Pay your taxes

Thursday morning I went to the Tower of London to see what all the fuss is about. My friend Mary and I arrived just in time to join one of the Beefeater guided tours and he made our visit well worth it. We learned so much about the Tower and all of the people who live there now and were imprisoned there in the past!

Also, it just so happened that Thursday was one of 2 days each year where a naval ship moored in the Thames has to pay their tax to the city. This is done through a procession of the Tower band and the Naval band. In the past, the tax was waged based on the goods of the ship; today the navy brings a barrel of rum for the Yeoman Warders.  Here is a blurry picture of the naval officers carrying the barrel of rum:

When I left the Tower, I turned south and walked across London Bridge towards Borough Market for lunch. It was raining on and off, but the walk provides a great picture of Tower Bridge with the Olympic symbol. 

In Borough Market things were much less hectic than the Saturday that Tyler and I visited. I took some pictures of weird fruits and veg like this lychee: 

Oyster mushrooms:

 Last night we ate at Tom's Kitchen in Somerset House. This is the front of Somerset House which is just east of the Waterloo Bridge (which is where we were standing to take this picture)

This morning we bought some cakes from the neighborhood Saturday market in the Duke of York Square, then we said goodbye for the week. Tyler went to Brighton to play golf with some work friends, and I am now back in Oxford which is nice because I have a bit more down time to catch up on everything we did last week. 

This should be a good week. A different kind of course here all together, but still really interesting. I am going to try to do a few afternoon trips around the area and will post any pictures I manage to get. 

May have to go back to Woodstock/Blenheim after the Olympic Torch debacle from my last attempt. 

Off to supper with new classmates! 

Hope to post more pics from Tyler's phone later on - 

Tyler in London

Hello again!

A lot of activity over the past few days. Have been too busy to even put these pictures up. I am taking this afternoon to do a bit of housekeeping at the flat, and so here are the lastest tales from our adventure as seen from my camera:

Saturday morning -- Picked up a cheddar breadstick from acharming baker and her daughter at the market on Kings Road. Their display included a dash of patriotism:

Afterwards, we took the subway to Westminster and walked along the river bank. Here is Tyler in front of the Thames and the London Eye. You can see how delightful the weather was:

We walked east along the bank and crossed over London Bridge to Borough Market. Along the way we stopped for some pictures at the site of the original Globe theatre. 

 Inside the market we grabbed two delicious burgers - lamb & mint and pork & stilton. Both amazing.

 Mmm...

Topped it off with a double chocolate brownie. Then we ran into this massive cheese stand!

Glass of wine riverside:

Then we went to the Tate Modern and the Evensong service at St. Paul's.  Those pics must be on Tyler's camera. Bet I am in some of them!

Even though we were exhausted from this full day, we pressed on for supper at Le Suquet, a small French place around the corner. Tyler ordered the most unbelievable seafood platter. I have never seen most of the foods that were on it. Half of them were little snail like shells and the waiter brought straight pins to pull the little critters out of the shells with. Very interesting. He loved it. I was happy with salmon in puff pastry!

On Sunday morning we made it just in time for the Matins service at Westminster. I am sorry these pictures on Tyler's phone because they are great. The service was beautiful and the voices of the Westminster choir spiraled up towards the heavens. We sat about 4 seats behind where the Queen was at William and Kate's wedding, if anyone is familliar with that. Then we walked all around the abbey.

That afternoon we headed to Portobello Road in Notting Hill. Here Tyler enjoys a pint at The Duke of Wellington pub after a long afternoon of shopping:

Monday: On my own. No faces in this pics!

Walked Tyler to the subway, then headed west towards Harrods.

On the way there, I past these lovely English gardens. I think this is Cadogan Gardens.

Nice and properly tucked away:

Starving when I made it to Harrods (in the rain). Sat down to recollect the weekend's events and enjoy a teacake with marmalade. 

It was delicious! Sorry you missed it before I gobbled it up:

The Victoria and Albert Museum is just down the street from Harrods, so I headed that way.

Inside the V&A:

Later I walked-- the entire length-- Hyde Park to Kensington Palace where I had tea and a scone (solo) in the Orangery. A nice end to the afternoon. I saw The Mousetrap last night, but Tyler slept through the first act! He woke up for the end and then we went for pizza. Perfect!

Today has been a big day. These girls came home with me earlier and so I have retired from shopping for a bit.

Am going to try to cook dinner in the apartment tonight. We are headed to see Sweeney Todd with Michael Ball and Ismelda Staunton at 19:30 and I can't wait!

Lately

The past two mornings, I have woken up at 5:02 am with a bright sunshine blazing through my windows. Both days have ended in wet soggy evenings! Today's rain started around 2:00 pm and has not quit since! I sat in a cafe (http://www.caferouge.co.uk/french-restaurant/oxford) to work on my story (that I have to read to our class tomorrow - yikes!) and just watched it drizzle all day. I was in front of the open door and the temperature must have dropped below 60. It was just wet and cold.
I ran over to the Eagle and Child to meet some friends from class for a drink before dinner, then we ate at the school, and now I am gathering my things before I leave tomorrow.

Tuesday night I went with some friends to see the play Educating Rita at the Oxford Playhouse.
http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/show/?eventid=2608
It was pretty good! Fun to get out to the theatre. They have many open air plays each night, but I haven't gone because you have to sit in the cold rain!

Last night I walked all around town, across Magdalen Bridge and by the Thames, then down a very long street that ended up wrapping around by Wadham and eventually brought me back to Wellington Square. It was a really nice walk, and I did not get rained on! It started just as I got home. Shocking.  I am not complaining though. The weather is nice. It is a refreshing relief to the heat that most of you who are reading this are probably living through; although I did hear it had been raining and temperatures had dropped since we left, so that is promising.

Tomorrow night, I plan to be back in London via train or bus. Not sure which yet. Either way, it will be nice to be back together. We can take some new pictures.

Looking out of my windows in the parapet of this building, I feel like I'm in Mary Poppins in the chimney sweep rooftop song. All I see are the silhouettes of the roofs in Oxford against the gray sky.  It does not get dark here until 10 pm!

Pick your heels up, steppin time!

Oxfordshire

Wrapping up Day 3 here in Oxford! Has been busy and very fun. Here are the highlights!
Saturday and Sunday Tyler stayed here with me, so while I was in class, he toured around. Later he showed me the sights!

My class is going well. There are only 10 people in it and we write a lot.  It is informative and fun. In the afternoons I should probably be continuing writing, but I have been walking about. Sunday afternoon I walked down to the King's Arms pub and ran into the grad assts from UGA who are here with the summer semester students. So, I watched the Wimbledon final with them and was so thankful to pull up a chair next to friends.

This afternoon I took the bus to Woodstock and Blenheim Palace, but conveniently forgot that the Olympic torch was running through Woodstock and Oxford this afternoon. It was quite chaotic in town and at the palace. I will have to go back to actually tour it, but you can see how many people were lining the streets around the palace. I strolled around the grounds and found some sheep to take pictures of. Made me very happy.

I made several new friends today on the trip! A lady, her granddaughter, and a man they met on the bus waited for the bus to Woodstock with me. The child was very concerned that i had gotten off of the bus at the wrong stop, so the man kept checking up on me. He was very kind and even gave me his bus time table! I will have to use it.

I escaped from Blenheim before the torch came through, but managed to see it just pass by on the street outside of the palace gates.  The lady next to me was very kind and we walked into the town center together. I think this is usually a very charming and quaint town, but today it was crazy.  The masses came out to support their country. Team GB is full of the Olympic spirit. This is a poor photo but a lady stepped right in front of me as he came by, so i only got him from the back. oh well.

On the bus ride back, I sat next to a delightful man whose wife was sitting in front of us.  She made him come out to see the torch from their village, but he admitted he wished that he was "trimming my hedges." ha!

A few full days!

Tyler's flat is wonderful and we loved basing out of there the first few days. Here is a quick run down of our itinerary since we made it through customs:

Day 1 - Wimbledon: Murray vs. Ferrer
Amazing evening.

Day 2 - Tour of Lloyds; walk across London Bridge to lunch at Borough Market with our "sponsor" Jason Collins who has provided this opportunity for Tyler. We walked back over Tower Bridge.

That night Tyler and I went to see One Man, Two Guvnors at the Theatre Royal. It was absolutely hilarious.

Day 3 - Tourist day! Tube to Westminster and walked out in front of Parliament/Big Ben.
Visited Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill Museum
Walked down the Mall to Buckingham Palace.
Toured the Palace Mews where all the carriages and horses are kept.
Met Jason on the train and headed to his house for a lovely evening with his family.

Look! I saw the Today show doing their daily segment on the Royal Family.

A balcony kiss replica on a dreary day.


Day 4: Jason drove us to Oxford this morning, and here we are! While I started class, Tyler did some touring about town. It has been raining off and on, but it feels the way England should.
Here is the view from my room on Wellington Square:

We are very happy and having a great time! Love to all back home!

Crossing the Atlantic

Travel from Birmingham proved to be a bit more hectic than expected. Once we agreed to disregard the advice from all US Air attendants and take a chance on making our connection in Philadelphia, the adventure began.
Through a fortunate chain of events we did make the connection and with a total of 5 hours delay between Bham and Philly, we took off for London.
Here are some memorable moments:

Our last image of Hank:

A little bit of stress in Philadelphia: 

In-flight map of our plane moving across the Atlantic. I waited to take a picture until we were in London:

Sunday night

One more day before we go and I think we are just about ready. Our latest travel companion is the Nook we purchased today. Tyler was embarrassed to succumb to the e-reader, but it really does make sense, and our excellent salesman added, "It's a complement, not a replacement."
Nicely said, Rob. Relieves the stress of book weight in our luggage!

So we are almost off.

On the to-do list:

1. Squeeze in the last episodes of Downton Abbey tonight so I will be fully prepared on my visit to Highclere Castle.
2. Memorize US athletes who are making the Olympic team so I can be on the lookout in London.

Would love to hear from anyone with travel recommendations. I am going to try to travel around as much as our schedule allows.

Cannot believe July is here!