Friday, back in London

Pete and I made it back to London wed nite,Pete packed and went to bed. In the morning,after some excitement,I locked my purse with his passport and the house key,in the house,got rescued by one of Kaarina's lovely neighbors,Harry,who then drove us to the Brixton Tube because of the time. Pete got to Heathrow,checked in and to security,less than an hour before his flight left.He's home,thanks to the wonderful Mr. Pease. Today,fri, I walked to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and spent a few hours looking at their excellent collection. I decided to stay for lunch in their cafe . The ladies behind me were very vocal about the empty chairs at the various tables and wanted to go in and invite themselves to join other parties,the waiter demurred.( It turns out that the director of the museum was at a table for 4 with one other person.) They continued to grizzle,I offered to have them join me,they were delighted! A table for two became available and I was invited to join Ralph,who was in line ahead of me,they had us engaged by the end of lunch and asked to be invited to the wedding,the waiter asked to be best man. Lunch was great, Ralph is from Essex,a retired radiologist,married with a 24 yr old son named James and an Aresenal fan. Tonite I am invited to the neighbors,Peter and his wife, for a glass of wine(a ginger cat is looking in the door as I am typing)the snow is pretty much gone in London and it's raining a little. James is due back late tonite unless his flight is cancelled,very likely it seems,and I doubt if he will mind a little more time in Paris.

Wed nite

We made it to Prague and back! It was great fun and very busy. Our flight was delayed from London,only about an hour. Renee gave us excellent directions to her apartment,we arrived there after a bus,the metro and a tram. Renee had her room set aside for us with a bed and a single mattress on the floor. i decided I'm too old to travel like that so I got myself a room at the hostel about 5 doors down from her flat. It was called the Czeck Inn (I kid you not) and it was the nicest hostel I ever stayed in ,it was downright posh! They had a very fun bar with food that was pretty good. We had our first czech beer while we waited for Renee to get back from a meeting,then went out for a some local food at a pub about a ten minute walk away. Food was good,James took a photo of his Pig Knuckle,impressive presentation.

On Monday we decided to do a walking tour,but got down to the old town square and started following the wrong guide,he started talking about the next few hours and we realized we were'nt on the 1 hr. tour,there was no way I was willing to follow him around for 3 hrs so we dumped out and started wondering on our own. Prague had a fair amount of snow they were shoveling out from under, but it didn't seem to be stopping anything like in London. It looks a lot like Wisconsin,bars everywhere you look!We had lunch in an Irish Pub,James had a banger burger,it was all pretty good. I'm going to bed,I'll work on this tomorrow again.

A Terrific Thursday

Hey Everybody,
I just wanted you all to know that the Saracens haven't eaten me yet! lol. I woke up on Thursday after a disappointing day on Wednesday! Mom and Bones(James) decided to stay at home and find an alternative way to Prague. I saw my day going a different way. I planned on going SHOPPING! I bought a Fur-lined sweatshirt and A pair of Euro-underwear. Don't worry I won't mention any details. I navigated my way around main parts of London and only asked for directions on one occasion. After spending aprox. 50 dollars on my two purchases, I decided it was time to head home for dinner. I walked in to a wonderful surprise. James cooking a gourmet meal! What was on the table. Crepe's-onion tartlettes, carmelized apples with seared pork chops, and bananas fosters crepe for desert! YUM! it was all to die for. We played a few trivia games after dinner and called it a night.
Good night from the UK and hope our next post will be from Prague!

we have packed again for Prague,the airline says the flight will go...it's supposed to snow again tonite and that paralyzes the Brits. We are hopeful! We saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof last nite. James Earl Jones Phlyicia Rashad,Sanaa Latham directed by Debbie Allen. It was excellent. We decided to take the steps in the Covent Garden Tube instead of waiting in line for the lift,bad error 197 steps, halfway up I remembered Gary and I swore never to do that again,many years ago. We had a tour of the Prince Albert Hall it was fascinating, they can do everything in there, from tennis to ballet it was built in the early 1800's. right now Cirque de Solie is there for a month so it was all set up. the photo's in the hallway were great fun of all the people who have been on stage. we also wandered around the Natural Science Museum. What is it about dinosaurs that boys love? Peter had a great time in the gemstones,and then there were the birds.... . then we went out to the Sadler wells Theatre and I got tix for Swan Lake for next sun nite,I am sooo happy. I have wanted to see it for years and years. I will get James to add photos to this blog or go to facebook.

wed 6th

We left the house this morning at 7:04 to pick up the bus for Luton at Victoria. There was about an inch of snow,no big deal,we thought,on to Prague! Wrong! After an hour bus ride we discovered our flight was cancelled. Believe me, we were shocked. We were just so surprised that such little snow could have such an impact, we immedietly left the airport and caught a bus back to the city. Pete went back to the house while James and I went in search of theatre tickets. We scored on our first attempt, getting second row seats for less than half price for Billy Elliot- number one on my hit list. We considered attending a matinee of wicked- assuming that "the show must go on" would apply to only the theatre and no other attractions in the city. We eventually decided against two shows in a day and had an amazing time at Billy Elliot.

tues 5th

We got up and decided to check the TKTS booth in Leicester Square, by the time we got there it was about 1pm. and they did'nt have anything we wanted. james had been moaning for a Phamtom Phix,so we went directly to the theatre to see if they had anything turned back for cheap or maybe a matinee. No luck, but we had been planning on a movie at some point so we went to an afternoon showing of Sherlock Holmes....we were not all that far from Baker Street! I thought it was very fun. We wondered off home,we love the Tube I must say we've gotten very good at it. We tried the Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. Boys loved it I thought it was good. It had been reccomended the nite before when we ventured out to Dulwich Village to try the Pub food at The Crown & Greyhound affectionately known as the 'dog' according to Kaarina. We were invited to join 2 locals at the table next to us,many hours and beers later we walked home in high spirits. The food was good and our new friends Stuart and James expect us back sat. nite! They had plenty advice, I had just started coming down with a cold and was beating it back with a nose spray I found at Sainsburys. Well,our new buddy James said the only thing was Vicks,he went on and on,then ran out the door to the store across the street and came back with Beechams Syrup and Vicks for me. I declined his offer of how to spread the Vicks on my chest and back!

Monday the 4

on Monday Pete and I went on the official tour of Emirates stadium and museuem. while we were 10 min late, we still got in to see pretty much the whole tour which was amazing. really all I can say is that my favorite player used to play for Arsenal, and is a large part of their history, so there was plenty of Thierry Henry for me. other than that, I'm still in so much awe I cant say any more.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2357793&id=26724030&l=254d6245f9

this is a link to my pictures from the tour, maybe somewhere in those 85,000 words you can get what I wish I could say....

I will admit that there are more pictures of Henry than of me.

Sunday the 3rd

On Sunday, our main object was the Arsenal Game, or watching it on tv in a pub with the local fans. We decided to spend the first part of the day doing "touristy" things, so we went to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the London Eye. At Buckingham, we took some photos that were pretty impressive, mainly because the place itself is so impressive. both pete and i remember most of it from our past travels, it left such an impression on us. From buckingham we walked to Big Ben and saw the outside of the Abbey (it was sunday, for some reason no tours...) then we paused on the bridge overlooking Big Ben and Parlement and reflected on how no matter how many photos we took, Monet captured the scene better. We then continued across the bridge and saw a rather cool fountain, though even now we have no idea about anything about it (its name, reason, history...). Since we have already done the london eye, we were content with walking around the base of it near County Hall which will soon feature a Salvador Dahli exhibit so we got to see some of his statues.From The River, we went up to the Arsenal tube stop and took a walk around the new(2006) Emerets Stadium, home to my favorite football(soccer) team, Arsenal. we then walked around the neighborhood and found a pub in which to watch the game on tv. The game was being played in West Ham. Arsenal was down 1-0 at halftime but rallied in the last 20 min, winning the game 2-1. After the game we went back to our neighborhood and ate at a local Indian restraunt, Indigo. The food was fantastic, each one of beliving our dish to be the best one ordered. we will defentally be back.
-James

Hey,hello everybody!
Im having a spectular time in London. So far, weve been to several pubs (bars)- we even watched one of our favorite soccer teams win 2-1, Go Arsenal! We went to go see Billy Elliot last night instead of flying to Prague. Damn British weather!
-Petes Fav. Five in London-
-on another note I saw 2 black swans. no joke
-we watched the fireworks explode out the London Eye
-Seeing the Peter Pan statue
-Shopping
-Family, Food, Fun
*Buckingham Palace was very cool

Hello,
the boys have just informed me that they have been facebooking not blogging. So sorry to you non Facebook types. i will proceed to catch you up.
We took the tube to the saturday portobello rd market. It was packed,I can't imagine what it is like in the summer,we have a few photos for your enjoyment.It has everything,the street food looked incredible. It looked very familar,it's the movie Notting Hill! At the top of the hill we stopped in a pub and had hot choclat and rum,their lamb burgers looked fantastic,we may have to go back.

Next we started walking to Kensington and ran into Hyde Park,go figure. Pete wanted to revisit the Peter Pan statue,so we hunted that down,and then visited the Princess Diana Fountain,a beautiful addition to the Park.

New Years Eve was interesting we had great hopes for the Bond party,but it turned out to be a place we did not belong. We arrived at about 9 pm,party started at 8, picked up Dr No and Ms Moneypenny at the High street Kensington Tube station, we were obviously going to the same event Security made us cool our heels outside for a good 15 minutes before letting us in 2 at a time to be patted down. Coat check was 3 pounds per coat,they wanted to charge an extra 3 for my angora wrap,I decided to keep it. It was about 5 deep at the bar took forever at the bar,probably better as drinks were 10 pounds each. this is after the tickets that I got online 2 mo. before. none of the music was live (The Hiway to Hell Halloween Party on Cty A in Door Co was a much better event.) The people watching was very good for the first 2 hours then it rapidly disintegrated into a hi school event , with packs of girls pretending not to notice the boys and the boys drinking a lot and talking loudly and shoving each other about,lots of moving from room to room. We soon figured out that they all knew each other! It was just a matter of who would end up with whom. We left,got on the tube and decided to go to the fire works. I was in appropriatly dressed,in heels ect. Met some charming young men got an announcement that 2 tube stops were closed due to crowds,carried on ran up the steps got outside intime to see the fireworks with 2 million others,decided we were hungry went for chinese(finally ate at 2:30) my feet were killing me but soldiered on,crowds everywhere,got back to Hexham rd at about 5 am( had a hell of a time getting a bus for the last part of our journey,but we wer'nt alone! N
New Years Day we decided to hell with the maayors parade. we slept late,ate slept some more,watched some cheesy Brit TV and went out to Kaarina's neighborhood French Restaurant for dinner. It was excellent! james took a photo of the 1st course ,for all our favorite foodies(Parsons,Lieds,Grandma,pretty much all of you) and we went back to bed.



-Ellen

Day at the museuem

On the 31st- last day of the decade, Pete and I were sent off by ourselvs (mom had to put up with us at a hotel and then a 10+ hr plane ride) and we decided to explore free london. We started off with the good ol' British museuem which was packed with those damn tourists (having an actual place to stay has turned us snobby) As we explored many memories came back to us from our previous travels, including the amazing rosetta stone which we had actually forgotten was there.

After this, we went to the imperial war museuem which, in my opinion, hardly mentioned the contributions of the US. in particular- The Lend-Lease Act, The Candy Bomber, Wilson and the 14 points to name a few. Sure it's a Brit museuem but as a history major I had a problem with some of these major points. al those aside Pete and I had a jam-packed day to end the decade and our new years eve will be discussed in the next post- now that weve finally sobered up....
-James

Arrival in Picture form

Doin Shots with god ol' Sir John Gielgud

Kaarina's new pad