Hyde Park - Winter Wonderland 2010

Seasons greetings! Hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for Christmas. We have taken advantage of Christmas-time by hitting up Christmas markets (Hyde Park here in London as well as a couple on our trip to Germany this past weekend). Here are some pics from the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.... very festive!

Welcome to the Winter Wonderland!

Christmas market: way too many people

Still too many people

Giant scary Santa

Having a jolly time, but missing something...

Ah, much better

Just like a county fair in the winter...

...plus mulled wine!

The mulled wine lighthouse

Other folks getting festive 

It also has a Bavarian Beer House!

Prost!

Party on

Amanda is always making new friends

Night celebrating anniversary - Oxford Street 

Samuel Smith brewery (named after my dad! ;))

Consuming delish Sam Smith lager

Photo opp w/ our friend Nick & the Chelsea football team! 

Harrods Christmas department 

Harrods!! 

Mall walkway leading up to Buckingham Palace 

Buckingham Palace 

Don't mess with him!

Queen's Gallery attached to Buckingham Palace - I visited while it had the Queen Victoria & Prince Albert exhibit.... very cool! 

Christmas tree inside Queen's Gallery (notice all the ornaments are little crowns... very royal!)

Update as of Thanksgiving

Hello & happy Thanksgiving! Obviously, Thanksgiving is kind of a let-down when celebrating abroad, but we are doing our best and we're going to have a nice WholeFoods prepped turkey dinner tonight after Christian gets back from a work trip in Manchester. And we have also been invited over to some new friends' flat to celebrate with them on Saturday, which will be great!

Christian has been quite busy at work (things have really geared up) and I have been occupying myself with job searching and trying to site-see as much as possible as well. I have had a few interviews and actually have a couple of job offers at the moment, so stay tuned for more details soon!

Thought I would share some sites from around London over the past couple of weeks.... 

Tower Bridge & HMS Belfast ship

 Tower Bridge

London City (Tower of London is on the right by the water) 

Christian's place of work.... Tower Bridge House 

Awesome 

Holland Park (near our flat)

Will write more soon.... happy Turkey Day to all of you! xoxo

Kensington neighborhood (High Street Kensington & Kensington Gardens)

Hi again... just trying to play catch-up since we went silent on the blog for a while there. But don't worry... that does not mean we have been stuck in our flat while we've been here. I wanted to explore around our neighborhood on one of the first afternoons when Christian was at work (before I got the courage to 'tube it' by myself!).  Our flat is very close to Kensington High Street & Kensington Gardens/Palace... only about a five minute walk from the High Street and a ten minute walk from the Gardens. 

Gardens directly in front of Kensington Palace 

Lovely self photo 

The Orangery - Kensington Palace.... great place to have high tea (or so I've heard) 

The Round Pond at Kensington Gardens 

More of Kensington Gardens.... it's a pretty gigantic park!

Kensington Palace (residence of British Royal Family... Princess Diana lived here at one point)... not a great pic since it is currently under construction so I couldn't get too close.

Kensington High Street 

Double decker bus.... these are very common (not just for tourists, but for everyday commuting) 

Ahhh.... more on Kensington High Street.... two great stores next to each other!!

As mentioned previously, we also celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary this past weekend. Christian took me out to a few places that were recommended to him for dinner & drinks. We started by going to a sweet champagne bar on the 42nd floor of Tower 42 in Central London (there aren't too many skyscrapers in London, so this had an amazing view of the city). Here is a link to the champagne bar: www.vertigo42.co.uk Then we went to dinner at a fun Mediterranean restaurant and then for an after-dinner drink in SoHo, which has a very happening night-life. We actually saw a brothel (yes, currently still in operation) across the street from the place we were having a drink at. Crazy!  It was a fun night and a great way to celebrate!

Much love from London..... 

Sites we saw

Hi there,
Hope this post finds everyone doing well! We thought we'd give an update with some of the cool things we've seen so far in London. From a tailgate party for an American NFL game (gosh, we thought we weren't in the States anymore) to the Borough Market, which would be the equivalent of Pike's Place Market over here.... we saw a bunch of stuff during the walking tour Christian took me on my 1st full day in London (while I was still recovering from jet lag... my dogs were barking after that day!!). But it was a great day to explore the city as you can see the sun was actually out! :)

NFL tailgate going on at Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery.... notice the 49er in the background! They were serving Coors Light (of course!)....

Gate entrance to 10 Downing Street (where the prime minister lives)... many guards stood out front

Westminster Abbey 

Houses of Parliament 

Big Ben!

Mindy & Ben 

The Geismanns in front of the Eye of London 

Borough Market 

Cheers!!