Neimans comes to London!

May was an amazing month!  Two dear friends of mine who I met through working at Neiman's were able to hop across the pond and pay Grant and I a little visit.  It really meant a lot to the both of us to have them here, and it was so much fun to host our first set of friends!

First up, Kevin & Christina arrived for a 5 day visit!  A little background on Christina and me...every now and then, we would do a little shopping together over our lunch break...9 times out of 10, we would walk away with the same exact purchase (hey, we both have great taste!), so we would text each other in the mornings before work if we were wearing something we knew the other had.  True story.  So, it was only fitting that when I arrived at Heathrow to pick them up, Christina and I were in the EXACT same outfit!  It was too funny!  And yes, we proudly rocked the matching outfit all throughout the day :)

Despite the rainy weather, we had a pretty productive day 1!  Plus, I knew K&C were planning on napping, but secretly, I was not going to let that happen...you have to fight that jet lag people!  So, we dropped off their bags, and were off...  

We had to hit up The Troubadour, of course, for brunch/lunch first.  Then, we did one of our favorites...took the tube to St. James's Park (it had just finished raining, so we had the park to ourselves!), and walked through the park up to Trafalgar Square, where we found ourselves in the middle of a torrential downpour; so just like the rest of the tourists, we ran into The National Gallery to take cover for a while.

The rain was NOT letting up, so we made a mad dash over to The Chando's Opera Room to enjoy a pint and dry off a bit...pubs are the perfect place to be when it's raining here, if you ask me!

Then, we continued our stroll over to Covent Garden, where I had my first macaroon!  Can you believe I have never had one before?  Christina, don't you feel special being a part of that wonderful moment in my life?!  It was delicious, and most certainly will not be my last!

At last, G was able to meet up with us, so the four of us wandered through Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, back down The Mall past Buckingham, and caught the tube at Green Park to head on home.  Whew, what a day!  Everyone was exhausted, so we made the 30 second walk down to Deena B's for a nice home-cooked meal.
Side note...during dinner, Deena and Henry were delivering food to a residence right behind our flat...we, of course, were curious - turns out, one of the Director's at the Royal Opera House lives right behind us!  Pretty cool, huh?  Hopefully one of these days we'll be invited to one of his fancy parties where Deena B's is catering...wishful thinking :)

We started off Friday by strolling through Borough Market for lunch.  Christina took some great pics of all the amazing food, that we both feel are definitely magazine worthy :)

Our picnic from Borough Market

On our way to meet up with Grant, we decided to stop by the Tower of London & Tower Bridge to snap a few pics, then made our way over to Canary Wharf for a quick tour.

Christina chopping my head off :(

After scooping up Grant in Canary Wharf, we made our way over to Island Gardens, where you get a view of Greenwich from across the river, took the footpath underneath the Thames, and found ourselves in beautiful Greenwich for the afternoon!  We shopped (and drank) our way through the Greenwich Market & then made the trek up to the Royal Observatory.  Greenwich is where the Equestrian events will be taking place for the Olympics, so as you can see, the view was a little obstructed...I can't believe the Olympics are only a few weeks away now!  G & I are definitely enjoying the calm before the storm...

 Equestrian set-up in progress

Tour guide Kristin, at your service

And then, we ended the day on Brick Lane, "the curry capital of Europe".  Once on Brick Lane, it is seriously curry house after curry house - all offering you the best "deal" for dinner.  It was pretty intense - every restaurant has a pitchman, stopping you, and asking you to "just hear me out...this is what I can do for you...bottle of wine for the ladies, 2 pints each for the gents...".  It was hysterical & pretty much impossible to pick a place!  It was quite the experience, but I'm happy to report that we found a place where we all enjoyed the same exact dish - chicken tikka masala (yea, we're really adventurous with our Indian food, huh?).

For our one day trip while they were here, we took the train out to Cambridge.  Kevin actually studied here one summer, so he was excited to get back & show us all around the town.  It is GORGEOUS!!!!  It was seriously so much fun walking around all the colleges.  We also stopped into the Fitzwilliam Museum (many people describe this as a mini-British Museum/National Gallery rolled into one) for a few minutes...my favorite items on exhibit were the three 17th-century Chinese vases - in 2006, a visitor tripped and accidentally knocked them over!  Can you imagine?!  Oh my gosh, that is one of my worst fears!  They were restored though, and honestly, if you didn't know the background, you never would have known they were once in thousands of pieces.

A couple of students, perhaps?

Kevin's College!

boys being boys

After wandering around the town, we enjoyed lunch at The Eagle Pub - the oldest pub in town, and then made our way down to the Cam.  This was by far the most entertaining (at least for Christina and me) part of the day.  Here, you can rent one of the traditional flat-bottom punts at the river and pole yourself up and down (or more like side to side) the Cam.  Both Grant and Kevin gave it a shot...and let's just say neither one of them fell in, so I guess it was a success!  haha  Half of the time you're bracing yourself as you run into another boat, or changing directions to avoid all the drunk people out there...it was pretty amusing.  I'm sure I would have ended up in the Cam if I had attempted...so, Christina and I just enjoyed the ride while sipping on our Pimm's, making the boys do all the hard work :)

An ad for Pimm's?

Once back in London, we had a relaxing dinner at La Pappardella (our little Italian joint down the street), and went out for a bit to the Duke of Clarence.  And oh yes, let's not forget the dance party we had in our flat to end the night...Christina and Grant were having DJ wars, it was pretty epic (I'm sure our neighbors love us!). 

Photo bomb outside of La Pappardella!

On our way to the Duke of Clarence...I thought we were doing funny faces??!!

Classic bathroom pic at the Duke of Clarence...we thought the wallpaper was pretty :)

Someone must have put me up to this...

On Sunday, we had to introduce K&C to a traditional Sunday roast!  On the way, we stopped in Notting Hill to stroll through Portobello Market, and meet up with their (now ours too :) ) British friends, Sasha & Tom!

The famous bookshop from the movie, Notting Hill!

One of Sasha & Tom's friends owns a pub in Camden Town, called The Colonel Fawcett, so we decided to head there for our roast.  It was sooooooo good - we'll definitely be back!

Afterwards, the six of us walked up to Primrose Hill to take in the amazing views, and then we headed back into Central London to enjoy a mid-afternoon wine and cheese break at good old Gordon's Wine Bar (always the perfect place for Sunday Funday).

On their last day (tear), Christina and I decided to have a girls day.  After a quick trip to the market to pick up ingredients for dinner, we went straight to Oxford Circus!  I think we ended up spending like two hours in one store, it was ridiculous!  They are all HUGE and so crowded!  This was my first true shopping outing here in London, so I was super excited (I have been very good since we've moved here!).  Unfortunately, the styles over here are bizarre, so we only came away with a few things (the same exact outfit, of course), but we did walk away with a gem of a photo...you'll know which one I'm talking about :)

Outside our front door :)

Lunch at Cafe Pascucci

 Both of these outfits were on display in the store...I mean, seriously??!!!  No wonder we found ourselves in the same store for two hours!  haha  

So, back at the flat, we made a delicious sea bass dinner, then ventured out one last time to get a view of Big Ben & Westminster Abbey at night...the perfect way to end their visit.  Although it was incredibly hard having to say goodbye, again, it was such a blast!  You guys are coming back next year, right?!  :)

The classic telephone booth pic :)

And then they were off to Italy! 

*Majority of the photos courtesy of Christina Crews 

Next up...another former Neiman's friend, Joanna, arrived a few weeks later!  She stayed with us in London for a couple of days, before meeting up with her sisters to do a little backpacking through Europe.  With Grant at work, her husband back in Dallas (we missed you Matt!), Joanna and I were able to have a couple of true girls' days in London!  It was so much fun...I seriously felt like we were two locals, just going about our day.  Plus, Joanna brought the amazing Texas weather with her...it was gorgeous, and HOT (high 70's, low 80's...it's funny how quickly I became a true Londoner...now, low 80's to me is way too hot!), so we spent as much time outdoors as we could (along with the rest of London) :)

We had a very fun and eventful first day!  We started out at, you guessed it, The Troubadour for a traditional English breakfast on their patio...it was my first time sitting out on their patio; it's been closed since we've been living here, due to the "lovely" weather we always have.  After brunch, we headed over to St. James's Park/Buckingham Palace, which was filled with sunbathers and construction workers setting up stands for the Queen's Jubilee. We were lucky enough to happen upon one of the events leading up to the Jubilee...a military ball of some sort at the Palace!  We spotted some great fascinators on their way into the Palace :)  We meandered from there over to Trafalgar Square, and then onto Covent Garden.

A little shopping (Top Shop of course!) and more walking later, we ended up stopping for afternoon tea at Bea's of Bloomsbury...LOVE this place; you can basically pick and choose the part of a "proper" afternoon tea that you wish to take part in (for about a third of the price!).  So, they have "Cream Tea", which is your choice of tea with biscuits & their clotted cream and jelly, or "Sweet Tea", where you get your tea with a sampling of all their desserts!  Well, we walk in, and immediately start sweating.  Similar to the rest of Europe, there are not many places that have air conditioning here, so you can imagine how hot it was inside...no air conditioning on a "hot", sunny London day, and ovens on full blast whipping out all of the delicious biscuits and desserts...so, we decided to skip out on tea (we'll do that when you visit next year, right?  :) ), and opted for cool Rosé and Chardonnay instead, paired with some hummus, at the adorable Bluebird Cafe on Kings Road.  And last, but not least, we ended the day by meeting up with Grant in Piccadilly Circus to see Les Miserables!!!!  I was SO excited to finally see it...it was truly a spectacular show; and Joanna and I found ourselves wiping tears from our eyes at the end (very emotional, but oh so good!).  Apparently it won the audience choice award this year...for good reason.

Day 2 started off with a boat tour down the Thames!  We hopped off the tube at Westminster, took a quick walk over to Big Ben/Parliament & Westminster Abbey, before boarding the boat for our 30 min ride down the river.  It was great to see most of the city by boat, and hear about the history of many of the buildings lining the embankment.  Such a great idea by Joanna :)  It dropped us off at the Tower of London, where we caught the tube back to High Street Kensington to do a little more shopping & pick up a picnic from Whole Foods to enjoy in Hyde Park.  After lunch, we strolled around the park, over to the Princess Diana Memorial.  Afterwards, we met Grant at The Duke of Clarence for dinner and drinks, and ended the evening (and her visit...tear) with a trip to Big Ben/Parliament at night. 

Such a fun visit - I'm so glad you were able to stop in London before continuing on your adventure, Joanna!  Looking forward to seeing you and Matt in the Big D in July!

*Photos courtesy of Joanna Lewis

What do four leaf clovers, endless amounts of Guinness & leprechauns all have in common?

Just one month after the Easter holiday, G received another day off – May Day!  It’s pretty amazing the amount of holidays over here…definitely NOT complaining :)  So, to take advantage, we logged onto skyscanner.net (our new favorite website) & chose the best deal for the weekend, which happened to be…DUBLIN!

Thanks to Gavin, Grant’s Irish co-worker, we had ourselves a complete itinerary from a local (seriously, he planned out everything we should do, from which hotel to stay at to where to go on a day trip, IT WAS AWESOME!).  I can happily say that our first trip without our most trusted inside travel source, Rick Steves, was a success :)

Here are a few hi-lights from our weekend getaway!

Guinness:

I think we were both pretty dang excited to be in the birthplace of Guinness!  Yes, surprisingly, I do like Guinness…the only dark beer I will drink.  So, we made it a priority to head on over to the Guinness Storehouse first!  You can no longer tour the brewery itself, but throughout the Storehouse you can read all about the process (which we quickly passed by), learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness, and the best part, enjoy a free pint up in the Gravity Bar, where you have a 360 degree view of Dublin – pretty fantastic afternoon!

Kelly - this one's for Parker :)

That, my friends, is a four leaf clover design on my Guinness...now that is talent!

Loved this...a wall full of old Guinness bottles

Oldest Pub in Ireland:

Of course we had to pay a visit to the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head – established in 1198 (I’m seriously becoming such a little History buff over here...I'm just amazed at how old everything is).  We enjoyed a few pints, some traditional Irish stews, and sipped on Irish Coffee, all while listening to a pretty sweet Irish band!

Trinity College:

Trinity College is an old (automatically making it beautiful) college founded in 1592, which houses the Book of Kells (a 9^th century gospel manuscript).  After taking in the Book of Kells, you can then continue on to the old library on campus, which contains around 200,000 extremely old books (as most of you know, one of Grant’s dreams is to have a HUGE library in our house one day, so he was in heaven!).

The General Post Office:

Don’t worry…I’m not about to go on and on about a regular old post office...the Post Office in Dublin is probably one of the most famous buildings in Ireland, so yes, it’s worth a visit.  During the Easter Rising of 1916 (uprising staged by the Irish Republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish the Irish Republic…which then led to the Irish War of Independence), the Post Office served as the headquarters of the uprising’s leaders, and remains today as a symbol of Irish nationalism.  You can even see bullet-marks outside on the original columns…so, basically the Alamo of Ireland. 

Temple Bar:

The Irish can get pretty crazy once the sun sets, so we thought we would partake in some of their nightlife fun!  The Temple Bar area is where everyone goes out…it’s pretty much 6^th street times 10!  I don’t think we were expecting to see all the fights, “unique” outfits, street performances, etc., whoa!  It was pretty rowdy!  Funny enough, our UT friends also living in London right now, Lauren & Matt, happened to be in Dublin that weekend as well, so we met up with them here in the Temple Bar area and stayed out WAY too late :)

Day Trip:

We had time for one day trip, so we chose to head North up to the town of Howth.  It’s a cute, quaint fishing village right on the coast, with some breathtaking views from atop the cliffs.    

And last, but not least, we stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral & admired it from the park inside its grounds to end our trip to Dublin...

It was a great little getaway…I think we both enjoyed being in a smaller city that didn’t have millions of things to do & see, so we could actually relax a bit!  Next up is Greece at the end of this month…I plan to make our first video of that trip, so stay tuned.