Get Away to London

1/1/15
Day 1:
After driving to Nuremberg, my friends Elaine, Orienna, and I caught our flights to London.  Finally back in London since 2008.  I so missed it, it's one of my favorite places on earth, and I suspect if I had months to stay, we still wouldn't be able to see everything there is to see.  Anyway, we took a shuttle bus to London's Victoria Station, bought our Oyster Cards and headed for food!  We had some nice curry and a beer before Orienna headed to her hotel and Elaine and I headed to my friend, Jay's, house.

I met my friend Jayesh in 2006, when my purse was stolen our first night in London that year.  There were some really nice people that saw the thief take my purse into the men's bathroom.  By the time they got into the bathroom, the guy had stolen the money and a picture of my daughter but left the purse.  When they gave me my purse back, we became fast friends and my friend Dani and I went almost every night and had beers with them.

Jay and I have remained friends and kept in contact since then.  He said my friend Elaine and I could come and stay with him while we were in London, he even sacrificed his room for us!  That is the kind of guy he is, so nice, warm, and welcoming!

After dinner, we took the tube station to Jay's place.  We stayed up for a little while and talked and then went to sleep to re-energize for the following day.

1/2/15
Day 2:
After getting up and having breakfast together, Elaine and I took the tube to Kensington Palace.  Amazing that I hadn't seen it before, especially since I love castles and palaces so much!

Elaine & me at Kensington Palace

Kensington Gate

Kensington Palace

Like I said, I hadn't been to Kensington Palace yet, even though I lived in Kensington for 6 weeks.  I think we hit every single museum and pub in Kensington but missed the palace!  :)  It was very nice and I was excited to see it, but they had recently updated the exhibits and I really loved them.  Some critics have said they didn't like some of the modern touches and felt that the quotes from Queen Victoria on many of the displays was distracting, I personally loved them!  It made me feel like the view got a chance to take a peek into Victoria's real life.

The Love Room that talks about the love between Victoria and Albert

Above is Queen Victoria's wedding dress and Prince Albert's uniform.  These people were tiny!  

The Love Room

Prince Albert's favorite portrait of Victoria

The Queen's Gallery

The Queen's Gallery

The Red Saloon

Victoria's Dress for her first Pivy Council in Red Saloon

Victoria's children's clothes

Victoria's children

Clothes with actual gold and silver threaded through

Historical wedding dresses

Mourning clothes of Victoria and her children when Albert died

Bust of Prince Albert in the Morning Room

Decades of fashion

Pictures of the Royals

When we were done checking out the Queen's side, we went to the Kings staircase and up to his rooms.

The Kings Staircase

The Cupola Room

The Kings Gallery

By the time we were done looking around, it was time for afternoon tea at the Orangery in Kensington Palace!  Scones, clotted cream, and delicious finger sandwiches along with tea....so wonderful!

The Orangery

It was glorious!

Happily awaiting our tea!

Loved this china!

Just look at this deliciousness!

The lovely Elaine looking through the menu

Even the view outside was pretty!

After our tea, we finished walking around the gardens and then made our way back towards Jay and the Marlborough Arms (the original pub where we met).

Elaine in front of the sunken garden...winter isn't so green...

I will have to go see the sunken garden in the spring...

So this is what the sunken garden looks like in winter...

This is what it looks like in Spring!  I am definitely going to back to see it this way!

Just look at it in all it's spring glory!

Thanks Royals!  We loved your palace!

It was beginning to get dark by the time we made it to the Marlborough Arms, so we decided to go pub hopping instead of just staying in one place!

Dani's & my favorite pub in 2006, the Marlborough Arms

I like the old style interior.  There wasn't any heat though....

After a couple beers here, we decided to go down the street and see if we could find my other friend Bobbie, another gentleman who was a rescuer of my purse.

Jayesh and Bobbie!

Jay, me, & Bobbie!

We only stayed for one drink and then went to a super cool pub called Jam in the Jar.  They played 1920's style jazz music and had all these very cool naked bulbs as decor.  

Jam in the Jar

These are pictures from the web.  It was too crowded and dark for me to get any good ones.

After Jam in the jar, we went to one of Jay's pubs close to his flat.  The Salisbury Hotel is an old victorian bar and talk about cool...we found a room in the back where we could sit and have a couple drinks without screaming above the crowds.

The Salisbury Hotel

I just love the old victorian style

The ceiling of the back room

The back room, this place was huge all on it's own

After all our pub hopping, we went home to rest up.  We were planning on going to Oxford the following day.  Unfortunately, we stopped to get cash at an ATM and the machine ate Elaine and Jay's cards...so we needed to spend the next morning calling the company and sorting it out.

1/3/15
Day 3:
We woke up, had Elaine and Jay call their card companies and the ATM company and then decided since we weren't going to Oxford, we would go to Hampton Court instead.  We gathered ourselves together and took the tube to Bakerloo.  Jay purchased our tickets for the train and Elaine purchased our tickets to Hampton Court.  As we made our way to the train, we found out that the train track to Hampton Court was under construction and we could not access it easily.  It was pouring rain and we really didn't want to travel 2 hours each way...so we decided to walk around the bank and go to a museum or something before our Jack the Ripper walk later that night.

We wanted to get out of the rain and have a bite to eat.  Elaine suggested meat pies and this place looked promising!  It was Ye Old Cheshire Cheese and it was a cool old little place.  It had been destroyed by the fire in 1666 and was rebuilt in 1667.

They did not have meat pies so we Yelped a well scored meat pie place and walked in the rain to it.  Thank goodness it was TOTALLY worth it!

The Pieminister!  YUM!

This was round one of two!  ;)

These pies were so delicious, we couldn't help but get another one.  The lady looked at us like we were crazy but to cut down on calories, we didn't have the gravy or mashed potatoes with the second ones. Hee hee.

After our meal, we went to the Tate Modern to look at some art!  The Tate Modern was another place I hadn't gone to yet and I knew I had to take some pictures for my son, he really enjoys modern art!

The Tate Modern

There were lots of people looking confused

I thought this one was cool

What the what?!?

Crystals grown on machinery

Hmmmm....not entirely sure

Yep...blank canvas...

We also had to stop for scones, tea, and clotted cream at the Tate Modern Cafe.

When we were done with the Tate, we started our way to the area where our walking tour would be.  This meant walking across the Millennial Bridge.  I love this bridge for no other reason than it's cool.

Looking back at the Tate

Looking forward to St. Paul's Cathedral

The view walking over the bridge

We had a little time to kill so we decided to go into St. Paul's Cathedral and listen to the choir.

Walking towards St. Pauls

St. Paul's Cathedral

One of the domes

 We weren't supposed to take pictures inside, so the bottom two are from other bloggers sites.  After St. Paul's we met up with the Jack the Ripper walking tour.

Part of the Roman wall in London

It was pretty cool to see the wall in the middle of the city

The ambiance kind of helped while the guide was talking about Jack the Ripper

Our guide telling us the story

The tunnel where they found the first victim

One of the areas the women frequented

The pub the people of the area hung out at in those times

We didn't finish the walk.  Right toward the end, we had to find a bathroom...by the time we were done we lost the group.  No problem though, we were meeting up with Orienna and her friends, and Elaine's friend, Sam, at a fish & chips place called Poppies.  I forgot to take pictures of Poppies so below are pictures from their website.  It was a cute 1950's/1960's style place.  The food was fine but a little expensive.

After Poppies, we went pub hopping.  We found the neatest place called The Commercial Tavern.  I took a bunch of pictures of this place but once again, it was very dark and crowded inside so I ended up getting some from their website.

One of my pics that actually worked!

This place was very neat.  I hope to go back again someday.  It was filled with hipsters though so I might have to wear some protective clothing of some sort next time.  Hee hee. They were closing down so we went to another place.  I can't remember the name of it but it had a wonderful fire place and it was warm and toasty so we stayed.

Orienna & Lindsey

Jay, Sam, Elaine, me, Lindsey, Kyle, & Orienna

After our night we all went our separate ways.  It was a very fun night.  I have to say, this group of people was funny and entertaining, and just all around wonderful, it was one of the nicest nights.

1/4/15
Day 4:
It was an exceptionally cold day on day 4.  No rain, but wicked cold.  Elaine was craving a full English Breakfast with English bacon (not the streaky bacon like in America).  We found it closer than we were expecting at the Cafe Lemon.  It was a Turkish place but had such good food and didn't limit itself to just Turkish food.  I had the Full English and Turkish coffee.  That helped get me ready for another walking tour!  This time Dickens/Shakespeare!

We planned to meet up with Orienna for the walking tour.  To be honest, I was far to cold to pay much attention to our walk.  The guide was American and he kept talking very quietly with little spurts of loud.  He was asked more than once to speak up but he didn't so I wasn't about to put lot's of energy into listening.  Orienna and I kept ourselves busy by checking out the amazing buildings and cool structures.

The walking tour

I just love the buildings in London

An original arch in the time of Dickens

A very old church.  It was decorated for a wedding

Look at how pretty that is!

It's almost like you are stepping back in time

Heading toward Smithfield Market

Tribute to William Wallace

A tavern used during Shakespeare's time

Our guide telling stories

The old Smithfield Market

The Fox & Anchor, has been around forever

I can't remember what this building was but they let us inside the courtyard

It was a very noteworthy private residence but he was speaking to quietly for me to find out which

The bell in this picture was forged at the same place and time as our Liberty Bell

A wall of old London left over from WWII

These were in the middle of the city

This area was part of Shakespeare's area

St Mary Aldermanbury Garden

Tribute to Shakespeare

After the walk, we really needed to go get some hot food and Orienna was craving Indian so we found a great little place called Hasan Raja.

We had really good food.  Once we were full, we went to Kensington area and said goodbye to Orienna's friends, Lindsey and Kiyle.  We then went for tea in my old 2005 area.  I hardly recognized it.  They have leveled whole streets and built shops and restaurants in their place.  It was a strange feeling to walk around an area I knew so well and not recognize it.

The Hoop & Toy, Dani & my favorite pub from 2005

The Comptoir Libanais

Such a neat Lebanese place

I just had Rose/Mint tea but the others had amazing desserts

Once we were so full we could barely move, we parted from Orienna and we went back to Jays to sleep until our super busy travel day back home.

1/5/15
Day 5:
On day 5 we met up with Orienna at Victoria Station, had breakfast and took a shuttle back to Stansted Airport.  From there we flew back to Nuremberg, then took a train to Freihung Train Station.  It was an amazing vacation and I can only hope that next time Jack can go with me.