Olympic Memories

With the Winter Olympics fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to look at a little recap of my experience during the 2012 Summer Olympics I wrote for Chits & Giggles last year.

I'd love to share with you a little vacation we took in 2012 to England. Oh yeah, did I mention we went to the Olympics too and I was 3 months preggers with my second child?!

First off, I wouldn't exactly recommend taking your first big vacation away from your little one overseas during a pregnancy. Talk about emotions on overload. I think I cried the entire flight over there and my husband (as well as a few others on the flight) thought I was coo coo for cocoa puffs. I don't blame them.

Secondly, even if you are exhausted, go see EVERYTHING on your to see list - no excuses! If I can drag my tired pregnant butt across England, you can certainly drag your hungover self out of bed to sightsee all day!

Now, on to the good stuff.

As you can see from my second little tip above, I was not thrilled to be up early to spend all day walking around the Olympic Park. Our tickets were for a night event and I would have rather slept in then gone to see the handball a few hours before the event.

Fortunately, I got myself out of bed, put on my comfy shoes, and headed out for a day of long lines and lots of walking.

London did a great job with the park! I think I only stood in one line all day! Surprisingly, there was never a line to the bathroom + there was plenty to do + plenty of little gardens everywhere. It never felt crowded despite the thousands of people surrounding you at all times. Plus, the event volunteers (yes, almost everyone who worked the event were unpaid locals just in it for the thrill and excitement of the Olympics) were hilarious and extremely friendly at all times. It was a fantastic experience and I almost forgot that we were there to see Handball and not just walk around the park.

The day ended with sore feet and lots of new friends! I could talk for hours about the nice people we met during our trip. Londoners aren't exactly know for their hospitality, but the Olympics brought a sense of pride in their country that Londoners and the rest of England was very eager to share with us foreigners.

If you find yourself at the Olympics one day or even just somewhere you don't believe you'll ever visit again, be sure to fill your itinerary to the brim with activities + talk to every local willing to tell you a story. Exhausting, sure, but you will be so glad that you saw everything you wanted to see and you'll have a blast listening to locals describe their life in their own country to complete strangers!

Sorry, Sochi. Nothing can beat the generosity and friendly spirit of London during the summer of 2012.

Goodbye London

 We had a blast staying with our friends in London.  Their place was amazing!  It was a basement condo, but it was huge and had high ceilings with large windows, so you never really felt like you were  on the bottom floor.  I really wish that I had taken some pictures of the interior of their place.  It really was the perfect place to live in London.  Gorgeous floors, lots of light, a large patio, and it's conveniently located right next to Paddington Station (the center of all things train / subway related).

Hopefully, we'll make it back to London when they are completely finished decorating for a little 'house crashing' tour.

Goodbye London!  See you again soon. :)

A Mini-Tour of London, Part 2

For our second day to tour London, we were joined by our newly married friends - Kat and Rob.

This was the Olympic mascot... a little strange.  Why can't the Olympic committee ever just have a normal mascot, like a teddy bear or something?

Here we are on the Millennium Bridge, which originally opened in 2000.  Unfortunately, it was closed down again just 3 days later because it was a bit wobbly and it did not open again until 2002.

We also made a little visit to the Tower of London.  Tons of history and little stories that I could write about for pages, but I won't bore you with the boring history details.  I'll just give a few facts that I found interesting.

There was no photography allowed while viewing the Crown Jewels, so I don't have any pretty pictures of diamonds to show off.  I did find it a little funny that they put you on a conveyor belt to pass through the exhibit.  It was a little funny, but very smart because nobody could stop and linger = no long waits or big crowds in front of the jewels.

The Tower of London is not only where they house the Crown Jewels, but it's also where King Henry VIII beheaded his wife, Anne Boleyn.   A glass sculpture now stands where many beheadings took place within the tower walls.

Another interesting fact is that there are 6 ravens that live at the Tower of London.  It is said that King Charles II disliked the ravens and ordered them to be removed, but was told that killing the ravens would cause the Tower to fall and the King to loose his kingdom.  The King said that he didn't believe that superstition, but then ordered 6 ravens to be kept on the Tower grounds at all times (with one backup raven just in case).  :)

A Mini-Tour of London, Part 1

We had planned to take a bus tour of London, but the weather was so nice that we decided to walk to the first few landmarks and then hop on the bus for the rest of the tour.  Well, that turned into walking the entire length of the tour (all over the city), but it didn't feel like we did that much walking after the amount of walking we did at the Olympics.

Although we missed the changing of the guards, we did walk around the palace and watch the 2 guards right outside the palace gates.  What a place to live!

We also did a bit of walking around the touristy landmarks of London (Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The Eye of London, and Hyde Park).  John and I have both been to London before and seen most of these sites, so this was more of a quick passing / photo op type of tour for us.  

Around lunch time, we found ourselves in the middle of Chinatown (which was really like Asian-town), so we found a small Korean restaurant and had a nice Korean meal.  As always, I had to try the tonkatsu... it's my go to Korean dish.

When walking out of Chinatown, we ran into a huge crowd of people.  We had no idea what was going on (like most of the other people around us), so we just stood there for a while trying to figure out why everyone was gathered around taking pictures.  Eventually, we figured out that it was a red carpet movie premiere for the Expendables 2.  John even got a picture of a famous person (top right).  What?! You can't tell who that is?

It was Sylvester Stallone or at least the back of his head. :)  How random was that?!

 We ended our walking tour at the science museum and a walk home through Hyde Park.  Of course, John just had to see the science museum.  :)

A Mini-Tour of Bath

In case you aren't able to make it over to Bath, England anytime soon, here is a little tour of what we saw in Bath.

 We saw several buildings throughout Bath with windows covered by stone.  The explanation behind this also happens to be the story behind the phrase, "Daylight Robbery".  A window tax was put in place in 1696.  It was basically a property tax based on the number of windows in a house, so many home owners bricked up several windows in their homes to avoid the tax.  Many of the homes around Bath still have bricked up windows because the window tax wasn't repealed until 1851... 156 years later.

 We also visited the oldest house in Bath... built in 1482.  I cannot believe that it is still standing.  Can you imagine the history and secrets that this 530 year old house has seen?!

 We only had one day to tour the city of Bath, so we skipped the tour of Bath Abbey (above) and just admired the beautiful architecture from the outside.

 We did, however, get a chance to take a walk through the old Roman Baths in Bath.

 To this day, hot water still flows through the baths at the same rate it did back in the day.

 I wouldn't recommend taking a dip in the baths though.  Other than probably getting hauled off to jail, you might slip and hurt yourself climbing down into the water.  The years of open air and lack of cleaning have really yucked up the bathing area (the baths were originally enclosed).

 The water is still thought to have medicinal powers to cure the sick and keep you healthy.  I was warned that only the brave should try the water because it has quite a sulfury taste, but I tried it anyway and I didn't think it was all that bad.  Maybe I'll even live a few years longer because I tried the water?

 This is just a little side history note... Some streets in Bath have raised sidewalks because the wealthy refused to walk on the same muddy paths that the commoners walked.

There is much more to see in Bath, but this is just what we had time to see.  Hopefully, we will make another trip to this historically rich town to see the rest of what Bath has to offer.

Our Hotel in Bath

We stayed in a gorgeous hotel in Bath with classic English touches that made me feel like we were staying in a quaint bed & breakfast, but with all of the amenities of any large hotel.

Our room was very cozy and conveniently located right above the reception site.  This was perfect for this pregnant lady since the reception was all of 8 hours long.  During the wedding reception, I slipped away to our room several times to rest a bit, but I could still hear and view the celebrations by opening the window. :)

 One of my favorite little details of the hotel was the option to borrow some boots to go roaming around the grounds of the hotel.

 We didn't do much roaming around, but what we did see was gorgeous.  Their gardner must be one busy guy (or girl).

 If you ever happen to find yourself in Bath and need a place to stay, I highly recommend the Homewood Park Hotel & Spa.

A Place to Play - European Style

The entire time that we were traveling in England we kept saying, "I am so glad that we didn't bring Ellington!".  Well, this is the one point during the trip that I wish we had brought the little lady.

While touring Bath, we came across this amazing playground.  It was enormous and it had everything from a mini carousel (which included double decker buses to ride) to a zip line.  I could imagine spending entire days at this park without getting tired of anything.

If you are ever in Bath with your kids, I highly recommend going to check out this playground.  It is at the edge of Royal Victoria Park.

Side Note:  Royal Victoria Park was formed to honor a then Princess Victoria in 1830.  Queen Victoria was only 11 and traveled to Bath for the grand opening of the park.  The next day, a local paper reporting on the grand opening decided to judge the Princess' outfit - insulting her clothing choice.  She was just an 11 year old little girl (who probably didn't even have a choice of which outfit she was allowed to wear).  That very day, Victoria decided that she would never go back to Bath again... and she didn't.  Many many years later, when the Queen's train had to stop in Bath, she had the shades drawn so that nobody in Bath could even spot her through the window.  This woman could really hold a grudge!

A Wedding in Bath

The wedding was gorgeous and the cute little village church was the perfect ceremony site for this lovely couple.  It was held in a very old church in Bath.

There were so many details to the church that I just wasn't able to accurately photograph, but the archway leading into the church courtyard was one of my favorite details.

I also loved that they chose to have people throw flower peddles for their little getaway from the church.  It was such a fun moment in the celebration.

Looking back at all of the photos from the wedding, this seems to be my pose for the day.  I was in that I-feel-more-fat-than-pregnant stage and I was trying to showing off my belly, so people didn't think that I just overindulged on delicious food during our trip. :)  We all have these silly moments, right?

John made so much fun of me because I kept stopping to take pictures of these adorable garden doors.  It was just so pretty to see a pop of color amongst all of the old stone walls and buildings.

The happy couple's getaway car was a perfect fit for this traditional English wedding.

The cocktail hour was held right outside our hotel, which was nice since the cocktail hour actually lasted FOUR hours.  Apparently, this is the norm for English weddings... You drink for 4 hours after the wedding ceremony and then proceed to the reception to eat dinner and drink some more.  **Sorry to the woman who I caught bending over.  I couldn't find another shot of the cocktail hour, so I had to use this one.**

The reception venue was a large tent set up in the hotel garden and it was lovely during the day and night.... The wedding was probably around 10 hours from start to finish.  I made it through unscathed (probably due to the fact that I couldn't drink any alcohol), but many people had to retire early.

Can you imagine a wedding in the US lasting this long?  Most of the reception time was taken up by dinner and speeches.  The speeches were incredibly funny and entertaining!  I think John has already written half of his speech for Ellington's wedding already.  I reminded her that she was only one and might even be one of those women who just chooses not to get married in the future, but he is determined to give his speech at some major event in her life.  I'm not planning Ellington's wedding just yet, but I do see lots of parental embarrassment in her future.

A Secret Garden and A Very Old House

Our trip to England wasn't just a chance to see the Olympics or get away for a few days, we traveled across the ocean to celebrate the marriage of a lovely couple that John met in graduate school at UAB.  To kickoff the celebration, the bride's parents had a little meet and greet / rehearsal dinner for family and faraway friends in the backyard of their Bath home.

From the home's exterior on the mountainside, there appeared to be no backyard and little greenery.  After a quick glance of the amazingly decorated interior, we were directed to a huge backyard.  It was so unexpected.  Although the backyard was quite large, it felt cozy and was very peaceful.  Each little corner of the yard was like a little private garden.  Speaking of gardens, the flowers and plants in this yard should be featured in a magazine pronto!

Aside from the gorgeous landscaping, the house had a few fabulous features of it's own.  The house really stole my heart.  Due to the fact that the party was outside and the lovely bride was busy greeting guests, I kept my house snooping to a minimum.  I am hoping we get an invite back to this place in the future for a tour and a tour of Bath from the bride's very knowledgeable father. :)

According to the bride, redecorating and remodeling this house has been somewhat of a hobby turned job for her mom.  Over the years, it sounds like her mother has redone every room in the house... twice.  During one of those remodeling projects, an old staircase leading to a basement was discovered.  How cool is that?  You just happen to find this original staircase with a secret room while redoing your living room.

I love love love what she did with the discovery!  The location of the staircase didn't really work well for the flow of the room, so a custom piece of glass was put over it to show it off in the room and the basement is now accessible from a different staircase.  Simply stunning!  Really, why is this house not already in a magazine?!

I am kicking myself for not taking more photos of the interior of this house.  Every single thing in this particular room was amazing.  The family has lived in Singapore and the US and much of the decor reflects their travels all over the world.  Oh, and did I mention that this house is very old and so rich in history?  Old houses are kind of my thing.  And this house wasn't just an old house by American standards... no, it was European old.  Just think about all of the history this house has seen.