Weekend in Windsor

One weekend, we woke up early and decided that it would be great to take a random day trip to Windsor. Unfortunately, we decided to clean our apartment first, so we didn't end up leaving until around noon, but i digress. We strolled out the apartment and a whole 6 minutes later were at Paddington, hopping on a train to Windsor! I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the city, but it is a charming city (if you can afford shopping on the high street). We now have annual passes to Windsor castle, so visitors beware!

When you arrive at the castle, the first thing you get is an audio guide and map. I must say that I sport them rather well.

We were there at the same time that the queen was so that was kind of cool. It was getting close to dinner time, and I thought it sort of rude of her not to invite us in for some mince meat pie. Alas. It's okay though because my lady's beauty made up for meeting the queen, although, I think she wishes I was royalty so that we could have loads of fine china.As we were strolling the grounds, we walked past this little sign.

I'm guessing this room is to deter kids might from asking their mums or pops why there was no water in the moat, but instead there was just a flower bed. I can appreciate how that might be confusing to a young boy dreaming of knighthood.

Also, what kind of trip to a castle would it be without a canon picture? So...here you go.

One of these days, I'll have to get a picture of AK blasting a canon, but she's just so attached to her camera!! (It's a Canon...dum dum tssh!)

Because we had a late start, we were getting shooed off the premises when it started getting dusky, but that didn't stop me from taking this dynamite shot!

Okay, so you might not have thought it was that cool, but I like it because it shows the Queen's flag and the lighting (in a non-pro-photographer's eyes) was pretty good. It's the best i can do.

As we were leaving, I noticed that there is actually a person that lives in the castle! How cool. You can see his mailbox, Christmas tree, and the outline of his door. I'm guessing it is the guard's quarters or something like that. Pretty awesome though to live in Windsor castle!

Even though it wasn't, I like to pretend that this was the guy leaving from the private house through his massive gated residence.


After exploring a bit of Windsor, we headed back to the Castle for an Evensong. It was pretty cool, although, there was one guy who was hitting way too high of notes for his size. Kind of awkward, but still very enjoyable.

We headed into town and went out to eat at a place recommended by Rick Steves (who else)! You may ask, how do you know it was recommended by the tour guide great? I'm glad you asked. They had a sign out front that said, "#1 recommended restaurant in Rick Steves". Despite the cheesy advertising, the food was quite delicious. We spoiled ourselves because we can, and got the full gammot: appetizers, wine, fish, soup, salad, and dessert.

We hopped on the train, took a short nap, and walked home from Paddington. What a great day!

Long Overdue

Well, I'll be the first to admit that this post is long overdue. Apologies to our faithful reader(s) out there.

A lot has happened since the last post, so we'll cover them off one by one starting with...Snow!!!

The week before we were to leave for Christmas, we got a massive amount of snow! 5 whole inches! Bostonians and Pennsylvanites, please don't scough. Britains aren't exactly great at snow though, so it managed to shut down the whole city, most notably Heathrow.

Here is the view down our street.

Right before it started snowing the hardest (about 3" in an hour), I decided to go for a run through Hyde Park. I saw a swan just standing on the Serpentine water since it was frozen through. I wish I had my camera. True to form, i got a bloody nose running. I don't understand how dumb my nose can be. So i popped into the princess diana cafe, grabbed some napkins and kept on. I was a man on a mission. I had to get to the theater to get tickets to.....

A-K and I got all fancied up and went to see the show. It was a great show, although not one to go to if you are hungry since the first full song goes..."Food, glorious food!" Ergo, i now say that everytime I want dinner. :)

This is me leaving our flat. Notice how just a few hours reduced the snow to minimal amounts:

We walked around Covent Garden before going to the theater, and could resist the "here i am in front of the theatre!" picture: A-K sports the picture well.

Once we got into the theatre, we walked into the atrium to see the Christmas decorations put up in the middle of the theater. Michael would have been pumped to see the massive Christmas Tree Marble run.

After a great show, we went to Regent Street right by Picadilly Circus. During the holidays, it was all lit up with Christmas lights. We strolled down the street to Cafe Concerto for some delicious cappucinos and perfiteroles. (i know that's spelled wrong, but it's my blog!) Here's a view of Regent Street.

Later that night, we met up with some friends to watch Love Actually (since we're in London). All in all, it was a fantastic snow day. I don't know why people don't like snow?!

American Food

I know that our blog has a limited fan base. I accept that. It's a young blog on the rise. However, I am calling out to all my readers out there on this one.

Within my group at work, we have monthly dinners to taste the cuisine of the various members. So far, we have had Cypriot, Japanese, and Portuguese. Scottish is on the plate for January, and I am in charge of dinner in February. I have considered a Sports Bar for the Super Bowl (Feb 7), but the time difference might make that a no go.

So here is my question:

What is American food to you?

Christmas in a Box

Our first package (that wasn't our cable box) arrived today! It was Christmas in a box!

We got a whole slew of goodies: Advent calendars, Christmas robes, Christmas Tree cakes, and a tripod to take pictures of us!

Needless to say, we sport the robes quite well.

Happy Black Friday to all!

Visitors!

We have our first visitors! A-K's parents are here for a week to celebrate Thanksgiving and Mr. E's birthday. Unfortunately, the British don't recognize Thanksgiving as a public holiday, so we had to work today, which made me angry.

AK tried to get turkey for lunch, but found that turkey had sold out at the eatery she went to. In the end she settled for chicken, which is close enough, right?

We are taking off Friday and will explore London over the weekend, maybe see a show or two, and eat some scones, not to mention going to an Aggie watching game against tu.

We still need to post about our trip to Portugal, biking to Greenwich, and about our flat, but that will come later.

When in Rome...

Our first three weeks of work were full of trainings. It all started with an experienced hire training, followed by an audit methodology approach training (fortunately this was just a recap, proving that we have learned things over the past 4 years), followed by a technical excellence training in Rome, and finally followed by a financial instruments training in London.


Naturally, we (as well as all the other ex-pats) took full advantage of the training in Rome. Rome is one of my top 3 big cities in Europe, despite not knowing a lick of Italian. Since A-K had been to Rome twice and somehow not made it into the Coliseum, that was priority number one. Fortunately, it did not disappoint and A-K can add it to the list of Seven world wonders that she's visited. Here is proof positive:

After the Coliseum, we toured the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This was much better on a guided tour than A-K and I just walking around looking at rubble. :) The history of Rome is incredible, not to mention I am obsessed with the Piazza Venezia building. There are so many artifacts and historical ruins! It is like Egypt, they just have too much, so they just put them places. For example, A-K and I sat on a Roman pillar ruin that was being used as a bus park bench.

Our next objective was clear: Delicious Italian food plus gelato! We walked from the Forum all the way to the Spanish steps and found a great little place to eat. There is just something amazing about good Italian pasta with delicious sauce. An Italian meal just isn't complete though without gelato! (I think we got four each while on a 2-day trip!)





We also took a side trip down to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius with Valerie. Mt. Vesuvius was very impressive. The crater caused by the eruption seemed to be 1/2 mile deep. Being the green activist that I am, I used a goldfish bag that had been thrown on the ground to collect a bit of volcanic sand. :D





Pompeii is phenominal! An entire city, impeccibly preserved, all due to a volcanic eruption. The historic site is massive! We walked around looking into rooms, that by normal standards, would have been masterpieces by themselves, but we not even given consideration on the tourist map. Because so much of it was left in tact, you could very easily see what the city would have looked like back in the day, not to mention that there were plasters of people's skeletons that had been covered in ash.





Naturally, we took too much time enjoying the sites and didn't quite leave enough room to make a leisurely walk back to the train station. So, we introduced Valerie to the "we have 12 minutes to make it to the train station" 1-mile run. For some reason she is a bit more reluctant to travel with us now. ;)





Thanks Deloitte for having training in Rome so we could explore!

Not An Appropriate Substitute for Pants

So, we have discovered a craze sweeping across Britain. You may have heard of such things as the black plague and the dark ages, but this one is just as dangerous. It is a phenomena called Black Tights!

Everyone here wears them (mainly the women though)! A-K felt a bit fashion backwards, so we had to give in and get her a couple pairs. That's right...a couple. I must say though that she sports them better than the Brits, but maybe I'm biased.

We have noticed that, whereas most women wear them as leggings under a dress or skirt, some prefer to just wear tights, leading us to the moral of this story:

"BLACK TIGHTS ARE NOT AN APPROPRIATE SUBSTITUTE FOR PANTS!!!"