London - Six Years Later, Part 4

Day 4, May 15th

Portobello Market & Leicester Square

On Saturday we decided to go to London's largest outdoor market on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. It was crazy, crazy busy but we made it through the tables of antiques, cheap mass-made dresses and scarves, food, and then finally to area by Ladbroke Grove tube stop where there were tons of original clothing and jewelry stalls.

I bought a scarf, two pendants and a necklace. We decided to bail on the crowds and took the tube to Soho where we went for Thai food (and I left my new purchases in the restaurant then had to go all the way back and get them when we were at the Oxford Circus tube station later). We went for tea and sweets at Mrs. Marengo's and then went back "home" to nap before our night out. We joined two other girls at a bar/club in Leicester Square where the European house music was plentiful.

A smattering of random pictures from the day:

Baker St. Tube Station - Sherlock was everywhere!

Love this.

Portobello Road

Portobello Market shop - super cute.

street performers at the market

at an antiques stall

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London - Six Years Later, Part 3

Day 3 - May 14th

Bath, England

On Friday morning my friend and I boarded a train at Paddington Station for a day trip to Bath. The forecast wasn't the greatest so we crossed our fingers for decent weather. It turned out not to be that bad. We arrived at the Bath Spa train station around 11:15 am and immedi

ately set off on foot to find the Roman Baths.

Right next to them we saw Bath Abbey.

We decided to tour the Roman Baths, the only natural hot springs in the UK. It was really interesting to see the ruins. Probably one of th

e oldest things I've ever seen outside of a

museum collection. This is the view from the terrace. The statues date to the late 1800's when the baths were first discovered.

After touring the baths, we made our way up toward Bath Circus and stopped to take in the view at the Pluteney Bridge where I took this black and white.

We also happened upon this cute little maze. Not quite the hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace, it was still fun.

Here's what we found at the end:

We went to the Jane Austen Centre (which, honestly, I thought was a bit overrated and we could have done without the over-animated talk at the beginning that lasted 15 minutes). From there we finally made it up to the Circus and the Crescent. We then went to Sally Lunn's, the oldest house in Bath which is now a museum and restaurant where we had a famous Sally Lunn bun and some tea. We tried to do some shopping afterward but quickly found that all the stores in Bath close around 6 pm. Our train wasn't until around 8pm so we went into a hotel bar and had some drinks while we waited.

Up next, Portobello Market and random tube pictures!

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London - Six Years Later, Part 2

Sorry the pics are so small in the last post. I took over 300 (!!) so I want to share as many as I can without my poor little blog giving out. I've increased the size this time around since there are a tad fewer and it is easier to see them!

Day 2 - March 13th

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben & Parliament, & Billy Elliott!

I didn't do any museums or palaces on this trip.

My goal was just to walk the city, visit as many of my favorite sp

ots and new ones I hadn't gotten to see. I decided to start out in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park as I only went once during my semester in London six years ago.

Kensington Palace

(I almost went in, since this is pretty much the only of the London palaces I haven't been in yet, but decided to explore the gardens instead.)

Swan in the Serpentine (Hyde Park)

A gosling! He was so cute!

It is touristy but I loved seeing Big Ben again...

and the Houses of Parliament.

That night we went to see Billy Elliott on Broadway. It was awesome, especially those boys. Such talent! Outside the theater in Victoria we met Little Ben! I didn't even know he existed.

Little Ben

Little Ben's Apology for Summer Time reads: "My hands you may retard or advance. My heart beats true for England as for France."

It's OK, Little Ben. You're forgiven!

More London - Six Years Later here!

London - Six Years Later, Part 1

Here it is! The much-delayed recap of my lovely trip to London.

I left for London on the May 11th out of JFK airport on a morning flight. The flight itself was delayed TWO HOURS because they were waiting on a piece of paper to be signed by the powers-that-be (or so they told us). This meant I watched an entire movie on the tarmac: Did

You Hear About the Morgans? (Trust me, skip it). Once we were finally off the ground the flight went smoothly. I was able to stretch out as I had a row to myself and I watched two other movies: Extraordinary Measures (with Brendan Fraiser and Keri Russell - it was pretty good.) and The Messenger (with Woody Harrelson - which was excellent!)

I arrived in London much later than I had anticipated and because I do not have a fancy phone, I could not call my friend. She and I had planned to meet on the platform at the Earl's Court tube station, however, I had emailed her to tell her I was delayed. Turns out that e-mail never got to her. To make a long story short, I ended up using a pay phone and finally got a hold of her after I took the tube to the Hammersmith stop and we agreed that I would take a taxi to her flat. I arrived after 1 am. Poor girl! She had to go to work the next day and since it was 5 hours earlier in New York, I hung out downstairs with her roommate's cat and perused my guide books while watching British telly.

May 12th: Southbank

Fast forward to day two. I rose bright and early because I couldn't wait to get back out and see London. I decided to take the Tube to Embankment and walk along the Southbank by the Thames. I crossed the Jubilee Footbridge, walked down past the Globe Theatre, Millenium

Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral and then across the Tower Bridge. I walked along the opposite side

of the bridge toward Big Ben and Parliament but had to head up Oxford Circus instead to meet my friend after she got off work. We then met some of her friends to play Pub Trivia. We were a team of Americans, an Australian and one Welshman who didn't arrive until 3/4 of the way

through the game. Needless to say we lost as we weren't exactly up on our British pop culture and trivia.

Books along Southbank. No surprise that this is one of the first pics I took.

The view from my restaurant table during a stop for lunch at Gabriel's Wharf.

Apropos

The Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral

The elephants are on parade all over London. This guy, who had a tube map on him, was my fave.

Walk along Tower Bridge

Best pub name ever

London Eye in the background

View of the Thames from South London