One for the road...: May 2009

There are so many gargoyles around London

Fintan

London…The city of London has an energy about it, which I have not felt in any other city before. There is a life…a history, a present and a future buzzing through its streets. It is a busy, crowded, yet clean and organized city.

House of Parliament

Fintan and I had early starts and late nights our whole visit…so our London holiday was packed, with no wasted time. It was nice to get out of the humidity of Malaysia and spend some time walking…a lot of time walking actually, for a while. We were proper tourists, taking in all the sights that London has to offer!

He can't escape the rickshaw!

London, in my opinion, is not only beautiful; it is a city full of culture and diversity, and art. For a long time I have longed to have a latte or a cup of tea in a little café on a cobbled street…and that dream has come to me now. It came to me with more than I ever wished for…a latte and the best cupcake ever in Portobello Market…

This bakery will be my first stop on our next visit to London!

John and I

London City
The question here isn’t what did we see, it is what didn’t we see?

Fintan and Tower Bridge

Upstairs on the bus

Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abby
Tower Bridge: We were so lucky…the bridge lifted up while we were on it!
London Bridge
The Clock Tower
The London Eye
Soho
Hyde Park
House of Parliament
Trafalgar Square
Morris Dance!

Morris Dancing

Portobello Market
This was by far the busiest part of London I visited. The shops are tiny and the streets are narrow and they were all jammed with people. I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with this market! This market has it all…trendy boutique shops, home wares, fresh cut flowers, fresh garden fruits and veggies, amazing foods, antiques, and the BEST cupcake in the world (so far!)!

Pretty window display

Happy Mother's Day Momma!!

This cupcake is in honor of Mother's Day for my momma!

It took Fintan and me four hours to walk this market and I enjoyed every last minute of it. I could have easily spent more time there…or even another whole day! Not too surprising, we found a few treasures to take home with us (though we had to control ourselves a bit!)

Amazing colors!

Heading into an old map and book shop

Fresh Fruit and Veggie Peddler

Shopping in the market

A pretty ally

Windsor Castle

And the queen was home! The garden of this castle is just beautiful…not that I would have expected anything less from the queen’s residence. The day was a perfect summer day…the sun was shining and only a few big, white fluffy clouds decorated the blue sky. The smell of the garden grounds was vibrant and alive with flora. The grass was so green and the flowers were beautiful, vivid colors.

The gardens were so pretty and colorful

We also were able to see Queen Mary’s Doll House. Which was absolutely stunning; every little girl’s dream! This doll house was huge and so intricately arranged. I found it a bit odd though, that there were no little dolls in the doll house.

After we were finished exploring the castle we met, Fintan’s rally driving buddy John and Sarah for lunch and some pints of cider. We had a wonderful time…and enjoyed the sunshine! I hope they have as lovely of a holiday in KL as we had in London.

Fintan and John

I had a lovely Sunday roast

Tommy and Sarah's Wedding

The church

Living human sculptures, champagne, live music and a lot of dancing. The wedding was beautiful and so much fun…and the girls were dressed so pretty.

The girls...and Brian

All the boys

I was fortunate enough to meet more of Fintan’s friends on this trip…and I must say they were just as wonderfully nice as all of his friends have been so far. If a man can be measured by the friends he keeps…Fintan is one great man (but of course I already knew that!).

Brian and Stephen

Allen and Liz

Andrew and Niamh

Mark and Rita

Brian and Tara

Warren and Elizabeth

Fintan has great friends

Allan was great fun to dance with...it was one of the highlights of my night!

Andrew and Fintan

Brian and Fintan

The Food

The smell of this cooking was amazing!

Such vivid and beautiful colors

No trip would be complete with out eating our way through the entire town and Fintan and I were happy to oblige! From full English breakfasts to Sunday roasts to cupcakes to meat pies and, of course, cider and ale! Fintan and I had a lovely Italian dinner at a restaurant in Soho to celebrate us going on our third year together!

Bread at the Portobello Market

We even had meat pies in the building that is built above the original place that once housed Sweeny Todd’s barber shop and Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop! And they were tasty…hope it really was just venison in it!