A Saturday in London

This past Saturday we had a great relaxed day discovering more beautiful parts of London. We had planned to meet Nikhil and Eleni at a cafe under a church at Trafalgar Square and then take a walk along the South Bank.

View from the National Gallery

The church

The cafe

On our way out we saw a symphony practice in the church

We then headed to Waxy O'Connor's - This is a GREAT pub. It is HUGE and has various sections with different themes

Eerie..isn't it (this is in the pub- the tree bar)

Us in the scary part of the bar (can you see the saw on our head)

Me in the church part of the bar in the confession stand

We then walked along the bank of the River Thames one of London's fastest growing neighborhoods

This anchor was just lying around on the promenade

WOW!

Finally - A weekend in London!

We dedicated this past weekend to discovering London - atleast a small part of it. London has soo many things to see, to do.. no way we can finish seeing everything in these 10 weeks. The vibrant Camden or the fancy Canary Wharf, the charming Covent Garden or the happening Soho, the quieter St. John's Wood (where we live) or the ever busy Oxford Circus/Piccadilly Circus and I could go on and on...there is something for everyone!

On Saturday we went to the famous Portobello Market in Notting Hill - the world's largest antiques market! It was 1 mile long, lined by all these shops selling antiques, jewelry, clothes, bags, you name it...and sooo crowded but soo much fun!




The 2.99 pounds Lebanse "all-you-can fill in your small foil tray" buffet was delicious!!!
After that we walked around Notting Hill a little bit, then to the Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. It was a GREAT day and everyone was out enjoying the weather. We passed the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert memorial. On each of the corners of the memorial are large sculptures representing the four corners of the world. Africa is represented by a camel, the Americas with a buffalo, Asia by an elephant and a bull for Europe.

We had our own little picnic in Hyde Park with a lamb sandwich and some beer. :)

We then headed to Chelsea to see how the rich guys live! We took a little walking tour, starting from King's Road, to some Old Church street, to the Chelsea Embankment and back and passed the 'Cheyn' area which had all the fancy houses! Many rich and famous people live in that neighborhood. All we could do is wish.... *sigh*.




On Sunday we decided to go to different hemisphere or better still stand between 2 hemispheres! Yes we went to the Greenwich meridian or the 0'0' longitude. Erin joined us as Mike had to work. (Poor Mike!)

Mr. Mohan and the sundial. The sundial doesn't support daytime savings so it was 1 hour behind!

There was a long hike to the Royal Observatory through the Greenwich Gardens and Erin did better time than me even with Baby Featherstone in her!

The tired us..

It was really crowded but we managed to take some cheesy pictures! :)




Mike finally joined us..... here are Mike and Erin enjoying our most expensive plate of nachos ($14!)! They were really bad too...We then walked around and saw the Queen's Palace and the Royal Academy. Unfortunately the Cutty Sark was under conservation and not visible.

Pr-ahaaaaa!!!

Incase you'll are wondering what is Praha - it is the official name for Prague where we went this weekend!! It was really AH-MAZING!!! The beautiful architecture, the cobblestone paths, the yummy food, the drinks..

Our hotel Pav http://www.hotel-pav.cz/en/ was right in the center of everything which made it so easy! Next morning after a huge breakfast buffet we ventured out with a "free" city map and frommers printouts to get "lost" into the city .... Here is our weekend....

Outside our hotel...

The Prague Castle and the Charles bridge

Me on the crowded Charles bridge

As we were walking around, we fell upon this beautiful park...

The view from the top of the park..

The famous Prague castle is not a castle but palace grounds with a lot of palaces, cathedrals, etc. Here is us at the entrance

J outside the Vitus cathedral



For lunch we found a cafe in one of the sqaures...

We decided to try out a cool little restaurant just next to our hotel for dinner and that was the best decision ever! It turned out to be the oldest brewery in Prague. The architecture was wonderful, there were musicians playing everywhere and waiters walked around with their brewed beer and a drink called Becherovka. The food was to die for! Read about U Fleku -http://www.ufleku.cz/en/page.php?page=onas

In the evening we walked to the Wenceslas square where the famous National museum stands. The street was too big and commercialized. Czech out the tram cafe... :)

The view at night!
At a cafe ....

The next day -Me dancing outside the "dancing" building.. this was quite lame..

The city was so well connected by trams... we took a day pass and went everywhere in them!

we went to the Vysehrad castle... again no castle only cathedral *sigh*

It had a beautiful view of the river...

We finally reached the famous and beautiful Old Town Square surrounded with great architectural marvels such as the Tyn Chapel, the St. Nicholas Church and the famous Astronomical Clock. We had the best meal of our lives sitting in one of the cafes there!




I wish I could stay there forever.... but it was time to come back.... buh-bye Prague! Check out some other cool pics in the slideshow on the top.