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22 January 2014

Last Days in London


Heading out for our last long bike ride
So these next two posts are a little out of order, but let's be honest, looking through all the pictures from Ireland and trying to pick some to post is a daunting task! Therefore we're going to skip ahead to our last weeks in London, before and after our Ireland trip.

Since we had already done/seen all the main attractions, we had time to just relax and enjoy the city and friends. We went back to Borough Market and finally found the exotic meat shop! We bought 4 burgers; Kangaroo, Camel, Zebra, and Springbok. I tried little bits of each while Owen and a friend split the rest. We also spent some time with friends in the last few days, having a Thanksgiving dinner with our Thursday night home meeting group, and one last visit to the Korean restaurant! We got some last cycling in before selling our bikes. We celebrated Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night with some friends from Redeemer Church in Ealing, at the Ealing Cricket Club. There was a huge firework display and massive bonfire. All week throughout the area you could hear fireworks going off, since it was also Diwali.

During our last week, we finally made it to a football game after looking for affordable tickets most of the year. We saw England v. Germany at Wembley Stadium, which was an awesome experience! I loved every minute of it, though I think Owen was a little bored with only one goal. We also stayed just long enough to catch most of the Christmas decorations around London, though not everything like the tree in Trafalgar Square. We saw the fancy window displays at Selfridges, all the lights on Oxford and Regent Streets, and the winter carnival at Hyde Park. It was a great last trip to the city a few nights before flying back. I also threw in some pictures at the end from our flight back from Ireland, flying in over London at night was awesome! Overall we had a fun last few weeks around London and with friends, thanks for the memories!


Dinner at the Korean Restaurant with Stefan and Rebecca
Thursday homemeeting group - (pre) Thanksgiving dinner
Exotic meats at Borough Market
Our burgers and a key so we knew which ones were which
Beautiful fruits at Borough Market
Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night Fireworks




Massive Bonfire

Wembley Stadium
England v. Germany
 

 

Window Displays at Selfridges
 
 

Christmas Decorations everywhere!
Snow globe in Piccadilly Circus
Look close, it's the 12 days of Christmas on Regent Street
Oxford Street

Winter carnival in Hyde Park
Lights outside Ealing Broadway
A gift from Stefan and Rebecca, a mini Panettone!
Flying back from Ireland, sorry the pics are a little blurry, the plane was moving pretty fast ;)




09 January 2014

London at Night






Well I originally had some of these pictures in the previous post as well as a few scattered throughout other posts, but I decided they really deserved their own post. My favorite thing about London was seeing it all light up at night. All the sights are even more beautiful at night and the city has such a different, quiet, almost peaceful feel. See for yourself why I lived the city at night so much!



Regent Street at Night
Markets and outdoor dining
Bridge Views - Eye and Parliament from Waterloo Bridge
Looking at MI6 from the Westminster Bridge
St Paul's and the Shard from Golden Jubilee/Hungerford Bridge
The Eye normally (on the 15 minute mark the building turns red, normally blue)
Green for Halloween (though looks more like Christmas)

Coming out of Westminster Tube Station

The Shard
St Paul's Cathedral
London Bridge
Tower Bridge

Tower of London & Tower Bridge



07 January 2014

An English Autumn

Windsor Castle
As multiple people have reminded me, I have clearly neglected my duties of keeping you all updated and providing pictures on the blog. So now that I finally have some time (post international moving, grad school, and holidays), it's time for me to catch up a bit! Since I have several posts to do, I will just do a highlights post for September/October in London, followed by our trip to Ireland, then our last few weeks in London, and eventually a Christmas and current happenings post; wow I do have a lot to catch up on! So here it goes....

End of summer BBQ at our place
Dinner at Nando's with friends

Celebrating Owen's birthday

 post cycling to Harrods and picnicking in Hyde Park
 Homemade cheesecakes with hand-picked berries

A quick visit at Heathrow Airport with our dear friends from St Maarten, Chris, Sally, and Keiran, owners of Octopus Diving!!

Warrior Adrenaline Race (WAR) - 10K muddy obstacle race 
We race as a team with some AUC friends
Pre-race with Kevin, Renu, and Meg
Post-race: we were muddier, but there's a soapy slip & slide and dunk tank at the end
 
Awesome team shirts pre/post race
Some action shots
mud tunnels
Owen adding some extra mud
hoping to get on next year's adverts
just a little cold
so much fun, finished in just about 1 hour 44 minutes!
Dinner with Rose
 Autumn Fun with mums and pumpkins
Pumpking carving/fall party at the student house


Autumn colors around Ealing

and a few in central

Some birthday dinners in central with friends
sightseeing after dinner
 Some crazy flooding along the Thames in October
the only way through was to climb the fence