London! London! London!

Woke up this morning, and to my surprise it was sunny
My husband got up a bit later shouting, "Oh, my god, it's a nice day. We have to get out of here!"
So, we headed off to Leeds Castle---3rd time charm.

Left home around 11:00, arrived around 1:00, a bit late for a visit.
But we could get inside of the caslte.
It was 16 pounds per person, but it is valid for a year. We should come back in summer time, the place must look totally different.
But the guy at the entrance hardly checked the ticket---we may have been able to get in ticket??

　　　Many birds wherever we go
It was so large, and took about 10 minutes walk from the entrance to the castle.
In the pond in front of the castle was full of white birds, gathering in a small space dipping, and flying away at the same time---repeating this over and over. It reminded me of the movie "The Birds" by Hitchcock.

Inside was rather simple?
　　　

But outside---gorgeous
　　

Unfortunately, since we arrived late, too late for bird aviary and labyrinth. It gets dark around 4:00 lately, so we must get up early if we want to do something.
But the castle iin the evening was also pretty.
　

Came home in the dark, thinking it was late, but it was only 7:00.
This is what we enjoy---for now.
During summer, when dark it was time to go to bed, not time to hang around and relax.
Now, we can sit back and relax afterwards, and update my blog like this.

But seriously, weekends always fly away...

Last week, we went to the centre area for market and Christmas lights.
Got off at Liverpool Street station, and went to Spitalfield Market.
(But forgot to take pictures!)

It is under roof, so no need to worry about the weather.
There were so many stalls in a large space---accessories, clothes, crafts, food, massage, vegetable stall---various kinds of stalls. Some were very unique and it was fun!

In that area, there were so many other street markets were on.
But all different levels of market.
Spitalfields was more like a touristy place but in some of the other markets, people were selling something not too stylish and anties pulling cart around, and some others were selling, ah, to me was not very sell-able, if you know what I mean..

By the way, as it was in Singapore, you can leave some stuff you don't need out on the street with memo "free", it will be gone in the matter of hours. I have got an impression that Japanese are the only ones who would pay to trash something totally good.

Next stop is a famous bakery. Actually, this was the real purpose of visit.
Through the market, there is a bakery sells great bagles and it is only 20p (30 cents?)
My husband loves their bagle.
There was a que outside of the shop

We bought 1 dozen of bagles (only 2 pounds 30 pence), apple turnover, and their famous salt beef sandwich.　the meat was so tender and bread was great　

Then, from Liverpool Street, the business district on weekdays, through St. Paul Church, Trafalgar Square on to Oxford Street to see the Christmas lights. The bus ride was a bit like a sightseeing tour.

What do you think of the Christmas light in London?　　　

It was a busy day enjoying a sightweeing all day.
This is what we got 　They were handing out pasta for a samnple

By the way, the weather here these days are...not pleasant. Stormy but in a blink of an eye we see sunlight for a second and back to rain...mostly cloudy and rainy though. My colleagues tell me it will be like this every day for the rest of the winter except the tempreture goes down and downer. Never wee the sun until summer... They also say that I would get used to it eventually...really? How could I ?
But then, I am free from the pressure to soak up the sun while we got in summer---4am to 10pm every day, and kind of enjoying relaxing at home being couch-potato without any guilt of missing any sunlight.

Friday: So tired from the trip, so started out slowly. Went out for a walk to Hampstead Heath, which is about 30 minutes walk from my house. This is what is great about London. Even living in the centre of London, you can find massive nature within walking distance.
　　

& their scone is great 　
though meals were not too great（The lunch on this day was good at a pub near Hampsted Heath）

Saturday: Went to Tate Modern, and suffered browsing through contemporary art we do not understand. Then, went on to Borough Market.
The original plan was to move to Kensington are and see the palace and have 3 tiered tray of afternoon tea, but my friend changed her mind after looking at the stalls in the Market.

　　Melt the cheese with the burner and put on top of steamed vegetables. The que was so long so I gave up and settled for the cheese sandwich, which was great but too greasy　->　For sausage lovers ->

Moved on to Kensington with Tube. It was too late to get inside of the palace, so peaked through the gate. Shopping at the high street, then done for the day. We bought take out Indian near my place (really nice food. quite posh restaurant but we usually go for their take out)

Sunday: My husband drove us to Seven Sisters. It is really huge.
　　

My friend wanted to see some castles and gardens, so we went to Leeds Castle on the way back, but we arrived at 3:20 and the last admission was at 3:00. We missed it...
Next time!!

Then, for my friend who loves to play tennis, we stopped by at the Wimbledon. Jumped into the shop 5 minutes before their closing time, and she could steal a grimps of Wimbledon.

Monday: The last day. My husband also took a day off, and went to Windsor Castle.
Bunch of birds walking toward us in the park　Again, we have to eat first. She tried the famous English Breakfast Lots of food!
Basically, there are 2 eggs, sausage or bacon or both, baked beans, grilled tomato and mushroom, and 2 pieaces of toast. In this restaurant, one of the toast was deep fried, and it was nice but quite heavy. Added freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee, total 8 pounds is not that bad, is it?

Then, the castle.　　 Caslte Cat.

After all this, she was considering of going to a musical, but gave up and decided to spend quiet night at home. So, take out Singapore food near our place (it is really nice, too)

Finally, my friend's trip to London ended, so did my vacation. Back to the reality, and I hate it!!

A friend of mine came to stay with us for a week from Japan.
I have been having hard time, trying to enjoy life here but not quite successful.
So, it was a nice break from this lonely daily life in London and welcomed a friend I can feel at ease spending time with.
I took a week off from work, and enjoyed myself.
I seirously hated to go back to work after this break, and wished for the first time to become a suzie house maker.

Monday: After work, went to Heathrow Airport to pick up my friend.
Tuesday:Work ->My friend walked around London and seen most of major tourist spots.
Such as→　　
My husband who works in city area took her out for dinner for me (I work suburb area), and had local food
Such as→　

Wednesday: I took a week off from this day, and enjoyed myself.
We went to Belgium on Eurostar. 1st day, we spend most of the time in Bruge.
I didn't rain but cloudy. It would have been much prettier if it was sunny.
　　
3 course lunch @16.00 EUR
　　　Good chocolate but too heavy after heavy lunch

Back in Brussels in the evening (We could go to Bruge by Eurostar ticket but had to pay on the way back---which cost us 13.00 Euro!)

Brussels. Beautiful Gran Place and waffles.
　　

Thursday: Brussel sightseeing. Last time, I could not see any Magritte work, so this time was a must.

First of all, we have to eat.
Went to the restaurant that I met kind gentlemen when I visited alone last time.
Apparently, breakfast has to be sweet in most of European country, and everything on the menu was sweet bread.
My friend orderd a bascket of various bread, and there were jam, chocolate and honey on the table free to use. I ordered open sandwiches because I wanted savory food. Avocado paste with fish in vineger with grapefruit. It was quite nice, surprisingly.A bowl on the side is coffee.

Then, walking through Royal Park?　some famous cathedral 　To me, they all look the same. Then, on to Magritte Museum
I was dissapointed not to be able to find the ones I wanted to see, but on our way out, we found another room and there was full of famous works! I am sure many people leave without realizing there is a room there. I love the Empire of Nights series.

Hungry again, back to Gran Place and had lunch　In Europe, wherever you go, potato, potato, potato. My friend was sick of potatoes, but I find myself not minding it at all. I guess I came to get used to it finally.

After this, so tired but went back to the museum to browse through the rest of the building, and walked to Sablon and had a tea break at Wittermer, and bought some Belgium beer for souvenior, and got on the last Eurostar back to London.

Walked a lot!!

Went to Holland on business.
Unfortunately, our office is located near the airport, so did not have a chanc to enjooy Amsterdam.

And, it was quite busy, and I could not even enjoy automatic croquette machine.
　Just taken this picture at the airport on arrival. The rumor has it is quite good. I was planning of trying on my way home, but run out of time.

The picture is that is it.
Although I was physically on Holland soil, but never got to enjoy the country.

The best experience of all was that my colleagues are from various country-Holland, Nigeria, Germany, Greenland, France, Moldva, and Canada(?).
Also, my bosses took me to a Japanese Izakaya (bar) restaurant in Amsterdam at night. You might think why on earth I would want to go to Japanese restaurant in Holland, but I haven't had good Japanese food in UK for such a long time, so it was good. My uncle-bosses were fun to talk to, too.

Tomorrow evening, one of my friend is visiting us. I am so looking forward to this
But the very next day, I am leaving her behind and go to work.