Townies

We stayed in Nottingham this weekend.  As you can tell from previous posts, we have been traveling a decent amount.  We decided to stay in town to do the things "townies" would do and just relax!

Friday night we went to a "deportation" party for a few friends that are heading back to the states after being here for 2 years with Rolls-Royce.  We will miss them, but are very excited for them to head back to family and friends.

Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to get some good ol' fashion American breakfast.  There has been a place called the Warsaw Diner that advertises for a traditional American breakfast, so it has been on our bucket list for a while.  The place was packed with people, so we were lucky to get a spot on the stools near the griddle. Jeff and I both got "The Big Easy", which was french toast, eggs, and sausage. It was a pretty large "American" sized portion so we left in a food coma and decided to take a walk.

We visited this large cemetery we've been meaning to make a special trip to see. It was a very large cemetery, but ill-kept.  It appeared that they were still mowing the grounds, but not taking the time to weed around the stones, which was sad. Afterwards we stopped in a few shops to look around.  We found a beautiful furniture store.  It only used wood from old or run-down buildings in Nottingham. There were some amazing tables, mirrors, and all sorts of decor. I'd love to buy something from there before our time is up...although a table is probably not a likely choice.

Later that afternoon, we headed to the town square where there was a festival.  It is amazing how many times we can walk down to the square and see tents set up.  We are never sure of the celebration, but often times you can figure it out. We "think" this one was in support of England playing Italy in the World Cup on Saturday night.  At least that is our thoughts with a "Come on England" sign on one of the buildings. Who knows?  We both grabbed a burrito from one of the tents, and headed home.  The burrito just made me crave some authentic Mexican food from home. Watch out Los Amigos! (Local Mexican restaurant at home) There is a chance that might be the only thing I eat when I come home next.

England played Italy in the World Cup at 11:00 or as my clocks say 23:00, so we headed down the road to a local pub to watch the game.  It was pretty intense, and I honestly didn't care who won (sorry English friends).  Jeff was great and did a great job rooting on England. I told Jeff when we left that I should have been cheering for Italy since I actually own a football sweatshirt. Ha!  It was a fun environment, and would have been very comparable to a night out downtown watching the Colts Vs. the Broncos.  The fans were excited, and a little too excited as the first attempted goal made everyone in the bar cheered.  They were all quite embarrassed afterwards considering the goal didn't go in!  It was pretty funny to see their reactions after thinking the goal was made and realizing it was just "close". We watched England lose, and headed home around 1:00.

Not the best picture, it was too dark to get a good one. 

It was a nice, relaxing weekend.  Soon enough another round of craziness will happen! Until then...

Work Trip turns into Mini-Getaway

This past weekend, we had planned taking a trip to the beach...of course depending on the crazy England weather. We had another opportunity present itself to us.  Jeff had to take a work trip to Glasgow, Scotland on Friday.  I decided to join him!  We hopped in the car around 5 in the morning, and made it to Glasgow about 4 hours later.

We grabbed an early lunch and Jeff headed to work.  I was planning on spending the day in the hotel getting caught up on my online class.  I didn't feel well and spent most of the day napping off a yucky headache.  When Jeff came back, we walked around the city.  Later that night, we met up with one of Jeff's Scottish work friends.  We met at a local pub, had a few drinks, and enjoyed hearing about the local culture and life there.  It was interesting to converse at first, just because of the strong Scottish accents.  We definitely got used to it and had a great time.

The next day, we explored the city.  We grabbed some breakfast at our favorite spot, Pret A Manger, which has the best double blueberry muffins. We had our muffins and coffee on the square of the city.  It was a nice start to our adventure for the day.

We then walked to Glasgow Cathedral and the Glasgow Necropolis.  The church was very simple and we both agreed it was in our Top 5 churches we've seen since we've been over here.  There was something special about the fact that the tombs in the basement level didn't have gold draped all over them or the fact that there wasn't fancy details throughout the whole church.  We liked the change and the small details in this one!

Glasgow Necropolis was something special as we haven't visited a cemetery since we've been over here.  It was huge and interesting to read the engravings in the tombs.  One of them that stands out:  the husband died at age 40, the wife lived another 34 years.  The sad part was they had a child the same year the father died, and the baby only lived to age 2.  What a sad, sad situation.

The cemetery overlooked the city, it was quite a view!

We ended our short adventure at a local brewery that was recommended to us by local friends.  The building was great, and we really enjoyed the beer! We were able to get one of our favorite German dishes while we were there as well, currywurst (not the best picture of it).  We headed home, so we were able to have a "chill day" at home on Sunday to recuperate before the work week starts again.

 We would have loved to sit outside, unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating. 

I leave you with this picture. I just thought it was so cool that this tux shop had these on display. Jeff said that his friend wore one at his wedding. What a cool cultural tradition!

Welcome to our Home!

Our friends, Christian & Kristin, joined up with us again, this time at our flat in Nottingham.  We were able to just spend some quality time eating, drinking, sharing stories, & just enjoying the area.  We were able to take them to some of our favorite spots and some tourist traps as well.

Friday night it was great to enjoy a bottle of wine & a home cooked meal.  We were able to just have some quality time together, hanging out. It was definitely nice to have close friends over, just as if we were in the States. Saturday we took them to Wollaton Hall & Deer Park (see my former post for more pictures) to walk around the park.  Then we took them to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (see my former post for more pictures), the oldest pub in England, where we enjoyed a few beers and lunch.

 

 Wollaton Hall is a great place for a walk or a little Frisbee!

A little pub action after Wollaton Hall.

 Bringing back games we played in college. Never too old for the silly college games! 

We ended our day walking around the city, grabbing some amazing curry for dinner, and attempting to watch the biggest boxing match since World War II in England.  We couldn't even get into a pub as they were so packed, people were trying to watch the TVs through the windows on the street. Unfortunately we missed the match.

The next day, we drove down to London for the day.  We were able to see the Tower of London & walk around the city.  We had a guided tour that was very entertaining as well as watch a show.  They taught some lucky people from the audience (Christian, included!) to use the catapult. We could have spend the majority of the day at the Tower of London as there was so much to do there. We also went to St. Paul's Cathedral where Kate & William were married.  As for most of the churches, we were unable to take pictures inside the cathedral.  It was beautiful and special that a wedding that was viewed around the world took place there. Not going to lie, I was visualizing them standing at the alter while inside. haha!

 

 On the walk to Tower of London. 

 Tower of London. It was so large that I couldn't even get the whole grounds in the picture. 

 The show was very entertaining! 

 Christian was a part of the show! He helped 3 other men use the catapult.  They did a great job! 

 Inside of the Tower of London. 

Another shot of the Tower Bridge. One of my favorite buildings in London!

 

Great travel buddies! Miss you guys already!

We were blessed to have another visitor...Jeff's dad, Greg, the very next day Christian and Kristin left.  He stayed in Nottingham this time, which was great because we were able to see him almost every day he was here.  Lots of quality time and yummy food! Thanks for a great visit, Greg, and helping us feel right at home!

Je parle français zéro.

Translate: "I speak zero French." and that was a problem when in Paris despite the times that Christian translated for us...thank goodness.  We struggled both in the southern part of the country and some in Paris with the language barrier.  Jeff and I have been spoiled that this is the first time we have experienced any language barrier.  I would have assumed the city would have been very English friendly since there were tourists everywhere.  #spoiled

Paris was quite an experience and did many attractions in just the first day there.  Jeff's Comment: "Who said you can't do Paris in just one day?" We woke up early to make our way to the Louvre Museum, where the Mona Lisa and other famous paintings are held. It was filled with tourists, some more bossy than others.  I think I started getting some elbows out later in the day because I was tired of being pushed around. You'd think the Mona Lisa was about ready to walk away as people pushed their way up to the front to take a picture. Crazy tourists. Jeff had his audio guide. Are you surprised? But it was nice because he would share some of the facts he learned, which was the perfect amount for me since I don't have the attention span to listen during my entire journey.  He was able to get a better understanding of the paintings and architecture.

Great time at the Louvre Museum although Paris was not kind with beautiful weather for our two-day trip. I was proud of my picture of the Mona Lisa.  All I needed was two elbows! Ha!

We headed to the Love Lock Bridge afterwards. If you don't know much about this bridge, it is filled with thousands of locks that couples write on, lock it to the bridge, and then they throw the key(s) into the Seine River.  We made sure to load our lock up with lots of writing: date of marriage, date on bridge, JMB + SJB = ♥, & "God Gave Me You" which is a song that has special meaning to us.  We latched the lock, and each threw a key into the river.

   

 Not the best photography on these, but you get my point. Pretty disappointed in myself for the finger in the top right one and middle one. Bummer. 

 

 With our love lock. 4 lamp posts in, in the center. Go look for it! 

 

As we continued to walk around the city, we had an odd experience happen to us...well Jeff.  We were walking onto the Notre Dame Cathedral when this young girl put this petition type paper up on Jeff's chest.  Jeff felt the young girl unzipping his chest pocket (which had his wallet in it).  Needless to say, Jeff freaked out on her and she ran away (no wallet in hand).  First and hopefully last experience with a pickpocketer.  We were definitely more careful about where our purses were and wallets the rest of the trip.

After all of that excitement we checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful, although I do not have any pictures of the inside as we are fighting with our current camera situation. Afterwards we traveled to this beautiful church that was on this large hill, Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. Quite the walk up a lot of stairs, but it was well worth it to see the interior as well.  Since it was on the hill, you were able to see beautiful views of the entire city of Paris.

 Notre Dame Cathedral (left). Do you see the hunchback? Kidding...stop looking. 

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris (right). 

Still chugging along with Day 1 activities, we headed to the Eiffel Tower.  It was definitely an open-mouth in awe kind of reaction when you see it.  I lucked out, as Jeff wanted to walk the first part of the Eiffel Tower and then take the elevator up from the 2nd landing.  We luckily got into the wrong line and took the elevator up the whole way.  As you know from previous posts, we like to climb to the tops of towers and whatnot, but I don't like to see the ground as I do so, and that's what the Eiffel Tower walking experience would have been like.  It was still pretty nerve racking going to the top in the glass elevator because of how high we were.  Everything at the top was caged in or glass, so it wasn't too intimidating.  We got lots of photos, read a few blurbs about the tower, and headed back down to the bottom.

FYI: That's a tennis ball in the middle in honor of the French Open that was occurring the same weekend. 

It wasn't even dinner time at this point, so we grabbed some cheese and wine at a local spot. I think this was one of our favorite moments as a group.  We were at a restaurant that was mostly locals, so it was nice to just blend in and not feel like a tourist anymore.  Afterwards we headed to dinner, and then one last stop at the Eiffel Tower.  Seeing the tower at night was beautiful as they did a "lights show" with it at a certain time. The tower sparkled, as if it was a Christmas tree with fast-speed lights.

Day 2 was low key as we visited a small church, Sainte Chapelle. It had beautiful stained glass and within each window told a biblical story. After the church, we attempted to visit The Catacombs, which is an underground ossuary, which I read held the remains of 6 million people. The wait in line was 2 hours, so we decided again the waiting, although we all would have liked to see it.  Maybe next time.

At this point, we said our "goodbye for nows" and headed our separate ways.  Jeff and I wanted to go to Roland Garros, which is where the French Open was occurring. We were really lucky in our weekend choice to be able to experience it.  Unfortunately, we didn't plan ahead very well and could not buy tickets once we arrived.  The area was huge, and we were both pretty bummed when we couldn't go inside.  We both like tennis a lot, and it would have been pretty cool to experience that tournament.  That concluded our time in Paris, so we hopped on a 40-minute plane ride to get back to London.  It was pretty incredible to be able to experience all of these sights abroad with our great friends.

I end you with this picture, and I agree with Roland Garros...Thanks for your visit to my blog!