Christmas Festivities

Before I left London, I was able to join in on a few Christmas festivities. We had our office Christmas party which was a lot of fun. Also, I went ice skating at an outdoor rink at Somerset House. The night was beautiful and I had a good time skating and meeting new friends. Earlier that evening, I went over to Sarah's and she and I enjoyed some Christmas treats and a chat before I left London for the holidays.

Since I've been back in the States, I've been in Denver, Scottsdale and Las Vegas! I just missed the snow in Las Vegas (that would have been festive!) but it was pretty chilly when I was there anyway. I love that all of the casinos are decorated so beautifully for Christmas. I always enjoy the Bellagio fountains and so it was an extra treat to have the show set to Christmas music! Now I am back in Denver - working, visiting and getting ready to celebrate with my family next week.

I'd like to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year as well. May you enjoy making many happy memories with your family and friends this year!

Nuremburg, Germany

Well, here it is everyone - my last European trip of 2008. *tear* I had a fabulous weekend in Germany with my friends the Wildes. You'll recall that they are my friends who I met through a mutual friend when I moved here and they have been SO good to me. Sarah regularly cooks me fantastic meals and we shop and relax and go to church together. The Wildes let me stay with them when I was homeless for a week in February and they have never stopped being amazing to me. In fact, tonight we are going to have a quick Christmas get-together so I can see their decorated apartment and try minced pies for the first time!

Anyway, last weekend Sam, Sarah and I went down to Nuremburg, Germany to visit the Christmas Market there. Germany (and some surrounding countries) are famous for their Christmas markets and Nuremburg came highly recommended. There are many traditional German gifts and food items and we just wandered around for hours soaking it all in. And stimulating the European economy, of course! I'm so excited to give my family the gifts I bought! Enjoy the pictures of the market and the town.

I head home on Saturday for 4 weeks in the States to work and celebrate the holidays. I have been busy this week with packing and organizing for that trip. While I'm there I'll post some about my Christmas festivities in London as well as things I'm doing at home. Plus, I've been thinking of a 2008 year in review with a few select pictures (that you've already seen)...stay tuned!

Granada, Spain

Last weekend I took a quick trip down to the south of Spain. It's been sinking in more and more lately how lucky I am to just be able to jump on a plane and spend a couple days in a completely different country! It's not that I ever took it for granted really, it's just been something I've been thinking about.

Anyway, I went down to Spain with Chad and Laurie who are friends of mine from Denver who also live in England (but not London so I don't see them often). Chad had studied for a year in Granada so knows the city and the area well. It was so nice to have a tour guide and we were able to check out a lot of his old haunts. It was a pretty laid back weekend. The biggest thing we did was explore the Alhambra. Then we wandered around a couple of the areas of the city and ate tapas and watched the sunset.

On Sunday we drove back towards the coast and enjoyed some time on the beach! I always love places where you can be in the mountains and on the beach in the same day and the south of Spain is like that!

Enjoy the pictures...I only have one more European trip before I head home to the States for about 4 weeks. I'm sure I'll be updating from there about my holiday experiences in London and at home.

P.S. I am doing this at work since my internet at home is out of commission for a bit. The upload speed is WAY faster here so there are more pictures than usual (and in no particular order)!

Are you ready for some football???

The NFL came to London this past weekend. I am a big football fan and my team is the Broncos. Unfortunately the Broncos weren't scheduled in London this year, but the Chargers and the Saints were. I bought tickets months ago and woke up SO excited on Sunday! I miss football and even though I try to watch the Broncos game online each week, it's just not the same as watching in the States or going to a game.

The vibe here in London was a bit different than at home. There were a lot more Brits there than I would have thought and a lot of them were wearing various team jerseys. It was a Saints home game and they ended up with the win after a really good game. Wembley Stadium is massive and is part-covered so that was nice since it was raining earlier in the day. Game time weather was nice and crisp and I enjoyed every second!

Wembley

Pre-game show

Great seats at a great game!

Scotland

The next weekend my parents visited, we headed up to Scotland to explore my Mom's ancestry. Her grandfather lived north of Edinburgh until he emigrated to the US in the early 1900s. We stayed in another lovely B&B in Edinburgh and explored Edinburgh and quite a bit of the surrounding area (by car again!). We went to my great-grandfathers home town and saw the street where he lived.

There are TONS of castles in Scotland! We went to 3 of them - 1 in ruins. We also visited the golf courses at St. Andrews and Glasgow. My favorite was just wandering on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and checking out the shops and watching the bagpipe players. Everyone we talked to was so nice and the countryside was beautiful!

Edinburgh Castle

At the Palace of Holyrood Place

Stirling Castle views

Cathedrals in Glasgow and Edinburgh

On board the Royal Yacht Britannia

Now that I've been away for the last FOUR weekends in a row, I'm going to stay in London for two whole weekends! I am looking forward to sleeping in, relaxing and enjoying what's going on in London (like the NFL game this weekend!). My next trip will be to Spain with my friends Chad and Laurie...stay tuned!

Cornwall - and my first English driving experience!

Well, my parents have just gone back to the US after visiting the UK for 2 weeks. They enjoyed their visit very much and were able to see a lot of things. But I think they got an understanding of how MUCH there is to see and do here as they still have a list of things to do! See why I live here? :)

The first weekend they were in London, we took a driving trip down to SW England. You might remember Cornwall from when I went for my friend Sarah's birthday in July. This was my first time driving in the UK and I was a little bit nervous at first, but also very excited!!! If I must say, I thought I did a pretty good job, especially as I had to drive in London, on the motorway and on some pretty narrow roads.

We had a great time exploring the coast. We hunted out a castle that my Vawter ancestors had built in the 1200s after they were given some land from William the Conqueror. That was a cool experience even though the castle isn't open so we had to figure out other ways to see it!

We stayed in a really lovely B&B. I drove quite a lot on Saturday and I was exhausted at the end of the day! I experienced some very interesting roads and rode on a ferry and didn't kill anyone. So it was successful. We explored several towns along the coast and enjoyed the unusually beautiful weather!

Zurich

Here begins my new-found love for Switzerland. I only spent 2 1/2 days in Zurich (and I'm told the country side of Switzerland is so much better than the cities like Zurich), but I am already totally in love. Perhaps it has to do with the mountains and sunshine, which remind me of Colorado? It certainly doesn't have to do with the overly friendly people (because there are none). Maybe it's the German language that I have a hidden love for as well. Whatever it is, Switzerland is my new favorite European country.

Zurich is a very clean city and very efficiently run. The public transportation time tables are all linked together so you never have to wait long if you need to transfer. Zurich is a main transport hub so there is a fantastic airport and 2 big train stations. The shopping is fantastic - ranging from H&M to Prada, Gucci, etc.

Two things Switzerland is famous for: cheese and chocolate. Both are amazing! The Swiss eat their fondue with only bread, no veggies and meat like Americans add in. Also, they would probably frown upon a chocolate fondue.

Zurich has a lake and a river (maybe 2 rivers actually?) The lake looks out towards the Alps and the river runs through the center of town, dividing the old and new parts. There are also several Reformed churches which are not quite as overwhelmingly beautiful as Catholic churches, but have many beautiful aspects in their own rite. One church has some beautiful modern stained-glass windows that I probably could have stared at for ages.

I was in Zurich visiting a friend who moved there from London. I went with two other good friends from work in London and we had a fantastic, girly weekend together. On Sunday we took a day trip to Reinefalls which is a bend in the Reine River where there is a BIG waterfall. It was amazing to us Americans how close we could get to the water without lots of barriers or plexi-glass or something. It was so enjoyable to be in the sunshine enjoying Creation with friends! I will post a few pictures from that for you to enjoy.

A visit with Shakespeare

Well, not literally. Last weekend I went to Stratford-upon-Avon which is the birth and death place of Shakespeare. I saw several houses and sights related to his life and also had the opportunity to catch up with Denver friends Chad and Laurie. They live near there so we spent the weekend together. On Sunday we visited the Black Country Living Museum and learned about the lives of coal miners and their families in the mid 1800s to early 1900s. There was a whole village set up and lots of very knowledgable guides and actors. The only downside was the cold and rain - I guess autumn has truly set in to England. :(

Next week I promise to have more exciting non-England pictures as I start back into my European travel with a trip to Zurich this weekend!!!

The house where Shakespeare was born

A lot of the town was preserved/restored like it was in the 1500s

The farmhouse that belonged to Anne Hathaway's family. Anne was Shakespeare's wife

London Open House

Yesterday I visited some buildings as part of London Open House, which is a celebration of architecture in London one weekend a year. I met up with some work friends and saw the Bank of England, Royal Courts of Justice, the old Daily Express building, Dr. Samuel Johnson's house and Benjamin Franklin's house. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a good time beefing up on history and walking where many important people have walked.

Inside of the Daily Express

Ben Franklin's London house (first American embassy)

Mandy's Wedding

Well, as you can see from the silence on my blog lately, I have been sticking close to London and taking care of business (literally, it's busy season). Plus, my weekends have just been full of other fun and exciting things...I just can't think of what right now. Anyway, about 2 weeks ago now I took a super-fantastic trip to HOME!!!!!

My friend Mandy was one of my first friends after I moved to Colorado. She and I were in the same high school class and when there are only 5 girls in the class, you tend to bond. She and I continued to be best of friends throughout college even though we were in different places and we moved into our first apartment together back in Denver after graduation. At the time, I was in grad school and she was starting her job at Lockheed Martin. We lived together for a year before I moved downtown to be closer to work and away from the suburbs. She happens to like the suburbs, so she stayed. Shortly after that, she met Danny through friends and they were engaged this past spring.

Now I'm not the sort of girl who LOVES weddings or has everything planned down to the minutest detail for my own, but Mandy and I would occasionally talk about weddings and we both knew that we wanted each other to be a big part of our special days (we are a little bit girly!). Mandy emailed and then called with the news of her engagement and asked me to be a bridesmaid. I knew it would be very difficult because of the timing (September is a MAJOR deadline time in US tax) and the cost of a plane ticket. I hmmmed and hawed for several weeks but finally had to just say I can't commit to being there. It was sad for both of us, but we kept in frequent contact and I helped the best I could with the decisions and listening to endless options regarding every aspect of the day.

WELL, about a week before the wedding, a sale popped up on tickets to Denver that I just couldn't resist. I had continued to look for tickets because I hadn't yet come to grips with not being there for her, even if I wasn't going to be standing beside her. So, when a ticket that cost only $480 (not kidding) came across, I jumped on it. I didn't tell Mandy I was coming, but made arrangements with her family.

I can't tell you how excited I was to go home! After a long, sleepless plane ride, I came into Denver on a Thursday night and was picked up at the aiport by a friend because I was also surprising my mom. Friday morning I drove up to my mom's house and surprised her (after some prodding to get her to come to the door) and spent some time catching up with her (and the piano). Then I headed down to Mandy's. She was completely surprised and even stared at me for a couple seconds as if she didn't know who I was! We had a great day together finishing up some final things, going to lunch and chatting.

I also caught up with some old work friends, helped out at the wedding Saturday morning, attended the wedding (of course), had a couple really great dinners at restaurants I had never tried (hooray!!!), went to church, had lunch with my brother and watched some of the first week of the NFL! I loved driving again and playing the piano and hearing the office gossip from the Denver office. I had way more fun than I had ever imagined before I went back to Denver and it was very tough to board the plane back to London on Monday. But I know I am also enjoying seeing new and different things here and I'm not done with that yet!!

This turned out to be a much longer posted than I anticipated, but I'll leave you with some pictures from the wedding...Stay tuned for updates from my newest travels which will start up again next weekend!

You know the saying: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue? Well, most of us lop off the end that says: And sixpence in her shoe. Mandy's friend Mary remembered this part and I happened to have 6 pence in my purse. (There is no longer a sixpence coin, but 5 pence and 1 pence work.) So Mandy glued these to her wedding shoes - how fun!

The wedding party

Mr. & Mrs.!

This is me with Mandy and our friend Joleen - we have all been close since high school. Joleen just got married in May. And, yes, I am MUCH taller than either of them (to be fair, Mandy had her shoes off and I didn't).

Bank Holiday Weekend

Sadly, I don't have too much out of the ordinary to report even though today is a public holiday in the UK. The August bank holiday is much like Labor Day in the US, although this year it's a week earlier. It signals the end of summer and the beginning of a new school term. Many, many Brits go "abroad" (usually meaning to somewhere in continental Europe) for a last shot at the beach or at least somewhere warmer than the UK. This is not a tough goal to meet as temps have been steadily in the (very) low 70s if not cooler for a couple weeks now.

On Saturday I started out with a tour of Kensington Palace here in London. Kensington was Princess Diana's home and has been in the royal family since the 1600s when it was purchased by William I (? or III?). Anyway, it was where Queen Victoria was born and lived before she became queen and also King William III and Queen Mary ruled from here for a time. There is lots of history AND they had a display of the last debuntantes in 1958. It was interesting to learn about the debutantes in Britain and the end of that era.

Sunday I had many intentions of continuing my royal weekend. I ventured out to Buckingham Palace in the morning and found that there was going to be an Olympic handover ceremony that afternoon. Interesting. I went to get in line to get tickets to the State Rooms at the Palace. They are only open in August and September each year. However, the line was very long and I found out that I wouldn't be able to get into the Palace for at least 3 hours. I was by myself and didn't think that sounded like a fun way to spend my day. SO I headed over to Oxford Street, which is one of the main shopping areas in London. Generally it is overrun with people, especially tourists, so I tend to stay away. But I knew I would be getting there right when the stores opened and it was threatening rain and it's bank holiday so I was hoping to avoid the normal mayhem. Plus I needed to run an errand there anyway. Well...3 or so hours later I ended up finishing my errand...with several shopping bags in tow! So I guess staying in London to try to save a bit of money over the weekend didn't pan out quite as I had hoped. But I got some really cute shoes. :)

Today I had to do some work since I had been away at a training Thursday and Friday. Since it is a holiday I can use this time for another day off some other time when I can actually take it. So it was a nice, quiet weekend with some touristy things and shopping thrown in as well. Can't say I can complain!

Cardiff

So I've been thinking that I don't have any overseas trips planned for August. That wasn't acceptable as I have been out of the country at least once every month since April! So yesterday I decided to take a little trip to the country of Wales. It's not out of Great Britain, but it IS out of England. :) I took a bus tour (3 hour drive each way) and spent a few hours wandering around Cardiff. There is a castle there and a huge rugby stadium as well as a bay area that is very developed and lots of shopping. It was a great city to visit for a day and I'm glad I did it!

London!

I have been thinking the last few days about how I have a blog entitled "Life in London" but very rarely do I talk about my life in London. Since I haven't been anywhere more exciting than west London lately, I thought I'd do a post about my life here.


I've been living here for 6 months now and feel that I have adjusted pretty well. Every so often though, I am thrown for a loop by something I haven't encountered before. Often it has to do with government or bureaucracy or how to act in certain social situations. London is an incredibly diverse city so just about anyone can fit in here quickly and easily. I do still find myself a bit embarrassed of my accent at times, though at least I speak up more than I did when I first moved here.


Things I like/love about London:

• Ability to travel in Europe easily (and relatively cheaply) - this, of course, is the reason I moved here
• Walking through various neighborhoods and wishing the 200 year old houses that have been shops, pubs, houses, servants quarters and modern flats could talk to me
• The diversity and acceptance that it's OK to be from somewhere different and have a different background than other people
• The train services to the countryside

Things I dislike/hate about London:

• I miss my car so much. I feel like I am 14 again and totally dependent on others (even though now it's the bus driver instead of my parents or older friends). Sometimes I just want to DRIVE.
• The weather. Everything you've heard is true, except it doesn't rain EVERY day.
• The tourists, especially Americans
• The cost of living
• The health system, my doctor in particular

I don't think I will ever tire of the view of St. Paul's from my seat on the top floor of a double-decker bus every night on my way home from work. And hopping a plane and being on a Greek beach within a few hours isn't too shabby either. Unfortunately, I can't call London home and I don't think I ever will. But I am glad I made the decision to live here and being here has given me experiences I never dreamed of five years ago.

Athens and Aegina

Sorry it's been SO long since I posted! I was away (to Athens obviously) and before and I after I went, work has been bearing down on me with a massive deadline this Friday. So I haven't had much time of my own to tell you about Athens.

I LOVED Greece!!! I definitely cannot wait to go back...hopefully soon. I went down to Athens on a Wednesday evening and met up with my friend Jess and her sister Jaime who had already been there all week for a conference for Jaime. Unfortunately, Jaime was sick the whole time I was there, but I was able to get out and see the city and meet up with Jess when she could join me.

This is a view of the Acropolis (the Parthenon is the biggest building) from one of the nearby hills
















The food was absolutely amazing and I tried everything I could! I really wish I could share the sounds and smells (mostly good) of Athens with you. There always seemed to be something yummy cooking and the people were so friendly and eager to share their culture with visitors.















I spent quite a lot of time just wandering around the city and trying to find shade to stay just a little bit cooler. Thankfully the heat wasn't totally unbearable by the time I got there, so I was happy to get some time to spend on the beach on Friday morning. That afternoon I visited the Acropolis area and got my ancient culture for the trip. ;)















Jess and I spent the evenings doing more wandering up hills, watching sunsets and enjoying fantastic dinners. My hotel had a great rooftop view of the Parthenon/Acropolis area.















On Saturday we took our much-anticipated jaunt to the island of Aegina (pronounced EGG-ina). It is the closest island to Athens and therefore easy to do in a day. We enjoyed the beach, the ancient ruins, wandering the side streets, people watching and eating seafood! We tried octopus and ray and had a good time enjoying the sunshine and the water all day long.




















































I was sad to leave. Especially because it was about 90 degrees when I left Athens Sunday morning and about 65 and windy when I arrived in London! Thankfully, London's weather has been fantastic this week and today I had a great time with a picnic, swim and sun bathe with my friend Sarah in Hampstead Heath. The British summer has finally appeared, but there is no telling how long it will stay!