D, my youngest brother, came over to celebrate christmas with me in london. he arrived in london just a mere hour before the crazy snow happened in london. soon after his arrival, we headed to the train station to catch our train to liverpool. we so relieved that our train left during the blizzard. the second our train left, we found out the 'football' game were going to liverpool to see that evening was canceled. strike one, uk christmas. it made for a long train ride. upon our arrival in liverpool, there was absolutely no snow. there was some ice on the sidewalks, but nothing to warrant canceling a game. our 3 days in liverpool turned out to be quite long. with the trip getting off to a bad start, we didn't really have much hope of picking up. we hoped the game being rescheduled while we were there, but alas we found out it takes weeks to reschedule games. oh and our tickets couldn't be refunded. strike two, uk christmas. the highlight of our liverpool visit was the beatles story museum. we also saw the cavern club, where the beatles began. otherwise, our visit consisted of walking in the cold, sipping lots of hot chocolate, and lingering in stores to warm up.
this was all we saw of anfield, well that and the gift shop. thanks winter weather.
mathew street, where the original cavern club was located.
replica of the stage at the cavern club in the beatles story museum.
so thrilled to be in liverpool.
we hoped for brighter prospects for the remainder of D's visit. tuesday morning we ventured out to do some christmas shopping and show D the sights of london. first, we ventured to abbey road studios and up to the camden market. next we headed down oxford street with all the crazy shoppers and then to the christmas market in hyde park. that evening we went to see lots of the london landmarks...trafalgar square, big ben, parliament, and westminster. wednesday we had to fully tackle the christmas shopping. it was off to see buckingham palace, oxford street part two, and chinatown.
thursday morning we headed up to kings cross to catch our train to scotland, where we were going to spend christmas snowboarding. due to the previous snow, and the usual christmas travel traffic, chaos ensued. we boarded our train, only to find that we did not have reserved seats and every single seat was filled. our options were to stand in-between two train cars, amongst everyone's luggage for 7 1/2 hours, or to ditch all of our plans and stay in london. we opted for the latter. strike three, uk christmas. and then we still got charged for our hotel. strike four, uk christmas. feeling disheartened after our christmas plans unfolded, it was time for one thing...mcdonalds, the ultimate cure for any upset american. that evening we found a good indian restaurant and had a delicious curry meal.
and then came christmas. no christmas eve is complete without baking. my day began with some homemade chocolate chip cookies with real nestle chocolate chips. the chocolate chips made all the difference. afterwards we went to borough market and walked along to the thames to see the remainder of london's landmarks...globe theater, tate modern, millenium bridge, st. paul's, the tower of london, and the tower bridge. we headed back home to watch it's a wonderful life, our christmas eve tradition. to celebrate christmas, D and i went to our first ever midnight mass at a church near my flat. after putting on our new pair of christmas pajamas, we awoke to our first christmas away from home. needless to say, christmas was slightly anticlimactic. we opened our few presents and began our all-day marathon of movies and how i met your mother. we had a nice christmas dinner thanks to my flatmates.
merry christmas tree in covent garden.
opening christmas pajamas!
the day after christmas, or boxing day to the uk, proved to be chaotic. D and i had not finished our christmas shopping so we decided to partake in the sales. boxing day also brought a tube strike. during a typical tube strike (which usually happen once a month) all of the lines usually run, but several of the stations are closed. for this particular tube strike, all the lines were closed. we took a bus into the center of the city on a very crowded and tourist filled bus. the next day we decided to venture out of london. we took a day long bus tour that visited bath, stonehenge, and salisbury. bath is famous for it's ancient roman baths, and is where jane austen lived for sometime. she actually wrote pride and prejudice while living in bath. our visit was very short, so we only had time to tour the roman baths. it was very interesting and the town was beautiful. i will definitely be making a trip back to see more of the city and do all the jane austen stuff. we did a quick, and very cold, visit to stonehenge. after, we went to the small town of salisbury to see the cathedral. bath was definitely the highlight of the day. stonehenge was pretty awesome, but there's only so much to do and see with some monolith stones in the middle of field in the cold english winter.
roman baths. that water is 1500 years old.
stonehenge.
salisbury.
the last few days of D's visit were spent finishing up seasons one and two of how i met your mother, briefly visiting the british museum, eating curry, and watching 'football'. it was good to have a familiar face in town. all in all, i learned the hard way that the holidays are best spent at home. it was especially disappointing when greenville had it's first white christmas in my lifetime and i missed it. i also learned never to plan to travel in uk over christmas. it's too depressing to total up how much money we lost due to our thwarted travel plans. i can only hope that 2011 holds better weather and more successful traveling for me and any visitors!
goodbye 2010, hello 2011!
I enjoyed traveling through your life. Love the shots. Love the stories.
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