Fountains in Prague
Fountains 2
The next picture is of Týn Church. It is located in Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)
Tyn's Church in Prague
Monday, June 27, 2005
Pictures from Prague (Praha)
I've finally gotten a minute to post some pictures from Prague. The first 2 are from the Křižíkova Fountains in Prague. The fountains were synchronized to the soundtrack from Gladiator. The next showing used music from Metallica and Scorpions. Evidentally these fountains inspired the fountains at the Bellagio... obviously they needed to be on a larger scale for Las Vegas though :)
Fountains in Prague
Fountains 2
The next picture is of Týn Church. It is located in Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)
Tyn's Church in Prague
Fountains in Prague
Fountains 2
The next picture is of Týn Church. It is located in Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)
Tyn's Church in Prague
Monday, June 13, 2005
Back in the USA
It's been quite a while since my last post. I've since returned to the US. Things have not slowed down though since I left the UK.
My last weekend in the UK (Memorial Day), I went to Prague. I flew there on Friday and returned Sunday. I spent the entire time walking around the city and took lots of pictures. I also managed to locate a geocache while I was there.
Upon my return to Newcastle, I went and saw Star Wars and then had dinner with some coworkers. I spent Monday getting my apartment cleared out and wrapping up a few outstanding items with some of my coworkers. On Tuesday (May 31), I headed for home. 11 hours later, I arrived in Denver. Russ picked me up and helped me load my extremely heavy bags into his car. I think I had 6 or 7 total.
I took less than a 1/2 day to recover before heading into the office. The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy with work, and then traveling back to DC for Jimmy's wedding. While we were there Jimmy told me he felt really bad about spilling the beans about Laura and Basil. I tried to explain to him that we all had a great laugh over it and not to worry.
How's everyone else doing??? Not a lot of activity here on the blog! I'll post some pictures of Prague eventually and maybe some other interesting photos that I've taken over the past few weeks.
Take care!!
Steve
My last weekend in the UK (Memorial Day), I went to Prague. I flew there on Friday and returned Sunday. I spent the entire time walking around the city and took lots of pictures. I also managed to locate a geocache while I was there.
Upon my return to Newcastle, I went and saw Star Wars and then had dinner with some coworkers. I spent Monday getting my apartment cleared out and wrapping up a few outstanding items with some of my coworkers. On Tuesday (May 31), I headed for home. 11 hours later, I arrived in Denver. Russ picked me up and helped me load my extremely heavy bags into his car. I think I had 6 or 7 total.
I took less than a 1/2 day to recover before heading into the office. The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy with work, and then traveling back to DC for Jimmy's wedding. While we were there Jimmy told me he felt really bad about spilling the beans about Laura and Basil. I tried to explain to him that we all had a great laugh over it and not to worry.
How's everyone else doing??? Not a lot of activity here on the blog! I'll post some pictures of Prague eventually and maybe some other interesting photos that I've taken over the past few weeks.
Take care!!
Steve
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Athena Visits the UK
Forwarded from Athena's e-mail
Hope you guys are doing well. I just got back earlier this week from visiting Steve and the UK. I spent 12 wonderful days. I didn't want to come back. We had a great time.
I left on 20 Apr but didn't arrive until Thursday, 21 April. Despite having a very long flight the flight wasn't bad at all. Steve's company paid for business class which ends up being first class on British airways. You get a huge seat that reclines all the way back to a bed, your own personal TV and real food. No crowding. Nice flight....my best ever.
The first night I met Steve's "harem" of women co-workers and temporary UK boss (Art) and his wife (Susan) at an Indian restaurant in Newcastle. Friday I wandered around Newcastle while Steve was working. I saw many different churches/cathedrals, monuments, bridges, and a nice museum. Later that night we went to his boss' home to have a wine tasting. I have never had so much alcohol in my life...I started to get a headache after the 15th wine and had to slow it down..we ended up tasting about 20 wines, plus a few dessert wines. Too much alcohol for me but an interesting experience tasting wines from around the world.
Saturday morning Steve and I took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. We stayed at the Caledonian Hilton which was a beautiful hotel, however it was partially undergoing reconstruction. When we arrived we wandered around the city and gawked at the beautiful centuries old architecture. Not only that but it was so green. Really beautiful. We walked along the "Royal Mile" which is where the oldest buildings are and the street ends at Edinburgh Castle. We also took a tour of Mary King's Close. Closes were small alleyway's that people used to live off of. Many of them were built over a long time ago however there were still some existing underground. Pretty neat. Sunday we took a 4-bus tour of Edinburgh and saw the sites. We saw the school that Sean Connery went to as an adolescent. We also saw Holyrood Palace which is the Royal residence of the queen when she comes to Scotland. Monday we went to Edinburgh Castle which was huge and neat. It also provided many views of the city itself. Monday night we headed back to Newcastle by train. I attempted to make my famous chocolate chip cookies for his coworkers because he was ranting and raving about how great they were. However I didn't have my normal ingredients and I had to figure out the different temperature systems (C instead of F). They came out okay but not my normal great cookies.
Tuesday I wandered around Newcastle again while Steve was working. I saw Castle Keep which was a really neat and tall castle. Who knew they just loved spiral staircases a long time ago...I guess to save room. No elevators then. I was out of breath by the time I got to the top. I also wandered around the Baltic flour mill museum which used to actually be a flour mill and wandered around the Tyne and Millennium bridges.
Wednesday evening we headed to London, England and stayed at the Waldorf Hilton. The next day Steve and Art had to go to an all day meeting. I was so excited that I wandered all over London on my own. By the end of the day I had walked 9 miles (I don't know what I was thinking). I saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Parke, Kensington Palace, and many monuments. I didn't actually go in the places because some were closed and others were so expensive (around 12 pounds which ends up being 24 bucks). I wanted to go into Buckingham Palace and would have paid the fee however it is only open to visitors in August/September. I watched the changing of the guard for about 45 minutes....but after that I had enough of the changing of the guard. It was neat to see the men in their uniforms which looked like they had a large furry animal on the tops of their heads. I don't know how they saw since the hat seemed to cover their eyes. I wandered around Hyde park which is sort of like the central park of new york to London. it was so beautiful, green, and well kept. they keep the grounds with so many beautiful flowers. By the time I got back to the hotel I was so exhausted. We went to a great little Greek restaurant for dinner.
The next day Steve was working some more for about half of the day. I wandered a bit around the British museum, the bridges, and St. Paul's Cathedral. After lunch we both went to the British Museum which was just amazing. We saw the Rosetta stone (http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html), the Parthenon marbles, and tons of other Greek and Egyptian relics. We were just in awe. We weren't able to see everything. We also unfortunately weren't able to make it to the national gallery. Later we went out for good Italian food and then saw "The Lion King" on the British version of Broadway. It was really good.
Saturday, after walking around everywhere Steve and I took the Tube, which is UK's version of the metro and visited more cathedrals, the museum again, Tower Hill---a huge castle, the Tower and London Bridge, and we walked around Notting Hill. Later that night we went to a beautiful Greek Orthodox Cathedral, St Sophia's, for the orthodox Easter service. We had never seen so many Greek people in one place in our lives.
Sunday we went on an organized tour. We saw Avebury henge and Stone Circle where there were tons of sheep and lambs. On the way we could see the beautiful green grass fields and the beautiful bright yellow orogold grain fields. We then saw Stone Henge---which was the one thing I really wanted to see on my trip. It was amazing. Unfortunately you couldn't go right up to it. It wasn't on as high of a hill as I thought. It was still amazing considering when it was built. We also saw the remains of Old Sarum Castle. We then headed to the town of Salisbury and saw the Cathedral there and where the house that they filmed Sense and Sensibility. The Salisbury cathedral contained one of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta which was another neat piece of history to see. Also during the tour we drove past Sting's huge tudor mansion. Pretty neat.
Monday morning we awoke bright and early and headed to the airport at Heathrow Airport and headed our separate ways--Steve back to Newcastle (he will return to the US at the end of May) and me back to the desert in CA. I watched a ton of movies of great movies on the flight back to LA then I drove back to Fort Irwin.
It was a whirlwind trip but fantastic and I have lots of pictures and memories.
love
Athena (and Steve)
Hope you guys are doing well. I just got back earlier this week from visiting Steve and the UK. I spent 12 wonderful days. I didn't want to come back. We had a great time.
I left on 20 Apr but didn't arrive until Thursday, 21 April. Despite having a very long flight the flight wasn't bad at all. Steve's company paid for business class which ends up being first class on British airways. You get a huge seat that reclines all the way back to a bed, your own personal TV and real food. No crowding. Nice flight....my best ever.
The first night I met Steve's "harem" of women co-workers and temporary UK boss (Art) and his wife (Susan) at an Indian restaurant in Newcastle. Friday I wandered around Newcastle while Steve was working. I saw many different churches/cathedrals, monuments, bridges, and a nice museum. Later that night we went to his boss' home to have a wine tasting. I have never had so much alcohol in my life...I started to get a headache after the 15th wine and had to slow it down..we ended up tasting about 20 wines, plus a few dessert wines. Too much alcohol for me but an interesting experience tasting wines from around the world.
Saturday morning Steve and I took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. We stayed at the Caledonian Hilton which was a beautiful hotel, however it was partially undergoing reconstruction. When we arrived we wandered around the city and gawked at the beautiful centuries old architecture. Not only that but it was so green. Really beautiful. We walked along the "Royal Mile" which is where the oldest buildings are and the street ends at Edinburgh Castle. We also took a tour of Mary King's Close. Closes were small alleyway's that people used to live off of. Many of them were built over a long time ago however there were still some existing underground. Pretty neat. Sunday we took a 4-bus tour of Edinburgh and saw the sites. We saw the school that Sean Connery went to as an adolescent. We also saw Holyrood Palace which is the Royal residence of the queen when she comes to Scotland. Monday we went to Edinburgh Castle which was huge and neat. It also provided many views of the city itself. Monday night we headed back to Newcastle by train. I attempted to make my famous chocolate chip cookies for his coworkers because he was ranting and raving about how great they were. However I didn't have my normal ingredients and I had to figure out the different temperature systems (C instead of F). They came out okay but not my normal great cookies.
Tuesday I wandered around Newcastle again while Steve was working. I saw Castle Keep which was a really neat and tall castle. Who knew they just loved spiral staircases a long time ago...I guess to save room. No elevators then. I was out of breath by the time I got to the top. I also wandered around the Baltic flour mill museum which used to actually be a flour mill and wandered around the Tyne and Millennium bridges.
Wednesday evening we headed to London, England and stayed at the Waldorf Hilton. The next day Steve and Art had to go to an all day meeting. I was so excited that I wandered all over London on my own. By the end of the day I had walked 9 miles (I don't know what I was thinking). I saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Parke, Kensington Palace, and many monuments. I didn't actually go in the places because some were closed and others were so expensive (around 12 pounds which ends up being 24 bucks). I wanted to go into Buckingham Palace and would have paid the fee however it is only open to visitors in August/September. I watched the changing of the guard for about 45 minutes....but after that I had enough of the changing of the guard. It was neat to see the men in their uniforms which looked like they had a large furry animal on the tops of their heads. I don't know how they saw since the hat seemed to cover their eyes. I wandered around Hyde park which is sort of like the central park of new york to London. it was so beautiful, green, and well kept. they keep the grounds with so many beautiful flowers. By the time I got back to the hotel I was so exhausted. We went to a great little Greek restaurant for dinner.
The next day Steve was working some more for about half of the day. I wandered a bit around the British museum, the bridges, and St. Paul's Cathedral. After lunch we both went to the British Museum which was just amazing. We saw the Rosetta stone (http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html), the Parthenon marbles, and tons of other Greek and Egyptian relics. We were just in awe. We weren't able to see everything. We also unfortunately weren't able to make it to the national gallery. Later we went out for good Italian food and then saw "The Lion King" on the British version of Broadway. It was really good.
Saturday, after walking around everywhere Steve and I took the Tube, which is UK's version of the metro and visited more cathedrals, the museum again, Tower Hill---a huge castle, the Tower and London Bridge, and we walked around Notting Hill. Later that night we went to a beautiful Greek Orthodox Cathedral, St Sophia's, for the orthodox Easter service. We had never seen so many Greek people in one place in our lives.
Sunday we went on an organized tour. We saw Avebury henge and Stone Circle where there were tons of sheep and lambs. On the way we could see the beautiful green grass fields and the beautiful bright yellow orogold grain fields. We then saw Stone Henge---which was the one thing I really wanted to see on my trip. It was amazing. Unfortunately you couldn't go right up to it. It wasn't on as high of a hill as I thought. It was still amazing considering when it was built. We also saw the remains of Old Sarum Castle. We then headed to the town of Salisbury and saw the Cathedral there and where the house that they filmed Sense and Sensibility. The Salisbury cathedral contained one of four remaining copies of the Magna Carta which was another neat piece of history to see. Also during the tour we drove past Sting's huge tudor mansion. Pretty neat.
Monday morning we awoke bright and early and headed to the airport at Heathrow Airport and headed our separate ways--Steve back to Newcastle (he will return to the US at the end of May) and me back to the desert in CA. I watched a ton of movies of great movies on the flight back to LA then I drove back to Fort Irwin.
It was a whirlwind trip but fantastic and I have lots of pictures and memories.
love
Athena (and Steve)
Friday, May 06, 2005
Election Results
I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear who wins the election over here... didn't know there was one? Don't you watch the news? :)
Anyway, it appears that Tony "the tiger" Blair has been re-elected.
More to come later...
Anyway, it appears that Tony "the tiger" Blair has been re-elected.
More to come later...
Friday, April 22, 2005
Cure for the Black Plague
One of my British coworkers suggested a sure-fire cure for the black death... he said a pint of ale and 2 shots of whiskey either before or after... or both. I don't think that would cure the plague, but you sure wouldn't feel much afterwards.
Anyway, my solution was to fly in a specialist... Athena arrived yesterday around 1:30p. It took us more than 2 hours to get back to the apartment with a stop at the store and then unloading the car. We turned around and went back out for an early dinner with some of my US-based coworkers.
I'm back at work today, but will likely leave early since it is a nice day. Athena is probably still sleeping (1:30p). I figure by 2:00p she should get up.
We're off to Edinburgh this weekend!
Steve
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Black Plague?
Being sick sucks... being sick in cold rainy Northern England sucks even worse. I went to work for about an hour yesterday and decided that I couldn't stay any longer. I've been coughing my lungs out for the past 3 days. I'm sure the fact that it has been really nasty weather here hasn't helped. I think it finally stopped raining this morning after about 48 hours of continuous rain.
That's about all the news that is fit to report... I have a couple of cool pictures to share... will attach them to the bottom of this post.
Later all!
Tyne River from Swing Bridge
Newcastle - Millenium Bridge at Night
Monday, April 11, 2005
Sunday, April 10, 2005
UK Trip (March ?? - April 10)
Well, it's been a very long time since I've had a full post. I guess it's actually been almost a month! I've posted a few pictures to the blog from a trip to Holy Island and a trip to London, but never really wrote about everything that went on in between.
So... let's see... my last post had me returning from Colorado to the land of roundabouts and drunks singing in the street. I've managed to master the art of negotiating a round about without getting killed. I don't think I've had any near misses recently! The week I returned was when I first got the car (March 10). That following weekend (March 12) Sara, Gina, and I drove to Holy Island. The island is only accessible at low tide since the road is under water during high tide. We left Newcastle at around 8:30a and arrived at the island just about 10:00. We walked in the incredibly strong winds to the castle and took a tour. Afterwards, we walked out to the North Sea and took some pictures. Sara and Gina were nearly blown away by the wind and just about froze to death. We had lunch at the local pub around noon and then headed back towards Alnwick (pronounced Onic). There is a castle there but it was closed... the royals were living there for the winter so there weren't any tours and you really couldn't get close to the place. We spent some time at the bookstore in town and then drove out to the east to see if there was anything of much interest. It turned out that there was a nice little church and another castle to see. We started back towards Newcastle around 3:30. Gina and Sara were snoozing by the time we reached the highway. I told them they wouldn't last 1 day with Athena on vacation... "It's only 4:00?!?! We still have 8 hours left in the day!!" :) You can see a picture of the Priory at Holy Island in a previous post.
On the 13th, Sara and I drove down into Gateshead and took some pictures of the Angel of the North. It's a large "sculpture" that can be seen from the highway. It's wing span is the same as a Boeing 767.
Angel of the North
The week of the 14th was rather uneventful. I spent the following weekend in Newcastle. The week of the 21st was filled with back-to-back-to-back meetings. On Thursday, I flew back to DC for a surprise visit. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I arrived back at my parents at about 8:00p. I knocked on the door and heard my dad mumble something about who was at the door. The look on his face when he opened the door was worth the trip! Then to surprise my mom in the kitchen made it doubly worth while. The weekend was very busy, but definitely worth every minute spent on the plane back and forth. I managed to see a number of relatives (Grandma, Kara, Wes), have some really good meals, and get a small amount of actual work done. All-in-all, it was a great trip.
I returned from DC on the 28th (which is a holiday in the UK). Also, the 27th was the start of daylight savings time here in the UK. That threw a few people off for a few days since the UK was now 9 hours ahead of the west coast. Anyway, the week of the 28th was pretty short since a lot of people were on vacation and we had an all-hands meeting in London on Friday, April 1. Gina, Kate, Sara, and I flew down to London Friday morning and went directly to the office. We worked for a few hours and then attended the meeting and social hour afterwards. We all checked into the hotel and then went our separate ways. Kate went to have dinner with a friend while Sara met up with her friend from Germany. Gina and I ended up walking around London for about 5 1/2 hours. We probably walked over 5 miles!! and in uncomfortable shoes no less!! Below is a picture of Piccadilly circus. It was very crowded and noisy. During the day, there is a lot going on with performers and people milling around.
Picadilly Circus
The next day Gina, Kate and I set off to walk some more. We walked down to the London Eye (which is where the Big Ben pictures are from). Below is a picture (it's roughly 400 feet tall). It was $25 to take a ride on the eye so we all decided to go. It took about 25-30 minutes to get through the line, then the ride itself was about 35 minutes. I had talked to Athena's brother (Pete) at about noon and said that we'd meet at Big Ben around 1:00p. We were done at the Eye by 12:30 so we walked up to Big Ben and then up parliament st. We met up with Pete and his friend Brian around 1:00p and had lunch at a little pub nearby. The food was bad, the service was worse, and the prices were high. Other than that, the place was fine. After our "meal", we walked up to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures. We'd wanted to go to Westminster Abby, but it closed at 1:45p that day... we got there at 1:50p. After the Palace, we walked through Green Park and then up to some of the shops. Pete and Brian left to do other things at this point. Kate, Gina and I walked around to some shops... Kate then decided to try on every outfit at the Gap. Gina and I retreated next door to have a beverage and relax our feet... by this point she and I had probably walked 10 miles or more in 2 days.... and in uncomfortable shoes!! Gina and I flew back to Newcastle Saturday evening.
London Eye
On Sunday, April 3rd, I invited Gina, Kate, Sara, and Sandeep (another US Booz Allen employee that I just found out was here), over for dinner. We started the meal with cheese and crackers and then had a luxurious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Afterwards, we watched Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill. It was a fun evening of dairy products and British humor!
Last week was a slower week than normal... We had a going away party for one of the London based staff on Tuesday. He's been working on this project for over a year and is leaving the company to go work for another consulting firm. He's been very helpful since I've been here and we'll definitely miss him.
On Wednesday I had to go to a meeting in Lytham... it was a 3 hour drive from Newcastle. We met at 6:30a to drive down... yuck!! It was made even more difficult by the fact that I had been at the going away party until after 11:00p the night before!! We got to Lytham around 10:00a. Art and I then had to kill three hours until our meeting at 1:00p. We went down early because we rode with two other people that were going to a different meeting at the same location. Originally our meetings were supposed to be at the same time, but one of them got moved at the last minute. So, after a 3 hr drive, and 3 hrs of waiting, we attended a 3 hour meeting. It was not the most productive meeting I've ever been to... it was very difficult to maintain interest and pretend to be awake! We finished the meeting and then got back in the car for the 3 hour drive back.
The weather forecast for this weekend was for snow and cold, so everyone decided to just hang out in Newcastle. I ended up going shopping at Costco (yes, they have them here in the UK!) I was then invited to join the "girls night out". Gina, Kate, and Sara were planning to get together for drinks. The drink of the evening for them was the Cosmopolitan. I drank about 12 glasses of water. By 1:00a Sara and Kate had finished 5 cosmos. Sara was unable to form complete sentences... Kate seemed as if she were ready to have 5 more. Gina called it quits after 2 1/2 cosmos and was just hanging out surveying the room and bothering strange men. Today we were all supposed to get together for an early dinner at Gina's at 2:30p. Sara and I had planned to get together in the morning for some tea and possibly go to the gym. At about 11:00 she called and said that she didn't think she could even get out of bed. Every time she stood up she felt horrible. By 2:00p, she was still miserable and decided that she would accept the title of "The Queen of Bad Ideas." She decided that 5 cosmos was probably too many. Somehow she pulled herself together and we made it down to Gina's at about 2:45. Kate, on the other hand, had gotten up at a reasonable time, gone to mass, and then gone to the gym. She was feeling just fine. We've decided it's because Sara is an amateur and Kate is a professional. :-)
Anyway, it's been a nice day here in Newcastle for a change. It's actually been reasonable sunny and warm. We'll see if this lasts more than 1 day though.
Athena now has her tickets booked to come out!! She'll be arriving here on April 21. We'll go to Edinburgh on the 23rd for a couple of days, then come back to Newcastle for a few days. We'll be in London for a long weekend before she heads back to the desert on May 2nd.
Hope all is well in your parts of the world!!
Steve
So... let's see... my last post had me returning from Colorado to the land of roundabouts and drunks singing in the street. I've managed to master the art of negotiating a round about without getting killed. I don't think I've had any near misses recently! The week I returned was when I first got the car (March 10). That following weekend (March 12) Sara, Gina, and I drove to Holy Island. The island is only accessible at low tide since the road is under water during high tide. We left Newcastle at around 8:30a and arrived at the island just about 10:00. We walked in the incredibly strong winds to the castle and took a tour. Afterwards, we walked out to the North Sea and took some pictures. Sara and Gina were nearly blown away by the wind and just about froze to death. We had lunch at the local pub around noon and then headed back towards Alnwick (pronounced Onic). There is a castle there but it was closed... the royals were living there for the winter so there weren't any tours and you really couldn't get close to the place. We spent some time at the bookstore in town and then drove out to the east to see if there was anything of much interest. It turned out that there was a nice little church and another castle to see. We started back towards Newcastle around 3:30. Gina and Sara were snoozing by the time we reached the highway. I told them they wouldn't last 1 day with Athena on vacation... "It's only 4:00?!?! We still have 8 hours left in the day!!" :) You can see a picture of the Priory at Holy Island in a previous post.
On the 13th, Sara and I drove down into Gateshead and took some pictures of the Angel of the North. It's a large "sculpture" that can be seen from the highway. It's wing span is the same as a Boeing 767.
Angel of the North
The week of the 14th was rather uneventful. I spent the following weekend in Newcastle. The week of the 21st was filled with back-to-back-to-back meetings. On Thursday, I flew back to DC for a surprise visit. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I arrived back at my parents at about 8:00p. I knocked on the door and heard my dad mumble something about who was at the door. The look on his face when he opened the door was worth the trip! Then to surprise my mom in the kitchen made it doubly worth while. The weekend was very busy, but definitely worth every minute spent on the plane back and forth. I managed to see a number of relatives (Grandma, Kara, Wes), have some really good meals, and get a small amount of actual work done. All-in-all, it was a great trip.
I returned from DC on the 28th (which is a holiday in the UK). Also, the 27th was the start of daylight savings time here in the UK. That threw a few people off for a few days since the UK was now 9 hours ahead of the west coast. Anyway, the week of the 28th was pretty short since a lot of people were on vacation and we had an all-hands meeting in London on Friday, April 1. Gina, Kate, Sara, and I flew down to London Friday morning and went directly to the office. We worked for a few hours and then attended the meeting and social hour afterwards. We all checked into the hotel and then went our separate ways. Kate went to have dinner with a friend while Sara met up with her friend from Germany. Gina and I ended up walking around London for about 5 1/2 hours. We probably walked over 5 miles!! and in uncomfortable shoes no less!! Below is a picture of Piccadilly circus. It was very crowded and noisy. During the day, there is a lot going on with performers and people milling around.
Picadilly Circus
The next day Gina, Kate and I set off to walk some more. We walked down to the London Eye (which is where the Big Ben pictures are from). Below is a picture (it's roughly 400 feet tall). It was $25 to take a ride on the eye so we all decided to go. It took about 25-30 minutes to get through the line, then the ride itself was about 35 minutes. I had talked to Athena's brother (Pete) at about noon and said that we'd meet at Big Ben around 1:00p. We were done at the Eye by 12:30 so we walked up to Big Ben and then up parliament st. We met up with Pete and his friend Brian around 1:00p and had lunch at a little pub nearby. The food was bad, the service was worse, and the prices were high. Other than that, the place was fine. After our "meal", we walked up to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures. We'd wanted to go to Westminster Abby, but it closed at 1:45p that day... we got there at 1:50p. After the Palace, we walked through Green Park and then up to some of the shops. Pete and Brian left to do other things at this point. Kate, Gina and I walked around to some shops... Kate then decided to try on every outfit at the Gap. Gina and I retreated next door to have a beverage and relax our feet... by this point she and I had probably walked 10 miles or more in 2 days.... and in uncomfortable shoes!! Gina and I flew back to Newcastle Saturday evening.
London Eye
On Sunday, April 3rd, I invited Gina, Kate, Sara, and Sandeep (another US Booz Allen employee that I just found out was here), over for dinner. We started the meal with cheese and crackers and then had a luxurious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Afterwards, we watched Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill. It was a fun evening of dairy products and British humor!
Last week was a slower week than normal... We had a going away party for one of the London based staff on Tuesday. He's been working on this project for over a year and is leaving the company to go work for another consulting firm. He's been very helpful since I've been here and we'll definitely miss him.
On Wednesday I had to go to a meeting in Lytham... it was a 3 hour drive from Newcastle. We met at 6:30a to drive down... yuck!! It was made even more difficult by the fact that I had been at the going away party until after 11:00p the night before!! We got to Lytham around 10:00a. Art and I then had to kill three hours until our meeting at 1:00p. We went down early because we rode with two other people that were going to a different meeting at the same location. Originally our meetings were supposed to be at the same time, but one of them got moved at the last minute. So, after a 3 hr drive, and 3 hrs of waiting, we attended a 3 hour meeting. It was not the most productive meeting I've ever been to... it was very difficult to maintain interest and pretend to be awake! We finished the meeting and then got back in the car for the 3 hour drive back.
The weather forecast for this weekend was for snow and cold, so everyone decided to just hang out in Newcastle. I ended up going shopping at Costco (yes, they have them here in the UK!) I was then invited to join the "girls night out". Gina, Kate, and Sara were planning to get together for drinks. The drink of the evening for them was the Cosmopolitan. I drank about 12 glasses of water. By 1:00a Sara and Kate had finished 5 cosmos. Sara was unable to form complete sentences... Kate seemed as if she were ready to have 5 more. Gina called it quits after 2 1/2 cosmos and was just hanging out surveying the room and bothering strange men. Today we were all supposed to get together for an early dinner at Gina's at 2:30p. Sara and I had planned to get together in the morning for some tea and possibly go to the gym. At about 11:00 she called and said that she didn't think she could even get out of bed. Every time she stood up she felt horrible. By 2:00p, she was still miserable and decided that she would accept the title of "The Queen of Bad Ideas." She decided that 5 cosmos was probably too many. Somehow she pulled herself together and we made it down to Gina's at about 2:45. Kate, on the other hand, had gotten up at a reasonable time, gone to mass, and then gone to the gym. She was feeling just fine. We've decided it's because Sara is an amateur and Kate is a professional. :-)
Anyway, it's been a nice day here in Newcastle for a change. It's actually been reasonable sunny and warm. We'll see if this lasts more than 1 day though.
Athena now has her tickets booked to come out!! She'll be arriving here on April 21. We'll go to Edinburgh on the 23rd for a couple of days, then come back to Newcastle for a few days. We'll be in London for a long weekend before she heads back to the desert on May 2nd.
Hope all is well in your parts of the world!!
Steve
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Friday, April 01, 2005
Happy Easter...
A couple of days late :)
I made a surprise visit to DC over this past weekend. I flew in Thursday night. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I knocked on my parents door at about 8:00p. Needless to say, they were very surprised and happy to see me. Over the weekend I visited with Grandma and saw Kara and John for a few minutes when they stopped by. It was a good weekend although too short.
I flew back Sunday night, arrived in Newcastle Monday morning. Since Monday was still a holiday, I relaxed for the day and then headed back to work on Tuesday.
UK Fact: Daylight savings time starts a week early here. So for a few days, we are even further ahead (+9 from west coast!)
I flew down to London this morning to attend a meeting and will hang out in town this evening. I'm planning to meet Pete (Athena's brother) for lunch tomorrow afternoon. Since I missed him in DC, it'll be good to catch up.
Well, that's all for now. I will post more later with some additional pictures.
One last note... I finally have high speed Internet at the apartment!! No more dial-up at home!
Later!
Steve
I made a surprise visit to DC over this past weekend. I flew in Thursday night. Laurie picked me up at the airport. I knocked on my parents door at about 8:00p. Needless to say, they were very surprised and happy to see me. Over the weekend I visited with Grandma and saw Kara and John for a few minutes when they stopped by. It was a good weekend although too short.
I flew back Sunday night, arrived in Newcastle Monday morning. Since Monday was still a holiday, I relaxed for the day and then headed back to work on Tuesday.
UK Fact: Daylight savings time starts a week early here. So for a few days, we are even further ahead (+9 from west coast!)
I flew down to London this morning to attend a meeting and will hang out in town this evening. I'm planning to meet Pete (Athena's brother) for lunch tomorrow afternoon. Since I missed him in DC, it'll be good to catch up.
Well, that's all for now. I will post more later with some additional pictures.
One last note... I finally have high speed Internet at the apartment!! No more dial-up at home!
Later!
Steve
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)