Fun in London Town!

Last week was full of catch up and fun! Here are a few highlights:

1. I met Jon for lunch at a tiny little sandwich shop in Leadenhall Market, while we ate we listened to the Salvation Army band play Christmas carols...perfect!

2. I went to the store and once again bought more than I could carry comfortably...learning curve!

3. One morning while drinking my tea and looking out over the river I saw a loon dive down in the water and bob up a few feet away with a fish in his mouth! Turns out the same loon is around every morning and we named her...Lu after our little Luna at home!

4. We had Jon's Christmas party with Vericlaim-London on Thursday- we had a great night meeting new people, drinking great wine and busting out our mad dance moves!!

5. We went to a little wine bar with far too many people in it, but it was really cool...the walls were lined with bottles of wine and you just choose the one you want to drink right off the wall!

6. We also got to have dinner with Jon's boss on Friday, we had a great time!!! We went to an amazing restaurant with great food, wine and company!

7. We found out Jon gets the week between Christmas and New Year's off! So let the planning begin...

8. We woke up one morning to a FULL rainbow perfectly centered above St. Paul's Cathedral...breathtaking!

9. We went to the play A Christmas Carol put on by a local troop in Greenwich. It was really small, I'm talking about 40 seats and it was an amazing performance. We were extremely impressed...wish Julia was here, she would have loved it!

10. We went to our first professional football game (well, Jon went to one before we met, but that doesn't count..right? :P) We went to a Tottenham Hotspur game. Now, you have to be very careful deciding which team to cheer for, and we’re avoiding committing to a team...they take their football VERY seriously!

11. I took my first tube ride and I was ALONE...I know, scary after my ATM experience, but I made it to all my destinations and back home in one piece!

12. I went to Harrods Department Store- WOW, it's even grander than I expected. My two favorite parts....1st there is a wing they called the luxury hall (aka handbags!!!) I girl could spend all day here! My second favorite was the "pet kingdom". I didn't see any pets for sale...but they had every pet accessory imaginable for sale! It was definitely hard to resist a purchase here...I might just have to go back for that pink tutu for Stella!

13. This very same day as I walking about doing completely touristy things, I got asked for directions...TWICE, that's right people, you heard it here, I must officially look local or at least I'm fooling them fairly convincingly! In case you're wondering, I was actually able to give them directions...to the correct location!

14. I'm not sure I would call this a highlight, but since you're all along for the ride, I thought I'd pass it along...I saw a grown man wet his pants in broad daylight and be ok with it! I think he had about 4 too many pints, considering we were within 100 feet of multiple public restrooms.

Saving my favorite highlight for last...

15. We booked our Christmas/New Year's trip...We're spending Christmas in Lucerne, Switzerland, then heading on a tour through Austria and Germany and will end up in Munich, Germany for New Year’s Eve.

We leave Friday and can't wait! I'm not sure if I'll be able to blog during our Alps adventure, but will be sure to fill you in at my earliest opportunity!

Until then, we wish you and yours a joyous Christmas and a New Year filled with peace and happiness.

Cheers!


Recent Pictures:
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7828123007/a=53561785_53561785/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Greenwich

We decided to spend last Sunday in Greenwich, which is south of the city. We took the water taxi, this was an awesome experience on its own! We boarded a boat called the Thames Clipper and we got to see the view of the city from the water including a view of our flat, we went under London Bridge and Tower Bridge, it was great to see it all from that perspective. We see these boats go by our flat ALL day long so it was great to be able to ride one. It took us all the way to Greenwich via the River Thames (about 30 mins). We arrived in Greenwich around lunch time...close your eyes now and picture a small, quaint picturesque English town with perfectly fitting architecture, markets and people. The market there is basically the same idea as the market by our flat but more goods for sale and less fresh foods, although there were lots of vendors selling hot fresh meals to eat at the market.

We choose to start our day by visiting The Royal Observatory, this is where the Prime Meridian is and Greenwich Mean Time comes from. It's on top of this large hill overlooking Greenwich and the city of London, it has an amazing view. They have a Planetarium there as well, and we touched what they claimed to be the oldest object we would ever touch...haven't done my own research on this, but I think I'll take their word for it.

We also toured through the Royal Naval Academy and the Maritime Museum. The Queen's House is also there, but we ran out of time and will check it out later. The Maritime Museum was very interesting and free!
For lunch we went back to the market and got a couple of dishes from vendors, traditional British beef and potatoes and Jamaican curry, they we're really good! All while listening to some locals play Christmas music on a violin and guitar. It was a really perfect day!

Here is a link to a few pictures from our day:

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7794810007/a=53561785_53561785/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Let's Play Catch Up...

Ok, so I'll try to be brief since we have a lot to cover...although I seem to have a hard time with that. Last week was our first full week here and we loved every minute of it. Monday morning we got up at 7am and boy was this hard! I literally felt like I needed to hold my eyeballs open. Here's to hoping our bodies adjust soon. I took Monday to do laundry, well wait a minute...everyday is laundry day when you're air-drying everything! Otherwise, you have your wet laundry drapped all over tarnation and well that's just not appealing. Anyway, we attempted to get our cell phones set up and after a trip to the cell phone store, a trip to the store that unlocks your SIM card and back to the cell phone store...mission completed. Now, we went to the grocery store for the 3rd time in 3 days and Jon loaded up on more beer and wine so our trip to the drug store got postponed again...priorities people!!

Tuesday I spent trying to catch up on emails and trying to get my new phone to work...it's supposed to be a smart phone, but let me just say here, I'd like to know their definition of "smart"! I still don't have it quite figured out...no comments here from the peanut gallery that I'm the not so smart one:) Thankfully, I finally made it to Boots (drug store) since I was running low on all my travel sized toiletries. It is farily strange not to be able to just go to one store that has everything and load it all up in your car and be on your way. It just takes some getting used to and some planning.

Wednesday Jon got invited to his first Christmas "cocktail" party after work and I had a great night at home with a glass of wine and a great book...so we both enjoying our evenings!

Jon's Christmas party for Liberty was on Friday, they went to lunch around noon....let the drinking begin! I was to meet them after they left the restaurant, which ended up being at 6:15. When I arrived, everyone was seriously pissed by then (now, don't be offended by my language...this is a very common term they use here to describe the state of being inebriated). It was extremely entertaining for those of us who hadn't been drinking for 6 hours. We were at a bar right on the River Walk by the Tower Bridge, great view! We went to our first London club later that night and lets just say we weren't there too long. It was very crowded. So, before Jon lost his marbles we headed home.

This isn't the best photo...but gives you an idea of our view from the pub we were at.

Saturday morning we finally got to check out Borough Market...I think I'm in love! See the pictures on the link and you'll know what I mean. We also walked around a really cool little area by our flat called Bermondsey. We got fish and chips "take away" (that's what they call to-go) which is actually very confusing when someone is speaking in a British accent asking you all these questions and they throw "take away" into the mix! We are now used to this, but resulted in a few strange looks at eachother the first time we heard it.

See the link for more pictures from our market!

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7775363007/a=53561785_53561785/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Next post...our trip to Greenwich!

Falling In Love With London...

We are 12 days into our journey across the pond and it has been simply brilliant! I'll start by filling you in on our 1st true day of exploring, last Sunday. We got up late, again, our internal clocks are having a hard time adjusting to the time change. We were out the door by 11am in search of UK cell phones and a UK SIM card for my iPad. I we walked via the Milenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral to the cell phone store, which was closed. Then we made our way to the Apple Store in Covent Gardens. It is the largest Apple Store in the world and very impressive. It was actually quite the site. Here we met an American (employee) who helped us with all sorts of little tips for living in London. We took in all the sites here...shops, restaurants and lots of street performers. It was also beautifullly decorated for Christmas.

We decided to make our way to Picadilly Circus, which is sort of the Times Square of London. Since it was a sunday, it was really crowded and we veered off the slightly less beaten path to Chinatown for lunch. If you have a hard time making decisions....don't go here! There are literally 100's of Asain restaurants right next to one another all with similar atmospheres and menus. We were having a terrible time deciding which one to choose when I looked down a side street we were passing a saw one called Rasa Sayang! For our non-Atlanta friends, this happens to be the same name of our favorite Asain restaurant in Atlanta. We knew we had to go there! We had a wonderful meal and warmed up a bit.

On our walk back home to our flat we passed through the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and saw Big Ben from a far. It was all beautiful, fascinating and slightly overwhelming! We're so glad we have six months to take this all in!

Sunday night, I cooked our first meal in the flat and we fell asleep watch the Packers...another perfect end to a great day!

Top Ten Favorite Things About London To Date: (in no particular order)
1. The word "Brilliant"- everyone uses this here to describe anything good and I LOVE it! Try it out...it's really fun:)
2. The skyline at night
3. Walking everywhere
4. The people are incredibly friendly
5. The history-it is literally every where you look!
6. Our view of The River Thames
7. The water taxi- great fun!
8. The fact that drinking alcohol is accepted or should I say welcomed at ANY time of day
9. The markets
10. Jon's British accent that comes out when he's drinking- this might be my favorite!

Our First Weekend Across The Pond...

We had a great weekend in London! Friday night when Jon got home from work, we had a glass of wine and talked about all of our first day adventures (which by they way, made him quite nervous to let me out again on my own). Then we walked back to his office because he left his keys there and he was able to show me around a bit. It's a very nice office and he had a great day getting acclimated. Although there was so much to take in, he still loved it! On our way home from Jon's office (accross The London Bridge) we decided to go to dinner to this little Italian place right across the street from our buliding's front door. It's called Amano Cafe, the owner is from Paris and imports all of his wine, cheese and meats from Italy. We had a great time.

Next door, is a wine shop and liquor store and we thought we'd get a few thing. The guys at the Whiskey Exchange were very friendly and LOVE their liquor. They pretty much knew everything there was to know about anything with alcohol in it! After a long history lesson on whiskey, a few tasters of gin and vodka and a bottle of gin to take away, we were on our way...to the wine store, here the gentleman was also very helpful and we picked out a few bottles to try rather quickly. As we were paying, I realized we left out leftover pizza over on the liquor side of the store and went to retrive it, where I found the two friendly staff members happily eating away at our left over pizza. I tiptoed backwards to avoid being seen (not sure who would have been more embarrassed if they'd seen me!) and went back to the counter where Jon was paying. They asked where the pizza was and we all had a good laugh (although, I must mention here that the worker on the wine side offered to go get it for us, which we politely declined). Once at home, all stocked up, we had a glass of wine and watched our favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually. What a great night!

On Saturday we woke up at 11:00 AM, here is where the 'jet lag' kicks in. We feel fine during the day but can't seem to wake up at a normal time in the morning. It's all fine, because we don't really have anywhere we have to be today. We head out for the day around 12:30 to check out The Borough Market, literally steps from our flat. It is amazing (!) and extremely busy on a Saturday at 12:30. I guess this was to be expected, but as all of you know who know Jon...he isn't a fan of crowds. So, we took a brief stroll through the market and moved on. I'll tell a quick summary of what I saw, but will give a more detailed description once I have time to go and relish in the amzing atmosphere and things I saw. There were loads of vendors selling everything from fresh homemade cheese, desserts, sandwiches, farm fresh organic egss and meats, fresh baked bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, plants and more. If you can tell the common theme here is FRESH!! I cannot wait to take full advantage of this! After the speedy market experience, we went in search of a grocery store. Our server the night before told us of a near by one called Sainsbury's, it was pretty small without much selection and very crowded. We slowly made our way down our list and with two over flowing baskets we decided to call is quits and get in the long cue. Now, what happens next I must say I was warned about, but forgot....As I approach the counter with my two huge, heavy baskets (Jon went off to get a last minute something or other) the clerk says put that down, pointing the the other basket, so I do. He proceeds to throw 5 bags at me and check our groceries like he was in a speed checking competition with winnings of 5 million dollars! I start to panic as Hollie's story of the same experience all comes back to me. Before I can get one item in one bag the clerk is done checking us out right as Jon walks up. I turn to Jon and say "Jon, I need you to focus here. I need you to pay and then help me bag the groceries as quickly as possible". Jon pays and I more or less throw everything into anything I can find...we take 5 steps away from the counter and I quickly repack all of our bags. Once out of the store, we realize we are both sweating and completely flustered...not so much from the heat in the store as from the Grocery Bagging Panic of 2011 we were just thrust into. We decide to go home unpack our things and gather our wits about us once more.

It's now about 1:30 and we decide to go in search of a drug store (determined to be more prepared this time) and some lunch. We decided to go in the opposite direction of all of our other adventures up to this point, toward the Tower Bridge. We had a beautiful walk down the river and found a really cool pub called The Tower Lounge, we thought it might be touristy due to the name and location, but it was just enough off the beaten path and was perfect. We had our first Bangers and Mash, which was really good, although I was slightly disappointed because they called them sausages and mash here....They will always be bangers in my mind:) After lunch and a few pints, we decided to walk across The Tower Bridge and then call it a day. The Tower Bridge is amazing and spectacular and any other great adjective you can think of insert here. It is touristy and crowded, but that's part of it's charm. The sun sets here about 4:30 in the afternoon so we watched the sunset on our walk home. On the way home we found a much larger grocery store with carts (!) and we decided to give it another go to finish off our list from earlier. This experience was much better as we were much more prepared and learned that not everyone scans groceries like the Tasmanian Devil.

Once tucked warmly away for the night in our flat we watched some Badger basketball and called our family via Skype. It was the perfect end to a perfectly adventurous day!

We also had a really long day of exploring on Sunday, but if you've made it this far, I applause you and will give you a break for as long as I can resist (but, don't get too comfortable). Cheers!

Here's a link to our pictures so far: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7646029007/a=53561785_53561785/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Our first 24 hours in London!

We made our journey to London on a red eye flight leaving 10:30 PM EST Wed Novmeber 30th, arriving at Heathrow Airport in London at 11:30AM GMT on Thurs. Dec 1st. We hauled our 4 large suitcases, 2 smaller roller bags and 2 carry-ons to the waiting area where our driver picked us up. We made it to our flat in the Borough Market Area of London, which is right next to the London Bridge. Here is a link to our flat:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31667092.html

We got all settled in and are now 24 hours into our London adventure! We decided we had to go to a local pub for our first night in town and enjoyed fish and chips and a couple of pints...I'm working on using the British lingo, such as lu, cue, take away and of course cheers!

Fun facts of the day:
1. I heard some construction men listening to Sir Mix-a-Lot
2. I got lost on my way to the bank
3. I got lost on my way back to the bank (I was coming from a different direction)
4. We learned we don't have a dryer...let the air drying begin!
5. A random city transpiration guy stopped me and talked my ear off for 30 mins on my way home from the bank


Why did I walk 1 mile each way to the bank twice today, you might ask? Well, it was my job to go to the bank today to get cash. We set up a Citi bank account before we left so we'd have access to our money with minimum fees. After walking Jon to work I made my very round about way to the bank which happens to be right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. I insert my card and it asks me how many GBP's I want and I have no idea what to enter because I don't know what a GBP is. I venture inside the bank and wait in the cue for a teller and ask her what does GBP mean, dollars? or pounds? the banker tells me since I have an American account it is in dollars and there will be a fee. Ok, I head back out to the ATM and start the process over again. I enter 250.00 and it tells me it's going to withdraw 392.00 GBP's...I thought this was either in pounds or a very hefty fee and didn't want to take a chance so a figured I'd come back with Jon. It's now about 11:15 and I'm cold and hungry, so I search for a place to eat. This is also a seemingly easy task, but the first three places I try don't take credit cards and I end up at a Starbucks. I head back to the flat to shower, get ready and regroup. As I tell this story of shall we say exploration, please don't think I'm complaining because as I'm wandering this amazing city looking for whatever it is i'm looking for I'm in complete awe of the experience I'm having and loving every minute of it....even the cold and hungry ones! At home I search what a GBP is and it's the code for pounds and I check the current conversion rate of £250.00 and it's $392.00. Anyway, I set back out to find lunch and the bank again (it's now 2pm) I decide to go the exact way that I came home from the bank since I passed several restaurants I thought I'd go to one of those, except as hard as I tried, this didn't happen. I ended up in a completely different area then I was looking for and made another VERY round about way to the bank. This time the bank went much smoother. On my way home, determined not to get lost again, I get stopped by a city worker who ends up talking to me for 30 minutes about all the things I should do while I'm here, the funny part of this is he's trying to tell me directions to them all...I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd already gotten lost twice going to the same place with directions written down! I finally made it back to the flat about 4:30PM and am sitting here writing this post while over looking the River Thames. Jon should be home soon and we'll go out exploring some more.

Cheers!