and just a few bits of gossip to share.

We started in Green Park, just outside Buckingham Palace.  Interestingly, I never knew this was anywhere near the palace; we always went to St. James Park when we wanted to visit the palace .  But Green Park is just beautiful; there are no formal flower gardens here, just daffodils everywhere.  The daffodils were planted in honor of the jubilee anniversary of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.  Isobel told a great story about why there are no flower gardens; unfortunately I can’t recall the details, something about a queen looking out her window to see the king picking flowers that she thought were going to be for her.  When he never gave her flowers (they were obviously for someone else he held close to his heart), she decreed that there would be no flower beds.

A gentleman by the name of Henry Jermyn developed the  area north of St. James’s Palace, building St. James Square and the surrounding streets.  The design was so well done that it was the inspiration for the growth of the entire West End of London.  Jermyn is rumored to have been secretly married to the widow of Charles I and that he may have been the true father of at least one of her children, even perhaps of Charles II himself.  A few of the buildings we saw as we walked through the area are shown below.

Buildings on the right were fashionable at the time; the more modern building in the front is where Rupert Murdoch and his new wife Jerry Hall live

Remember Oliver Twist? Thieves used to use children to enter homes using these small windows and then have them open the doors to allow the thieves in.

Next was Spencer House; yes, as in Diana Spencer, future Princess Diana

We ran into a few houses of famous folks, as well as noted a “real” Coal Hole (not to be confused with the pub next to Tim’s building).

On to Dukes Hotel, built in the beginning of the 20th Century.  Isobel told us it is a really great place to have tea.  The Queen Mum loved to have martini’s here.  Purportedly, Ian Fleming liked them so much, he made it James Bonds’ favorite drink.

Around the corner and down a little alley to the Stafford Hotel, a 5 star luxury hotel.  It was originally a private residence (actually 2) that was owned by Lord and Lady Lyttelton, daughter of the then Earl Spencer.  Lady Lyttelton was pressed into service as nanny to Queen Victoria’s children.  The hotel added the stables on what once was Stable Lane, which housed thoroughbreds of the nobility, including Copenhagen, the Duke of Wellington’s horse.  There is a wine cellar underneath that was a bomb shelter during WWII (what a fabulous place to get stuck I would think!); you can rent the cellar for events.  The Stafford also has The American Bar where every available wall and surface is crammed with a collection of artefacts and knickknacks, the beginning of which was a small American Eagle.

St. James Square is known for its numerous gentlemen’s clubs.  The first picture below I believe is Brooks, which was started by “macaroni’s” – dandy’s that modeled their fashion after Italian flair – who were mostly Whigs who supported America during the revolution.  The door is to Brooks.  The pink one I believe is Bootles, where Ian Fleming was a member.  The white one is, well, White’s, the oldest gentlemen’s club in London where Charles and William are members.

St. James Square is known for ritzy gentlemen’s fashion as well as high-end liquor and cigars.  The statue is of Beau Brummell, who is credited for establishing a mode of dress that is now the modern men’s suit worn with a necktie.  He did not like the overly ornate fashions of the time and preferred understated, but perfectly fitted and tailored bespoke (hand-made) garments that included dark coats, full-length trousers rather than knee breeches and stockings, and immaculate linen shirts with an elaborately knotted cravat.  It is said that he claimed he took five hours a day to dress and recommended that boots be polished with champagne!  He was considered quite the dandy; unfortunately, he gambled a bit too much and had to flee to France to avoid debtor’s prison.  His last debt was at White’s, where they still list his debt as unpaid.

The gentleman in the picture below is a “bumble”, which is in essence a private security guard.  Bumbles were originally ex-service men hired to guard what used to be an alley here between St. James Square and Piccadilly, where the “riff-raff” would leave their oyster shells, creating quite a stink.  I seem to remember in Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens called the warden Bumble.

Fortnum & Mason is the Queen’s grocery store.  Fortnum originally was a footman who served Queen Anne.  He actually stole the candles that he blew out each day and sold the wax on the streets, making a good bit of money.  He used this money to partner with Mason to create a small grocery store that has grown into quite an establishment.  They have a fascinating history (click on the link to read about it), that includes creating the first Scottish Egg as portable food for travellers and introducing baked beans to the English.

We next visited St. James’s Church, designed by Christopher Wren.  The altar work and organ were just gorgeous.

Walking down the street, we passed Christie’s Auction House (with a very friendly guard out front).  Did you know that Christie’s sales rooms display property from upcoming sales in the days before the auction that are free and open to the public?

Down a very small and dark alley brought us to a lovely small square that houses Berry Brothers, London’s original wine and spirit shop that was opened in 1698 originally as a coffehouse.  The original coffee scales are still in the store, where not only was coffee weighed, but also many customers, including Lord Byron (he was told he “only” weighed 10 stone, which made him very happy).  They also have a huge wine cellar underneath.

We passed St. James’ Palace of course.  Anne Bolyn spent the night before her marriage here, Queen Elizabeth I lived here, and Queen Anne had all 17 of her children here (unfortunately, 16 died in childbirth and the remaining child died early in childhood).  Now it basically is used as offices, although ambassadors are presented to court here and Diana laid in state after her death.

Last, but certainly not least, is The Red Bull Pub.  Originally named Checkers, it was the first pub rebuilt after the Great Fire.  Our last stop on the tour was Clarence House, where Prince Charles and Camilla live.

 Now that was quite some tour, wasn’t it!  The other days of the week were spent working and preparing for our vacation to Portugal.  A note to friends – I am a week behind on writing my blog.  I typically write on Mondays, as most of you know, but last Monday we were in Portugal.  I will have two blogs coming up in the next week, one on our time in Lisbon and one on our visit to Porto.

Until then, Cheers Mates!

 

London Adventure – Chapter Two

So happy to be back in London!  It was a very long two and a half months away, although honestly it was wonderful to spend time with family and friends again.  I didn’t realize how much I had missed everyone.  It was also wonderful to be back at work, doing things that are so meaningful to me.  But on March 11 I boarded my plane in Columbia and was off for part two of this adventure.

It was very warm when I left home, so the change in climate was a bit of an adjustment to me.  Imagine my surprise when I stepped out onto the back porch to find this.

I had more trouble dealing with jet lag on this trip than on previous trips.  As a result, my first weekend consisted mostly of napping and relaxing.  And of course spending wonderful one-on-one time with Tim.  Sure did miss that man!!  I arrived early Saturday morning and managed to lug all my luggage the whole way – one suitcase ended up having a broken wheel, so it was a bit of a challenge.  Tim fixed me a wonderful omelet when I arrived and I napped on and off during the afternoon.  We headed to The Tommy Tucker Saturday night of course to say hello to friends.  Sunday we hibernated for most of the day and I did the same on Monday except for a short walking outing around the neighborhood.  I have mentioned several times how much I enjoy that London is such a walking city.  Well, after my stint in the states, I unfortunately found that I was a bit out of shape for walking.  Two and a half months of jumping in the car every time I needed something has taken its toll.  The walk wore me out!  Maybe partly last remnants of jet lag, but probably mostly the lack of walking while home.

Tuesday was Tim and my 30th wedding anniversary.  Hard to believe that 30 years have gone by so quickly.  He got off work early and came home, where we began our celebration drinking a lovely bottle of French Bordeaux bottled in 1986, the same year we were married.  We then headed to Eelbrook for a very special dinner.  The staff there really helped make it a memorable evening.  They welcomed us with two glasses of sparkling wine (poor Tim of course couldn’t drink his so I was forced to help him drink it).  We then shared a ham hock terrine, followed by delicious steaks.  Mine was a rib eye and Tim had bavette, both with oyster mushroom and rosemary infused oil.  Really delicious.  The staff then surprised us with anniversary dessert of a flourless chocolate torte.  A really lovely evening….and we have a fun anniversary trip planned in a week.

Wednesday I spent most of the day working.  Thursday I headed out for another fabulous London Walks.  This week I did  Old Kensington – London’s Royal Village.  The walk was led by Adam, who was a delightful Scotsman who led the tour with great stories, humor and overall friendliness.

Adam in the midst of a wonderful story.

We started the tour on Kensington High Street, the main commercial area of Kensington.  Interesting trivia note – High Street is used as the name of the primary thoroughfare here instead of Main Street.  While most cities have only one High Street, London has 17 of them.  Kensington is a very affluent area – saying something is “very Kensington” means that it is posh and/or well preserved.  Our first stop was the Rooftop Garden, which unfortunately was closed to the public on this day.  Click on the link – they look absolutely beautiful, so sorry we missed this stop.  But Adam told us wonderful stories about the neighboring buildings so that it was mostly okay with the whole group.  We saw where T.S. Elliott lived and died, several buildings that at one time housed gentry gentlemen as well as the servants housing nearby, and Thackery House, where William Thackery lived; he wrote “Vanity Fair”.  Another fun fact – when you see balconies with railings that bow out at the bottom, these were designed for women in the 1600’s so they could stand at the window and there would be room for the bottom of their dresses.

View of the Rooftop Garden; the building is owned by Sir Richard Branson

Originally housed the servants of London’s gentlemen who lived nearby in “slightly” larger mansions

Thackeray House, now houses Richmond University

On next to St. Mary’s Abbots, the community parish since the 1600’s.  It has the largest free standing spire in London at 278 feet.  Next door is a school that originally served poor children – the blue girl & boy on top are symbols of that.  The school now has a slightly different population; it is rumored that David Cameron sent his children here.

Last stop was of course Kensington Palace.  The palace was purchased by King William III and Mary from Nottingham and refurbished by Christopher Wren so the King could live in the English countryside.  Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace and there is a beautiful statue of her when she was young that I couldn’t take a picture of because the sun was directly behind it by the time we were finished.  As most of us know, the palace was also the home of Princess Diana and now the home of William and Kate.

We did not tour the inside of the palace (it has recently been refurbished) or the gardens, as our two hours were already up.  Maybe I’ll return for a self-guided tour as the gardens are just lovely.  I am so impressed with all of the London’s parks that I have visited.  Whether they are large like Kensington or St. James Park, or whether they are small like Eelbrook Park, they are extremely well maintained (very little litter) and Londoners really seem to enjoy the parks; there are always people walking, biking and playing in the grass.

Friday evening Tim and I stayed in Fulham.  We visited a new pub, The Rose, that had been recommended to us by several people.  It is very close by, so we were surprised we hadn’t found it yet.  The inside of the pub feels very open and airy while the décor reminds me a bit of my grandmothers house.  There is also a large and beautiful garden out back.  Highly recommend it!  We stopped just for drinks and an appetizer, and then headed to Tommy Tucker for another drink before heading to Thai Square for dinner.  Felt wonderful to be back in my “usual” haunts.

Saturday we got tickets to Covenant Garden Comedy Club.  What fun that was!  Very small venue – shall we say cozy? – but the comedians were great fun and we enjoyed laughing for almost 2 hours straight.  Afterwards we went to Gordon’s Wine Bar  (our very favorite establishment in all of London) for a glass of wine before heading home.  Unfortunately, there was an accident on the District line (rumor was a body on the tracks, but we don’t know if that is true).  We had to take an alternate tube route to Earl’s Court and then were told we would have to take a bus from there.  At this point in the evening, we thought a bus might be too difficult to navigate, so hailed a cab for the 5 minute ride back to our flat.  Great evening!

Covenat Garden Comedy House

Getting ready to enjoy the show

Sunday was the usual relaxation day so Tim could get ready for a busy week.  We were able to chat with Kelly to talk about wedding venues, which was really lovely.  We also went back to The Rose to have Sunday Roast.  Delicious!  I had the roast leg of lamb and Tim had roast chicken.  Both came with more food than we could possibly imagine eating.  Note to ourselves, we really must book a table (make a reservation) for Sunday roast.  The staff was very accommodating to us and actually brought out an extra table and set it up for us.  Very accommodating!

And that is a recap of my first week back in London.  It promises to be a busy week coming up.  I have a tour planned for Wednesday and then on Friday we head off to Portugal for our anniversary trip.  Lots to see and do, and I promise to share it all with you.  Until next week,

Cheers Mates!

Farewell (for now)

The suitcases are (jam) packed, the flat is clean and I am thinking about all of the things I will miss about living in London.

• Walking – living in London requires that you must walk a great deal; walking is part of your lifestyle.  Going home to the States means that you have to jump in your car to go anywhere, even the corner grocery store.  If you want to walk, you have to schedule time for it in your daily calendar.
• London transportation  –  I can walk to the tube station and in 20 minutes or so be pretty much anywhere in London I want to be.   Granted, sometimes the tube cars are really crowded (the Picadilly line is infamously always packed) and they can be stuffy and hot.  But they are so easy and require so little of me, other than knowing which direction I need to go. And the trains to other parts of England.  Why don’t we have a light rail system in South Carolina?  I am definitely not looking forward to having to drive everywhere.
• Pubs – they are the cultural center of the neighborhood.  People go there to socialize.  There is no stigma associated with hanging out at the pub.  Its kind of like Cheers on every other corner.  On any given afternoon, you can head down to the pub, have a chat with a few folks, take your glass of wine outside to the garden and enjoy your book.
• My flat – being forced to live in smaller living space has been really great. I really love this little place, my backyard patio, my spacious living area.  If I was staying here long term, there is so much potential in this flat!  And its so convenient to everything.  I’m looking forward to downsizing when I get home.
• The city’s energy – you can feel it any time you venture outside.  There is a buzz in the air, an energy that seems to fuel everything and everyone.  I could step outside my front door and feel it.  Stepping outside my door in South Carolina is calming; here it is energizing.
• The architecture – you never know what you might see as you round a corner on London’s streets.  Usually it is something beautiful, but you have to slow down long enough to see it.  The gorgeous architecture, the interesting decorative additions to the buildings, the green spaces.  Small alleyways leading to interesting houses. Historic remnants of bygone years.  Always something interesting to see.
• The adventure of it all.  Every week held potential for something new and exciting.  So many options, whether we chose to stay in the City or head out somewhere.  New experiences around every corner.

While I will miss many things in London, there are still many things I am looking forward to as I head home to South Carolina.

• Cooking in my kitchen.  Understanding how the oven works.  My crockpot, my dutch oven, decent pans that conduct heat well, sharp knives, a full size refrigerator.  I may go into cooking nirvana.  Remind me I said that after I cook a turkey for Christmas day.
• My friends.  I am a fairly outgoing person, pretty friendly.  but despite my best efforts, I never was able to meet people who were interested in being social or in doing things together.  Never heard “lets get together for coffee” or anything like that.  So I can’t wait to see my friends, give them a hug, catch up on their lives, and have long conversations with them about the state of the world, among other things.
• Going back to work – the one primary thing this sabbatical has taught me is how much my work fulfills me.  I think I took it for granted before coming over here.  It is worthwhile work and I want to get back to making a difference in my small part of the world.  I am not cut out to be a stay at home person – I need not only to be interacting with people, but that interaction needs to be meaningful.  That’s what my work does for me.
• Using my washer and dryer.  I hate doing laundry…..but I hate the combination washer/dryer we have here even more.  Everything comes out wrinkled and shrinks. My clothes have definitely suffered.
• The sunshine.  The sun sets here at 4:00 in December – I feel like it must be dinner time at 4:30 and bedtime at 7:00 when it is so dark outside.  Plus the last few weeks have mostly been rainy, dreary and blustery.   I have to remind myself that it wasn’t like this when we first got here in June.  Still, I can’t wait for South Carolina sunshine and warmer temperatures.
• Public bathrooms that are not down a flight of stairs.  Enough said about that.

So I went back to my first post to see what I missed and what I was enjoying when I first got to London.  Interesting comparison.

Things I missed:  Coffee (I went out and bought a coffee maker and that took care of that), crosswords (my friend Peggy saved all of hers so I could have them to do in London.  What a great friend!), birds (they would sing early in the morning, I just had to get up early enough to hear them), space (no longer miss it!) and TV (still missed American TV.  Can’t wait to catch up on Madam Secretary and Chicago Fire).

Delights:  Pubs (still), walking (still), history (yes!) and daylight.  OK, so the daylight extremes are a bit more than they are in South Carolina.

So my friends, I have enjoyed sharing this adventure with you. Its been a wonderful “Gap Year”.   I hope you have enjoyed reading about all the fun things we’ve done.  I won’t be back to London until March.  So until we meet again,

Cheers Mates!

Of Castles, Pubs, Christmas Caroling and Wonderful Memories

My last full week in London.  Somewhat bittersweet.  I am definitely looking forward to going home, but am  also going to miss living in this wonderful city.

I only got one suggestion of something to do before leaving (thank you Susan Cate!).  I decided that I wanted to go back and revisit some of my favorite places in London.  So Tuesday I headed to Covenant Gardens to do a little Christmas shopping.  Such a fun, vibrant place.  Happy people wandering the stalls and watching the performers.  I always feel like I’m in “real” London when I am there as it seems to be like a historic village right in the middle of the city.  Sorry, no pictures this day.

Wednesday was a new adventure.  I went to visit Windsor Castle, the home of the Queen.  I chose a new tour company, Anderson Tours, because they will pick you up outside Earls Court tube station, which is very close to where we live.  When the coach got there, I found out I was the only one on the tour!  How fabulous is that?  Private tour.  My bus driver Keith was fabulous, pointing out various sites along the way and talking with me about the royal family.  When we got to the coach parking lot, he got out and walked me up to the ticket booth, as it is pretty far away – you have to walk through the train station (very Victorian looking) and some shopping area.  Got my ticket and my audio guide and I was off.

Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. It has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years. It is an official residence of Her Majesty The Queen, whose standard flies from the Round Tower when she is in residence.  Unfortunately, as you can tell from the pictures, she was not in residence during my visit – the regular British flag was flying.  It was a gorgeous day – first day of sunshine in a long time.  I have to say, the castle was one of the most impressive places I’ve been to.  It’s much larger than I imagined.

I started with Saint George’s Chapel, which is the home of the Order of the Garter, the oldest and most prestigious order of chivalry in Britain.  You can’t take pictures inside unfortunately, but take it from me, it was gorgeous.  Incredible stained glass windows. The ceilings were built to look like they are growing up from the ground – beyond words.  Several Kings are buried here, including Henry VIII and George IV.

St. George’s Chapel

From there I headed up the hill to the State Rooms.  Again, no pictures are allowed.  Such a shame.  Click on the link to Windsor Castle above so you can see a few pictures of the State and Semi-State Rooms.  You walk into a grand entry hall and up some stairs where you feel like you are a part of history.  There are displays of weapons all over the hall, supposedly initially to impress any visiting dignitaries of the strength of the British.  Then there are numerous bedrooms and dining rooms and ball rooms, all extremely richly appointed with beautiful furniture and incredible paintings.  I was lucky enough to also be able to tour the Semi-State rooms, which aren’t always open.  These are a little less “formal” and are used fairly regularly by the royal family for entertaining.  Salons and dining rooms.  This is also where the big fire was in 1992; luckily, most of the contents had been moved for a planned renovation.

Numerous guards throughout the castle

The Tower where the State Rooms are

The view from the State Rooms

When you come out of the Tower, you can see the Annex where the royals actually live and where the queen – and other dignitaries – enter the castle.

The Entrance

The Annex

Special gardens for me

The tour I took was a half-day tour – and I want to tell you that it wasn’t nearly enough time.  I really wanted to be able to wander around the town of Windsor as well.  But after 2.5 hours of seeing the castle, it was time to leave.  Lucky for me, as I had a private tour, Keith my driver offered to take me around to the back of the castle.  There is a road that people are welcome to walk down, but you can’t drive down it, so I had to settle for a picture from far away.  We then drove through some lovely small English towns on the way back to London.  What a great day it was!

Outside of the castle

Back view of the castle

Friday I went back into London to wander a bit through Westminster, take in the beautiful sites of Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral, and the bridge over to the Southbank.  I then decided to go see Churchill’s War Rooms, as I have wanted to do that since I got here.  These were the secret rooms that were occupied by government and military leaders as well as the Prime Minister during WWII that were built in the basement of an office complex.   Churchill’s War Cabinet actually met there 115 times, most often during the Blitz.  People lived, slept, ate and worked there 24 hours a day.  The War Rooms also housed a military information center based around a “Map Room” where vital information for the war was collected.  The War Rooms were closed in 1945, when the lights were turned off in the Map room for the first time in six years.  Many years later, they went back in and found things in the Map Room exactly as they had been left – and so they are displayed just as they were found.

Entrance to Churchill’s office

That’s Churchill talking on the international phone

The switchboard – notice her bed is in the same room as where she worked and there is a gas mask sitting on her desk.

The Map Room

I left the museum and took a quick wander over to St. James Park to admire the swans.  Walked down the street to see 10 Downing Street – as you can see below, it is blocked off by a barred wall and heavy guard.  Understandable I suppose.  Then I walked by the Queens Horse Guard and lucked into the changing of the guard.  Then it was off to Trafalgar Square and meet Tim for one last bottle of wine at our favorite watering hole, Gordon’s Wine Bar.

Swans at St. James Park

#10 Downing Street

The Horseguard

Changing of the guard

Chilly evening at Gordon’s

Saturday dawned cold, rainy and chilly, so we had a slow quiet morning.  Tim & I decided we wanted to spend our last Saturday visiting some of our favorite places.  Once the rain let up, we started our day at the Holiday Market on High Street in Fulham and then stopped for lunch at The Cock, where we had so much fun with my sister Sharon and her husband Don.  Then we headed into London to do a little Christmas shopping and stopped at The Sherlock Holmes Pub.  From there we crossed the bridge and went to hang out in the South Bank.  And there were Santas everywhere!  Hundreds and hundreds of them.  But that wasn’t all!  We walked down to the Waterloo bridge, crossed back over and they were everywhere on The Strand also.  We stopped in the Coal Hole and they were there.  We headed back to the tube and yup, there were Santas on the tube also.  Once we got back to Fulham, surprise surprise more Santas.  It was really quite funny.

Anyway, it was  a lovely afternoon and evening wandering through some of our favorite places and yes, it definitely turned into a pub crawl.

TrafalgarSquare

Great viecw across the Waterloo Bridge

The Strand

Can you believe there is more?  Sunday we participated in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for Christmas Caroling.  It was being held in the park behind our flat, Eel Brook Common.  Lots of people all dressed in festive attire.  At first we thought it was going to be a confusing mess, right down to the muddy ground, but it turned out to be a really fun afternoon.  We walked and stopped at 10 different homes – can you imagine trying to do that with over 500 people?  There were two carols that we really didn’t know and for several songs we did know, the lyrics were slightly different.  But it was all great fun and at one point I turned around to look at the crowd behind me all singing together and it really moved me beyond words.  We won’t know for 6 weeks whether Guinness will recognize our effort but even if they don’t it was a wonderful experience that, while very large, helped us to feel a part of the community.

And friends, that is the end of my touring in London….for now anyway.  I will spend the week packing and getting ready to head back to South Carolina.  I’m sure I will have at least one more blog post in me before I leave though.

And I’ll be back.  The plans now are for me to return mid-March to celebrate Tim and my 30th wedding anniversary.  I’m already looking forward to coming back.

Until then,

Cheers mates!