I Miss London Ever So Much

I just realized tha there is one more thing I didn't mention 3 weeks ago when it happened that maybe I should just remind everyone of...Carin and I have OFFICIALLY been married just over a year! We made it this far and every day gone by has been better than the one before. What an amazing woman and what an amazing relationship. But enough about me 3 weeks ago...lets talk about me last weekend.
Please everyone...a moment of silence for the loss of amazingly cool weather, people who speak the same language as me, and an actual real breakfast instead of just capuccino and a croissant. Last Thursday after my Herculaneum and Pompeii adventures I met up with Carin in London, a place which I hope for Americans requires no Wikipedia entry. The three amazing things mentioned above (I like to call them the trifecta of goodness) were only a few of the fun times had from Thursday through Sunday night.

I arrived Thursday night around 10:30pm and took a variety of transportation methods to meet up with Carin around 12:30am at the Radisson Edwardian Hampshire Hotel in Leicester Square in the heart of London's theatre district. At this moment I have to say a huge thank-you to Carin's folks who were the ones that gave us the suggestion and booked it. It was located absolutely central to everywhere we needed to be, the service was good and it was beautiful. Thanks folks!

Friday we woke up and decided I should take a ride on one of those really cool double decker red busses all around town, just to get my bearings. Carin got a recommendation for one of the two tour companies in town, "The Original Tour". We were able to get on and off the bus as much as we wanted, and a boat tour was included. It was great to get an overall picture of the city and be able to decide where we wanted to go later, and to get great views of it all from the river as well. We saw Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, a great Egyptian obelisk, St. Paul's Cathedral, many of the bridges, an old power plant, and many many more famous buildings and landmarks. The pic on here is, of course, of London's Parliament building.

Later on that day Carin and I met up with a friend of her's, Anne, from Boston. Carin and Anne used to work together at the Wang and Anne just recently moved to London to "try something new". We got some dinner and went to see Juliet Lewis in Fool For Love. It turned out to be an amazing show, short and sweet at only 1:20 with no intermission. We briefly swung by Trafalgar Square afterward and listened to a little bit of symphony music that was being projected up on a big screen. It was very casual, the weather was cool, and it turned out to be just a very pleasant evening.

Saturday Carin wanted to take me to her old neighborhood from 1988 when she lived with her friend from Penn/Boston, Doug Bellow (who just had a baby too! Congrats Doug and Kate!) It was fun to experience her old haunts, hear a few stories about how things had changed, and to in general just experience a piece of that part of her world. These two pics are of her old "front door" to the apartment building and her old pub haunt, the Hoop and Toy.

Afterward Carin took me to Harrods, perhaps the most famous of London's shopping establishments. Although neither of us are big shoppers, this place is apparently an essential part of any visit to London and, after having gone there, I see why. The building is absolutely huge, old, beautiful, and you can find just about anything you would want to buy there. As luck would have it, they had a pretty "hip" pair of pants I purchased for my European nightlife. How fancy!

Next we went to St. Paul's, one of London's main cathedrals. St. Paul's was designed by a very famous English architect by the name of Christopher Wren in the late 1600's. The interior was stunning, although photos were not allowed so I have no proof ;-). I did get some great shots from the top of the dome after surmounting the 530 stairs to get there, my longest climb yet (of course, I have yet still to go to St. Peter's in Roma). I was there only about 45 minutes but it was enough time to really gain an appreciation for the talent Wren had as a detailer and designer.

Finally, we finished up Saturday with a bit more theatre. We saw Judy Dench in a Royal Theatre performance of the 1924 classic, Hay Fever. I have always been a big fan of Ms. Dench's, not only from her work in movies (including playing 'M' in the Pierce Broson James Bond films) but mostly from the first British comedy I really fell in love with, As Time Goes By. One really great part of going to the theatre was meeting a great pair of Americans, Norm and Cara from Las Vegas. We sat next to them during the performance, had drinks during intermission, and exchanged internet blog and column information afterward. Norm writes for the Las Vegas Review Journal online (his column is called NORM! Vegas Confidential), and you can check out his European blog here. It was really a lot of fun to meet them...hope you had fun guys!

We woke up Sunday with a mission: ride the London Eye. The L.E. is a giant wheel from which "pods" hang that fit 20-25 people each. It opened for the Millenium celebration in 1999 and is probably the best place from which to see the central portion of the city of London. It takes about a half hour to go around one revolution and even though the tickets were a bit pricey, it turned out to be well worth the ride. Just look at these views!


Carin and I ended our time in London with a nice walk along the river, just relaxing and enjoying the great weather and each other's company. It was amazing to be able to spend 4 days "away" with each other. I get pretty busy during the week so we really have had to make the best of the weekends together and London proved to be the longest, most relaxing time we have had yet while in Europe.

As many of you already know, Carin's father, Ken, had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and she recently decided to go back to L.A. for a couple of weeks to be with her family during his recovery. The latest news is that Ken is doing very well, his family is in good spirits, and Carin is enroute as I write this tonight. I will miss her like crazy while she is gone, but I'm very happy she is able to go home and be an integral part of everyone's support system during these challenging times. She'll catch back up with me in Istanbul on August 3rd, so until then I am in the hands of some of the best friends I have found here so far, Mike, Patrick, Kelly, Ellen and Ron. Good luck Carin, I love you, and good luck to Ken and the Rosenberg family...you are in my thoughts and I can't wait to see you all again!

PS Here is a pic of the "crew" that will be watching over me while Carin is gone. It's taken inside the Colluseum, which we all visited today and which I will tell YOU more about tomorrow! WOO HOO!