15 Jun 2012

VISIT TO LONDON - Friday's Fave Five



more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

The highlight of this week was my trip to London to meet with  Jo my blogfriend since 2008 from South Africa. Actually she is living in Tanzania and was with her husband on holidays in the UK. We had decided to meet in London to see each other for the first time "life".



From Brussels to London we took the Eurostar train which goes under the see and it takes only 2 h to get there.

My friend Dominique came with me as she hadn't been in London since 20 years and we wanted to combine our stay with a Musical. So we took a package Hotel/Musical.

When we arrived in London it poured ! and it didn't stop the whole day ! It was awful. But we decided to make the best out of our 2 days stay.



The hotel was very nice in a square near Paddington station, so we could go easily wherever we wanted to. It was located in a square with a little park and no traffic at all. A very calm and quiet hotel which offered everything for a short stay.





As it rained and rained we decided to take a Sightseeing tour at least we didn't get wet and during nearly 3 hours took us to all interesting places in London. We even got these nice raincoats.




We returned  to the hotel at 6 pm rested a bit before taking the tube to Piccadilly Circus to watch the Musical Ghost. It was really wonderful ! The decoration was not made out of paper or carton, but was projected with slides so that you got the impression you were in the middle of the show. It even rained in the Musical ! For a Monday evening there were a lot of people and the theatre was nearly full. We enjoyed it really very much.



The next morning was the big day, meeting with Jo in a Pub near our hotels. The funniest thing was that she and her husband had booked a hotel just 3 min from ours which we didn't know before ! It was so nice to see each other and she was exactly the same person like in her blog and we spent two wonderful hours together, talking about our lives which we knew already from our blogs. She knew Dominique also from my Blog. She had brought for each of us a beautiful big scarf from Africa.

Then we seperated regretfully, they went on a sightseeing tour and Dominique and I went to discover Soho.



of course we visited the Liberty store which is such a beautifulold building. I took this picture of us in a mirror and Dominique couldn't resist to buy a gorgeous fabric to make a blouse.



We then took the tube to Covent garden where we walked around, at least it didn't rain there. We had a coffee  listening to a group of young music students who played violin. A little pigeon tried to pick out some sweets !



I also introduced Dominique to "Fish & Chips" which she had never eaten before and she loved it. I knew from experience that you can eat very well in the cosy Pubs. Which we did. The next day I recommended her Jacket (or baked) potato. I had it with cheddar cheese, she choose shrimps.

At 7 pm we took our Eurostar train back to Brussels, where we arrived happily but exhausted ! Mr. G. picked us up at 10.30 and by 11 pm we were home. What a nice stay we had !

15 comments:

  1. What a shame we missed each other by 2 days. I saw Ghost on Saturday at the matinee, I enjoyed it very much. Then I had to rush to Heathrow and fly home. I went to Covent Garden to the Ballet and also had a look at the Liberty store. Only 2 hours with Jo? that seems to be the limit for overseas blog friends as we only had 2 hours together.

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  2. What fun!! thanks for the story, I needed an inspiration to get back to blogging again!!

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  3. It was lovely to see Liberty's appearing in your blog, one of my all time favourite stores, such a great building.

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  4. That is what is so good about living in Europe you can go to London or any capital city for the weekend. What I don't miss is the foul weather. You sounded like you didn't let the rain stop you enjoying yourselves. That must have been nice to meet Jo and Grant. I have missed her blogging.

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  5. Wow, what fun! The whole excursion sounds lovely despite the rain, and how neat to meet up with a blog friend in real life.

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  6. I'm so jealous you got to meet Jo. They had been thinking of visiting Canada this year, but I guess they went to the UK instead.
    But I'm glad you met her, because I just know she's a sweet, special person.
    And, besides, I met you before Jo did. LOL
    Looks like you and Dominique had a wonderful time in London. I enjoyed this post very much, my friend!
    Cuddle all the cats for me.
    Luv, K

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  7. Gosh, I love seeing 'our' Britain through the eyes of a visitor. What lovely piccies - you really look as though you're having a great time.

    An enjoyable blog.

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  8. Ah, to be in London! And what lovely pictures. Sounds like a great trip, rain and all.

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  9. My daughter was in London last week too! She saw 4 musicals and had a fantastic time!

    Sorry it rained on your trip but London is wonderful even in the rain!

    Happy weekend!

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  10. That's so great you got to meet another blogger! Amazing. Beautiful pictures!

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  11. Fabulous weekend! I am envious. That Eurostar is wonderful -- I wish we had better public transportation .

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  12. WOW!! fantastic faves!!!! I so want to go to London one day. My husband has been and loved every minute. And how very special that you got to meet a blogging buddy in "real life". I also have that on my list of things to do before I die. There are like FIVE blogging buddies I would love to meet (probably more). What a great week you had!!

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  13. Looks like you had a great time in London despite the bad luck with the weather! (Could have been me with my bad weather curse... ha ha)

    And a meetup with your blogfriend too, how wonderful!

    Some day I will travel on the eurostar too...

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  14. WOW, it all seems surreal now that we actually met! As told you in a text, we loved the get-together and yes, it felt as though we'd known you for years! Loved meeting Dominique too. When I read your post today, I could actually "hear" you! Hope you're having a wonderful time at the moment. We arrived back in camp (Tanzania) on Friday afternoon exhausted but thrilled to see sunny Africa and to reunite with our cats! Hugs Jo

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  15. What a fun visit in spite of the rain. I've never heard of shrimp on baked potatoes.

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