Happy New Year
Door: Annik
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Annik
04 Januari 2015 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Londen
After arriving, a few slow days followed in which I mostly watched Serious Request and cuddled with our cats. During Christmas I got to visit the family and catch up. I finally got to see my cousins daughter Yana for the first time. She is such a cutie!
Then on Sunday, Winnie and I flew back to London for a week of fun. I felt a bit sad leaving home again, but I will be returning in a few weeks, and I knew the weeks ahead of me would most probably be great. That Sunday, Winnie and I tidied up my room a bit, did some groceries and mostly relaxed the rest of the day. We made Joke's Snoepjeseten, which Winnie now refers to as "London food".
Our Monday was shopping day. We walked around Soho, bought Chocolate for my Grandmother's birthday and mostly just went in and out of little shops browsing around. That night though, the highlight of the day happened. We went to see the musical Les Miserables. The seats we had weren't the worst, but they were by far not the best either. Most of the time we had to lean forward to see what was happening on stage, but still the distance between us and the stage did not feel that big. The musical itself was beautiful to see. For me personally, it did not beat the play I went to at the start of my time in London, Shakespeare in Love, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Winnie was also very pleased with the whole experience.
Tuesday we slept in. When we got up, we rearranged my room, because Schelte, a friend of mine, was arriving for his visit that day. We went out to Canary Wharf that morning and in the afternoon, we picked him up from Green Park tube station (a pickup that wasn't coördinated very well).
After we dropped off his stuff in my room, we went out for dinner in town. We ate at this place where they only served, mash with sausage or pie. A proper English meal for each of us.
On Wednesday we went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland (I hadn't visited a single Christmas Market during December, so I kind of had to now, even though Christmas was already over). It wasn't what I had expected. It was a lot more like a fair than an actual market. For me it was therefore a bit of a letdown, but we had a good time walking around, looking at the attractions and food stands.
That night, we had dinner at my place before we went out to see the fireworks. This turned out to be a bit harder than you might expect, especially since this was the first year that you had to pay to see the fireworks display at the London Eye. Apart from that, there is no organised fesitivity in London itself, even the big screens that were going to be put up on some squares were cancelled. Furthermore, a lot of pubs were closed for the night, so you had limited options and those options were really hard to find online. In the end, I looked up where you might be able to watch the fireworks show for free and as luck would have it, there was a bridge not that far from my place where this was possible. Around half 9 we went out, taking a bag with 50 party poppers with us, to find a nice spot on the bridge. There we waited for two hours in the freezing cold (which wasn't much fun), occasionally waving at passing boats and popping our poppers. In the end, the wait was worth it. Even from a distance, the fireworks display was beautiful. I managed to take one, not so bad picture, before I put my phone away with shivering hands to enjoy the rest of the show.
The next day, we went to the Museum of London, where we visited the Sherlock Holmes exhibition (which was totally my thing, having read a few stories already) and of course the rest of the museum. The museum was more fun than I had expected. A lot of interactive stuff which made the child inside me very happy. We had Fish and Chips that night, again very English and very satisfying.
Friday, we had to say goodbye to Schelte. I hope he had as good a time here as I had. We'll most definitely do this again!
That afternoon, Winnie and I visited the Museum of Brands, which was very interesting. It's fun to see product brands change over time and see the change in advertisement through the years. We made a good choice going there. Afterwards we walked over Portobello Road for a while, before getting on the tube again to go and see a real life TARDIS (aka a Police Public Call Box). Fangirling all around.
With that, our first to last day came to an end.
On Saturday, Winnie's last day in London, we found out that we had to change some of our plans. Apparently this weekend there were some works going on around the Southend Airport train station, which meant that Winnie had to travel part of her journey by bus. To top that off, she had such an early flight that she wouldn't make it if she took the first train Sunday morning, which meant she either had to spend the night at the airport or find some other way to get there on time. In the end, with some help from her friends, we decided to book a room at a hotel that's right next to the airport. Sadly, with this our time in London was cut short a bit, but it was the best option, we thought.
That day we went to Frostival, a winter market near the London Eye, which was actually a market and not a fair. But this one also displayed some art, which is right up Winnie's ally.
After that we had dinner and then it was time for us to get to the train station. After one final hug, I watched her get on the train to go back home again.
When I got back home, there was silence. I made a twirl in my room, because I had the space, I landed on my bed, which was just for me again, and I enjoyed my time alone. After so many days of going out and about and entertaining my guests (which was a looooooot of fun and I would'nt have minded a bit if you stayed longer guys), it felt nice to be on my own again.
I indulged in that again today by staying in bed most of my day. Tomorrow it's back to work for the final two weeks. Let's see how I'll get on.
As for recipes, Winnie and I ate Oma's Preisoep with a side of Friedali's Pizza Quesadillas on Monday.
And thanks to Schelte, we were also able to make his Macaroni Ovenschotel, it's delicious!
So, that's it for this week. Two more weeks to go...
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06 Januari 2015 - 08:43
Joke :
Misschien dat ik de naam gewoon aanpas naar Londen-food, klinkt beter dan snoepjeseten ;)!
Nog een gelukkig nieuwjaar en succes en veel plezier in deze laatste weekjes Londen! -
19 Januari 2015 - 11:45
Elly:
Hoi Annik, Wat heb je veel leuke dingen gedaan zeg. En super dat Winnie een paar dagen is geweest.
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