This & That in London

Jeff and I headed down to London on Saturday, hoping to pick up our friend, Scott, from the airport and then travel around seeing the "go to" sites and some new spots as well. Scott had some trouble at the airport, and was unable to get here on Saturday.  Jeff and I decided we would still check some places off our list in London and stay all night as planned.

After a 2-hour car ride, and multiple rides on the Underground we dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed on more train rides to get to Greenwich, a district outside of London. We were heading there to visit the Royal Observatory. The prime meridian is located on the grounds of the Royal Observatory.  We were both able to stand in two different hemispheres at one time.

 The picture on the left is where the original prime meridian stood until 1851 when a new telescope was invented, so the "line" was moved.

 Showing the time of day. You can see the UK's sun had already set, but my friends in the US were still having plenty of daylight!

 Two different sides of the world!

 

Official time!

 

Although the prime meridian was interesting to see, the skyline of London was beautiful.  A little dark and foggy, so pictures, as always, never do it justice. But it was beautiful to see! We walked around the grounds, which had many interesting things to read, see, and observe.  I'm sure Jeff would be able to explain some things he learned in there better than I, as it wasn't quite my cup of tea. But all-in-all, it was great to learn things about the prime meridian.  We learned about ways to tell where you are in the sea (if you're ever lost) based on the time in Greenwich, then you can find out your own longitude and latitude.  Hoping to never have to test that theory.  

Skyline of the Business District

After the Royal Observatory, we checked off one of my "To see" places, which was Greenwich Market.  We looked around at the homemade products, but didn't buy anything (as after this post, I've been to quite a lot of markets in the last week).  Although, I take that back---we bought an AMAZING churro on our walk out of the market.  One of my favorites!

 

The girl photo bombing my picture must want a churro, too!

We headed towards the Thames River, saw an old ship that had traveled around the world delivering supplies many years ago.  We walked around the area for a while, then hopped back on the train to get to another area of London.

Next up on the list was the Business District, which held all the major banking skyscrapers.  We enjoyed the area as it was filled with modern buildings, lots of shopping areas, and plenty of people out and about.  We walked around this area, found another Christmas Market to walk around, then made our way to an ice skating rink.  The area reminded me a lot of Rockefeller Center
around the holidays.

 Business District

Another cute Christmas Market

The next morning, we woke up to a rainy, windy, and cold England day.  We went to the British Museum,  which we have visited before.  We popped in just to see the Rosetta Stone, which we missed the first time. Literally the first thing you see when you walk into the museum. Not sure how we missed it the first time!

Since we already had visited the museum, we left and headed towards Harrod's, the biggest department store in Europe...5-acre site, over 1 million square feet. Jealous? It was amazing, although crazy busy, as people were frantically buying Christmas gifts.  You could spend multiple days here, although the average person would not be able to afford much. Funny story about that later... There 8 levels to the store, 27 restaurants, and about as much designer clothing as you could ever want.  Gucci for your toddlers to personal shopping to a Gentleman's Lounge with barber services.  Insane!

 Opening time! The line was wrapped around the building to get in.

 Because the sun sets before 4:00 over here...we were able to see Harrod's lit up as well.

Jeff surprisingly lasted a couple hours in this place, despite his lack of love for shopping. We grabbed lunch, and on the way we spotted this gentleman in all white (did I mention it was raining and puddles everywhere). Naturally, I looked at his whole outfit to see he had a pair of the shoes Jeff and I pointed out in Harrods that were...wait for it...over 1,300 pounds ($2,200).  He was just walking around in the puddles with his white two grand shoes. No big deal, right?

We grabbed one of my favorite lunches, a chicken pie (Jeff got the steak one), and walked around Hyde Park's Christmas Market. Yes, that makes #4 for me in a week.  Anyway, after much confusion on where we were meeting our friend, Scott. We FINALLY met up with each other in the late afternoon.  We took him around to the major sites in a few hours, stopped in a pub for some drinks, and then were back in Notts around 9:30. It was a long, but great weekend!

 The boys!

Onto the next adventure...

New City, New Christmas Market...

On Thursday, I went with my fellow Better Halves Club (BHC) to the Birmingham Christmas Market, or as it is truly called, Frankfurt Christmas Market and Craft Market.  It was a "win-win" as I could visit another Christmas market without dragging Jeff around like a puppy dog.  I think Jeff appreciated I went with other people as well!


I rode in with Jeff to work, went to a cafe to have a cup of coffee, muffin, and catch up on some articles for my online coursework. It was a lot cheaper to ride from Derby than Nottingham.  I waited to meet up with some friends to head on the train to go to Birmingham, which is less than an hour away.  We enjoyed some quality time on the train, catching up, and swapping stories.

This area in Birmingham is known as the Bullring

The Christmas Market filled multiple streets in Birmingham! It reminded me a lot of Oktoberfest because there were many German individuals running the stands, all the structures looked similar, and of course all of the yummy German food! We made our way around the entire market, taking one side at a time.  Most of the structures had Christmas decor, hand-carved items, ornaments, beer/wine, and other souvenirs.

 Lots of homemade, hand-carved toys. You can see the stand to the right

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, although I found a couple cute wallets. But then, after opening them up, I realized they were not going to be able to fit American money into this wallet. So unfortunately, no purchase there. Sidenote: If you are intrigued about the money differences, I found a blog post written by an American about the money difference & his experience in the UK as well. 

So no wallet, but then I started realizing how many wonderful cakes, candies, nuts, etc. that were available.  I stopped at a homemade candy shop, and got Jeff about 6-7 pieces to enjoy later that night.  Anywhere from a vanilla donut inspired chocolate to amaretto or even chili flavored. I think we picked some good ones. Only one left...

We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch sitting outside (non-rainy, might I add).  We all got sausages, and a few of us got some mulled wine.  It was first of all...amazing! Second, I loved it so much that I think I am going to start serving it for Thanksgiving/Christmas celebrations next year. Such a warm and holiday-type drink! Look for that, Christmas 2015! Plus, we got to keep the little souvenir cups! #score

The area at the top is where all the food vendors were located.

We continued around the market-filled streets. I was disappointed about the lack of samples at this market. I'm sure it has to do with the amount of people walking the streets.  I was able to sample a few different warm almond flavors. I was deciding between the Amaretto or Bailey's flavored. I went away with with Amaretto one, as it wasn't as sweet as the Bailey's. I was hoping to enjoy it on the train ride home, although the train was so packed I kept it in my purse.

Birmingham has a great shopping centre.  Many different stores, and I especially enjoyed Selfridges, a high-end department store.  They had all designer brands, but I really enjoyed the lowest level which was Christmas decor, LOTS of different foods, gifts, and American food products.  Although the American products were EXPENSIVE! I mean, would you pay six pounds (roughly $9.60) for a small container of Hershey's cocoa? I was laughing as there was a whole section dedicated to Hershey's kisses and Reese cups. Yum! I resisted.

 Reeses. Reeses. Kisses. Kisses.

Another bull, only this one is made out of JellyBellies!

Jeff met up with me, we played some squash, and enjoyed a few of the treats I purchased earlier in the day on our way home.  All-in-all, a great experience at the Birmingham Christmas Market.

*This post has been done for a while, but I was waiting on a few pictures a friend took during the day. Hoping to update the post soon with some of those pictures, as I know she has some great ones.  Check back in a week or two if you'd like to see some more pictures of our Birmingham trip.

Onto the next adventure...

Let the Christmas Festivities Begin!

On Saturday, we drove about an hour to a small city called Bakewell, which is near  Chatsworth House.  We had never been to this place before, although it is in the same area as the Peak District, one of my favorite places in England. We met up with two of our other American friends to go through the Christmas Market.  Our day didn't start off the best as Jeff forgot his wallet, we drove around for an extra 15 minutes looking for an ATM, and the minute we got to Chatsworth House the rain began. Typical wet and cold English day. Plus we forgot the "good" camera. This is becoming a pattern, isn't it?

 Nice, lovely day to be outside shopping...maybe not so much.

Little better of a view to see all the tent-tops and people!

We walked around the market for a while. I enjoyed all of the taste-testing.  Homemade cheeses, crisps (chips), biscuits (cookies), cakes, sauces, spices, and many other goodies.  There was so many neat tents set up with handmade decor, clothing, accessories, and many things. I found some cute bracelets and scarves, but held off because...well I have too many as is.

I went to these one tent to look at these small cakes as they were covered with chocolate. I was intrigued, so I asked the owner what they were.  He described them as chocolate covered marshmallow fluff on top of a wafer crust.  I was just going to buy one to try, but it gave my friend, Jo, and I a broken rum & raisin flavored one to try. So yummy...I bought 5.

I got an "after eight" which was mint flavored, white chocolate/strawberry, cappuccino, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate.  All looked about the same but has the different flavorings mixed into the chocolate.  We have both enjoyed a few so far, but I'm guessing they won't last much longer!

 One was crushed in the process of getting it to the car safely. But you can just see how much marshmallow fluff is inside!

 Close up on the "After Eight" one. And yes...they are all gone as I am typing this on Monday evening.

We grabbed a basket of chicken & chips (fries), talked for a bit, and walked around the grounds of the House a little. Since the weather wasn't cooperating, we did not walk in the gardens or go inside the house. The gardens were huge, and I think I'd like to go back on a nice spring day to enjoy them.  We will have to add it to our "To Go" list.

 Thanks to Jo & Jeff for inviting us, and letting me steal a couple pictures. 

And, as some of you might be wondering. Jeff was in attendance, although he wasn't loving the experience as much as I did. Therefore no pictures for him.  That man will never love shopping...

Onto the next adventure...

Yes, We Sang in Public!

On Friday night, we went out with a few friends to sing karaoke.  Now I'm sure my family/friends are freaked out thinking I scared all the people of Nottingham and surrounding areas with my awful singing voice and Jeff's family/friends are thinking "Man I bet he rocked it!". Either way, we both had a great time filled with lots of laughs and fun. Thanks to my friend, Sarah, for sharing all of her pictures and videos of the night. And welcome to your blog debut, friend!

Jeff and I met up with some friends, ate a yummy Chinese dinner and headed into these little private rooms to rock out to all kinds of music. I surprised myself and started singing within a few songs.  Although, I only met a few of the people a couple times before, we had a great time singing and hanging out.

I can't remember all of the songs we sang, but Beyonce's Single Ladies was one that Jeff impressed everyone with.  Jeff and I were pretty quiet when the British songs came on that everyone knew.  The Backstreet Boys wannabe group, Five, came on and everyone knew the words.  Jeff and I just sat there all confused.  {For some reason, videos are not working when using a mobile/tablet type device...computers seem to be the only ones working, sorry!}

There were a couple more artists that we were clueless on the words, but it was fun hearing the popular British hits, American ones, and the ones that we would all belt out at the top of our lungs.  We do have some videos of the night, but we'll share those with a few lucky individuals one day.

 Jeff and I rockin' out on the left. My friend, Sarah, and I on the right.

 

Jeff singing a love ballad with one of his friends.

Onto the next adventure...