While Jason rode off on a camel to Dubai for work, I decided to go visit my good friend Charlie and her boyfriend Dave in London. Charlie and I went to college together when she studied abroad for a semester and we've been buddies ever since. London was the first European place I had ever been, as Jason and I did a London/Paris combo about two years ago. I really didn't think I'd be back this soon, but that's what is so great about living here. It's so cheap to fly!
The morning after I arrived, we got into Charlie's little car and headed for Taverham (Norwich area) where her parents, sister, and Nan live. Taverham is about 3 hours away from the city of London. We had such a blast with them the last time we came and I was so excited to see them again. Sure enough, we had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures from the Taverham visit:
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| Had to take the shot of Charlie driving on the "wrong" side of the vehicle. I am proud to say that I did not try and get it on the driver's side of the vehicle once! |
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| A rainy drive to Taverham |
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| Charlie's dad wearing my hat |
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| Charlie's mum wearing my hat |
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| Charlie wearing my hat |
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| Meg (Charlie's sister) made me an amazing espresso martini before we went out on the town |
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| Cocktails at Frank's Bar...a popular bar/restaurant in the town of Norwich. Although I could have easily sucked down al three, the dirty martini was mine. I had never had one made with kalamata olive juice before. Yum! I would have taken a picture of the Manhattan I had after, but I was pretty "pissed" by then. |
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| Charlie, me, and Meg at Frank's Bar |
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| Night cap at The Birdcage bar (not a gay bar)- Staropramen beer. |
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| Needs no explanation...obviously picture worthy! |
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| Old, beautiful church in the town of Norwich |
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| We went into the LUSH store (same as America) and they were offering tea and foot scrubs! I had a hand massage. It was a nice, little unexpected addition to the shopping day. |
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| Brain sculpture in the town square. Not sure of the significance, but I liked it. |
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| Dinner with Meg, Charlie, Nanny, and Charlie's folks |
Back in London after the Taverham trip, we decided to do Portobello Market and Notting Hill since Jason and I didn't make it there on our last trip. Despite the bitter cold, we had a nice day of shopping and frequent stops into coffee or tea shops to warm up. In the evening, we went to a historic theater called the Electric Cinema to see the Nicole Kidman movie
Stoker, which was really good. The theater was beautiful and had armchairs and couches as seats. There was a bar in the back where you could buy alcohol and food. It was really an incredible venue. It's history is also quite amazing. I'd recommend reading about it:
http://www.electriccinema.co.uk/experience.php
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| The Tube stop where Charlie and Dave live |
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| Awesome music shop on Portobello |
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| Didn't buy this... |
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| DID buy this!! |
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| Where I bought the book shown above. |
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| Electric Cinema from the outside |
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| A popular snapshot that you can take of the houses off of Portobello/Notting Hill |
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| Stopped in for a coffee in a shop called Casa Nova. Fortunately or unfortunately, we were greeted by all of these amazing looking things! |
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| Inside the Electric |
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| Getting ready for the movie |
On the final day, we stopped briefly in Harrod's, a great place to feel poor. You probably have heard of Harrod's, but if you haven't- it's a gigantic (that's even an understatement) upscale department store in the area of London called Knightsbridge. Let's just put it this way- you can get a map to navigate through. There are over 5,000 staff members and up to 300,000 people visit Harrod on peak days. Thank you, Wiki (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods).
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| Harrods from the outside. |
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| Charlie having an Americano after Harrods |
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| We didn't visit, but this is the outside of the Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Inside the Science Museum- I was happy (not really) to know that things from my childhood are now considered museum-worthy. Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Windows (early 90's), old cell phones, etc. |
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| Google Sketchbot exhibit- take your picture... |
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| ...your picture gets processed... |
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| ...your picture appears in sand! |
To end the night and my trip to England, Charlie and Dave took me to a pub quiz at an amazingly authentic English pub called The Six Bells in a neighborhood called Brentford. I had an awesome time. Everyone was so friendly and chatty. We came in fourth place in the quiz (our team name was "Let's Get Quiz-a-cal") but still were given a bottle of wine to take home.
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| The host of the pub quiz |
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| Dylan- a pub guest :-) |
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| Some of the nice people we talked to at The Six Bells |
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| Before boarding the plane back. There is a Harrods gift shop in the airport where they are selling this guy for a discount! I mean, just look at that awesome sale price. What a bargain! |
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| Little mishap when landing in Copenhagen. The wing took out the equipment on the runway. Oops. |
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| A snowy early evening back in Copenhagen |
