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Post by queenzod on May 2, 2017 4:27:28 GMT
Bob Voyage! I am so jealous! Enjoy the heck out of your trip.
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Post by roverpup on May 3, 2017 6:32:43 GMT
Day 1 in LONDON:
The plane was 3 hours late in landing and we were exhausted from a very long day but it is so exciting to be here in London! The apartment is FANTASTIC and even more beautiful than the pictures. Ricardo is the fellow who let us into the apartment and he was so kind and thorough. He recommended a pub just a short walk away for dinner on this first night and we had a great meal (it was called No.7 Market Tavern). Dan had the Guinea Fowel breast stuffed with gorgonzola and broccoli and I had a lovely Tuna steak with green beans. We got morning supplies for breakfast from a Tesco Express which is right across the street from our London home.
We are going to explore the neighbourhood and see how long it takes to get to the Arts Theatre (where we will be seeing a play tonight). Also we want to see how long it takes to get to the other apartment on foot today. The ATM is really close to the Clarges Street address so getting funds is no problem. Kind of a cloudy cool day so far - it might warm up a bit more during the day but that doesn't matter. We have to get using our tube cards today too.
So far my bum ankle is not giving me any problems so everything on that front looks great. I am glad that I brought some warmer clothes at the moment. I still can't quite believe that we are finally here and this beautiful apartment is our home for the next couple of weeks! Talk to everyone later!
:-))
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Post by roverpup on May 3, 2017 22:55:33 GMT
Day 2: Our first full day in London.
We made breakfast in the apartment and then went out to see how long it would take us to get to the Arts Theatre near Leicester Square tube station (not long - about a ten minute exclusion including walking to the station and to the theatre from the tube).
Then we went on another exploratory excursion to see Victoria station (we have to catch a bus there on Friday) and to Sloan Square station (near to the 2 bedroom place we will be staying in in a couple of weeks). After that we stopped into a pub called The Antelope and had a great lunch. it is a place I can see coming back to when we are staying in the area with my sister and her husband. We made our way home and bought some groceries so we could have dinner in the apartment instead of eating out. The appliances in the apartment are all top knot has quality and I really love them. I cooked up a couple of steaks and had a tossed green salad to accompany the steaks (topped of with wine mushrooms). After dinner we made our way down to the theatre to P/U our tickets. It is a very small place - the stalls are below grade level and it looks quite old. I am shocked at the amount of food and drink that was allowed into the theatre - in Canada it just wouldn't be allowed and I have to say the sound of top tabs being pulled and glasses clinking was more than a bit annoying sometimes. At least only one woman I saw pulled out her cell phone.
But the play (The Wipers Times) was great! Reminded me so much of Billy Bishop Goes to War (which I love for very personal reasons). It was well received by the audience too. It was a true story centred around a makeshift newspaper made by the soldiers in the trenches during WWI. The action takes place with all the same backdrop and just changes in props out front to change the scenes. Very effective and done with lightning speed by the actors as they moved on stage. It wasn't a musical but there was a bit of singing and some dancing which was really quite good.
After the play we went back home and relaxed with a bit more wine (and I made a snack plate of cheese, nuts and raspberries) and then off to bed!
Tomorrow we were going to go to the Tate but the weather is going to be clear so we are taking a trip to Hampstead Heath instead to see the gardens and the art.
Nightly-night!
:-))
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Post by roverpup on May 5, 2017 20:36:28 GMT
Day 3
Today we spent most of the day at Hampstead Heath. We got there via walking past BC and Sophie's future home. Still heavily under construction BTW. Really close to Hampstead Heath.
We went up Parliment Hill - it was slightly overcast but you could see the major sites in the view. Very windy and Dan was cold (he had underdressed a bit. Then we went into the more woodsy part - so beautiful and serene! We twisted around a lot and finally came out at Kenwood. The azaleas and rhododendrons were SPECTACULAR!!! Unbelievably colourful. Just a mas of the brightest colours I have ever seen! The house was exquisite. Of course my favourites were the Rembrandt self-portrait, the Vermeer Guitar Player and Turner's Iveagh Seapiece. Dan's favourite was George Romney's portrait of Lady Hamilton at the Spinning Wheel.
Near that painting was a portrait of William Pitt the Younger (I noticed he didn't look a thing like BC - LOL!).
After viewing the house and the galleries we had a small lunch in the Museum cafeteria and then decided to head back home. It ended up that we walked the best part of 5 and a half hours!
We picked up a few more groceries and after showers we cooked up a dinner and relaxed. I chopped up fresh broccoli, mushrooms and organic chicken and served a tossed salad with it. A glass of wine each and the feast was complete!
We went to bed early because we have to get up a bit earlier to catch the tour bus to go to Leeds Castle tomorrow.
Day 4: Tour of Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral and the White Cliffs of Dover.
We had a very light breakfast of a soft boiled egg each and then we got on the tube to Victoria Station to make our way to Victoria. Coach Station. Our bus didn't leave until 9:00 am so we had time to get a coffee at the bus terminal before boarding. At precisely 9 o'clock we rolled out of the station and we were on our way! Dan got a bit over heated and felt a bit sick in his tummy but taking off his jacket and downing a couple of Gaviscons did the trick and soon he was feeling better.
It was a bit of drive to get to Leeds Castle but the tour guide was pretty good at making it interesting. Leeds Castle was so romantic and picture perfect! We took a ton of pictures and made good use of the audio guides which were very informative and well worth the £3+ each. The self guided signs allowed you to get around to all the rooms at your own pace.
The original castle was first built on the site almost 900 years ago and the last renovation was done in the late 1920's by an American heiress who married British nobility. The grounds are stunning and well kept up by the foundation which is now entrusted to keep the Castle open to the British public. The tour company gave us plenty of time to tour the castle and we didn't feel rushed at all (even at my slow pace).
Getting back to the bus just at the right time before taking off to the city of Canterbury where we had a great lunch (the tour guide had taken our order ahead of time and phoned it in to save time) at a locally owned shop. Dan had the steak pie and I had traditional fish and chips. We shared each of our plates so both of us had a good taste of the other's. They served tea with the meal and even a slice of apple pie.
After lunch we met our guide and she took us through the Canterbury Cathedral just a few block away. A small part of the building is still under renovation but most of the work is done now. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and went at a leisurely pace. Got some great shots of the shine to Becket who was murdered in the Cathedral 1170 during the reign of Henry II. We even got a chance to get down into the crypt underneath the floor of the cathedral. Beautiful architecture- I love the feel of the worn stone beneath my feet in places like this.
Getting back on the bus we went on to Dover. Dan and I will be visiting Dover on our own but we did get a couple of shots of the cliffs and walked along the beach for a bit before heading back to London. Both of us slept a bit on the bus on the journey back and before we knew it we were back in London. Getting back to Victoria Station was like taking a tourist tour of central London. We had such great views of the London Eye, Houses of Parliment, Westminster Cathedral, etc. The tour guide gave us really clear instructions on how to get to the tube from the bus terminal and we were back at Clarges Street in no time.
I bought some groceries to have dinner tonight at home (both of us were just too tired to go our for dinner). I got some pork, more broccoli, chestnut mushrooms and some meats, olives and antipasto for snack before dinner. Oh, and a bottle of Chardonnay.
After relaxing a bit we made dinner and finished our bottle of wine after eating.
Tomorrow we have a free day and a concert at Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre at night. Beethoven!! Ode to Joy! There is also a talk by a professor from Oxford about Beethoven at 6:15 which we are going to try and see if we can make. Don't know exactly where that is but maybe we can find out tomorrow afternoon when we go down into that area.
Talk to you later!
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Post by MagdaFR on May 5, 2017 21:57:58 GMT
Lovely trip! Hope your husband feels ok.
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Post by coolclearwaters on May 5, 2017 22:47:29 GMT
Lovely trip! Hope your husband feels ok. I'll second that. I am so enjoying reading your evocative trip journal! I hope you and your husband continue to enjoy yourselves.
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Post by mllemass on May 6, 2017 0:49:33 GMT
It's interesting that you're cooking your own meals while on holiday - that's the last thing I'd want to do! I was trying to remember how we managed in 1985 when I was in London because everything was so expensive. My sister had won the trip, but the prize only included our flight and hotel - no spending money. And I was still in school, so I certainly didn't have a lot of money to spend.
So that we didn't have to depend on fast-food every day, we went to fancy restaurants but only had the appetizers. The only complete meal we had was in our hotel's restaurant on our last night there: roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I remember that it came with ratatouille (which we discovered was a zucchini/tomato/onion dish that my mother made all the time.) It was, at the time, the most expensive meal we'd ever had. But it was delicious!
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Post by MagdaFR on May 6, 2017 1:40:05 GMT
It's interesting that you're cooking your own meals while on holiday - that's the last thing I'd want to do! I understand both situations. I think it all depends on how long you are staying, where you are staying and also I guess it depends also on your age. I think I'd do as roverpup except if I wanted to go out at night. It is the advantage of renting a flat over going to a hotel. You can manage better your needs specially if you are staying as long as her. I remember that it came with ratatouille (which we discovered was a zucchini/tomato/onion dish that my mother made all the time.) The ratatouille I know is more like a stew with zucchini, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes. I love to do (and eat, of course) an Italian dish that was with eggplants, tomato and cheese in layers like a simple lasagna (and put other things for a more complete one)
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Post by roverpup on May 6, 2017 6:26:52 GMT
Thanks for the responses to my Journal folks. I am glad you are enjoying it. 😄
Dan's fine BTW. I think it was just a matter of being over heated and the motion of the bus. The tour guide was very fast in getting a "barf bag" just in case but he never even needed it in the end. Just taking off his jacket and giving him two tablets of Gaviscon worked perfectly and he had no problems after that, even after eating lunch.
About cooking on holidays. I love cooking (it is a hobby with me) and since we are staying so long it is actually fun to do it. Also it means I can control our meals better (my husband is diabetic and on a very low carb diet at the moment). I will have lots of days that we won't make any meals (except Breakfast - I can always manage that) at the apartment, I kind of like the opportunity to cook for ourselves when the situation arises. And eating in the apartment is kind of relaxing especially after a very long day of walking - you can get into your sloppy clothes and slouch on the couch with a glass of wine (I like to take that opportunity to write up my journal and plan the next day) and it is lovely and quiet.
I don't find the groceries expensive in London at all. So cooking for yourself can save a lot of £££! Last night our dinner for two that I made from the groceries cost us somewhere around £20 total and that included a whole bottle of fairly nice French Chardonnay! Today we will only have breakfast here at home - we are going to be eating out the rest of the day (around the Tate and later somewhere close to the South Bank Centre). Might go to a pub after the concert too.
We've done the "appetizers meal" in restaurants before. :-)) It is a great way to get a good taste of some very expensive restaurants. When we were younger (and didn't have the cash we have now) we ended up eating take out food in Paris instead of going into a restaurant (because we were getting really low on cash and this was before the days of ATMs) on a bench along the banks of the Seine. We even were able to share a small bottle of wine and there was a saxophone player playing under one of the bridges who was like our own private musician for our meal too! Very romantic!
Usually we do eat out when on holidays but I actually find it a refreshing change of pace when staying so long. And mixing it up like this makes me feel more like a "Londoner"!
Got to get up now and make some breakfast now! I am hungry!
:-))
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Post by roverpup on May 6, 2017 22:47:43 GMT
Day 5 Well today we spent the whole day out of the apartment first visiting the Tate art gallery for most of the morning. This wa a must do on my bucket list and I wasn't disappointed in the least. We took tons of pictures of so many famous and personal favourites of works of art! I knew about the large collection of Turners but I wasn't aware of the gallery specifically design for prints of William Blake which was a special treat for me personally. Always loved Blake's poetry and art work. The Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood artists were also a delight. And works of Henry Moore. But that really just scratches the surface. Finally it was near lunch when we emerged from the gallery and had a light lunch nearby.
We next walked down from the Tate to the SouthBank Centre and picked up the paper tickets for the Beethoven concert tonight. I asked about the pre-concert lecture/discussion being given by profs from Oxford and Cambridge and found out the location for that as well.
After that we had some time to kill before the concert so we just went for a walk around the area of Whitehall and New Scotland Yard. Well we walked right into the Avengers:Infinity Wars movie set! They were filming near Whitehall just outside a hotel called the Corinthia. We couldn't get too close but I spotted the huge white screens they use for filming and when we moved in closer to get a better look a lovely chap told us their was no admittance. We walked way around through the beautiful gardens there and in attempt to get back we came upon all the equipment trucks parked streets away. They all had the code name "Mary Lou" in their windshields for identification. And I over heard a crew member talking about Marvel. We were almost up to Hungerford bridge (where we had to cross over) and a person stopped us again and asked us very nicely to wait and not cross the road because it would interfere with something they were doing for the film. We were held up only about two minutes and I asked her if the film was the Avengers and she said No. but when I got home I checked and found an article confirming the Mary Lou was the working title of the Avengers movie.
After that we finally got back to the Royal Festival Hall, had a drink and a light snack and then went to heard the lecture. It was pretty interesting and gave some additional insights into both the music and poetry used in Beethoven 's 9th. The lecture was perfectly timed to end just before the concert was about to be seated.
The Concert - it was magnificent! Both Dan and I are really huge fans of Beethoven so we were pretty excited for this anyway, bit this was heart thumpingly great! All the bells and whistles were put into this rendition and it was worth it. The London Philharmonic Orchestra (and Choir) were presenting it and we had perfect seats about six rows up and dead centre. I'll never forget it!
On our way home we stopped into a little Italian place and had a late dinner of soup and bruschetta. We ended the meal with some whiskey.
Now it's off to bed and tomorrow we are going on the evening to hear Mozart at the Royal Albert Hall.
Cheers!
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