Mom's Favorite London Things

One of Mom's favorites- the London taxi cab. I think it may remind her
of a PT Cruiser, which she also likes.


Mom and her favorite meal- fish and chips.



Here she is at Buckingham Palace. She loved the gold gates
and the guards in their furry hats.



The candy and dessert counter at Harrods. We spent about
45 mins in the food hall- especially the sweets section.



Mom and I in front of the Tower Bridge next to the
Tower of London.


In honor of Mom's birthday (Nov 15th- actually), I thought I would post a few more pictures from her London trip. These were some of her favorite London things.
Enjoy!

She has arrived . . .

I know many of you have been checking regularly for the pictures of Mom's visit . . . so I appologize for the delay! As you can imagine, we had an action packed visit. I think we did every tourist thing in London! We also took a million pictures- actually 98, but that seems like a million when I can only post 5 per blog entry. Needless to say, I will not be posting all of them. You will have to ask her to share them with you after I return.



She has arrived! Here's mom with her luggage right after arriving- she looks pretty good for being awake and traveling for 19 hours. At the airport she had her first experience with the English language- not the same as the language we speak in the US. She was asked if she was "In the queue for the toilet?" otherwise know as "Are you in line for the bathroom?" She looked at me with a blank look- but in her defense- she had been up for 19 hours and her brain was not in top shape. Thank goodness her translator (me) was there :)


Here she is reading up about the sights of London. I think we may have seen every top 10 recommendation in the book- all in 6 days!


Leave it to Mom to find an animal in costume in the city! I never saw him before, but she spotted him right away.


Here we are on day 1 outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. This is the first place we took the Tube (London's subway) to. It is a very impressive first look at the architecture and beauty of London. From here you can see Big Ben and Parliament as well as the road to Buckingham Palace.


This is one of my favorites! There is no doubt where she is in this photo. This was right before our river cruise of the Thames.

I'll post some more soon . . . promise!

Long awaited pictures from Amsterdam

The beautiful city of Amsterdam. Often called the Venice of the North, Amsterdam is an intricate landscape of canals, bridges, cobblestone roads and quaint narrow streets. The city is breathtaking and the relaxed atmosphere makes it an ideal place for a weekend getaway.

Another gorgeous view from another bridge.

Perhaps the best view yet :) Here we are along a popular boating canal. With more water than roads, it makes sense that there are so many boats!

We were able to take a short canal cruise through the Amsterdam waterways. Dispite the weather, it rained most of the day, it was beautiful. I thought this photo gave a different perspective, from the water looking out. Most photos you see are from solid land looking across the water. It's pretty tough to take a bad picture in Amsterdam.

This is as close as you will get to a skyline photo of Amsterdam. This was taken from the harbor looking into the city center.

London landmarks

The Parliament Building in Westminster. This is
the older section of the city where all the gov't
buildings and Westminster Abbey are located.
Missing from this picture is the clock tower and
Big Ben. I have a bit of an obsession with Big Ben,
and I plan to devote a whole posting to him.



Ian in front of Parliament- doesn't
he look official?



Lindsay with the Lion in Trafalgar Square.
Ian wanted me to climb up so he could
get a picture of me up on the lion, maybe
next time. Wherever I go, I seem to be drawn
to the lions- I guess it's the Leo in me- or maybe
the Nittany Lion :) Go STATE!!



Ian on the Thames. In the background you can
see the London Eye. It is kind of like a giant
Ferris wheel that moves really slow and fits
25 people per car. To me it sounds like
torture- I hate normal Ferris wheels, so why
would I like a giant one? I have promised Ian I will
take 1 flight (that's the official term) before
December. We'll see . . .



Enjoying a day in the park. St. James Park is
our favorite of the parks we have visited. From
this bridge you can see the London eye (behind
us) and Buckingham Palace from the other side.
Talk about a view!

We're not in Kansas anymore . . .

The Apollo Theatre is a converted movie house
near the Victoria train station.


Here I am after the show . . . it was incredible!
Ian even said it was one of the best shows he ever saw.


Here we are after going to see Spamalot. It's
hard to take pictures with both of us in it- so
we are improvising and taking them ourselves.
That's why this is such a close up.


Spamalot at The Palace Theatre. This one was
Ian's choice. It was good, but very silly. The whole
show is basically a spoof of traditional musical theatre
mixed with the story line of Monty Python (which I
just do not understand). I enjoyed the theatre
references and the crazy dancing- several jigs!


Here is my traditional sneaky picture inside
the theatre. This time I did not get
yelled at- I must be getting better at
hiding my camera.


OK- we know- we are very behind on the Blog updating!! Here are some pictures of the great London theatre we have been enjoying. With the famous West End of London within 10 mins of our flat, we are trying to take advantage of as many shows as we can. So far we are up to 4. We also got to see Love's Labour Lost at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre last week. This was amazing to say the least. Unfortunately, we went straight from work and forgot our camera. If you are ever in London, experiencing Shakespeare the traditional way at the open air theatre is a must! You can even buy standing room (peasant section) tickets for only $5. There are traveling musicians and the actors interact with the peasants on the ground level during the show. The costumes were incredible and the acting was very authentic. I think this was one of my favorite things we have done so far.

More to come soon. . .

The Henley Show- English Country Fair

These are the tents at the fair. There were
also 2 rings for showing horses, 1 for showing
dogs (my favorite) and tents for produce
and livestock exhibits.


Farmer Ian taking the kids for a ride
on his cart


Here's a front view of farmer Ian's cart ride.
This cart is over 100 years old and only used
once a year for the Henley show.



Jane's adorable daughter Ava strikes a pose


Jane's older daughter Maia making gingerbread men.
Auntie Caryl was very jealous that I got to hang
out with her favorite nieces!

Aah the simple life!

Farmer Ian's house. The farmer's name really is Ian!
The kids referred to Ian as Ian #2 the rest of the day.


This is the view from Jane's cottage.


Imagine if this was your driveway-goose included.


Jane & James' cottage on the farm


The path home . . . doesn't this look like a painting?
This is my favorite picture from the weekend-
it's so peaceful. This is also where we picked
our berries (see below)


Here are some pictures from our trip to the English countryside. One of my close friends at work, Caryl, is from the UK. When I told her about our trip she agreed to loan us her family (Thank you Caryl!!). A few weekends ago her sister Jane invited us to her town for a traditional English Country Fair. She, and her family live in Henley on Thames- a small town to the west of London. We enjoyed the fair and then went back to Jane and James' cottage. They live in a cottage that is a part of a huge working farm. There are chickens and geese and horses (oh my)! We felt like we were in a movie- it was so beautiful and peaceful. Her little girls even showed us how to feed the chickens and round up the geese from the field- Ian got the pleasure of climbing under the barbed wire fence to round up the geese (for those of you who may not know- I hate geese- and most other birds too) Our favorite part of the night was when we went out to the driveway with the kids and picked fresh blackberries from the yard and brought them inside to put on top of the cheesecake. We felt like we had turned back time- it was so relaxing and wonderful.

I'll post some more pictures from the fair soon.

English is English . . . right??

I thought it would be fun to share a few tidbits about some differences in the English language that Ian and I have discovered. You would think it's all English- right?? WRONG.

Here are a few of our favorites.

Pants= trousers Pants are not pants here. Ian found this out the hard way at work. I believe he was talking about the dress code in the office and said "pants". Unfortunately here that means underwear- oops. (This is probably one of my favorite London stories so far!)

Underwear= knickers (not short plaid golfing pants). They sure do have a lot of words referring to undergarments.

Right away=Straightaway . As in- do this NOW. This is slowly becoming one of Ian's favorites.

Try= Give it a go. This is Ian's favorite new phrase. He uses it all the time- he will definitely be bringing this one back to the states

Bye/Thank you= Cheers. They say this every time they get off the phone and also commonly interchange it with Thanks. Very weird!

The letter Z= Zed. This is pretty strange- especially when someone is spelling for you and they say zed.

Zero= affectionately referred to as naught (as in 0.01 naught point naught one). I have been doing a lot of work with spreadsheets (quite a change for this sales/mktg girl) and I had to ask my co-worker to repeat himself twice. Pretty embarrassing.

Yield= Give Way. As in the street sign. We have also learned that to a pedestrian, give way means look right first or you may get run over. Apparently pedestrians do not have the right of way here!

Friend/Buddy= Mate. Not much of an explanation needed here- everyone is considered Mate- female or male- friend or foe.

We will be sure to add more as we come across them. Hope everyone is having a good Thursday and looking forward to the weekend:)

The newest resident of Debaran Lane

Meet our newest neighbor- Marco Giovanni Giancroce!
He arrived on Sept. 10th- 7lbs 10oz and 20" long


Mom and her new little man!
Doesn't she look amazing for just having a C-section?


Marco times 2 - dad is also Marco!
Let's hope he loves soccer.


Baby brother!! Simona has been anxiously
awaiting the arrival of her baby brother.
From what mom tells me, she loves him to pieces.



CONGRATULATIONS to Lucia and Marco on their beautiful baby boy!
We can't wait to meet him when we return.

We bought a new house!

We decided that our London flat was a bit small
so we upgraded. As you can see, it is slightly
larger than Debaran Lane - over 200 bedrooms!



Here we are out back- our new deck is stone.
No more pressure washing! Just think of how
many people we can fit on here for our
summer crab party.


Here I am in the back garden. We may need
a little help with the yard work- hope you
are ready Dad! We are also thinking of adding
a pond.



Last weekend (we are a little behind on the postings) we toured the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. This was a very unique experience because they only open it up to the public for 2 months in the summer while the royal family is away on vacation. This year's tour included a special exhibit celebrating the Queen's diamond (60 yrs) wedding anniversary. We got to see her wedding gown and all the jewelery she received as gifts from her mother (Queen Elizabeth) and her grandmother (Queen Mary). The diamonds were incredible- earrings, necklaces, tiaras, bracelets etc. I have never seen anything quite like it- it made Tiffany's seem like TJ Maxx.

We also got to tour 10 of the state rooms of the palace. These are the rooms that the Queen uses to entertain and host visitors from all over the world. The rooms included a ballroom, music room, several halls, the grand staircase at the entrance of the palace, the throne room and the room where the princes (William and Harry) were baptised. We were told that holy water was flown in from the river Jordan to baptise both princes- pretty amazing. Unfortunately, you were not allowed to take any photos of the inside- sorry!

Bathroom Photos

Bathroom view 1


The shower- notice the 1/2 door


There is only room for a few pictures on each posting- so here are the final 2 from our new place.

We are very confused about the 1/2 door instead of the shower curtain- it seems like a simple upgrade. We were told that these glass doors are the "in thing". . . who knows! It does not allow for much privacy. Especially in the morning when we both need to get ready for work.

Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home- London style

Ian at our front door


The view from Flat 1012


Living room


Living room view from kitchen


European kitchen- aka- tiny

Here are the much anticipated pictures of our London flat. Our building is on the west side of London and is only 4 blocks from Hyde Park and a 5 minute walk from Paddington train station. We are on the edge of the Marylebone section of London and slightly east of Notting Hill- the location is perfect. There is a tube station about 3 minutes away which allows us to get to Picadilly Circus and the theatre district within 5 minutes. We are in the ideal area for London visitors- so let us know if you would like to come to see us! The accomodations are small, but the price is right.

The great news is that we have A/C! This is a huge improvement from our last place. The bad news is that we are stuck with another washer/dryer combo unit. Tonight we are experimenting with our first load of laundry- which is equivalent to a 1/4 of a load in US standards. So far it has been in there for over an hour and the rinse cycle has just finished. At this rate it may be faster to mail our laundry home for mom to do (hope you are both up for that!).

Other interesting 1012 facts:
- fridge and freezer the size of the ones we had in college
- microwave and regular oven are the same unit (I think I got cursed after complaining about the combo washer/dryer . . . and the micro/oven combo is only convenient for cooking meals for a leprechaun)
- No shower curtain, just half of a glass door. This is hard to imagine- but look at the photos. (Let's just say that water on the floor has been a bit of a problem)
- 1 closet and no dresser in the bedroom (let't not even talk about the lack of shoe space)
- 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 wine glasses, 3 forks, 4 knives, 3 spoons . . . and a partridge in a pear tree

Our New Address


West End Quay


Balmoral Apts


Apt C- 1012


2 Praed Street


London, W2 1JL

Apt. Phone Number: 011 44 207616 9250

Miss you all lots!!!!!!