Saturday: north before heading east

We decided to tackle northern London for Madre’s last day.  First stop: King’s Cross for a divine brunch at Smithy’s (special thanks to Allison and Pete Tomasino for the recommendation!) with our dearest Annie.  It’s right around the corner from King’s Cross, so we popped in to snap a shot at the famous Platform 9 3/4 — it was moved due to construction but there were re-directional signs!  Now that’s embracing tourism.

We then headed up to the border of zones 2/3 to Hampstead Village adjacent to Hampstead Heath for an enchanting walk (thanks to a course charted by The Unofficial Guide to London) through one of London’s oldest and most charming areas.  On the way back into central London, we stopped at Camden Town to check out the market, pick up some more Christmas gifts for family/friends (;)), and get Madre her long-awaited Guinness at The World’s End pub.  After heading home to watch our appearance on TV Burp (!) we headed out to get Madre a true London curry at the Indian restaurant down the block, Miran Masala–delicious food and an adorable old Indian man owner!  It hit the spot…especially because nothing gets you in the mood for local, freshly made sweets from Hampstead Village like spicy curry ;)   Yup, there’s a method to our madness!

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 10:22 pm  Comments (1)  
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Friday: back to British

We decided to follow up our day in Paris with a very British day in London.  We crossed the Thames on Southwark Bridge and headed to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  We looked around the exhibition, caught an Elizabethan clothing/costuming demonstration, and took a guided tour.  There will always be a special place in my heart for Shakespeare (I love studying and performing his works!) and it was great to spend the afternoon expanding my knowledge of him, his works, and his time.

Realizing we could make the 5pm evensong service at St. Paul’s, we quickly headed across the Millennium Bridge to the Cathedral.  Attending service is the easy, free way to see the Cathedral’s interior, and doing so while a spectacular choir is singing hymns was perfect.

Our stomachs were speaking to us, and I decided the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese would be our next stop.  Located in the heart of Fleet Street, the pub is a famous institution rebuilt after the Great Fire and preserved to this day.  It was packed with the after-work on Friday gang, but we grabbed some authentic British grub and lager in the reserved dining room.

We continued walking down Fleet Street and the Strand to Trafalger Square, stopping in at the National Portrait Gallery, open late on Fridays, to see their exhibit on Bob Dylan.

Movie-going is a Dugo gal tradition, so we obviously decided experiencing it the London way would be a worthwhile conclusion to the evening.  We headed to the entertainment-centric Leicester Square to see “the best British film of the year” Harry Brown starring Michael Caine at the Odeon Theatre.  The media studies and film students in me were in heaven!  Culturally, it was interesting to see how different movie-going is here as well.  The Leicester Square Odeon was converted from a stage theatre to a cinema but still retains a full bar and assigned seats.  Although very violent with intense social commentary, Harry Brown was very enjoyable to see and continued the true-British theme of the day!

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 10:09 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Jeudi à Paris!

5am: alarm // 5:45am: Hilton Olympia Hotel lobby // 6am: private transfer // 6:30am: St. Pancras International // 7:05am: Eurostar boarding // 7:27am: Eurostar to Paris, Gare du Nord departure from London St. Pancras // 8am: beautiful British countryside // 8:35am/9:35am [local time]: cross the border; Beauty and the Beast on the iPod-one earphone for each of us // 10am: “there must be more than this provincial life” but it’s so beautiful! // 10:50am [local time]: arrival at Paris, Gare du Nord; madre = ma mère

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let the whirlwind begin!  We met our fabulous tour guide, Sammy, and the rest of our group: Anita (Canada), Steve (Austrailia), and Sandra (Canada/Middle East).  And then we embarked on the most surreal day of our lives.

I was completely “nerd-ing” out and loved having so many of my interests connect with the beautiful city I was experiencing.  Apparently I did manage to retain some high school French; French history was my favorite unit in AP European History four years ago (woah); the opera house was where so many of the operas I’ve studied and have sang arias from; driving through Haussman’s urban planning and on the boulevard named after him was an urban studies dream come true; gaining another cultural frame of reference was the best souvenir of all, and I definitely understand how and why so many great minds were inspired by Paris.

The only complaint we both had was that we needed to leave at the end of the day!  We may have scratched an itch but we barely scratched the surface of Paris.  Seeing the sights was amazing but there wasn’t any time to experience “Panam,” the people’s Paris, which is my favorite way to explore new cultures and territories. Instead of fretting, we just promised ourselves, and Paris as we pulled out of Gare du Nord, that we would be back.

The photo gallery below includes the hundreds (literally) of photos snapped throughout our day.  They cannot possibly do justice to actually seeing/experiencing Paris live.

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 10:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Wednesday: magical Marie moments

Wednesday was another day full of magical moments!

First, we headed up to Notting Hill to explore the Portobello Road market.  En route, we stopped so Madre could have a quick look at a comic book store…and were stopped by a TV crew from Harry Hill’s TV Burp on ITV–it’s basically the British version of The Soup, one of our favorite shows back home!  As part of a montage making fun of an incident on last week’s The X Factor (Simon Cowell’s UK American Idol), we were prompted with the question “What is your favorite movie?” to which were to reply in a completely genuine, obvious manner “GUMMO!”  We obeyed…and made it into the montage that played at the beginning of the new 14-Nov 7:30pm episode!!!!!  Surreal…

Anyway, we then made it to Portobello Road and browsed all of the cute shoppes and stalls, pausing briefly for breakfast at Kitchen and Pantry.  After satisfying our Notting Hill itch, we headed northwest via bus to Abbey Road and were “those people” taking pictures in the zebra crossing.  I had been waiting this entire semester to have someone to go with me to the famous spot of my favorite band and was so happy that I got to do it with Madre.  It was totally worth the wait!

We headed south for an afternoon of Christmas retail magic at Harrods.  After productively spending money on Christmas gifts for many of my readers (;)) we indulged in Afternoon Tea at The Georgian Restaurant.  I cannot stress how content I was having my favorite meal in a gorgeous restaurant festively decorated for Christmas in pink!  (I KNOW! Believe me, I was freaking out.)

We continued the department store up Brompton Road to Harvey Nichols, Harrods’ edgier but equally expensive counterpart frequently referenced in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.  We headed back to the LVH for an early night on the eve of our most epic, magical adventure yet…

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 9:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Tuesday: Madre’s favorite things

While I was at class Tuesday morning, Madre managed to snag two tickets for a 3pm matinee of Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap, the longest running play in the world by Madre’s favorite author, and a 5:30pm dinner reservation at The Ivy, one of London’s most respected culinary names frequented by the socialite and theatre worlds.  We met at the St. Martin Theatre at 2pm, but I instantly dragged Madre around the corner to Charing Cross Road to get her bookworm on in London’s famous used book stores.  After making some very appropriate purchases, we picked up some tea and headed to the matinee.  The show was wonderful!  We both thoroughly enjoyed it, and the exquisitely maintained old theatre.

We headed across the street (literally) to The Ivy for a most enjoyable dinner.  Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed inside (paparazzi!), but believe me when I say the old-time glamour meets art deco dècor transported us to another era and socioeconomic stratum.  We began at the bar and sipped our Martini and Raspberry Tart cocktails until our table was ready.  We kept it classic when it came to entrées: I went with the house specialty of a salmon fishcake and sautéed spinach while Madre paid homage to the UK with the Shepherd’s Pie.  We both indulged in the Baked Alaska for dessert, a meringue covered sponge cake filled with cherry sorbet and vanilla ice cream that was set over the top with alcohol-soaked cherries and some flambé action.  We definitely ended on a bang (and Amaretto on the rocks)!

It was a great afternoon and evening full of many madre favorite things!  I loved everything just as much (how could I not love theatre & dinner?!), but my highlight was seeing Madre so happy :)

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 3:45 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Monday: Madness!

As I set off to a full day of classes and meetings, I set Madre off with my camera and A to Z map on a royal adventure: first to St. James Park for the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace followed by a tour of Kensington Palace featuring the Last Debutantes exhibit.  I was jealous as could be, especially because those were two things I would love to do but particularly with my Madre; the fact that I couldn’t due to class set the jealously over into the realm of anger :(   But I was glad to know she was having a great day on her own in London, something I’ve been experiencing and enjoying for the past 8 weeks.

We reunited over tea and Digestives at the London Visitor’s Hotel (again, so British) before heading to dinner at The Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman’s Sticky Fingers restaurant off of High Street Kensington!  We were in our element.  I obviously wore my Stones t-shirt.  The hostess was super nice, noticed, and made sure we had a great time…but really, how could we not?!  In typical “Foxy” fashion, Madre attracted an Australian man named Kerry who just happened to be in London with a group of Rugby fans on the last leg of their spectator tour through Europe; he sat at our table, grabbed my camera, and was very comfortable entertaining us for the evening.

Needless to say, the following photo gallery is one for the books!  It begins with Madre’s photos from her solo excursion and ends with Kerry’s drunken snapshots.  Cheers!

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 3:18 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Sunday: home across the pond

I can’t even begin to express how amazing it was to have Madre here and on how many levels.  Above all, though, it was great to have a bit of home in London with me — it was still an adventure, but I got to have my favorite companion by my side.

In typical Sunday style, we headed to mass at Our Lady of Victories, but the London flare was definitely there: 11:30am Latin mass with a gorgeous choir (personal highlight: being able to kiss Madre during the sign of peace! It was great to not be a loner for once!)!  We then headed up Kensington High Street to Kensington Church Street, where we stopped for brunch at the Kensington Wine Rooms (another establishment I frequently pass and always dreamed of going to!).  Sufficiently fortified, we headed up to Notting Hill Gate and back onto The Big Bus for another sightseeing route through London!  We hopped off at Westminster Bridge to spend some quality Kodak time with the London Eye and Big Ben, Madre’s new crush.  Once we were chilled to the bone, we hopped on the Tube at Westminster station and got off at South Kensington.  Yet another dining dream of mine came true when we stopped for a light dinner at Carluccio’s before heading home to the LVH for another sound snuggly sleepover.

More details in the picture captions and descriptions below!

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 2:29 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Saturday: the madre has landed!

Here it is: the Madre’s Visit series!  Disclaimer: we took a ton of pictures, we ate a lot of food (I almost forgot how much I missed it), and we made a lot of magical memories.  Here’s my attempt at documenting it all; a lot of the posts will be works-in-progress as I update them with little details I forgot/didn’t take the time to initially include–I know we have an eager audience awaiting!  Enjoy :)   I know we did!

After a very Love Actually airport reunion, Madre and I hit the Londontown running!  First, we headed to the London Visitor’s Hotel in Kensington to drop off Madre’s luggage; the LVH is a quaint little bed & breakfast style hotel with an extremely welcoming staff, but the best part is its close location to my flat in South Kensington!  From there, we walked through our ‘hood to my flat, stopping for a pub lunch at The Gloucester Arms and several Kodak moments — we soon realized that we were capturing Madre’s visit to London, my semester in London (flying solo makes getting pictures with yourself in them quite tricky), and our time together (again, only two makes it tricky, but we definitely capitalized on the kindness of strangers and waiters).  Next on the agenda, taking a very wise arrival activity cue from Madre’s The Unofficial Guide to London (the same trusted series we get all of our Walt Disney World advice from), was to purchase two 48-hour tickets for The Big Bus Company’s hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus tour of London.  We caught one of the last buses and, thanks to the ridiculously early sunset at 4:30pm, Madre got to see all of the London sights for the first time in their twilight glory.  We hopped off at Marble Arch, the end of the route, and grabbed a spot o’ tea (like the real Brits) before embarking on Madre’s first ride through London on a red double-decker bus (“yes, those really are the public buses!”).  Then, the jet lag hit, so we made a quick change of route to South Kensington where we stopped for a delicious Italian meal at Il Falconiere (the first of many delicious, spot-hitting meals).  I grabbed sleepover supplies for the next two nights; we were met outside, after already being freezing, by rain and a black cab…magic moment!  We hopped in, headed ‘home’ to the LVH, and snuggled the night away–the one thing I missed about home most of all!

Published in: on November 16, 2009 at 1:38 pm  Comments (2)  
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London Calling for Madre!

MD in LondonOff to Heathrow I go!

Published in: on November 7, 2009 at 8:13 am  Leave a Comment  
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