Chapel in Winchester Cathedral - taken Saturday, March 30th
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Monday, 25 March 2013
Mom visits London!
This weekend Mom was in town! (Aside: people here think it is hilarious that I said my mom was "in town" - I guess because London is too big to think of as "town"? I don't know how else to say it.) She was here on spring break with one of her school tour groups. They arrived in London on Saturday morning to the rainiest weekend I have encountered since moving here in January. Seriously. Most rain. I'm going to buy rainboots tonight because it's supposed to be the same this weekend.
I digress! I met Mom and her group at their hotel out near Heathrow Airport. We all took the Tube into central London and had a walking tour of the West End. This is London's primary theater district. We had a quick lunch in Covent Garden and then spent the afternoon (inside!) at the British Museum.
St. Martin in the Fields church in Trafalgar Square:
Covent Garden:
The British Museum is full of historical artifacts - from large sections of the Parthenon to the Rosetta Stone to mummies and Viking weapons. It's huge and fascinating and I hope to visit again soon and take a free tour of one of the exhibits. We especially enjoyed the Viking section with items found at the excavation of Sutton Hoo.
We had a fish & chips dinner before heading back to the hotel. Sunday morning I went home while the group took a bus tour. In the afternoon I met Mom at Harrods. We wandered around the first floor looking at jewely, handbags and scarfs that were FAR TOO expensive for us! Then we browsed the food halls - AMAZING!! It's sort of like a Fresh Market, but with much more lavish food and presentation. After a quick lunch at Pret a Manger, we went back to Harrods and picked out two beautiful cupcakes for dessert!
I took Mom back to see my apartment in the afternoon and she helped me hang some pictures. She (and her friend Gwen) were also nice enough to bring me some goodies from home - JIF peanut butter, mac & cheese, Pop Tarts and peanut butter M&Ms - YUM! We met back up with the tour group for dinner at a pub and after dinner took a ride on the London Eye. My pictures from the Eye aren't great because of the rain, but here are some anyway! The Eye was lit in green for St. Patricks Day.
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Mom and her group departed London on Monday morning via the train to Paris. I will plan a much more elaborate tour when she comes back to visit in the summer!
I digress! I met Mom and her group at their hotel out near Heathrow Airport. We all took the Tube into central London and had a walking tour of the West End. This is London's primary theater district. We had a quick lunch in Covent Garden and then spent the afternoon (inside!) at the British Museum.
St. Martin in the Fields church in Trafalgar Square:
Covent Garden:
The British Museum is full of historical artifacts - from large sections of the Parthenon to the Rosetta Stone to mummies and Viking weapons. It's huge and fascinating and I hope to visit again soon and take a free tour of one of the exhibits. We especially enjoyed the Viking section with items found at the excavation of Sutton Hoo.
We had a fish & chips dinner before heading back to the hotel. Sunday morning I went home while the group took a bus tour. In the afternoon I met Mom at Harrods. We wandered around the first floor looking at jewely, handbags and scarfs that were FAR TOO expensive for us! Then we browsed the food halls - AMAZING!! It's sort of like a Fresh Market, but with much more lavish food and presentation. After a quick lunch at Pret a Manger, we went back to Harrods and picked out two beautiful cupcakes for dessert!
I took Mom back to see my apartment in the afternoon and she helped me hang some pictures. She (and her friend Gwen) were also nice enough to bring me some goodies from home - JIF peanut butter, mac & cheese, Pop Tarts and peanut butter M&Ms - YUM! We met back up with the tour group for dinner at a pub and after dinner took a ride on the London Eye. My pictures from the Eye aren't great because of the rain, but here are some anyway! The Eye was lit in green for St. Patricks Day.
.JPG)
Mom and her group departed London on Monday morning via the train to Paris. I will plan a much more elaborate tour when she comes back to visit in the summer!
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Old Kensington Walking Tour
The Old Kensington Walking tour was with a company called London Walks. They have dozens of walking tours all over London, everything from Westminster at War to guided walks of the British Museum to Harry Potter. Each walk meets at a Tube stop and you don't need reservations. I'm planning to go on several of these in the coming weeks and months.
My apartment sits in the "Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea" which is a fancy way of saying that's where I pay my property tax and they collect my trash. But I am very close to Kensington, so I like the idea of a tour in my neighborhood. The guide shared tons of little facts about the architecture of the area, famous people who had lived here and demographics that have changed in the past 400 years. I won't get into all those details (mostly because I can't remember all of them) but here are a few pictures and highlights.
Kensington Roof Gardens - This is quite literally a garden that sits on top of an office building. It was built by a department store in the 1930s. There are three sections: an English woodland, a Tudor-style garden and a Spanish garden based on the Alhambra. It is free to have a look around if open, although it is often closed for photo shoots or other private events. There is a restaurant if you want to sit for awhile and enjoy the view. There is grass, trees, flowers, plants, a pond, fountains and even real pink flamingos, imported from Chile!
Kensington Square - Built in the 1680s, one of the oldest squares in London. Basically a garden in the center surrounded by townhomes. This is where our guide spent some time talking about the architecture of the area. Homes in this area range from the 1600s - 1900s and have been occupied by everything from immigrants and servants to wealthy merchants and famous literary figures (TS Eliot). Now this area is one of the more expensive areas in London with townhomes selling at more than 10M pounds.
St. Mary Abbots Church - The original Anglican church of the village of Kensington. The current building is from the 1870s. It is the third or fourth church built in the same location - as the population of the village grew they outgrew the building and kept having to rebuild. This building had a new roof after the original one was destroyed in WW2 bombing. The rest of the church survived.
My apartment sits in the "Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea" which is a fancy way of saying that's where I pay my property tax and they collect my trash. But I am very close to Kensington, so I like the idea of a tour in my neighborhood. The guide shared tons of little facts about the architecture of the area, famous people who had lived here and demographics that have changed in the past 400 years. I won't get into all those details (mostly because I can't remember all of them) but here are a few pictures and highlights.
Kensington Roof Gardens - This is quite literally a garden that sits on top of an office building. It was built by a department store in the 1930s. There are three sections: an English woodland, a Tudor-style garden and a Spanish garden based on the Alhambra. It is free to have a look around if open, although it is often closed for photo shoots or other private events. There is a restaurant if you want to sit for awhile and enjoy the view. There is grass, trees, flowers, plants, a pond, fountains and even real pink flamingos, imported from Chile!
Kensington Square - Built in the 1680s, one of the oldest squares in London. Basically a garden in the center surrounded by townhomes. This is where our guide spent some time talking about the architecture of the area. Homes in this area range from the 1600s - 1900s and have been occupied by everything from immigrants and servants to wealthy merchants and famous literary figures (TS Eliot). Now this area is one of the more expensive areas in London with townhomes selling at more than 10M pounds.
St. Mary Abbots Church - The original Anglican church of the village of Kensington. The current building is from the 1870s. It is the third or fourth church built in the same location - as the population of the village grew they outgrew the building and kept having to rebuild. This building had a new roof after the original one was destroyed in WW2 bombing. The rest of the church survived.
Kensington Palace - Sits in Kensington Gardens, which is the western end of Hyde Park. Royal residence where Queen Victoria lived as a child and Princess Diana lived before her death.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Alternative London Walking Tour
As I was just coming out of my week with the flu, I signed up to go on a walking tour with a meetup group of American expat women. As an aside, meetup.com is a fantastic resource if you ever move to a new city and need to make new connections! They have tons of groups that meet for all different kinds of reasons - common country, religion, art, movies, books, athletics, travel - you name it and you can find a group that shares your interests. So far I have been to this expat group and to a running club from meetup. I've already scoped out several more groups I want to join for particular events - more to come on that in the coming weeks!
Back to this tour though - run by a group called Alternative London. We met near Spitalfields Market which is in the City of London. The "City" is the original city limits of the Roman city of London. Now it is the financial district of London and during the week is filled with suits and bankers. On the weekend it's actually very deserted and quiet. But just to the east of the City is the East End, which is where the tour was. The East End is a very diverse and artistic neighborhood. Our tour focused on the history of the area and the street art that is found in the area.
So if you don't know (and I didn't), street art is almost a form of glorified graffiti. It is in public spaces and many times unsanctioned by the property owners. However, in this particular area of London there are tons of very famous artists who travel here to adorn the area with their work. So most property owners in the area aren't too concerned and even thrilled to have their property painted on.
Here is an example - this one was actually painted by our tour guide. It is meant to be about the struggle with depression and suicide. Not exactly my taste, but interesting in its own way.
This was down the same street. You can see how many different works of art there are even on one street. The large bird was painted by a Belgian artist called Roa. He is famous for painting black and white animals in public places. Also, his real name is unknown - Roa is his painting pseudonym. This is the case with many of these famous street artists. One of the most well known is London is called Banksy.
This is something different. It's a little hard to see, but that's a bicycle hanging there. It's been completely crocheted over. It is by one of the very few female street artists and she is known to go around and crochet over stuff. All kinds of every day objects, like a taxi cab, trees or buildings.
Finally, the walls on this street were painted by a graffiti artist named Ben Elne (in this case, it's his real name.) His has gained some acclaim because when President and Mrs. Obama visited London back in 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron presented them with a painting by Elne as one of their official gifts. He has since become one of England's most well known artists.
For those of you who know me well, this isn't my normal type of artistic preference, but the tour was really interesting. We saw dozens of other works of art. Our guide also was able to give context around the political impact this art has had. And a great history on the area from the original French settlers here, through Jewish neighborhoods before WW2 and the current fame as the curry capital of London with many immigrants from Bangladesh. I highly recommend the Alternative London tour company - the guides were interesting and knowledgable.
After the tour, our little group went to a pub in the City near St. Pauls. It was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and it was great! It wasn't like most pubs in that it did not sit on a corner. It was in the middle of a block. Most of the pub was broken up into a series of small rooms and spaces that you wound through like a maze. We were in a room down two flights of stairs. We all had a couple of drinks and pub snacks (think onion rings, burgers, etc.) While there we encountered what appeared to be several large pub crawls - groups of people in costume came in, had one drink and then moved in. They were pretty hilarious!
Next up will be a walking tour of Old Kensington. You can't really get more different from the East End to Old Kensington!!
Back to this tour though - run by a group called Alternative London. We met near Spitalfields Market which is in the City of London. The "City" is the original city limits of the Roman city of London. Now it is the financial district of London and during the week is filled with suits and bankers. On the weekend it's actually very deserted and quiet. But just to the east of the City is the East End, which is where the tour was. The East End is a very diverse and artistic neighborhood. Our tour focused on the history of the area and the street art that is found in the area.
So if you don't know (and I didn't), street art is almost a form of glorified graffiti. It is in public spaces and many times unsanctioned by the property owners. However, in this particular area of London there are tons of very famous artists who travel here to adorn the area with their work. So most property owners in the area aren't too concerned and even thrilled to have their property painted on.
Here is an example - this one was actually painted by our tour guide. It is meant to be about the struggle with depression and suicide. Not exactly my taste, but interesting in its own way.
This was down the same street. You can see how many different works of art there are even on one street. The large bird was painted by a Belgian artist called Roa. He is famous for painting black and white animals in public places. Also, his real name is unknown - Roa is his painting pseudonym. This is the case with many of these famous street artists. One of the most well known is London is called Banksy.
This is something different. It's a little hard to see, but that's a bicycle hanging there. It's been completely crocheted over. It is by one of the very few female street artists and she is known to go around and crochet over stuff. All kinds of every day objects, like a taxi cab, trees or buildings.
Finally, the walls on this street were painted by a graffiti artist named Ben Elne (in this case, it's his real name.) His has gained some acclaim because when President and Mrs. Obama visited London back in 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron presented them with a painting by Elne as one of their official gifts. He has since become one of England's most well known artists.
For those of you who know me well, this isn't my normal type of artistic preference, but the tour was really interesting. We saw dozens of other works of art. Our guide also was able to give context around the political impact this art has had. And a great history on the area from the original French settlers here, through Jewish neighborhoods before WW2 and the current fame as the curry capital of London with many immigrants from Bangladesh. I highly recommend the Alternative London tour company - the guides were interesting and knowledgable.
After the tour, our little group went to a pub in the City near St. Pauls. It was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and it was great! It wasn't like most pubs in that it did not sit on a corner. It was in the middle of a block. Most of the pub was broken up into a series of small rooms and spaces that you wound through like a maze. We were in a room down two flights of stairs. We all had a couple of drinks and pub snacks (think onion rings, burgers, etc.) While there we encountered what appeared to be several large pub crawls - groups of people in costume came in, had one drink and then moved in. They were pretty hilarious!
Next up will be a walking tour of Old Kensington. You can't really get more different from the East End to Old Kensington!!
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Some pictures from my trip to the US
While I was in Atlanta in February, I drove this little gem of a car. My friend Wendy affectionately named it "the little green pea"!
I had a fun morning run with some of my Team in Training teammates and then breakfast at Ihop.
This is a panoramic of Runyon Canyon in Hollywood, where I hiked while visiting my friend in California.
Sunset at Point Dume in Malibu.
The ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier.
My Apartment and Getting Settled
I have been moved into my apartment for two weeks now. Originally I thought I would be settled much faster than this. But finding places for everything is much more difficult when I don't have all the old furniture and storage places that I am accustomed to. For example, I had a small two drawer file cabinet at home that held all my office supplies and personal paperwork. Here I don't have any such cabinet, so that stuff is just in a pile on the kitchen table! Another example is that I used an over-the-door shoe rack to hold alot of shoes at home. I brought it with me, but the doors here are a little bit thicker than the standard doors in the US and consequently, the rack will not fit. So now I have a pile of shoes in the corner.
Most of these things can be remedied with a trip to Ikea, but I don't have a car. Getting to Ikea is possible via public transportation, but I just need to set aside an evening to do it.
Another setback I had in moving in is that I came down with the flu less than 24 hours after the movers arrived. It is rare that I am sick with anything more than a cold, so this hit me hard and I was home from work and mostly in bed for 3 days. Followed by another 4-5 days of feeling generally lousy. Not a great formula for unpacking and being alone so far from home. This last week has been better though and hopefully I will be able to get even more done here so that my apartment can feel more like a home to me.
Here are a few things that are GREAT about my new place:
1. Location - the building sits on a main road, which I like because I'm not a fan of walking down long isolated streets alone at night. It is also less than a 2 minute walk to my nearest Tube station and I'm discovering the bus system and loving that too.
2. Closet space - Because most of the buildings here are very old and just updated, they often don't have closets. My bedroom has two large Ikea wardrobes in it and I'm able to accomodate nearly all my clothes without too much trouble.
A couple of things I find lacking:
1. The bathroom - I have a very special bathroom that is referred to as a "wet room." There is no seperate shower or tub, just a showerhead on the wall and a drain on the floor. The worst part is that the whole thing sits under the stairs of the building, so it has a slanted ceiling, I can hear people on the stairs in the hallway and it generally feels like a little cave. It depresses me when I wake up in the morning and know that the first place I have to go is into the cave. I'm trying to adjust to it.
2. Location - I know, this was one of my favorites, but now that I am having time to look around, I find that I slightly prefer the area about 1/2 mile away a little better. Its still close and this probably isn't something worth moving over, just a general feeling I have about the area.
3. The couch - the apartment was furnished and the couch is really a loveseat. I'm a big fan of sprawling out on my couch, so hanging my feet over the end isn't great. If I decide in a couple of months that I'm going to stay in this flat for my entire stay in London, I will probably buy a bigger couch. The living room is big enough to fit both the loveseat and a full size sofa.
One last item that isn't good or bad, but I just think is funny. Look at this gold key - this is one of the actual keys to my apartment. To me it looks like an antique but they take these little keys seriously here and apparently the locks with these keys are quite secure, so many apartments have one. I also have a more normal key to open a second lock, the silver one to the side there.
Most of these things can be remedied with a trip to Ikea, but I don't have a car. Getting to Ikea is possible via public transportation, but I just need to set aside an evening to do it.
Another setback I had in moving in is that I came down with the flu less than 24 hours after the movers arrived. It is rare that I am sick with anything more than a cold, so this hit me hard and I was home from work and mostly in bed for 3 days. Followed by another 4-5 days of feeling generally lousy. Not a great formula for unpacking and being alone so far from home. This last week has been better though and hopefully I will be able to get even more done here so that my apartment can feel more like a home to me.
Here are a few things that are GREAT about my new place:
1. Location - the building sits on a main road, which I like because I'm not a fan of walking down long isolated streets alone at night. It is also less than a 2 minute walk to my nearest Tube station and I'm discovering the bus system and loving that too.
2. Closet space - Because most of the buildings here are very old and just updated, they often don't have closets. My bedroom has two large Ikea wardrobes in it and I'm able to accomodate nearly all my clothes without too much trouble.
3. The living room windows - They are large, floor-to-ceiling and when the sun comes out (which admittedly is rare), its nice to open up the shades and let it shine in!
4. Dishwasher - need I say more? Didn't think so. :)
A couple of things I find lacking:
1. The bathroom - I have a very special bathroom that is referred to as a "wet room." There is no seperate shower or tub, just a showerhead on the wall and a drain on the floor. The worst part is that the whole thing sits under the stairs of the building, so it has a slanted ceiling, I can hear people on the stairs in the hallway and it generally feels like a little cave. It depresses me when I wake up in the morning and know that the first place I have to go is into the cave. I'm trying to adjust to it.
2. Location - I know, this was one of my favorites, but now that I am having time to look around, I find that I slightly prefer the area about 1/2 mile away a little better. Its still close and this probably isn't something worth moving over, just a general feeling I have about the area.
3. The couch - the apartment was furnished and the couch is really a loveseat. I'm a big fan of sprawling out on my couch, so hanging my feet over the end isn't great. If I decide in a couple of months that I'm going to stay in this flat for my entire stay in London, I will probably buy a bigger couch. The living room is big enough to fit both the loveseat and a full size sofa.
One last item that isn't good or bad, but I just think is funny. Look at this gold key - this is one of the actual keys to my apartment. To me it looks like an antique but they take these little keys seriously here and apparently the locks with these keys are quite secure, so many apartments have one. I also have a more normal key to open a second lock, the silver one to the side there.
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