the starrs: London

Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Cousins come to London!

We have been so blessed with tons of amazing family and friends visiting us here in the UK. It always gives us something to look forward to, and a little taste of home as well. My cousin Jenna and her husband Paul are big travelers and stopped in London as part of their European trip. We went in to spend the day with them and had a blast! They were staying with a friend in London, and it was awesome getting a true Londoner's take on the city, as well as seeing things that we had never seen before - and spending time with Jenna and Paul of course. :)

Francesca first took us to her local pub for Sunday carvery, where she introduced us to the Scotch Egg. I don't like eggs, but Thomas said it was delicious, despite it's somewhat odd appearance. It is egg, wrapped in sausage, and fried. Next we took a walk along the Thames, and happened to stop in a little church where it turns out Benedict Arnold is buried! We couldn't believe that he was buried there, and Thomas is a big history lover, so he was especially excited. We walked through the Chelsea neighborhood of London, which we had never wandered in before, browsed the Victoria & Albert Museum, and explored Hyde Park. Francesca had all sorts of random tidbits about London to share with us, and we really loved seeing London from a different perspective!

Walking along the Thames

Church where Benedict Arnold is buried

Getting in the Wimbledon spirit!

Traffic cone art outside the Victoria and Albert Museum

Francesca, Jenna, Me, and Thomas

Hyde Park

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Jersey Boys

My good friend Meghan turned 30 in April, and she really wanted to see the show Jersey Boys in London, so we got us all some tickets and went in to the city for a girl's day. I wasn't expecting much from the show, mainly because I didn't know much about it. I was blown away by the show though, it was amazing. I grew up listening to oldies music (thanks Dad!), and the show was so well done. I was excited to see it while Thomas was gone because I thought he wouldn't enjoy it, but I think he would like it and I would definitely see it again! We had a yummy Mexican food lunch (not as good as Mexican food from Arizona, but still tasty!), and cupcakes for the birthday girl of course. I also got to make my first journey through Chinatown, it was really interesting and pretty.

The day was beautiful and sunny and made perfect by an old fashioned truck that was just driving through the streets of London spewing bubbles everywhere! It was amazing to see how a random gesture could make so many people happy - kids and adults were loving it!

Meghan and Danielle

Our original seats - second row from the top - YIKES!

After our 10 GBP upgrade, we were on the first level - well worth it! :)

Chinatown

Thursday, February 2, 2012

London with Drew

Drew and I spent New Years Day in London. Unfortunately we had to get up pretty early to go on our Harry Potter walking tour through the city, but it was worth it. We had a great guide, who looked/sounded just like Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter movies, she definitely enhanced our experience. Some of the locations that the tour showed us were a little silly or insignificant, but there were some good highlights as well - like the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron(s), the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, and the Millennium Bridge which was shown in a broom chase. We had a great time, and managed to see some things along the way that we wanted to see after the tour, like Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We had a great time in the city!

The beginning of the Harry Potter tour - Harry and Mr Weasley are shown in Westminster Station where they are confused by the Oyster Card system there

In the corner there was a phone booth which was the entrance to the Ministry of Magic in the Harry Potter movies

Drew and the London Eye

Millenium Bridge

Enjoying our yummy lunch from Harrods!!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

New Years Eve

Drew made it in to London on New Years Eve Day for his visit, and he did AMAZING the whole day with his jet lag! We didn't get back to the hotel until about 2am that night, and he was a trooper throughout everything. We dropped his luggage off at the hotel, then headed to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park where Drew had a yummy bratwurst - he talked about how delicious it was for days! :)

We then met up with my friend's who were in London to see a show that day. We had dinner and then headed out to find a spot to watch the fireworks. After a looooot of walking, and a little bit of rain, we made it to a spot along the river Thames where we could see the fireworks display over the London Eye at midnight. While we waited we had some entertainment, a "friendly" (aka drunk) gentleman from Australia who was fascinated by us and our stories from the States, and a group of people who thought that climbing on the porta-potties would be a great idea. We kept waiting for them to fall in/topple over, but alas they did not. Last year the fireworks in London were spectacular, and I'm sure that they were this year as well...if you were on the opposite side of the river where the wind wasn't blowing all of the smoke towards you. We ended up being able to see only about 2 minutes of the show before it was too smoky to see anything. I was pretty bummed because I wanted Drew to see it, but he said he had a great time, so all in all the evening was a success!

Drew and I on the tube

Harrods

Ice skating rink at Hyde Park

Safety precautions for New Years Eve ;)

London

Our dinner date for the evening, The Ashcraft's

Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square - given to London every year by Norway

Big Ben...still a couple of hours away from midnight

Happy New Year - 2012!!

Monday, November 21, 2011

WICKED

Before I left for my trip to the States, Thomas and I wanted to take a day trip into London. He'd been wanting to go to the aquarium there, and I'd been wanting to see a show, so we decided we'd do both! We went to London Sea Life Aquarium, which was pretty neat, even with thousands of kids running around everywhere. We checked out Covent Garden, which I'd been wanting to do for a while - it's just a loooot of shopping. I might have to take a trip back by myself to really explore there ;) Then we meandered over to the theater area, had dinner at a pub and went to see Wicked!!

I've been wanting to see Wicked for a long time, so I was so excited we finally got to go. We had seats where the view was "partially obstructed" (aka: cheaper), but for us it just meant there was a wall two rows down from us that blocked the very front of the side stage - nothing major at all. It was such a great show, I loved it and Thomas didn't mind it at all. I thought that the Wicked Witch had the best voice, she gave me goosebumps. It was such a fun day/night, now I can't wait to see more plays!!

Thomas in the Shark Tunnel at the Sea Life Aquarium

I think the Walrus won this contest

Covent Garden

Thomas & I by Westminster Abbey

Cute little pub where we ate dinner

WICKED!

Waiting for the show to begin

He forgot his glasses, the little binoculars came in handy ;)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

England Adventure with the Mason's - Part I

Mom, Dad, and Drew came to visit for a week and we got lots of sightseeing in! We had an itinerary we tried to follow to maximize our touristy needs, and we did pretty well in getting it all in :) Here's an overview of what we did!