I had a good week in London with Shell and Graham but the time just went so fast! Whenever we make plans to go to London I always intend to go to lots of places and do lots of sightseeing, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Something happens on the way there and by the time we get there we feel like a vegetables and all we want to do is vegetate! This was the problem in January which led to so many late mornings and I had the same problem now. I still got out quite a bit but didn’t get through everything on my to-do-list. But it was cool to spend time chilling with Shell and Graham. Thanks for having me over guys! It was kewlest =)
Things I did and highlights from the week are:
- The National History Museum
- The National Gallery
- Seeing Will and Kate at Trafalgar Square
- Walking around the city centre the day before the royal wedding
- Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral with Cambridge’s Clare College Choir
- Having a haircut!
- Walking in the Wimbledon Common and having drinks on the lawns of the pub in the last rays of the day
- Saturday morning breakfast at the pub
- Visiting Justin’s cousins Mike and Nicola and meeting their new son Aidan
- Visiting Tanya and Mike and meeting their son Aaron who is almost a year old now
- Chilling with Shell and Graham
- Lunch on the Thames and a lazy Sunday afternoon walk along the river
- Camden Town
- Oxford Circus
- Portobello Road
- Tate Britain Gallery with Gary
The city was a lot busier than when we were there in January. There is a lot to be said for travelling around in winter! It was much quieter and more pleasant visiting the tourist spots and attractions. Think there were also extra tourists around for the royal wedding. The Brits went absolutely mad over the royal wedding. There were big screens set up at Trafalgar Square and other places and a lot of people turned out to watch the day’s proceedings from there. Walking around the streets in the afternoon of the wedding we saw lots of street parties on the go, people celebrating the royal wedding and an extra day off work. I’m not really into Royals too much but the wedding fever was very catchy and if it got people together like they haven’t done before then I suppose it is something to get excited about (apparently braaing with your neighbours isn’t very big in the UK). It was nice to enjoy the city in Spring though. Everything is green now and the city has a totally different feel to it.
Thursday already and time to head back to Rotterdam. One of the main aims of the visit was to fetch the all the stuff we left behind in January. No mean feat let me tell you. I had an overloaded massive suitcase (on wheels!) in one hand, a huge box with a feather duvet in the other hand, a small daypack on my back and of course my normal handbag. Negotiating stairs was not easy but thanks to a few friendly and helpful people I made it to Brussels in one piece! One of the most exciting parts of the week was to find that the trains between Brussels and Rotterdam were running again, hooray! Much relief as the thought of catching 4 trains home was not appealing. It was still quite a long mission day but I made in the end and now we have our coats and duvet safely home. The duvet really attracted a lot of attention along the way! lol. I’m really glad we had backpacks for our Europe trip, lugging a suitcase on wheels would not have been great, especially for all the stairs at train stations.
Justin in the meantime was enjoying his bachelor week alone as you can see in his Queen’s Day blog. This weekend he played his first cricket game of the season, a warm-up game for 'the beating bats'. His side lost but he had some tidy figures at the end of the day. He opened the bowling and finished on 2/27 after bowling 7 overs, not too bad considering the opposition made 239 runs in 35 overs. He bowled two wickets and made a catch on the field. His batting wasn’t too great but for the first game in 10 years, well done boib! Cricket games are now every Sunday until mid-August.
On Sunday we made our last trip to Keukenhof for this year. The tulips are looking quite tired and are at the end of their season now. Keukenhof still looks ok as they staggered bulb planting so there would always be flowers for the two months the gardens are open. But you can see where extra flowers that have been waiting in a hot house have been added and where strips of grass has been replaced. It’s amazing how many people ignore the please-don’t-walk-on-the-grass signs; the grass is quite dead in many places. We probably won’t get a season pass again but it was nice to see the garden at different stage during the season. Next time we might go once but are keen to do more cycling through the actual fields. It’s difficult to time it and say when is a good time to go as we have realised how short the season it is but it is really pretty and worth seeing!
Next weekend is National Windmill Day and we are planning on visiting the windmills at Kinderdijk. But more of that next time!
Hope you are all well!! Have a good week!
x
PS: Thanks for the 2000+ hits! =) Easter weekend post still to come!
The new haircuts!
Chilling on the lawn outside the Crooked Billet near the Wimbledon Common
Baby Aidan Graham Goemans
Mike and Aidan
Mike, Tanya and Aaron
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