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.