History Walk

This week is the Telegraph Hill Festival!
Amongst all the activities and events, the free History Walk caught our attention the most.
Telegraph Hill is only a little 5 minute walk down the road from us. We had breakfast and headed out into the nice day. It was perfect weather for a walking tour, warm and sunny. 
The tour was interesting and we learned a few fun facts about our local area. 
A lot of architectural information. Most of the area was built by the Haberdashers' Company and you can still spot their plaques on the buildings. 
The railroad behind our flat was a canal, and these homes that were built on the top collapsed twice in the 1400's because of the soft clay earth! 
My favourite part was the talk about the brickwork. I've always wondered about the old brick buildings out here. I can now spot the Victorian buildings by their Flemish Bonding! :)
It was a good day and Spring is in the air...

Special Delivery

My friend Rose sent us the coolest package!!

Little bits of home and some fun toys, you know...for fun!

• I Looooooooooooooooooooooooove Cream of Wheat!
• My favourite Chile Spiced Mango from Trader Joes! That is one store a definitely miss! 
• Who doesn't love some Abuelita Chocolate :) 
• Some mini veg for our garden! Our Mini-Rose is growing!
• Fun Toys!
• Good ol' Picot, Bob here does a good job explaining all about it.

THANK YOU ROSE!

My Gardener

Photos taken from the kitchen window.

I stayed inside, safe from all the bugs!

Tower Bridge Tourists

Walking along the River Thames, you can see the Tower of London and the Gherkin...

The bridge was officially opened on 30 June 1894

You can pay to go inside both towers and across both of the pedestrian walkways, which are 143 feet above the water. There are great views of the river and city from up there! ;)

View of the Tower of London from the north tower:

Library Nerds

We are now Library Card holders! Wooo!

This library is named after John Harvard which was born here in Southwark but emigrated to Massachusetts in 1637.  A year after arriving in New England he contracted tuberculosis and passed away at only 30 years old. He left most of his money and his hundreds of books to the college now known as Harvard University! 

Happy Birthday to our Dads!

Our dads were born on the same day, same month, and same year.

On opposite sides of the world.

61 years later, their kids get married!

Day Forty-Seven

Today we met up with Niall's family for an early birthday celebration.

We had a fun pub lunch at The Crown and Sceptre

Hmmm..I wonder who ordered the burger instead of a roast dinner or fish & chips!

It's funny the things you notice when you're abroad. My eyes quickly spotted this:

After we parted ways, Niall and I took a stroll down the street to check out All Saints Church. We walked in and the smell of incense was very strong. It was quiet and peaceful inside and so we hung in there for a while checking out the decor. 

Had a break at my fav Cafe Nero (Starbucks has nothing on these guys!)

The view outside was an early St.Patrick's day celebration. Four days early!

Earlier today at Waterloo:

Took the long way home, across the streets...

...across the bridge, over the river...

Day Forty-Six

On Saturday we went to the city center to do some needed shopping. There were shoppers and tourists everywhere! You have to squeeze through big crowds and crowded trains. We were waiting for the underground tube and when it pulled up it was completely packed! The thing with trains is that they stop only for a few seconds then take off. The next train arrives and of course people are packed in like sardines. Niall manages to squeeze himself in but I didn’t make it in before the doors closed! So the double set of doors closed up quickly behind Niall and next thing you know he’s looking back at me through the window with this face of horror as the train takes off and I'm left on the platform! It was actually a very funny scene. You should have seen Niall’s face. It looked something like this:

It left me giggling to myself.  I just hopped on the next one and when it pulled up at the next stop, there was Niall waiting. He hopped on and joined me and we had a good laugh about it. I joked that this is why he should never let go of my hand. Now he’s always making sure I'm glued to him when we hop on the trains. 

We have this goal of having a very organized home. I specifically want glass jars for the kitchen. Since we have a gift voucher to John Lewis, that is where we went. This store was huge! I couldn't help and stop every 2 feet to look at everything. For someone that doesn’t like shopping, I sure enjoyed window shopping! (We just went to browse since Niall forgot our voucher at home!) I saw these and I thought they were so silly and ridiculous! Do you think someone has actually purchased and uses these?

Then we headed down to Charing Cross road looking for a certain map shop. We walked through Soho which was the Naughty part of London. It's now mostly nice shops and restaurants with the "naughty" part remaining on this little street. At the end of the road we noticed a big group of people standing everywhere looking up and police standing around. We turned around and this big chunk of building had fallen from the top floor. There was all this crumbled brick on the sidewalk and the awning below had even caught some of it. It’s a good thing it didn’t land on anyone!

We got to Charing Cross Road and I love this road! It’s lined with book shops! One of my favourite movies is 84 Charing Cross Road, so it made it even more exciting being here. Niall was insistent that this map shop was on this street and had me walking back and forth. Finally we stopped so he could call and find out where it was exactly. While he was on the phone I noticed the cute shoe shop we were standing in front of.

We finally found the map shop and I am so glad we did! It’s definitely one of my favourite shops now. They have such awesome things in there! All sorts of maps, globes, books about the world, cards, nik naks, and moleskines. We purchased a giant, laminated detailed map of London.  

I love walking around London at night. It's exciting and pretty.

On our way home we walked past this store and I was curious enough that we went inside to check it out. It’s the fanciest grocery store I have ever seen. A  spiral staircase and gold shopping baskets.

While we were waiting for the train home, I noticed this girl with a shaved head and sparkly headphones. Couldn't help and sneak a pic:

A long walk home

I love walking home, even if my feet ache. On Fridays we tend to take our time and stroll along the River Thames enjoying the views. We usually just walk to Tower Bridge and then head home, but today we had a longer adventure. Taking unknown side streets that really made me realize I was not at home anymore...

I love the old black cabs that roam around London, so when I saw one in this area there was no way I was going to miss taking a photo! It just all fit in too perfectly, and for this second I felt I was taken back into another time.

We ended up walking 5.1 miles home. Using the handy navigational tools on the iphone we managed to make it home through roads we had never taken before and will probably not take home again. HAHA, let's just say we were speed walking until we got back to familiar grounds. Then of course we had to stop at New Cross and pick up some groceries at Sainsbury's.

B: Work

A: New Cross- approx. 1mile away from home

As you can see, Old Kent Road is the quickest way home and we totally went some random crazy way!