March 2013 - England
England | London | Royal Albert Hall
Hi Everyone,
We've had a busy fun week with Connie and Steve arriving on Wednesday! No RAIN and morning blue skies only because it's been too cold to rain:-)
Wednesday March 27
We picked Connie and Steve up at Heathrow airport, had a late lunch aboard Artemis and took them for a nice long walk to get them geared up for their time in London. We walked over the beautiful Tower Bridge next to our marina to gaze upon the Tower of London and the impressive buildings of Central London. We walked along the south bank of the Thames, past the Shard, visited Southwark Cathedral, past Tate Modern and the Globe, London Bridge and crossed back over the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge.
UK | England | London | Leadenhall Market
We walked by St. Pauls Cathedral down to Leadenhall Market. As far as Connie was concerned she could go home now. The highlight of London being one of Harry Potter's hang outs, Leadenhall Market.
Thursday March 28
We had coffee with friends to introduce Connie and Steve. Then we spent the afternoon at the Tower of London. We were entertained in an hour long tour by one of the Yeoman Warders. He told us the history of the Royal Palace and fortification of the Tower of London and took us into the chapel where Henry the VIII's wives are buried after their execution on the grounds.
Big big lines for the Crown Jewels so we toured the White Tower, walked the walls, dungeons etc until later in the day. The Crown Jewels Museum was the highlight for Connie and I. Another very cold day. We were glad to alternate inside/outside touring just to get warmed up again.
Sat. March 30, 2013
We took the tube to Russell Square and the British Museum. We spent time with the Egyptian mummies, Greek and Roman statues, having time for both a lunch break and mid afternoon tea/biscuit break before heading toward home. We wandered through the neighborhoods down to Piccadilly Circus and then to Covent Gardens. We stopped to enjoy some street performers and then caught #15 double decker bus back to the Tower of London and St. Katharine's Docks.
Sun. March 31
Happy 6 th Birthday to our grand daughter Josie, Happy Easter Sunday and Time Change (Spring ahead) for Europe. We took the Underground to Victoria Station for Westminster Cathedral Solemn Easter Services. Connie was happy as the Cardinal used lots of incense, the boys choir sang, and two hours later we sang Jesus Christ has Risen today and Sally was happy. We had sandwiches and soup at Pret Manger followed by Easter Candy the bunny delivered from USA. We walked to Wellington Arch, Hyde Park and Kensington Park enjoying the daffodils and other spring flowers. We visited Princess Diana's memorial, Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall. The lines were too long at the Natural History Museum so we bopped into the Victoria and Albert Museum for a short visit. Back aboard Artemis Connie and I prepared turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, green beans and even cranberries!
March 24, 2013
Hi Everyone, It was a great week for music. Tuesday night Al and I went to the Finals for the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition. We saw each of the three groups perform a few weeks ago in the semi-finals. The Jubilee Quartet won but it was a tough call as the Palomino String Quartet and A Piacere Trio were fantastic too. Then on Thursday we went with friends to the Barbican Hall and saw the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra's Spring Concert. Guildhall is one of the world's leading conservatories and drama schools. The renowned international conductor Gianandrea Noseda conducted Prokofieff Sinfonia Concertante and Rachmaninoff's Symphony 2 in E Minor. Noseda is an amazing, vibrant conductor. We kept thinking what fun it would be to perform under his direction! Michael Petrov a 23 year old cellist at Guildhall from Bulgaria was the soloist in Prokofiev. What a fantastic performance by this young virtuoso! The Rachmaninoff kept us on the edge of our seat too. Truly an enjoyable evening.
Al has most of his sewing projects done with just a few details to complete. He even took a few hours out to sew some zippers into some canvas for the Brit across the dock. Great pay, bottle of wine and a bottle of scotch:-) Brrr... and we thought last week was cold. We had a dusting of snow on the boat for the last two days and it doesn't look like it's going to warm up very soon. We cleaned the V Berth out and washed all the bedding. Connie and Steve arrive on Tuesday for 3 weeks. We're looking forward to more play than work. Happy Spring! It has to get warmer soon. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
March 17, 2013
Hi Everyone, Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's been a cold week making it difficult to get our outside projects done. We may have to just go with the cold and go ahead and wash the boat, put up the sails and sew the plastic panels into the canvas enclosure. We only have 10 days before Connie and Steve arrive.
We finally got to the Borough Market this week. Great food and fun browsing the market. Today we went to Westminster Cathedral for mass. Fantastic Mens and Boys choir sang the mass. Then we walked down to the Natural History Museum. Great free museum and our favorite exhibit was the dinosaurs. Hope everyone had a nice weekend. We are alive and well in London. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
March 9, 2013
Hi Everyone, We had a nice week with some decent weather. We even reached 62 on Tuesday but unfortunately the cold is due back tomorrow with possible snow showers:-(
Great fun with concerts this week. St. Martin-in-the Fields had a Chamber Music Competition Semi-Finals with two groups performing each day for 3 days. We went to them all and enjoyed fantastic performances. Most were trio or quartets but yesterday we heard a Choral Group perform. It reminded Al and I of our college Madrigal group but they sang music more difficult than we ever tackled. We purchased tickets for the finals March 19 but we don't know which 3 of the 6 have been chosen as finalists yet.
Al is busily sewing trying to finish our projects before Connie and Steve come. Our new Baltic Cruising Guides arrived so I've been deciding what more we need to buy before we go. We'll be in 11 different countries this summer, four different time zones and using 10 different currencies.(Not counting the USA) Languages will be interesting too but thankfully many people speak English.
I failed to find pulpo (octopus) to make Al seafood pasta for his birthday so we went out for a pizza instead. Actually it was quite good and was complimented by a nice bottle of wine. I found a yummy lemon dessert at Waitrose bakery which almost made up for the pulpo:-) Happy Time Change tonight USA. We don't "spring ahead" until March 31 (Easter) in Europe.
Hope all is well. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
