2/6/15
1/11/15
Happy New Year!
The past few weeks have been filled with the usual mad scramble to see all of the relatives and friends while on a 10 day trip home. We in theory had an almost 3 week trip over Christmas but it was filled with so many busy travel days that it went by SUPER quickly. It was very nice to catch up with everyone though and see most of our friends at least once.
Christmas in Ontario was a weird one as it was warm (London was even colder than home over Christmas!!) and the snow melted just in time for a nice green Christmas.
The second part of our holidays was spent in Grenada on a trip with my extended family for a special birthday. It was the perfect end to an absolutely chaotic year and I'm glad we got some time for R&R over the break. It was even worth the two absolutely horrendous travel days required to get there and back. Let's just say saving a few hundred $$$ is not worth taking the milk run back to London. Grenada - Miami - Toronto - Iceland - London was a VERY long trip (24 hours+) for what is a 9-10 hour direct flight from the Caribbean :)
We stayed at a little boutique resort, Laluna, while in Grenada, and it was perfect for our family. I do feel bad though for the handful of other guests at the resort as our group of 19 quite literally took over and treated it like we were the only ones there! Oh well, we probably provided some free entertainment.
After surviving the long trip home, it is now back to "reality" (or at least our version of it living in London :)) Right before Christmas I got a job working part-time at a campus pub, but am hoping to find something a little more lucrative in the next few weeks. Pat went straight back to work & is just loving it ;)
We've also started trying to map out a few trips for the next few months, and are hoping for lots of visitors!! On the agenda is at least one weekend skiing, hopefully in Switzerland with some of our McGill friends in February, and possibly a 1 week trip to Turkey in April. Tanzania has probably been pushed back until next year as Christmas used up almost all of Pat's vacation time, so we have to decide whether or not to save the rest for shorter, more frequent trips, or burn through it all on 2 weeks in Africa. Big problems, I know.
I'm off to ogle some mountain spas in Turkey instead of looking for cheap hostels. A girl can dream.
Christmas in Ontario was a weird one as it was warm (London was even colder than home over Christmas!!) and the snow melted just in time for a nice green Christmas.
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| Rare green Christmas in Eastern Ontario! |
The second part of our holidays was spent in Grenada on a trip with my extended family for a special birthday. It was the perfect end to an absolutely chaotic year and I'm glad we got some time for R&R over the break. It was even worth the two absolutely horrendous travel days required to get there and back. Let's just say saving a few hundred $$$ is not worth taking the milk run back to London. Grenada - Miami - Toronto - Iceland - London was a VERY long trip (24 hours+) for what is a 9-10 hour direct flight from the Caribbean :)
We stayed at a little boutique resort, Laluna, while in Grenada, and it was perfect for our family. I do feel bad though for the handful of other guests at the resort as our group of 19 quite literally took over and treated it like we were the only ones there! Oh well, we probably provided some free entertainment.
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| Our view for the week :) |
After surviving the long trip home, it is now back to "reality" (or at least our version of it living in London :)) Right before Christmas I got a job working part-time at a campus pub, but am hoping to find something a little more lucrative in the next few weeks. Pat went straight back to work & is just loving it ;)
We've also started trying to map out a few trips for the next few months, and are hoping for lots of visitors!! On the agenda is at least one weekend skiing, hopefully in Switzerland with some of our McGill friends in February, and possibly a 1 week trip to Turkey in April. Tanzania has probably been pushed back until next year as Christmas used up almost all of Pat's vacation time, so we have to decide whether or not to save the rest for shorter, more frequent trips, or burn through it all on 2 weeks in Africa. Big problems, I know.
I'm off to ogle some mountain spas in Turkey instead of looking for cheap hostels. A girl can dream.
12/16/14
Chateau hopping in the Loire
Pat's work sent him to the Loire Valley in France for 2 weeks to visit one of their sites, and *forced* him to stay over the weekend. With a hotel room and rental car. Poor guy. So I managed to make the best of the situation with VERY cheap flights and had a nice little weekend in France :)
Pat picked me up at the airport in Tours early Friday evening, and we headed into the "downtown". It's a pretty little city, with amazing architecture... I loved the insanely old wooden beam & brick buildings.
We met up with one of Pat's colleagues for a drink before dinner. Even though we only ordered a few drinks they gave us a little meat and bread plate to share. France knows where it's at.
After a disappointing meal we headed back to the small town of Loches where Pat was staying for the 2 weeks. It was so nice having a car again and not being totally dependent on public transit schedules! Even the tiny little rental felt like such a luxury. Pat's skills driving manual were also very impressive. Needless to say he did ALL of the driving over the weekend :)
On Saturday, despite the absolutely MISERABLE weather, we set out to check out as many of the "chateaux" as we could before the sun set. Our first stop was "Chenonceau." It was so nice to see the rooms dressed up for Christmas. It made exploring feel even more special getting to see the castle in its "festive" gear.
The rear addition on the castle had a really interesting gallery explaining the history of the castle. I found it cool because I have a guilty addiction to the TV show "Reign" and Diane (one of King Henry's mistresses) and Catherine de Medici (former Queen of France) are both historically tied to this castle *in real life*!! So it was kind of neat getting an insider view into the true events behind the show.
The inside of the castle was amazing. I think my favourite part was the first floor gallery in the "covered bridge" at the back. It was so classically beautiful with white stone walls, black & white floors and very simple chandeliers. I may have commented once or twice that it would be a stunning location for a wedding reception ;)
We made our way through the castle interior then spent some time wandering around the grounds. I may or may not have been a bit whiny due to the frigid temperatures & my failure to pack SOCKS for the weekend. Whoops.
By this point in the day my body had officially started shutting down due to hypothermia (I don't even know if I can call myself Canadian anymore!!), so we headed out to find some lunch in nearby Amboise. Fun fact about France - restaurants are not open between 2 and 7:30 pm. ANYWHERE. We were thisclose to resorting to McDonald's but managed to find a bakery that made sandwiches just in time. Pat is so lucky I never get hangry ;)
After wolfing down our sandwiches, we headed up to castle #2 - creatively called "Chateau Amboise".
This castle is built up on a hill overlooking the town of Amboise. It had less to see inside than Chenonceau, but had beautiful views of the river and town.
Probably the craziest thing we stumbled upon that weekend was finding Leonardo da Vinci's burial site in the castle's chapel!! I obviously hadn't put much research into this trip and was shocked to find his name inscribed on a tomb in the chapel. I easily could have walked by without even realizing it was his. Apparently I was too surprised to take any pictures.
After leaving the castle, we wandered around the little streets of Amboise trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and then headed back to Loches.
I had booked my return flight on Sunday out of Poitiers, about an hour south of Loches. We tried to do a little bit of exploring and slowly made our way towards Poitiers, but we did not have much success finding anywhere particularly interesting. We did pull off the highway to check out "Futuroscope", but at 42 euros each, with only an hour before I had to be at the airport, (and my aversion to amusement parks) we decided to give it a pass. If we end up back in Loches when it's a bit warmer I fully expect to be dragged back. It was a very surreal experience as it was definitely their off-season and with the grey weather & empty parking lots, it felt very desolate & almost abandoned. There are sooo many hotels surrounding the park though I imagine it must get super busy in the summer.
I made my way back to London and am now procrastinating packing to head back to Canada for Christmas. We will also be in Grenada over New Year's so we have a very busy couple of weeks ahead of us. I can't wait to see the sun again!!
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| Tours City Hall |
Pat picked me up at the airport in Tours early Friday evening, and we headed into the "downtown". It's a pretty little city, with amazing architecture... I loved the insanely old wooden beam & brick buildings.
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| Somewhat terrible phone pic - but so so charming. |
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| Bag o' baguettes casually hanging out beside our table at the bar! |
After a disappointing meal we headed back to the small town of Loches where Pat was staying for the 2 weeks. It was so nice having a car again and not being totally dependent on public transit schedules! Even the tiny little rental felt like such a luxury. Pat's skills driving manual were also very impressive. Needless to say he did ALL of the driving over the weekend :)
On Saturday, despite the absolutely MISERABLE weather, we set out to check out as many of the "chateaux" as we could before the sun set. Our first stop was "Chenonceau." It was so nice to see the rooms dressed up for Christmas. It made exploring feel even more special getting to see the castle in its "festive" gear.
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| Chenonceau |
The inside of the castle was amazing. I think my favourite part was the first floor gallery in the "covered bridge" at the back. It was so classically beautiful with white stone walls, black & white floors and very simple chandeliers. I may have commented once or twice that it would be a stunning location for a wedding reception ;)
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| The first floor gallery |
We made our way through the castle interior then spent some time wandering around the grounds. I may or may not have been a bit whiny due to the frigid temperatures & my failure to pack SOCKS for the weekend. Whoops.
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| My new best friend. Half donkey half grizzly bear. |
By this point in the day my body had officially started shutting down due to hypothermia (I don't even know if I can call myself Canadian anymore!!), so we headed out to find some lunch in nearby Amboise. Fun fact about France - restaurants are not open between 2 and 7:30 pm. ANYWHERE. We were thisclose to resorting to McDonald's but managed to find a bakery that made sandwiches just in time. Pat is so lucky I never get hangry ;)
After wolfing down our sandwiches, we headed up to castle #2 - creatively called "Chateau Amboise".
This castle is built up on a hill overlooking the town of Amboise. It had less to see inside than Chenonceau, but had beautiful views of the river and town.
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| How is the grass still so green?! |
Probably the craziest thing we stumbled upon that weekend was finding Leonardo da Vinci's burial site in the castle's chapel!! I obviously hadn't put much research into this trip and was shocked to find his name inscribed on a tomb in the chapel. I easily could have walked by without even realizing it was his. Apparently I was too surprised to take any pictures.
After leaving the castle, we wandered around the little streets of Amboise trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and then headed back to Loches.
I had booked my return flight on Sunday out of Poitiers, about an hour south of Loches. We tried to do a little bit of exploring and slowly made our way towards Poitiers, but we did not have much success finding anywhere particularly interesting. We did pull off the highway to check out "Futuroscope", but at 42 euros each, with only an hour before I had to be at the airport, (and my aversion to amusement parks) we decided to give it a pass. If we end up back in Loches when it's a bit warmer I fully expect to be dragged back. It was a very surreal experience as it was definitely their off-season and with the grey weather & empty parking lots, it felt very desolate & almost abandoned. There are sooo many hotels surrounding the park though I imagine it must get super busy in the summer.
I made my way back to London and am now procrastinating packing to head back to Canada for Christmas. We will also be in Grenada over New Year's so we have a very busy couple of weeks ahead of us. I can't wait to see the sun again!!
11/26/14
Portuguesey
We made it out of the UK on our second trip of the fall last weekend to Lisbon, Portugal. Again, we played the "where's the cheapest flight from London this weekend" game and ended up in the lovely city of Lisbon. Unfortunately, we might as well have played the "where's the craziest weather going to be this weekend" game as we felt like we were back in London for most of the weekend. Ontario just doesn't get the wild bright blue clear skies with torrential downpours minutes later like they do here.
Despite the insane weather, we jammed in a ton of sightseeing and saw enough of Portugal to know that we definitely want to go back and have a warm and / or at least sunny vacation next year. Portugal is also super cheap compared to London so we didn't feel that guilty about being on "vacation" as we were probably spending less money on food & necessities than we would have if we had stayed in London!
We had undoubtedly one of the best meals EVER in Lisbon on the Friday night at Cruzes credo in the "Alfama" (super old) part of the city. It's conveniently located right outside of one of Lisbon's stunning churches on a steep hill so the scenery is almost as impressive as the food. We shared a few appetizers that included a giant bowl of olives (amazing), olive tapenade (the silly waiter warned us we were ordering a lot of olives HA!), and BUTTERY chorizo. I could eat only that chorizo for the rest of my life and be so happy. Well maybe with a few olives once in a while. ANYWAYS, for the main we had pork shoulder with clams. Again, INCREDIBLE. Pat wanted to eat there for every meal the entire weekend. I forced him to try other places but secretly would have been ok with that if he had really insisted. It was that good.
We stayed at the Yes! Lisbon Hostel which was also excellent. It was absolutely the cleanest hostel I've ever stayed in. There was constantly someone going around mopping or checking on the washrooms. It was a pretty lively atmosphere as well which made us feel young again! Breakfast was included & I will not lie and say that I didn't indulge in some Nutella every morning. If it's free, then it doesn't have calories. Fact.
On Saturday we tried our best to squeeze in all of the main tourist destinations including the Castle and the Belem Tower. The tourist spots were surprisingly expensive, but they were all very impressive & worth checking out. The Castle especially was very cool, and very scary if you're not good with heights. There are some walkways around the towers that are definitely not up to code in terms of handrails.
We took the train out to Belem in the afternoon to see the tower and the monastery. We didn't go inside the monastery but the architecture of the building itself was very cool to see. The tower was interesting but again, very expensive & of all the places we went I felt like we could have skipped paying to go inside. Walking along the water in the Belem area is so nice and if I were to go back (with money being no object) I would probably stay at the Altis Belem Hotel & Spa - its rooms looked amazing.
Saturday evening we ate at another small / cute little restaurant in the Alfama area. I forget the name of it - the food wasn't noteworthy - but they had an acoustic guitarist playing in the restaurant who was PHENOMENAL. He played an acoustic version of Get Lucky by Daft Punk that had the whole restaurant singing along it was super cool. Now that I look into this more it appears several musicians have covered this song, but his was so good - it was a pretty magical moment. Here's another musician's take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TMIUAzF2q4 (He even gives the vocals a go.)
We tried to book a guided tour on Sunday to head up the coast but for some reason the tours were all sold out - even though the website said there were spots available. So we decided to be brave and venture out of Lisbon on our own by train. Ha! It was so easy. We are such wimps sometimes. The train was about 45 min from Central Lisbon & about the price of a single tube trip in London. We ended up in Cascais, which seems to be a little resort town on the beach. There were so many surfers enjoying the autumn sunshine, and even a few paddleboarders riding the waves which I didn't know was a thing. We pretty much just spent the day enjoying the sunshine & 20 degree weather along the water. The beach in the town is lined with a nice promenade filled with cafes & restaurants so we just café-hopped our way along the beach and then back again before catching the train back to Lisbon.
We headed "home" to London Sunday night, arriving back to our apartment at the lovely hour of 3 am. Thanks Stansted! and Ryanair!
I am anxious to fit in one more weekend trip before Christmas. Pat may have to go to Tours, France for work so I'm hoping he will be able to fit his work trip around my schedule ;)
We are also planning to visit my cousin in Cambridge this weekend and perhaps try to squeeze in one Christmas market in the next few weeks. So much to do so little time! #nottheworstproblemtohave
Cheers!
ps - we managed to print our boarding passes ahead of time this trip :)
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| One of many walls of rain headed our way on Saturday. |
Despite the insane weather, we jammed in a ton of sightseeing and saw enough of Portugal to know that we definitely want to go back and have a warm and / or at least sunny vacation next year. Portugal is also super cheap compared to London so we didn't feel that guilty about being on "vacation" as we were probably spending less money on food & necessities than we would have if we had stayed in London!
We had undoubtedly one of the best meals EVER in Lisbon on the Friday night at Cruzes credo in the "Alfama" (super old) part of the city. It's conveniently located right outside of one of Lisbon's stunning churches on a steep hill so the scenery is almost as impressive as the food. We shared a few appetizers that included a giant bowl of olives (amazing), olive tapenade (the silly waiter warned us we were ordering a lot of olives HA!), and BUTTERY chorizo. I could eat only that chorizo for the rest of my life and be so happy. Well maybe with a few olives once in a while. ANYWAYS, for the main we had pork shoulder with clams. Again, INCREDIBLE. Pat wanted to eat there for every meal the entire weekend. I forced him to try other places but secretly would have been ok with that if he had really insisted. It was that good.
We stayed at the Yes! Lisbon Hostel which was also excellent. It was absolutely the cleanest hostel I've ever stayed in. There was constantly someone going around mopping or checking on the washrooms. It was a pretty lively atmosphere as well which made us feel young again! Breakfast was included & I will not lie and say that I didn't indulge in some Nutella every morning. If it's free, then it doesn't have calories. Fact.
On Saturday we tried our best to squeeze in all of the main tourist destinations including the Castle and the Belem Tower. The tourist spots were surprisingly expensive, but they were all very impressive & worth checking out. The Castle especially was very cool, and very scary if you're not good with heights. There are some walkways around the towers that are definitely not up to code in terms of handrails.
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| Deceivingly blue skies from the top of the Cathedral! |
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| Architecture inside the military museum |
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| Interesting neighbourhood around the Castle entrance |
We took the train out to Belem in the afternoon to see the tower and the monastery. We didn't go inside the monastery but the architecture of the building itself was very cool to see. The tower was interesting but again, very expensive & of all the places we went I felt like we could have skipped paying to go inside. Walking along the water in the Belem area is so nice and if I were to go back (with money being no object) I would probably stay at the Altis Belem Hotel & Spa - its rooms looked amazing.
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| Monastery in Belem |
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| "Monument to the Discoveries" (with "Golden Gate Bridge" and "Christ the Redeemer" in background!) |
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| Boyz & their toyz |
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| Hopefully catching my dinner! |
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| Belem Tower |
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| #belemtowerselfie |
Saturday evening we ate at another small / cute little restaurant in the Alfama area. I forget the name of it - the food wasn't noteworthy - but they had an acoustic guitarist playing in the restaurant who was PHENOMENAL. He played an acoustic version of Get Lucky by Daft Punk that had the whole restaurant singing along it was super cool. Now that I look into this more it appears several musicians have covered this song, but his was so good - it was a pretty magical moment. Here's another musician's take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TMIUAzF2q4 (He even gives the vocals a go.)
We tried to book a guided tour on Sunday to head up the coast but for some reason the tours were all sold out - even though the website said there were spots available. So we decided to be brave and venture out of Lisbon on our own by train. Ha! It was so easy. We are such wimps sometimes. The train was about 45 min from Central Lisbon & about the price of a single tube trip in London. We ended up in Cascais, which seems to be a little resort town on the beach. There were so many surfers enjoying the autumn sunshine, and even a few paddleboarders riding the waves which I didn't know was a thing. We pretty much just spent the day enjoying the sunshine & 20 degree weather along the water. The beach in the town is lined with a nice promenade filled with cafes & restaurants so we just café-hopped our way along the beach and then back again before catching the train back to Lisbon.
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| So excited for fresh air! |
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| Paddleboarders & surfers braving the cold water |
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| Catching some rays |
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| I carried the banana & umbrella around all day only to have the umbrella confiscated by airport security :( |
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| Boogie boarders |
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| Cascais |
We headed "home" to London Sunday night, arriving back to our apartment at the lovely hour of 3 am. Thanks Stansted! and Ryanair!
I am anxious to fit in one more weekend trip before Christmas. Pat may have to go to Tours, France for work so I'm hoping he will be able to fit his work trip around my schedule ;)
We are also planning to visit my cousin in Cambridge this weekend and perhaps try to squeeze in one Christmas market in the next few weeks. So much to do so little time! #nottheworstproblemtohave
Cheers!
ps - we managed to print our boarding passes ahead of time this trip :)
11/12/14
Out & About in London
Due to some pesky little distractions (aka essays ugh) the past few weeks have been a little quieter, but we still managed to squeeze in some sightseeing around the city. Jill came to visit from Lausanne two weekends ago so that was a good excuse to get out and explore. She also managed to arrive for summer's last big push, with temperatures going above 20 degrees on Halloween weekend cha-ching!
On Saturday we headed out to the Portobello Road Market, which ended up being only a 20 min walk from our apartment! It had a very eclectic mix with some more of London's delicious street food.
Portobello Road Market is famous for its antiques - I forced myself to stay very far away from them as our apartment is crowded enough as it is!
Jill dragged us to the delicious Notting Hill Otto Lenghi for dessert Saturday afternoon (I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it was for her to convince us...) I got an AMAZING banana caramel bundt cake that I devoured. And yes it was huge. We enjoyed our desserts in Kensington Gardens - no Kate sightings though :(
After our afternoon feast we decided to head up to Primrose Hill to watch the sunset. I had been told it was a great spot for a (free) view of London, so we hopped on the bus and made for Regent's Park. It was a nice little hike up to the top of the hill and then we settled in (with about 1000 other people) to watch the sun set. It's not quite a Mont Royal view, but it was pretty cool to see the Shard, London Eye and a few of the other London landmarks that we are slowly getting to know.
After the sun set and it started to actually get really cold, we headed towards Soho for dinner. Soho has unlimited delicious dining options, so obviously we chose wrong and had a terrible meal. Karma for trying to be cheap in Soho on a Saturday night. We managed to find a few good pubs though and all was well.
On Sunday, Jill and I fit in a little shopping (hello Primark! where have you been all my life.) before the main event: Afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. I had read a bit about it but wasn't sure what to expect, but considering the price (afternoon tea for $70 per person gahhh) I knew it had better be good.
Fortunately it lived up to our expectations, and we all walked away feeling very ill (in a good way of course) and satisfied and mildly diabetic. Jill - who should get Instagram - coined the hashtag for the experience #deathbyclottedcream. Despite clotted cream equaling butter in my books, it was delicious and I could not get enough of the scones with jams & lemon curd (on top of a heavy layer of clotted cream of course.) I obviously don't have many pictures from this experience as I was a little distracted but managed to capture a few:
After tea it was back to reality and school kicked into high gear for a few weeks. We did manage to sneak in one more excursion on a study break last weekend to see the poppy exhibit, 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,' at the Tower of London on Remembrance Sunday. We need to remember when we go to do things like this that we live in a city with over 8 million people now and one can't just casually go check out an exhibit on arguably its most popular day of the year. The poppies were absolutely amazing and one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and the surrounding area had an impressive display of London Metropolitan Police crowd control at its finest. Here is a Daily Mail article on dismantling the exhibition (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2831388/It-s-Hundreds-volunteers-start-removing-ceramic-poppies-Tower-London-moat-lifetime-installation-caught-nation-s-imagination.html... I love the DM get over it.) - it has some amazing photos of the start of the project as well as an overhead shot of the Tower that give you an idea of the scale. Pat and I probably saw about a quarter of the moat - it's enormous. Here are a few of my phone pics:
It was phenomenal and an absolutely beautiful way to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in the military.
We are off to Lisbon this Friday so I'll be back after the weekend with some pictures from the trip!
Ate a proxima!
On Saturday we headed out to the Portobello Road Market, which ended up being only a 20 min walk from our apartment! It had a very eclectic mix with some more of London's delicious street food.
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| London's many many markets have a little bit of everything! |
Jill dragged us to the delicious Notting Hill Otto Lenghi for dessert Saturday afternoon (I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it was for her to convince us...) I got an AMAZING banana caramel bundt cake that I devoured. And yes it was huge. We enjoyed our desserts in Kensington Gardens - no Kate sightings though :(
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| Mmmmm |
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| Indian Summer at Kensington Gardens |
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| Trying to convince Jill to get Instagram |
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On Sunday, Jill and I fit in a little shopping (hello Primark! where have you been all my life.) before the main event: Afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. I had read a bit about it but wasn't sure what to expect, but considering the price (afternoon tea for $70 per person gahhh) I knew it had better be good.
Fortunately it lived up to our expectations, and we all walked away feeling very ill (in a good way of course) and satisfied and mildly diabetic. Jill - who should get Instagram - coined the hashtag for the experience #deathbyclottedcream. Despite clotted cream equaling butter in my books, it was delicious and I could not get enough of the scones with jams & lemon curd (on top of a heavy layer of clotted cream of course.) I obviously don't have many pictures from this experience as I was a little distracted but managed to capture a few:
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| Loved their china pattern!!! |
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| The one picture of intact food I managed to get (sandwiches on the bottom, scones in the middle, and desserts on top!!) |
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| Realistically about 30 seconds later. |
After tea it was back to reality and school kicked into high gear for a few weeks. We did manage to sneak in one more excursion on a study break last weekend to see the poppy exhibit, 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,' at the Tower of London on Remembrance Sunday. We need to remember when we go to do things like this that we live in a city with over 8 million people now and one can't just casually go check out an exhibit on arguably its most popular day of the year. The poppies were absolutely amazing and one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and the surrounding area had an impressive display of London Metropolitan Police crowd control at its finest. Here is a Daily Mail article on dismantling the exhibition (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2831388/It-s-Hundreds-volunteers-start-removing-ceramic-poppies-Tower-London-moat-lifetime-installation-caught-nation-s-imagination.html... I love the DM get over it.) - it has some amazing photos of the start of the project as well as an overhead shot of the Tower that give you an idea of the scale. Pat and I probably saw about a quarter of the moat - it's enormous. Here are a few of my phone pics:
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| There were several tributes to John McCrae posted on the fence around the moat which I thought was really touching. |
We are off to Lisbon this Friday so I'll be back after the weekend with some pictures from the trip!
Ate a proxima!
11/2/14
Blue skies in Brighton
On Thursday we headed out to Brighton for the day to
celebrate freedom before Pat starts working fulltime again. It’s a pretty quick
and easy day trip & a nice breath of fresh air after a few weeks in London.
There are several trains that leave from different stations around London. We
took the one from St. Pancras which was about half an hour longer than the one
from Victoria, but 16 pounds cheaper. We had a bit of a slow start, and then
opted to wait at St. Pancras for the first off-peak train (again, saved a few
dinero there.) When we arrived in Brighton at 11 the skies were bright blue and
the sun was shining.
After lunch we checked out Brighton Pier. It is classic
1950’s entertainment with arcades, rides, ice cream stands, and nostalgia. It
was also PACKED with families – we had forgotten it was a school break this
week for British kids so there were children everywhereeeee. Which is fine. I
kept my cool.
After refusing to go on any rides with Pat (I’m a bit of a Debbie Downer when it comes to spinning around in circles), we headed inland to find the Royal Pavilion. It was very pretty with nice gardens but we are kind of museumed-out at the moment – plus the entry into the pavilion itself was $20 each – so we took a quick look around and then headed up to Queen’s Park. I imagine that San Francisco and Brighton are very similar: steep little streets with cute coloured rowhouses lining the streets. It was a good workout to get up to Queen’s Park and we saw a little more of Brighton than you get down on the touristy Pier.
We stopped for a quick bite at a delicious vegetarian
restaurant, Food for Friends (I know! I too did not realize that dinner could
exist without meat.) I had a grilled halloumi, mango,
and avocado salad while Pat had a little tasting platter of three appetizers.
The British are obsessed with halloumi and I am 100% onboard with it.
We headed back to London after dinner and were able to watch Pat's sister's graduation ceremony during the trip back! Internet is magical.
We are off to Lisbon in a few weeks but would like to fit in a few more "local" trips before Christmas as the trains are super easy and efficient to get around. Cambridge and Manchester are on my current hit-list. My friend Jill just left after staying with us in London for the weekend. I will try to put together a post with the touristy things we managed to check off our list this weekend during her visit, aka #deathbyclottedcream (Jill's hashtag for afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason.)
Ciao for now.
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| Sailboats on the beach |
I had been warned by a few people that it gets pretty windy
in Brighton so to bundle up – boy did we luck out. It must have hit above 20
degrees by lunchtime. There were kids playing in the splashpads and people
sunbathing. On October 30. I think this is what climate change looks like and
it scares me quite frankly, but at least we got to enjoy the nice day...
We mainly just wandered up and down the boardwalk along the
beach. The beach itself is pebbles so it’s not that easy to walk on but there’s
a paved path or boardwalk along the side. Brighton seems to have a pretty thriving art scene so the boardwalk was lined with funky art galleries filled with everything from photography to water colours to tourist knickknacks, it was a super cool mix & great for wandering! We
eventually found a place for lunch, Lucky Beach, that claimed it made one of the “UK’s top 3
burgers.” Pat's burger looked like that claim may not be entirely exaggerated & my calamari was fresh and delicious.
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| Eating outdoors on October 30! |
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| Coronation Street-themed arcade games. |
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| Brighton Pier at sunset - you can kind of see the roller coasters at the far end! it's huge! |
After refusing to go on any rides with Pat (I’m a bit of a Debbie Downer when it comes to spinning around in circles), we headed inland to find the Royal Pavilion. It was very pretty with nice gardens but we are kind of museumed-out at the moment – plus the entry into the pavilion itself was $20 each – so we took a quick look around and then headed up to Queen’s Park. I imagine that San Francisco and Brighton are very similar: steep little streets with cute coloured rowhouses lining the streets. It was a good workout to get up to Queen’s Park and we saw a little more of Brighton than you get down on the touristy Pier.
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| $20 entrance fee per person = only exterior shots |
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| the Brighton Eye |
At this point the sun was starting to set (it was 4 pm. It
gets dark so early here.) so we headed back down to the beach to watch it dip
below the horizon.
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| Absolutely need to recreate this salad. Also need to work on food pics. |
We are off to Lisbon in a few weeks but would like to fit in a few more "local" trips before Christmas as the trains are super easy and efficient to get around. Cambridge and Manchester are on my current hit-list. My friend Jill just left after staying with us in London for the weekend. I will try to put together a post with the touristy things we managed to check off our list this weekend during her visit, aka #deathbyclottedcream (Jill's hashtag for afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason.)
Ciao for now.
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