New Year's in London
We were so happy to visit our wonderful friends, Joe and Catherine, in London! They moved overseas last January and we have missed them dearly. They came to London to spend Christmas with Joe's sister and her husband. Of course, when we heard they were going to be in London, we had to come over ourselves!
We arrived on New Year's Eve and after a little technical difficulty of finding each other, we were finally reunited! We had dinner at a super yummy Persian restaurant and then walked over to Primrose Hill to watch fireworks. We thought about going down to the Thames to watch the show, but were a little concerned that it would be a madhouse. Rick Steve's recommended watching the show from Primrose so we decided to heed his advice.
Here's the view of the London skyline. You can see the London eye is lit up red at the moment.
There were a lot of people on the hill; drinking, shooting off fireworks and lighting these super awesome lanterns.
Most of the lanterns made it up in the sky but a few had some mishaps by landing in a tree or crashing into the ground. I have never seen lanterns like this before and couldn't get enough of how beautiful they were up in the sky!
Some folks in the crowd were shooting off their own fireworks and a few times we all had to dive to the ground as one accidentally came our way. Scary!
Here's a video of a lantern taking off letting it fly.
Finally the fireworks began!
It was quite surreal being in London for the start of 2011. Makes me think that 2011 is going to be one super fantastic year!
The next day, we met up with the group and headed to Notting Hill for the Portobello Road Market. The streets were packed with vendors and people. I saw some really neat vintage items but didn't have room in my suitcase to take anything home!
We did a lot of walking on this trip. It has finally caught up to me that I'm six months pregnant and can't walk fast. I really can't walk fast anymore. If I do, I get a huge pain in my side. It was pretty frustrating not being able to keep up with the group, but thankfully it gave me a little more time to talk to Catherine since she was willing to hang back with the ol' preggers!
After Notting Hill, we walked around Hyde Park and ended up in Harrods. They truly sell everything there: ski's, bikes, cars, beds, chocolate, etc. Everything!!
After walking all day, I was tuckered out so we decided to grab pizza and then parked ourselves in a cafe for a few hours.
We almost called it a night after the cafe, but decided that Normer and I couldn't come to London without seeing Big Ben at least once, so we hopped on the train to see him!
The next morning we headed home so it was one short trip. We love you Joe and Catherine! It was so, so good to see you guys and we had fun bashing around London with you! Well, shuffling around London in my case, but you get the point. :)
We arrived on New Year's Eve and after a little technical difficulty of finding each other, we were finally reunited! We had dinner at a super yummy Persian restaurant and then walked over to Primrose Hill to watch fireworks. We thought about going down to the Thames to watch the show, but were a little concerned that it would be a madhouse. Rick Steve's recommended watching the show from Primrose so we decided to heed his advice.
Here's the view of the London skyline. You can see the London eye is lit up red at the moment.
There were a lot of people on the hill; drinking, shooting off fireworks and lighting these super awesome lanterns.
Most of the lanterns made it up in the sky but a few had some mishaps by landing in a tree or crashing into the ground. I have never seen lanterns like this before and couldn't get enough of how beautiful they were up in the sky!
Some folks in the crowd were shooting off their own fireworks and a few times we all had to dive to the ground as one accidentally came our way. Scary!
Here's a video of a lantern taking off letting it fly.
Finally the fireworks began!
It was quite surreal being in London for the start of 2011. Makes me think that 2011 is going to be one super fantastic year!
The next day, we met up with the group and headed to Notting Hill for the Portobello Road Market. The streets were packed with vendors and people. I saw some really neat vintage items but didn't have room in my suitcase to take anything home!
We did a lot of walking on this trip. It has finally caught up to me that I'm six months pregnant and can't walk fast. I really can't walk fast anymore. If I do, I get a huge pain in my side. It was pretty frustrating not being able to keep up with the group, but thankfully it gave me a little more time to talk to Catherine since she was willing to hang back with the ol' preggers!
After Notting Hill, we walked around Hyde Park and ended up in Harrods. They truly sell everything there: ski's, bikes, cars, beds, chocolate, etc. Everything!!
After walking all day, I was tuckered out so we decided to grab pizza and then parked ourselves in a cafe for a few hours.
We almost called it a night after the cafe, but decided that Normer and I couldn't come to London without seeing Big Ben at least once, so we hopped on the train to see him!
The next morning we headed home so it was one short trip. We love you Joe and Catherine! It was so, so good to see you guys and we had fun bashing around London with you! Well, shuffling around London in my case, but you get the point. :)
What a cool New Years! So glad you got to see Joe and Catherine! Can't believe you jumped the pond for such a short trip but it looked totally worth it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a FUN trip! First of all, New Years in London?! Wow! And then to see Catherine and Joe on top of it. Love that pic of you and Catherine - so cute!
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