Wednesday 22 July 2009

Whirling Dervish Day!!!

First I would like to say thank you to everyone who comments on my blog :) Getting feedback from you guys keeps me writing this blog which is good for me as well because I'm getting all of the events of the day down on [cyber] paper and I can look back on this for years to come!

So, today I was all around London! It started with a trip to Stamford Bridge, home to the Chelsea Blues football team. I went on a tour of the stadium. I got to see the press room, the home and away team changing rooms, went through the tunnel the players go through to get on the pitch, their dugout (that's what they call it) and then finished off the tour in the Chelsea Megastore for some souvenirs. It was so great! I won't be able to see a match while I"m here because their season starts right before I leave and the tickets are £50 a pop, but this was the next best thing. Let me tell you, you want to be the home team because their changing room is amazing. Their LOCKERS are air conditioned!!! Chelsea pictures are here.

From there, I high tailed it up to Notting Hill to see if I could get a little shopping done there. I walked all over the place. It's amazing how different the same location can look without thousands of people crowding the streets. I made a huge circle around Portobello Road and then ended up back at Notting Hill Gate station. I could have stopped at another tube station but it wasn't on any of the lines that I planned on using today so I skipped it. It can't hurt to get some more exercise can it?

My next stop was Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. I found where all the Brits have been hiding!!! This whole trip I was starting to think that there were no actual British people in London. There are a gazillion tourists, mostly from France, Germany, Spain and Italy from what I can understand of their languages. In Kensington Garden, I started to hear people speak with actual British accents! It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful in that garden! The weather was absolutely perfect as well which was just icing on the cake. I wandered through Kensington Gardens, past the Peter Pan statue (which is much smaller than I expected) into Hyde Park and down to Pizza On The Park, a restaurant that Lois told me I had to go to. Unfortunately, it was as the wrong time of the day for a meal, but I think I will have to try to persuade Chris to go there with me this weekend. Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park pictures here.

In the Italian Garden in Kensington Garden, there are numerous fountains. I saw a cute dog running around and around it, occasionally stopping to bark at the water. I had to take a little video of Georgie and his OCD behaviour. Check it out here.

From Hyde Park, I took the tube to Picadilly Circus station and walked up to Hamley's, a world famous toy shop. It was crawling with excited children running all over the place looking at toys and games. You couldn't help but feel 8 years old again in that store. 5 floors of childhood bliss.

At this point, I had been out and about for 7 and a half hours and I was absolutely knackered! I headed for Oxford Circus station and headed home. Now I am waiting for dinner to be finished cooking. Oh and in the middle of my blog writing, a college tradition occurred. . . someone set off the fire alarm. The fire brigade arrived with not 1, not 2, but 4 fire trucks! I was panicking because I thought it was my dinner in the oven that caused the alarm but no, it was someone else cooking pork chops. Whew!

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great time with the Chelsea Blues! I really enjoy going "backstage" at sporting venues and it sounds like this was no dissapointment! Nice!

    p.s. I am very happy that you found the Brit-speakers in London. LOL.

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  2. Melissa and Ann22 July 2009 at 23:58

    Good Lord Jules, you have been busy! We are enjoying the blog and pics!

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  3. Airconditioned lockers? Sounds soft to me.
    Now that you found some gen-u-ine Brits, can we expect a new accent or excellent impressions to follow?

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  4. WOW, I feel like I am there with you. The pictures and your description of your day make it feel so real. Loved the dog video - was his name Nauset...LOL

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  5. Kensington Garden was gorgeous! I especaially loved seeing the children playing in the water. It seems that London is a very welcoming place. Wondering what the normal temperature is there?
    Kathy :-)

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