Dea and Hubert definitely brought the nice weather with them as far as London standards go! Saturday was beautiful, Sunday it only sprinkled on us a few times and there were lovely breaks of sun, and then today, the sun is out and shining and beautiful!By law, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day retail stores larger than 3,000 sq feet (meters?) are not allowed to be open. Several smaller stores also followed suit so with everything closed, we had nothing to do but walk around the city!
We started with Kensington High Street which leads you right to Hyde park. Andrew and I had taken a short running tour on Friday through Hyde Park, but it's so so huge you have to give it some time to explore! The picture of Andrew is at the Kensington Palace at the West end of the Park where we entered. While I am jealous that I do not have my own castle, I think it's insane how huge they are! I mean, what could you possibly use ALL those rooms for? Crazy..
Right after the Palace was a beautiful little pond full of swans! I could be mistaken, but I don't think there are many swans in the US - at least not any I've ever seen. And those who know me and my belief that birds are the spawns of Satan would be impressed to know that I actually got pretty close to take some nice pics!
Then we walked through the heart of the park where there are tons of paths for walking/running/cycling and tons of well-behaved dogs off leash (maeby will not be one of those when she comes - wayyy too free spirited! It was at this time that I remembered there was an funky setting on my camera where it will pick up one color of your choosing and make everything else black and white. So I thought I'd try to get a little creative. I'll include some of my shots from when we found the Princess Diana memorial fountain and another big lake with boats and even a "beach" area where people can swim in the summer. I doubt that I will ever partake in such a swim, but it's nice to know there are lounge chairs if there's ever a hot sunny day!
They also have horseback riding lessons in the park which might be fun to check out one of these days...After the park, we were at Buckingham Palace. They REALLY don't wany intruders visiting judging by the high walls with metal death spikes, then an electrical/barbed wire fence. It was really really intense.
From there we walked up to Westminster Abbey where I got some more great pics:
It was then that we realized we'd been walking for almost 3 hours and needed a seat and some nourishment. It took us 10 minutes to find a Paul's location (only THE best bakery in London - in my opinion). Again, I'd like to stress that I've lived off of bread, cheese, cream, chocolate, butter, and pasta since Friday. I really need to control myself!
But Dea and Hubert left this morning. I always get a little down when our guests leave - partly because I don't want them to go and partly because they get to go home. While I do really love living in London, it's definitely not home. I don't know that it will ever feel like that, but one can hope right? In the mean time, I'll keep learning what I can and can't plug into a transformer (can't: blow dryer, magic bullet (RIP Magic bullets)) and how to measure things in centimeters and what the heck degrees in Celsius equate to in my realm of temperature.
I was introduced to Passion Fruit this weekend which looks absolutely disgusting, but tastes fantastic! Dea taught me how to make her special homemade pasta sauce and Hubert taught me how to make his special thai green curry! Not only was it fabulous to have family here this weekend, I am a better - slightly fatter - person because of it :)
Next guests schedule with us soon please!
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