7 February 2016 –
It's that time of year again! What am I referring to? It's Chinese New Year in China….and that means it's time for us to make an exit for one week. Where are we heading to this year??? Well, we were a little late in booking flights/hotels so going anywhere in southeast Asia was waaaaaay too expensive. So…where to go??? Got any ideas? We do!!!
How about …..
LONDON????!?
Yeah, London it is! I wish you could have seen Annika jump out of her skin when we told her we were taking them to London. She soooooo wants to see Diagon Alley from the "Harry Potter" series. Plus, there's "Doctor Who" in Great Britain!
This photo, titled The Plane Ride:
And this photo….titled "The Tired Tourists":
What do you think of eating when you visit England? Fish and chips! Mark and I checked out a pub right around the corner from our hotel. Plus, ale!
Ava has checked out…at the Celtic Hotel in Russell Square:
Breakfast at Celtic Hotel:
Our hotel was less than a five minute walk away from the Russell Square Underground stop….
Ok, we're a couple of weirdos. We're drinking coffee instead of the traditional and ubiquitous English tea. 😉
Is it Cafe Nero or Cafe Nerd???? Annika thinks it's hilarious to call this chain Cafe Nerd.
Platform 9 3/4 (you know…"Harry Potter")…
The Tower Bridge over the Thames:
You'd better watch out for Annika:
See this arch? Notice anything different??? Mark said on his previous visit here (which was almost 30 years ago) he remembered something unique about this stone arch. Can you figure it out???
(I'll make it easy for you…there's no key stone)
We also saw the Crown Jewels….no photos. Lots of crowns with – let me be honest- gaudy and fake looking jewels.
Let's go check out the Tower Bridge:
More fish and chips and ale!!!
Is London Bridge really falling down??? According to a song playing on repeat under the bridge….it is!
Walking across the Thames. Cool bug!
Back story…the one thing I wanted to do on this trip to England was to have a proper English afternoon tea. I booked afternoon tea for us at a special place …called Fortnum and Mason. It's a tea speciality and very old department store in England. And very well known for having beautiful afternoon tea.
However, our reservation is set for 5:45pm and we've got an hour to kill before it's tea time. We're at Picadilly Circus station. Riley's Believe It or Not Museum is here and Ava is begging to go. Why the heck not?
Check out this Michele Obama portrait:
Posing with the record holder for the world's tallest person:
The museum had lots of weird artifacts….some real but many not real. Too many grotesque features. Ech. Not really my thing but the girls and Mark are highly amused. Shrunken heads, people with strange anatomical features, etc….
It's tea time! Fortnum Mason (which is an over 300 year old company):
Afternoon tea…absolutely elegant. We each chose our own tea. Mine was one called Fort Mason …it's a black tea that smells like orange blossoms. Heavenly! Mark chose a British tea (can't remember which one) and the girls chose peppermint tea.
Beautiful variety of sandwiches, scones with strawberry jam and lemon curd and clotted cream, and gorgeous looking cakes.
When I saw our trays of treats I wondered whether or not we'd still be hungry. Oh my goodness, what an idiotic thought! Even though it didn't look like a lot of food we were so full that we couldn't even begin to eat the treats on the top tier!!! No worries about walking away hungry.