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Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Thursday, 28 August 2014

London Highlights

We've said farewell to London. We had an amazing time with Sam and Sibyl, and got to do a lot more in London than we have in any other trip. Yesterday morning before we left we ran through everything we did and saw with Sam and Sibyl, and the list is long...
  • Book of Mormon - amazing!!
  • Notting Hill Carnival
  • Local markets
  • Flower markets
  • Babington House
  • Stonehenge
  • Natural History Museum (thanks Sib for getting us tickets so we could skip standing in the queue in the rain!)
  • Hyde Park (or at least the very edge of it!)

We ate at some pretty incredible places too...
  • Dinner at Chiltern Firehouse
  • Bacon Naan for Breakfast at Dishoon
  • Cured meats at Verden(?)
  • Burger at one of Sam's locals
  • Dinner at Pit Cue Co.
  • The Best Roast Duck in the World at Four Seasons (not the hotel)
  • Oysters at Wright Brothers (and champagne of course - can't have oysters without champagne. Or chardonnay maybe!)
  • Breakfast and dinner at Babington House

So while the weather wasn't great (I still don't think it's ever sunny and warm in London - just kidding), we had a fabulous time and did a lot in our short week. Massive thanks to Sam & Sibyl for having us. Now on to Munich!


Chilling with the elephants in the
National History Museum
Big Ben (out the car window in the rain) Menu at Pitt Cue
Babington House grounds

Into the Woods
Babington House
Hay!
Thatched Cottage on our walk
Walking to the village from
Babington House
Jack & Jill Hill
Food at Chiltern Firehouse

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Stonehenge, Babington House and Pit Cue

Stonehenge from the car window
(spot the mini people on the left)
What a wonderful relaxing time at Babington House. Was so lovely! We ended up taking a few wrong turns on the way, and although it took longer than planned, Greg and I were quite happy as we got to see Stonehenge as a bonus! Yes, we may have only seen it out the car window, but was pretty amazing. Impossible to imagine how they got those massive stones in place.

Arriving at Babington House we were pretty impressed by the gorgeous buildings. Our room wasn't quite ready, so we started off the experience well with a bottle of champagne in the bar. The timing was quite impeccable too, as our rooms were ready just after the complimentary afternoon tea was set out, so we got a couple of delicious cakes to take to our room. Our rooms were lovely! Such comfy couches, perfect bathrooms, and a little staircase to the bedroom upstairs.
Babington House in the morning sun


Greg with the oysters and champagne


Sibyl and I treated ourselves to a massage (which was awesome) while the boys relaxed, then we had some chill out time before dinner. Greg and I went for a swim in the pool. It was a little cold, but so refreshing. And of course, being Gremma, we had to order another bottle of bubbles to drink while in the pool.

We had dinner in the Orangery, which is this pretty room with sky lights, and loads of windows looking out on to the manicured grounds. Greg had grouse which was pretty grouse, and I ordered a steak for once which was delicious (I never order steak!).

Greg and I woke up pretty early, so went for a walk through the English countryside to the pretty little village, then went for another swim (again a little chilly, and this time no bubbles!) before breakfast. The loungers were all calling for us to lie on them in the sunshine, but unfortunately even though the rain had stopped there wasn't a lot sun.

Breakfast was super yummy - lots of deli delights, and Greg had kippers ("can we have kippers for breakfast, mummy dear, mummy dear" has been in my head all day!), then after another relax in our beautiful rooms and a last stroll around the grounds, it was back in the car for the drive back to London.

On the way Greg and I decided we'd get dropped off in town to do a spot of shopping and have dinner out as Sam had work to do (seems funny to call central London "town"). We got Greg his jacket he's going to need for a couple of our dinners on the trip, and I also got some "so ugly they are awesome" new basketball shoes - looking forward to playing in them when I get back!

After shopping we headed to an oyster bar for oysters and champagne (of course!) and then to Pit Cue Co for dinner. Sam did all the designs for Pit Cue Co and had sent us the book a while back, and we've been wanting to go since. The cocktails are all bourbon based, and are delicious! I had a couple of sours type ones while we waited for our table, and of course Greg went for the super strong bourbon tasting ones. We each agreed our own was the best, which is the perfect way for it to be!

Dinner was delicious! We started with a couple of "extras" - jowl scrumpets (pig jowl smoked, pulled and deep fried) and loaded skins (potato skins with all sorts of yumminess inside), followed by pulled pork, ox cheek on trencher with bone marrow and parsley butter, bone marrow mash and charred cabbage. All washed down with really good house red. So so good! And so so full now!

We caught the tube home in time to get packed and have a fairly early night. We're off to Munich tomorrow!

Hay fields on our walk

Monday, 25 August 2014

Carnival Chaos, The Best Roast Duck in the World and the Natural History Museum

Sam & Greg at Carnival

Proof it's the
Best Roast Duck in the World
So Notting Hill Carnival was super fun, but absolute chaos. I've never seen anything like it. There were so many people getting boozed and completely wasted, all in the streets of the one of the nicest parts of London. Insane! I can't imagine anything similar being allowed in Aussie or NZ, they'd have far too many rules about alcohol, glass, where you can go etc.

We caught the tube in, and had the "Best Roast Duck in the World" for lunch. It was pretty damn amazing! Such tasty goodness. We then bought our beers from the corner shop and joined the masses heading towards carnival.

The Best Roast Duck in the World
It was over such a massive area - streets and streets of the most gorgeous buildings, with all these people drinking and dancing in the road. Every other corner had some kind of band or DJ with massive speakers and heavy bass. There were pretty much no toilets, so everyone was just peeing against the fences (guys and girls too). Some houses were selling the use of their toilets and there were massive queues outside them. There were loads of policemen who all looked to be pretty happy and amused mostly by all the people. Not grumpy like the policemen at home. It was a little intimidating at first, but once we got used to it and into the swing of things we had an awesome time wandering the streets, listening to the music and watching all the crazy people.

The boys continued drinking once we got home and had a super later night (or early morning? try 7am!), so today was pretty lazy, which was fine as it was really rainy and miserable anyway. We did make it to the Natural History Museum which is in such an amazing building. It's a pretty awesome museum, but being a rainy bank holiday it was rammed.

We had an early dinner at a fabulous pizza place called Pizza East, just down the road from Sam's house, which was perfect for the hung over boys, and great on a rainy afternoon. The pizzas were really yummy with thin bases, and Greg got his croquettes which he'd been craving all afternoon.

Super early night - we are all in bed by 8! Good though as hopefully we're all recharged and ready for relaxing at Babington House tomorrow.

Carnival Chaos
Our favourite band at the carnival
More carnival chaos

Inside the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Inside the Natural History Museum

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Hasa Diga Eebowai!

Hello, my name is Elder Price!

Flower markets
Having a great time so far in London. Yesterday was the best day. Went to this Indian place called Dishoom for bacon and egg Naan and Chai for breakfast which was awesome, then went for a stroll through their local markets.

Greg and I then caught the tube into Picadilly Circus and went to the Book of Mormon which was incredible! The best musical ever. Greg even said he enjoyed it! It was super funny, and so engaging. Absolutely loved it, and wish we could go again.

We went to Chiltern Firehouse with Sam and Sibyl for dinner after. The fit out was stunning, and we had a great table overlooking the whole restaurant. The food was great, and the wine spectacular. Then on to Shoreditch House for a drink before coming home and crashing. Well, Sibs and I crashed. The boys continued drinking...

Luckily Greg and I have both been sleeping really well - no major jetlag which is awesome. We're tired, but no more so than we would have been at home after our late nights and all the drinking and eating we've already been doing.

This morning we went for a wander around the flower markets in the sunshine and got some breakfast, and are now just chilling for a short time before heading to Notting Hill Carnival which is Europe's biggest street festival. I'm not quite sure what to expect...

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Made it to London

Junior
The first glass of Michael on this trip is going down really well! We are chilling at Sam's house and relaxing after our flight. Everything is currently feeling a little surreal - can't believe we're back here and on another trip!

The flight was all good. We've never done a flight that leaves late in the evening before. It was great as we went to sleep pretty quickly - I didn't even last a full movie! We slept for probably 7 or 8 hours, though as always on a plane it was broken sleep. Why do they have to make the seats so damn hard? Feeling pretty good now, though tired. I'm sure I will be crashing early tonight. In fact it feels a little like the flight didn't even happen!

We've also never been through Abu Dhabi before. Was bizarre seeing all the brown and sand out the window. Would like to stop there or somewhere similar one day - it's something we've never done.

Sam has the most adorable little bunny called Junior. Will be nice to have some pet cuddles while we are here. Was strange on the flight when I was all sleepy and had the sleeping tablets. Each time I part woke up I saw white out the corner of my eye and thought it was Duncan wanting cuddles! 

One of Dubai's crazy islands
from the plane window
Mmmm... Michael
Putting up the lights in
Sam's courtyard