Tourists in London Again! (part 2)
After a short trip to Prague, the newest member of the Praha Drinking Team, (i.e. Tina) returned to London from Prague for some more sightseeing in London. After work on Friday, for energy and sustenence, we took Tina to the legendary Maison Bertaux for coffees and cakes.
Their cheesecake is divine!
Us at Big Ben
Big Ben and the London Eye peeking through
Westminster Abbey
We stayed out walking along the Thames taking photos and also stopping at some local pubs to quench our thirsts. Here's Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (sounds like a cool British band name huh?). Oh, and that's Tina there too, blocking out a section where someone had cut the lights.
The next day (last Saturday) was Tamara's birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY!!!
We took Tina to the Portobello Markets, which was chockablock full of people. I got so pissed off, the crowd was just mad. But, we eventually made it through coming out the other end at Notting Hill with a bag of cherries, some Ciabatta bread, olives, a slice of aubergine (eggplant) pizza, a slice of mushroom pizza, and some cupcakes. We then caught a bus down to the Kensington Gardens and set up a picnic spot in the shade.
Here's Tam receiving happy birthday wishes from Hong Kong
And out come the cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery
Two vanilla cupcakes with blue and yellow icing and stars and two Red Velvet cupcakes with white icing
Mmmmm cupcakes...
Proof of life for Lester
Grabbing some shade in the scorching London heat outside the Royal Albert Hall
A well deserved break out of the sun. We tried to escape the mad Poms watching the England in the World Cup and found ourselves at All Bar One (one of the many pub chains) near Leicester Square. I'm sampling the St Pauli Girl beer (very nice), Tina's liking the Magner's cider...
... and Tam's getting into her Stella shandy
Can you believe how much a bottle of Aussie wine costs here? That's pounds man!!! You can get a bottle of Madfish back home for less than that much in Aussie dollars!! Unbelievable. Needless to say, we will be drinking a lot more wine when we get back home.
And the beers...
It got just all too much for Tina. Perhaps it was jetlag finally settling in. The walking-around-everywhere and staying-up-late factor. Or maybe it was just the heat. More likely, I reckon, it was the cider.
And onwards to the National Gallery to see some art and grab a bit of free culture. England had won their opening World Cup match and the locals were out and about celebrating. Check out this mad scene at Trafalgar Square (where they're renovating Nelson's Column and those famous lions).
It's like a bird bath for crazy British soccer hooligans!
After consuming our share of culture, it was closing time and we had to leave the National Gallery. We then went to Soho to find somewhere to eat dinner. We settled on Imli, which is an Indian restaurant where they serve Indian meals tapas-style. The food looked and tasted delicious. The mango and orange lassis (with strawberry yogurt) were very yummy.
Kathryn and Nikianna also joined us in celebrating Tammy's birthday!
After dinner, we had a ride booked on the (British Airways) London Eye for 9pm (last flight of the day - it's better at sunset, but at the moment the sun is setting way later than that). So we caught the tube down to Waterloo and made our way over to check-in for the 'flight'. The 'flight' lasts for half an hour, but it feels much much shorter. The queue was pretty quick as well. We only had to wait about 15 minutes.
Looks just like a bicycle wheel!
Preparing for take-off
Enjoying the 'flight'
Nice views!
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament again on the (brown) Thames
That's Charing Cross station in the front and you can make out BT Tower at the back
St Paul's Cathedral, OXO Tower and see if you can spot the flock of cranes!
Stars of CCTV
We met up with Kathryn and Nikianna again at Ayoush, opposite Selfridge's.
The next day we decided on a trip to Greenwich village and had the public transport system been on the ball, we would have gotten then an hour earlier and in a better mood.
The Cutty Sark, the fastest and greatest tea clipper. It was even used in Australia.
Back by popular demand! Asian photo-taking stances!
The Cutty Sark again. That's the beautiful witch Nannie on the figurehead. She's holding on to some horsehair that the drunken farmer Tam O'Shanter was trying to escape from her on.
On our way up the hill to the 'Centre of Time & Space' and the 'Place where East meets West' - That's what they call the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (that's "they" as in the Royal Observatory... I don't think I've heard anyone else call it either of those).
Check out all the sunbathing Poms. All of them out in their swimmers and undies (they call them pants here) sunbaking in the parks.
Tina standing astride the Prime Meridian
Me and Tam standing in different ends of the world yet so close
Tina's now left us to go partying in Lisbon before trekking across Spain. Hope you're having fun Tina! Don't forget to let everyone there know that we're coming. Little vague messages scrawled on public property annoucing our imminent arrival will be fine. Or poster-sized "Des and Tam are coming!" signs will also suffice.
We'll see you on you're way back home. Take care.
Their cheesecake is divine!
Us at Big Ben
Big Ben and the London Eye peeking through
Westminster Abbey
We stayed out walking along the Thames taking photos and also stopping at some local pubs to quench our thirsts. Here's Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (sounds like a cool British band name huh?). Oh, and that's Tina there too, blocking out a section where someone had cut the lights.
The next day (last Saturday) was Tamara's birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY!!!
We took Tina to the Portobello Markets, which was chockablock full of people. I got so pissed off, the crowd was just mad. But, we eventually made it through coming out the other end at Notting Hill with a bag of cherries, some Ciabatta bread, olives, a slice of aubergine (eggplant) pizza, a slice of mushroom pizza, and some cupcakes. We then caught a bus down to the Kensington Gardens and set up a picnic spot in the shade.
Here's Tam receiving happy birthday wishes from Hong Kong
And out come the cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery
Two vanilla cupcakes with blue and yellow icing and stars and two Red Velvet cupcakes with white icing
Mmmmm cupcakes...
Proof of life for Lester
Grabbing some shade in the scorching London heat outside the Royal Albert Hall
A well deserved break out of the sun. We tried to escape the mad Poms watching the England in the World Cup and found ourselves at All Bar One (one of the many pub chains) near Leicester Square. I'm sampling the St Pauli Girl beer (very nice), Tina's liking the Magner's cider...
... and Tam's getting into her Stella shandy
Can you believe how much a bottle of Aussie wine costs here? That's pounds man!!! You can get a bottle of Madfish back home for less than that much in Aussie dollars!! Unbelievable. Needless to say, we will be drinking a lot more wine when we get back home.
And the beers...
It got just all too much for Tina. Perhaps it was jetlag finally settling in. The walking-around-everywhere and staying-up-late factor. Or maybe it was just the heat. More likely, I reckon, it was the cider.
And onwards to the National Gallery to see some art and grab a bit of free culture. England had won their opening World Cup match and the locals were out and about celebrating. Check out this mad scene at Trafalgar Square (where they're renovating Nelson's Column and those famous lions).
It's like a bird bath for crazy British soccer hooligans!
After consuming our share of culture, it was closing time and we had to leave the National Gallery. We then went to Soho to find somewhere to eat dinner. We settled on Imli, which is an Indian restaurant where they serve Indian meals tapas-style. The food looked and tasted delicious. The mango and orange lassis (with strawberry yogurt) were very yummy.
Kathryn and Nikianna also joined us in celebrating Tammy's birthday!
After dinner, we had a ride booked on the (British Airways) London Eye for 9pm (last flight of the day - it's better at sunset, but at the moment the sun is setting way later than that). So we caught the tube down to Waterloo and made our way over to check-in for the 'flight'. The 'flight' lasts for half an hour, but it feels much much shorter. The queue was pretty quick as well. We only had to wait about 15 minutes.
Looks just like a bicycle wheel!
Preparing for take-off
Enjoying the 'flight'
Nice views!
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament again on the (brown) Thames
That's Charing Cross station in the front and you can make out BT Tower at the back
St Paul's Cathedral, OXO Tower and see if you can spot the flock of cranes!
Stars of CCTV
We met up with Kathryn and Nikianna again at Ayoush, opposite Selfridge's.
The next day we decided on a trip to Greenwich village and had the public transport system been on the ball, we would have gotten then an hour earlier and in a better mood.
The Cutty Sark, the fastest and greatest tea clipper. It was even used in Australia.
Back by popular demand! Asian photo-taking stances!
The Cutty Sark again. That's the beautiful witch Nannie on the figurehead. She's holding on to some horsehair that the drunken farmer Tam O'Shanter was trying to escape from her on.
On our way up the hill to the 'Centre of Time & Space' and the 'Place where East meets West' - That's what they call the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (that's "they" as in the Royal Observatory... I don't think I've heard anyone else call it either of those).
Check out all the sunbathing Poms. All of them out in their swimmers and undies (they call them pants here) sunbaking in the parks.
Tina standing astride the Prime Meridian
Me and Tam standing in different ends of the world yet so close
Tina's now left us to go partying in Lisbon before trekking across Spain. Hope you're having fun Tina! Don't forget to let everyone there know that we're coming. Little vague messages scrawled on public property annoucing our imminent arrival will be fine. Or poster-sized "Des and Tam are coming!" signs will also suffice.
We'll see you on you're way back home. Take care.
posted by DnT Blog Guest at
10:20 PM
3 Comments:
You weren't kidding Dex, that's a lot of photos! Must be why your framing's getting better. Nice pics. And thanks for the proof of life. Bet you ran off the grass as quickly as possible.
Lex
By
DnT Blog Guest, at 12:43 AM
Ha ha very funny. No I didn't run away like a frightened little girl Lex. I'm made of much sterner stuff than that. I ran away like a man.
So... any other requests?
By
DnT Blog Guest, at 3:07 PM
so far yet so close...
rofl
i'm gonna give u my phrasebook, you're gonna use it and everyone's gonna love u like they love me. lol. i miss spain already!
By
case-in-point, at 10:55 PM
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