Notting Hill

We spent the afternoon in Notting Hill yesterday. No, we did not see Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, or "the blue door" from the movie. :) To be honest, we didn't even look. It was 55 degrees and sunny, and wandering around the famous Portobello Market was more than enough to keep us happy! For the first time since we've been here, it actually felt like spring. Notting Hill is everything you'd picture it to be -- quaint, cute, and VERY colorful!

The market itself is best known for its antiques, but since we went on Friday instead of Saturday or Sunday it was more of a variety (and much less crowded!) We saw this cool old car on our way to the market, near where George Orwell used to live. 

There was everything from clothes to jewelry to trinkets in the market... and food, of course...

This store caught Jordan's eye -- antique sporting equipment. :) He's such a BOY. 

I managed to get one picture of the jewelry before I was "politely asked" to not take pictures from the booth owner. It was pretty funny actually, you would have thought I was ripping the pearls off his necklaces or something -- "No. NO!! No pictures of jewelry!" 

There were booths set up all over the place. The street market was about a half mile long!

The permanent shops in Notting Hill are also a lot of fun, and they all have so much character. Most of them are painted in really bright, random colors and have a vintage feel to them.

We found a cute little Thai place to eat lunch, and then decided we'd each get to pick out a treat to share for dessert. Well, I got lured in by a little gourmet cupcake bakery... duh. This was the view from the window. Seriously?! Is that even fair to have that in the window?

It doesn't look like much, but seriously, it was the BEST cupcake I've ever had. It was called the "dark bottom cupcake." 

Jordan found a crepe stand, and ended up getting a banana and Nutella crepe -- it was HUGE, and yes, he shared. :) I think bananas and Nutella are becoming a theme in our life...

We were walking back to catch the tube home and we saw this car parked, and died laughing. I guess this is one alternative to parallel parking?! :)

We are really starting to love all the different markets over here! It is so fun to walk through and peruse all the different booths, and more so to see the different sides of London since all the markets are so uniquely different from each other and scattered throughout different areas of the city. We're thinking we might hit up the Camden Town Market next weekend... I'll keep you posted!

I took this last photo when we were getting on the tube leaving Notting Hill. I love how it shows the busy and fast-paced London life! 

By the way, we got home and proceeded to rent the movie Notting Hill from my computer since Jordan had never seen it! :) 

P.S. If you want to see all our pictures from Notting Hill, click here. 

Camera Negligence

I have been absolutely TERRIBLE about taking pictures the last few days. Great way to start a post, huh? You're probably exiting out of our blog right about now...

We had a really fun last day with Josh and Johanna on Friday, during which I made the mistake of giving my camera to Jordan. :) Let me explain... Johanna and I decided to sleep in and do some shopping, while Jordan met up with Josh after class and hit up some museums they both wanted to see. So in my half-asleep-half-awake mode, I told Jordan to take the camera with him, which translates to "no pictures for the day." Jo and I shopped 'til we dropped, then headed to Harrods for High Tea. One of my biggest regrets from my last trip to London was not ever going to High Tea, and so we made a full girl's afternoon out of it! Since I don't have any pictures (which is a travesty since I LOVE taking pictures of food...), I'll try to do my best to explain it in words. Basically, High Tea is an English tradition of having tea usually between 2:30 and 5 in the afternoon, and it has turned into an elegant event. It is set in a very formal room, although the one we went to allowed us to dress casually -- the room reminded me of a formal room at The Davenport Hotel in Spokane. You get to choose the kind of tea you want, and then they bring out a three-tiered tray of tiny little sandwiches, scones with clotted cream butter (this was heavenly!) and jams, and then of course little gourmet desserts on top. The best part is, you can get refills of all of it! :) It was such a neat experience, and I promise I will go again and get pictures next time! We met up with the boys afterwards to see a play called We Will Rock You, which was a futuristic story-line set to music by the band Queen (similar to how Mamma Mia uses songs by Abba.) If you like Queen, you would have loved it! Anyway, it was different, but VERY entertaining, and we all really enjoyed it.

The next morning Josh and Johanna flew home, and we met up with some people from Jordan's class to go to the Borough Market, which is basically a big food market lining the streets and alleys near the London Bridge that takes place every weekend. Picture Spokane's Pig Out in the Park event, but with fresher and more authentic foods, most of which are meant to take home rather than eat there, although there are some great booths to eat at. Needless to say, I was in heaven. It's funny because Jordan's all-time favorite thing in Spokane is Hoopfest, and mine is Pig Out in the Park. :) I'm not quite sure what this says about me? Anyway, the market consisted of specialty breads, jams, cheeses, fruits & veggies, meats, and so much more! This is the only picture I got, but don't worry, we will be frequenting this market, so there are bound to be more pictures of it soon. Just so you know, that really is a pyramid of BROWNIES you are looking at. Let's just say I contemplated making Jordan create a diversion so I could run away with it...

I think heaven might consist of these pyramids. :) The brownies were just one of our purchases. We also got a loaf of sea salt & olive oil bread, clotted cream to spread on it, and then we found a stand that had specialty nuts and fruits that were chocolate-covered, so obviously we got a bunch of those too! My absolute favorite thing was the chocolate-covered honeycomb. Scrumptious!

Jordan's latest big find has been this outdoor basketball court near our house. He has been DYING to play some basketball, so this was a big event! And the weather here has been wonderful, usually in the low 50s, which is totally doable for us. I walked over there with him today and managed to get a few pictures of him in action (he lured me in when he said there was a Starbucks on the way...)

The huge castle-like building that was in the Harry Potter post a couple weeks ago is actually in the background of the court -- you can see the clock tower. Let's just say that the "background scenery" of the court is slightly different than what we're used to in the park near our house back in Spokane!

I had to get an action shot. :) Nice form, Jord!

I will try to be good about posting, even though we have vowed to try and keep our noses in our books the next 3 weeks to try and get ahead with school before our next round of visitors come. I'm sure we'll manage to squeeze in a few adventures between now and then... :) 

Road Trip!

Johanna and Josh (Jordan's sister and her husband) got here on Friday morning, and we all packed up and left Saturday for a 3-day road trip around the English countryside! We decided to rent a car, which was quite the experience since they drive on the opposite side of the road here and the steering wheel is on the opposite side too. The first couple miles were a little nuts, but once we hit the freeway it wasn't that bad. Josh was such a trooper, he drove the whole way!

Our first destination was Windsor Castle, which is just outside of London and serves as the Queen's weekend getaway and summer home. Not too shabby!

It's so funny because there is the cute little modern town of Windsor, and then smack dab in the center of it is the beautiful, old castle. These buildings were right across the street from the castle entrance.

We randomly happened to be there at the right time and the right day to see the Changing of the Guards ceremony. It is very traditional, as the guards march through town to the castle entrance wearing the big black fuzzy hats and playing instruments. We were so bummed we forgot the video camera in the car. :(

The castle itself is HUGE and every other cliche word you could possibly think of to describe a castle. We had amazing weather the whole weekend, as you can see the blue skies in the background! In case you haven't noticed, "blue skies" and "London" don't often fall together in the same sentence!

We were able to tour pretty much the whole castle except for the Queen's private quarters. Below is the castle's cathedral located inside the castle walls. 

Everything looked so majestic. Okay, I know, I'm the master of the obvious. Walking around the castle you honestly feel like you're in a movie. For some reason I actually was way more intrigued with the outside of the castle than I was with the inside.

The boys, being boys! Can't you just picture it... "Oh man, check out that cannon! Hey, get a picture of us next to it!" :)

I should have warned you at the beginning of this post, there are a TON of pictures in it. Sorry, I just couldn't choose. I actually took over 200 pictures in the 3 days we were road-tripping! Since I can't post them all, I am actually including links to each place we saw that will take you to albums of all the pictures I took.

So to see more of Windsor Castle, click here. (I actually grouped the Windsor Castle pictures with Cantebury too, just so you know.)

We drove from Windsor to one of my all-time favorite cities, called Bath. Yes, it's called Bath like "bath tub" because the ancient Roman Baths are located there. It is probably the cutest city you'll ever see with dozens of little shops and restaurants located down narrow streets and alleys. Just as an example, here is a little movie theater we saw. So cute!

We stayed the night in Bath, which was actually Valentine's Day night. Johanna and I were thinking the guys would have nothing up their sleeves for a romantic night, but they actually came up with a great idea to go to the brand new Thermae Bath Spa. Basically, the spa is a very modern recreation of the ancient Roman Baths consisting of hot spring pools and steam baths. I am totally bummed we weren't able to get pictures of it, so you should really check out the link if you have time. There are 5 floors of different pools and baths, and on the top floor they have a warm roof-top pool looking over the whole city! We ended up getting a 2-hour package, and we got the last available time slot, so we got to see the whole city of Bath at night as we sat in a warm pool -- pretty surreal! 

Here is a picture of the Bath Cathedral all lit up at night. Apparently this cathedral has more stained glass than all of the other cathedrals in England combined.

The next morning we got to tour the original Roman Baths, which was neat having just experienced a modern-day version of what the Romans used to do the night before. Here is a picture of the main bath.

It's a natural hot springs, so with the cold weather right now the water is so steamy!

Here is Jordan checking out the bath. It is pretty incredible to be experiencing these sights with him. When I came to London before I was able to see most of these things, but seeing and sharing them with Jordan is a whole new (and way better) experience for me.

Since it was Valentine's Day weekend (and the baths just exude romance), Johanna had the cute idea to take kissing pictures in front of the bath. :) So here is Johanna and Josh's romantic moment...

And here is ours...

I think my favorite bridge in the whole world is located in Bath. It's called the Pulteney Bridge and it's on the River Avon. I'm sure it looks a lot prettier in the spring with all the trees in bloom, but I still loved seeing it again!

To see all of our pictures from Bath, click here.

The next stop after visiting Bath was Stonehenge. Everyone says that Stonehenge is one of those places that you get all hyped up to see, and then you get there and think "That's all it is?!" I have to admit, it's partly true, but I still think it's amazing even though you're really just looking at a big pile of rocks. I truly did like it and appreciate it much more the second time seeing it, and am still baffled at how people got these enormous rocks to this spot and for what purpose; which, by the way, is still a mystery.

Sister-in-laws in front of Stonehenge! :) Yes, we're hugging because we love each other, but it's also because it is SO DANG COLD at Stonehenge!!

Jordan agreed that it was actually cooler than he expected to see Stonehenge too. When you've seen pictures of something your whole life and then you actually get to see it in person, it's pretty surreal regardless of if your expectations are met or not.

They actually let you walk all the way around it now, whereas when I was here before we weren't able to do that. It was crazy to me how different the rocks looked from all the different angles. I know, I'm a huge nerd who takes pictures of rocks.

To see more rocks, I mean, Stonehenge pictures, click here. :)

That night we drove to Cantebury, which is where we stayed the night. Cantebury is really quaint and cute as well. It kind of reminded me of Leavenworth.

The main thing to see in Cantebury is the Cantebury Cathedral, so rest assured, that's what we did! Like Windsor, we found it pretty funny because the cathedral gate/entrance is right in between two modern buildings, one of which was a Starbucks. :) I guess it's just not what you'd picture, so it's a little ironic when you see it in person.

The beautiful Cantebury Cathedral...

A view of the cathedral as we were shopping afterwards...

To see more pictures of our trip to Cantebury, click here. (Again, this album has pictures from Windsor Castle and Cantebury.)

Our final stop, and my personal favorite, was Dover, which is known for its famous White Cliffs. If anyone has watched the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner, the scene when he arrives back to England at the beginning of the movie and kisses the shore is at the White Cliffs of Dover. And if you haven't seen it, watch it. It's a great movie, one of my all-time favorites!

We arrived in Dover and were able to eat lunch at a cute cafe on the hillside above the cliffs. Dover is also known for the Dover Castle, which is up on the hill in the picture below.

There are hiking trails all along the cliffside, since the cliffs go for miles. It was another beautiful day, so we set off to see as much as we could in the few hours we had at Dover.

At the trailhead, there is a huge open field with horses in it... for those of you who know Jordan well, you know that he loves horses. I call him the horse whisperer. :)

Josh really wanted to see Dover Castle and the WWII tunnels they built under it, so we parted ways, and he left me with Johanna and Jordan who are both totally afraid of heights. :)

We thought this warning sign was pretty hilarious. It's basically saying: this is what happens if you get too close to the edge... Oh, really? Good thing we were warned! :)

We hiked to this beautiful lighthouse that was actually the first lighthouse from which a telegraph was sent to a ship out at sea. Did I say that right, or is it supposed to be "telegram"? Oh well, you catch my drift!

Yeah, I mentioned these two were scared of heights... this is the only way they would look over the edge, and every time I got close to the edge to take pictures I got scolded in pure panic from both of them! Pretty classic. :)

These pictures truly don't do it justice! The cliffs are so breathtaking, tall, and stark white -- it's incredible. I've never seen anything like it. God is an amazing artist.

A view of the cliffs and the harbor in the distance...

Needless to say, we all survived without anyone falling off the cliffs! :) To see more pictures from Dover, click here. 

If you've made it this far in the post, well, I'm impressed! Sorry it was such a long one, but it was such a great weekend and we were able to see so much. It is wonderful to have Johanna and Josh here and to be able to share London with them. Our flat is pretty crowded with four people, to say the least, but we're making due and enjoying the time together. They are here the rest of the week, and then have to head home on Saturday morning.