Merry Christmas from London Town!

So as you can see from the title, Christmas this year was a relaxed affair at home in London. Christmas Eve, after treating ourselves to a sleep in, we took the tube to Leicester Square and walked down to Trafalgar Square to check out the Norwegian Christmas tree. After a few photos and a visit to Waterstones for some browsing, we made our way to Hyde Park, via a few cute little pubs. We then spent time browsing the Christmas markets, fuelled by hot mulled wine and a chocolate banana on a stick. Being 4pm, it was already dark (London in winter; the sun goes down at 3pm), so all the Christmas lights were on and it made a pretty sight.
Christmas Day we spoke to our families at home, had porridge for breakfast, and watched some films (Mary Poppins and A Muppets Christmas Carol - nostalgic choices.) Dave cooked a fantastic Christmas dinner of pork, crackling, roast potatoes and veggies and Yorkshire Pudding, with Christmas Pudding and custard for after.
Tonight we are off to the ballet - the English National Ballet production of The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House (very excited). Tuesday we fly to Copenhagen!! We make it in time for the final day of the Tivoli Christmas markets, and stay for New Years celebrations, returning to London on the 2nd.
A happy new year to everyone.

Christmas dinner (tablecloth and placemats courtesy of my mum)

At the Christmas markets in Hyde Park (with mulled wine)

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Christmas Eve drinks

With the tree in Trafalgar Square

Shakespeare-Upon-Avon

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life
Prologue, 'Romeo and Juliet'

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
Act 1, Scene V

Yea, noise,then I'll be brief;
O, happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.
Act V, Scene III

Last weekend we made our way by coach to Stratford-Upon-Avon, town of all things Shakespeare. It was bright and sunny, but absolutely freezing. Upon arrival on Saturday at 11, we checked into our nice, cosy B&B (after getting into the English spirit and sharing a pot of tea), and went to see the sights. We saw the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare's grave is, Shakespeare's birthplace, the Great Garden of New Place, and numerous statues and sculptures depicting the scenes and characters from his works. The play was our main reason for being there however, and after dinner and a few drinks at the Dirty Duck, we took our seats at the Courtyard Theatre for the RSC production of 'Romeo and Juliet'. I can't use enough superlatives here, so just let me say that it was absolutely BRILLIANT. Worth every penny. The actors were amazing, favourites being the portrayals of Mercutio and Benvolio by, respectively, Gyuri Sarossy and Daniel Percival.
In other London news, we had a great day/night yesterday at our 'Orphans Christmas' (thanks guys). Today, while Dave has been at work, I have done a themed walking tour, Shakespeare's and Dickens' London - very interesting and worthwhile.
A few photos below. Hope all is well.

At The Dirty Duck before seeing 'Romeo and Juliet'

Christmas lights in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Dave tries his best on the ice at Somerset House

Somerset House ice rink

Staying Alive In SW5

Well, we are at the end of our first (and mercifully last) November in London. I think it has been grey, cold and drizzling EVERY single day. (We have been trying, not too successfully, not to have wistful thoughts of where we were this time last year.) Sightseeing-wise, we have used the yucky weather to knock off a couple of museums, have visited St Paul's Cathedral (almost being blown away when we emerged at the top for the views over London) and earlier in the month attended the annual Lord Mayor's Parade. Dave has also attended a Tottenham v Liverpool Carling Cup football game with Jarratt, and we have been to see Dylan Moran (very very funny). Otherwise life has been fairly quiet, and Dave has been putting in the hours at the York. So we are both happy to see the end of the month tomorrow!
December promises to have more to amuse us. Tomorrow night, we are ice skating at Somerset House, and Saturday we are off to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the weekend. Also coming up we have a couple of excursions planned to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, a couple of trips to the ballet, and are planning to get down to Trafalgar Square to see the lighting of the big Christmas tree and to hear a few carols. I also have a Christmas lunch coming up at work - a yummy three course meal (turkey, Xmas pudding, the works) and wine for 10 quid!
We have also just booked our first trip for next year!! We will be off to Cork for two nights to celebrate our anniversary in January. We are quite excited about our plans for next year – not least a return home!! As soon as we find out, in early January, if we have been lucky enough to score Ashes tickets in the Lords ballot, we will be able to confirm a date for our return, somewhere between late June and early August.
We will update you again shortly after our weekend away.

Tottenham v Liverpool

At the top of St Paul's Cathedral

Who put my ear muffs on a cookie?

The past three weeks we have had the company of Ophelia, one of my friends from home. Saturday three weeks ago I flew to Vienna to meet her at the end of a month long Europe trip (for her not me...I wish!!) We spent 5 pleasant nights in a delightful (well apart from one 'incident' that led to us getting one of those nights for free!) apartment, or should I say apartments. Both of us having been to Vienna before, we took our time, drinking lots of coffee, eating cakes, catching up on a year's worth of goss, shopping and doing some sightseeing, such as the lovely Schonbrunn Palace. We also managed to squeeze in a day trip to the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, only an hour by train from Vienna, which I have to say we were both a little underwhelmed by. But the food was great.
The sixth day we hopped a train to Budapest, where we were joined by David, flying in from London. We spent three days exploring the city (and its' pubs), including Castle Hill in Buda (lovely views) and the streets of Pest. Also of note was our introducing the sometimes fussy Ophie to the world of hostels, dorm rooms and (oh shock horror) shared bathrooms! We took a day trip to a little place called Szentendre on the Danube Bend on our last day.
Ophie has been staying with us in Earl's Court up til today. We have been trudging off to work while she got to do all the fun stuff in London! Friday night was Halloween and we visited Dave's place of work, The York at Islington, where the theme was pink for breast cancer. We were both impressed at Blues' outfit! Saturday we had breakfast at my favourite London cafe, The Breakfast Club, at Angel, followed by some retail therepy on Oxford Street on what was a drizzly Saturday afternoon. That night the three of us were off to see Avenue Q, which had us laughing nonstop, at some things more than others.... (what do you do with a BA in English?...yes VERY hilarious Ophie.) So with the internet song in our heads (that we may or may not have been singing on the tube..hehe) we headed home with every intention of getting up early to go to Greenwich...
...which didn't happen. We did head down to Brick Lane in the afternoon though, for a curry and some shopping at the markets (namely DVDs, pretty dresses, and FCUK rip offs).
The rest of November looks a bit quiet, I think we are supposed to be saving some dosh! But Saturday night we are heading out to watch fireworks and picnic with J and Bec, and later in the month we have tickets to Dylan Moran!! Yay!! The next trip though will be Stratford-Upon-Avon in December - just for the weekend - where we are seeing some Shakespeare (of course). We are also starting to plan for next year, although a lot depends on the work situation, which is a bit more uncertain for me than Dave at this point. But everything will sort itself out.
Hope everyone is well, and enjoying the hot weather, cos we are freezing!

Dave in his Halloween costume at the York

Budapest

Budapest

Bratislava

Vienna

Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna

Szentendre in Hungary

Prost!

Our 4 days in Germany at Oktoberfest were great - sooo much fun. Oktoberfest is nuts, but fantastic. We drank lots of beer, ate yummy German food, met brilliant new people from all around the world, sung songs, dressed up as beer wenches (not the boys), christened ourselves with new German names, and generally had a blast. We visited three beer tents all up over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday - the Hofbrauhaus, the Paulaner and the Lowenbrau. Sunday was the biggest day, when we got to the tent bright and early at 10am to grab a table (sharing with our Brit lad friends), and arrived back at the hostel around midnight after dancing and partying the night away. We also found time to visit a beer hall in the city on the Saturday for some pork knuckle and potato dumplings, and a quick meal at the Hofbrauhaus in the city before departing on the Monday. Photos below (in no particular order).
Next trip is when I fly to Vienna all on my lonesome to meet one of my best mates from home, before Dave joins us in Budapest. We are also currently booking our new years trip - we will be ringing in 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark (after discarding Lapland and Russia as, sadly, too expensive). Will update again soon.
Love to all.

Seafood, Sangria, Sunshine...

Our week in Portugal and Spain was fan-bloody-tastic!! One of the best trips we have done since we have been overseas. Our first stop was Lisbon, Portugal's capital. Hopping on a packed bus from the airport, we managed by a combination of luck and skill to get off at the right stop, pretty much right outside our hostel, which was located just off the lovely-named Avenida de Liberdade, smack bang in the middle of the city. So off to a good start. After dumping our stuff and changing into shorts (the weather was glorious) we headed out. As we were strolling, there seemed to us to be an unusually large number of football jersey-clad people about, so we decided to ask at the tourist office if there might be a game on. Turns out there was a World Cup qualifier that very night - Portugal v Denmark, and there were still tickets available!! For 10 euro!! So after snapping up a couple and stopping for coffee and a Portuguese custard tart each (the best pastries I've ever eaten in my life), we headed up to the Alfama district, the old part of Lisbon, crowned by the Castelo de Sao Jorge. 'Headed up' is no exaggeration, but we were rewarded with some great views. That night, we attended the game. Denmark ended up winning 3-2 in the last minute of injury time, so it was a very entertaining game with lots of world class players (but no Ronaldo, to my eternal disappointment).
Most of the following day was spent walking! After a bit of a sleep in, we took a massive walk down to the beautiful Belem district, via the waterfront and the Alcantara, where we were planning to have lunch but all the restaurants looked WAY too posh and expensive (I think all the Beamers parked outside gave us the clue.) Instead, we had a lovely seafood meal in Belem (for me - mixed grill for Dave), and later on visited the shop with the best Portuguese tarts in the city (so they say - we're not about to disagree though.)
Our last day in Portugal we took a day trip out to Cascais, a seaside town. We had been tossing up between Cascais and Sintra; we SO made the right decision! It was another gorgeous day, and Cascais was just glorious and beautiful. Among the sights to see were the Santa Marta lighthouse and the Boca de Inferno (Hell's Mouth). Back in Lisbon we had dinner up in Alfama and watched the sun set over the city.
Saturday we had an 8 hour bus ride to Seville in Spain. We arrived at 5; the sun was shining still and it was 32 degrees! Again, we had a lovely hostel in a great location. We headed out across the river to check out the bars, and found one with a great position overlooking the water. Later, we headed back across to check out Barrio de Santa Cruz, where we ate dinner at a few tapas bars.
The following day we mainly just spent walking around Seville. We had planned the cathedral because it is free on Sundays, but turns out it was closed because of an event on that night (the start of our bad luck with Seville's sights). But we had a lovely tapas lunch, and saw the bullring and the beautiful Plaza de Espana. That night, by a very happy coincidence, Garcy came to town!! So the three of us spent the evening drinking and eating yummy tapas at another great little bar by the water.
Our last full day in Seville we visited the cathedral and climbed the tower, then headed across to the Alcazar, only to get there and find that it is closed on Mondays! And we were leaving tomorrow morning! So we went souvenir shopping instead, before meeting up again with Garcy, and MY GOD, what a massive night that was. Great fun though, as he took us to a great little sandwich bar (a regular haunt for him in Seville), we went to yet another great tapas bar, and a free flamenco show.
The next day, both of us feeling more than a little sore and sorry, we headed back to ol' London Town.
What an amazing week!!! We are back at work now, but Friday we head to Munich for 4 days for Oktoberfest with Jarratt and Bec. Will update again soon, hope everyone is well!

On the beach in Cascais
Cascais
The Santa Marta lighthouse
The Boca de Inferno
The Boca de Inferno
Someone's happy about the football
At the top of the Alfama District in Lisbon
At the football, in our complimentary Portugal shirts
The Belem District in Lisbon
Sunset over Lisbon

Sunset in Seville
The cathedral in Seville
Plaza de Espana
With Michael, this one is taken at the awesome sandwich bar
At the free flamenco

Summertime...and the Livin' Is Easy

Well September has arrived marking the official start of autumn. Now it starts getting colder and colder and we have to dig our winter clothes out of storage. However, the final week or so of summer was pretty eventful, culminating on the 30th (we'll ignore the grey skies and drizzle on the 31st) with a glorious, hot (for London) day. Here's a rundown of what we've been up to.
Notting Hill Carnival
The carnival runs on the Sunday and Monday of the August bank holiday weekend, incidentally the first long weekend that we haven't been away. We decided to go down and check it out on the Sunday, and had ourselves a great day walking around, eating Jamaican food and drinking Jamaican beer, and watching the colourful parades.
Day trip to Oxford
On the bank holiday Monday we took a train to Oxford (I got us really cheap tickets and was incredibly pleased with myself). We took a tour of the town, going in to some of the colleges of the University and learning some interesting history. A greyish morning turned into a lovely afternoon, so we headed down to a riverside pub to while away the time till we had to get the train back to London.
Pimms Summerfest
On a Wednesday night a week ago we made our way to Holland Park for this event. A whole area of the park was sectioned off, and there were a few bars, a BBQ serving hamburgers and sausages, and lots of space to sit, have a drink and relax. The main event was comedy in the outdoor theatre - we saw 4 comedians. It was a lovely evening - warm but with a nice cool breeze - and we were left regretting that we hadn't taken advantage of more of our summer evenings by picnicking in London's parks.
London Eye and Thames cruise
We had booked, through last minute, a 40 minute Thames cruise and flight on the iconic London Eye. Saturday was, as mentioned, absolutely glorious, and as a lot of August has been grey and overcast, we couldn't believe our luck. We started with the cruise, complete with commentary, followed by the Eye. The whole day was fantastic, I would highly recommend the cruise especially to any visitor to London. It was the kind of day that really makes you love London. Afterwards, we paid a quick visit to the second hand book market on the South Bank (where Dave even let me buy a couple of books), before meeting up with Jarratt and Bec in Clapham for a few quiet ones...well a few anyway.
We are now looking forward to our trip to Lisbon and Seville in a week, where we plan to relax and fill ourselves with tapas, paella, sangria, seafood, and Portuguese custard tarts. Hope everyone is well.

On the Thames cruise with Tower Bridge in the background


On the Eye
Notting Hill Carnival
Dave with the Jamaican beer
At Jesus College in Oxford
Oxford
One of the bars at the Summerfest