Our dear friend Chris came to visit this week...
His arrival: He presented Mike & I with 2 of the coolest gifts ever "coffee mugs from WAFFLE HOUSE" bought from a Waffle House - so they are authentic. We were Waffle House regulars.
Day 1 we visited Whole Foods on Kensington High Street (its 3 floors) , Trafalgar Square and went around the city on a bus tour....at the end we took my first bus ride back to Notting Hill (home) and then to dinner... with a final stop at Tesco Metro (Cannon fell in love with this place)
Day 2 we visited West Minster Abbey, Parliament, London Eye, Oxford St, Regents St., Big Ben and had a delicious Italian dinner in a cute place near Portobello Rd (down the street from our place)
Day 3 we visited Buckingham Palace - we missed the changing of the guards by 45 minutes (insert sad face) checked out Next, Harrods, Selfridges & Co. (Mr. Selfridge is from Wisconsin and created the "customer is always right" and "there are so many days til Christmas", Primark, Marks & Spencer, TopShop, John Lewis, and many more... Cannon also ate his first Wonder Waffle (THEY ARE DELICIOUS)
Day 4 Cannon surprised me with a tour of BBC Television Center! This was exciting! This is our 2nd TV tour together. We've also toured NBC Studios in NYC (fantastic tour) We saw Jonathan Ross (equivalent of our David Letterman), Bruce Forsyth (google him), and Liam Dutton (BBC weather guy) If you didnt know BBC is a third larger than CNN. We got to see the news room, it was fantastic.
We had some downtime before our BBC tour so we walked around - out of know where "WESTFIELD LONDON" appeared (HUGE MALL) Think of all the great malls that you have been to in your life and roll them all up into one fabulous place - That would then be called WESTFIELD LONDON - I will be wasting alot of days here - you can walk around for HOURS AND HOURS and hardly even cover a 1/3 of the mall.
Day 5 We took a day trip to Oxford, Stratford, Warwick Castle and the Cotswolds.
Oxford - land of Oxford University, Christ Church College, creator of Alice in Wonderland lived here, John Locke is buried in the Christ Church Cathedral as well as Lady Montacute who died in 1354. The Dining Hall (1529) has many connections with Lewis Carrol's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The white rabbit was based on Alice's father the Dean.
College's founder: King Henry VIII who executed two of his wives.
Scenes from the first two of Harry Potter films were shot at Christ Church.
Stratford: Birthplace of William Shakespeare (1750's)
This was a charming market town nestled at the edge of the Forest of Arden.
The birthplace home is adorable, he and his wife Anne Hathaway lived here with his parents for many years with their children before Shakespeare made his fortune around age 29 and moved out.
This home has been welcoming people for over 250 years.
Many well known writers have toured this home Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain...they etched their name in glass and that glass is on display at the home.
They believe that his birthdate is April 23.
While walking around Cannon spotted a shop called "Poundland" ~ We went in and sure enough its the equivalent of our "Everything is a dollar" store ~ except Poundland had good quality items!
The Cotswolds: Picturesque. Think sleepy villages, thatched roofs, fields of sheep, and horses wearing coats... To thatch your roof it would cost around $50k USD and would last around 30 years...
Warwick Castle: Greatest Medieval Castle in Britain. With a history that dates back over 1,000 years. Think William the Conqueror....William Vanderbilt...and many more over the years... It was a beautiful place. In one word: FAIRYTALE
If you are a romantic you would love this place. If you love history you would love this place. If you are breathing you would love this place.
and then we arrive back home and head to dinner at Zizzi and then I go home and Mike and Cannon hit the pub "Churchill Arms" - its a fantastic place.
Day 6: Lescester Square and Portobello Rd Market - then Cannon explored a little on his own while we wrapped up a few things on our never ending to do list... - We then went to dinner at Safro in St. Christopher Place near Oxford St. - it was a Turkish restaurant - This was my first Turkish restaurant and Turkish meal - It was tasty, I actually ate what I ordered. We then had a cider at a pub. Cannon got his 2nd Belgium waffle of the day and then we hopped on the Tube (subway) to head back to Notting Hill. We ended the night with a drink at a pub called Prince Albert - you will find it in most tourist books.
Day 7: 520am the alarm goes off and Cannon starts his journey back the States (insert tear)
I had a rough first few days so Cannon visiting so soon was nice. While Mike was international business man during the day Cannon and I learned the city in a flash because of Cannon I now know how to ride the bus, the tube, and got my Oyster Card (discounted tube card)! You would of thought Cannon was a local (bravo) if it wasnt for his fake accent he picked up.
I'm now empowered with all this knowledge! It feels good! Thank you Cannon!
A few things we picked up over the week:
"Piss Off"
"No worries"
"Step off"
"Give it a go"
"Do you know what I mean" (Jess our tour guide)
"Mamma Mia" (Jess our tour guide)
Cannon also got to hear a woman tell someone that they were a "piece of FN dogsh*t" (pretty funny stuff)
Safe Travels home Chris! We already miss you.
Cheers,
The McCooeys
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