Christmas in London

So it took a little longer to get this post up than I had planned.  It took Tommy a while to get the video together and then it took him a while to upload the video to youtube.  Finally, it is done!  And I present to you Christmas in London

As I said in a previous post, we decided to spend Christmas in London this year.  We had a week to spend there and there is a lot to see.  My family isn't real good with spontaneity, so I had to plan how the week was  going to be spent.  Once I figured out our priorities and where we would go, I put together a brochure with our itinerary and printed out a copy of it for everyone.  Although the weather made us have to change it up a bit, it was really helpful to have. 

Christmas Eve at the airport waiting for the bus to the hotel.

Before we decided on going to London for Christmas, there was one important thing that we did not know.  On Christmas day, everything closes in London, including public transportation and most restaurants.  So I had to do a lot of research to figure out how I would keep us busy and how I would feed everyone on Christmas!

Fortunately, St Paul's Cathedral had a sung Eucharist mass in around 11:00.  We wanted to See St. Paul's and what better way to experience it than during a service.  It was beautiful and a wonderful experience for Christmas. That is St. Paul's behind me and Mike.  I don't know if you can tell or not, but we are dripping wet.  We got a cab at around 9:00 when it was not raining.  By the time we got to the cathedral, it was pouring.  We had a couple of hours to kill, so we walked around in the rain.  It was nice to sit inside, dry out, and let the rain pass.

While the streets of London were empty, I had the kids pose with the phone booth, because that is what you do in London.

Starbucks to warm us up after mass.

After mass, we walked to Trafalgar Square where we met up with a walking tour.  It was to be a tour about Charles Dickens, and I guess I was thinking "A Christmas Carol".  It was not "A Christmas Carol".  It was more general about London in the days of Dickens.  It was interesting, and a good way to fill up our day, but it was not my favorite tour of the week.

Statue of George Washington in Trafalgar Square.

Fortunately, I was able to find an English pub that was open and taking reservations for dinner on Christmas night.  As it turned out, our tour ended just in time for dinner, and the pub was a block away from where the tour ended.  I patted myself on the back for the good planning, but everyone else was quick to tell me it was just luck since we had no idea where the tour would end, whatever ;)

Christmas dinner.  For me, Mike, and Tommy: fish and chips.  For Sam: a cheeseburger.  It was all delicious.  And, it was lucky we had reservations as it was tiny, maybe 10 tables, and full with a line of people waiting.

After dinner we walked over to Piccadilly Circus and walked around.  

Now, you would think that Christmas day would be enough time for things to close, but not in London.  A lot of places were also closed on Boxing Day.  So we used that time to do the double-decker hop-on hop-off bus tour, which included 3 walking tours.  We did the rock and roll one that day, and the Jack the Ripper one the next.  Both were really interesting and with all three of the tours, we covered ground and saw parts of London I am sure we wouldn't have on our own.  For dinner that day, we headed to a Christmas market. It was huge and a lot of fun.  There were booths with vendors and food, and carnival rides.  I don't know why we don't have Christmas Markets at home, I think it would go over really big in Fairport.

A little rain again, but not too bad.  And Sam bought an umbrella, so she and Tommy were dry.

The lines up there are zip lines.  You had to climb the stairs up to have the pleasure of jumping off, crazy!

Those are swings, can you imagine!?!

Without my itinerary, I don't remember the order of everything else we did, except for the last day.  So I will just put up the pictures in random order.

At the Tower of London, which really isn't a tower so much as a castle where they held prisoners.  The secret to the London Tower is get there early before the lines.  The crown jewels were cool, but I wouldn't have wanted to wait in line to see them.

Tower bridge.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

The London Eye

From our capsule on the Eye looking at the people who had paid for the champagne experience on their capsule.

Sam on the Eye

That is Buckingham Palace way back there.

Let's call this next section the Harry Potter Tour

The next 3 pictures are of Leadenhall Market, which they used for Diagon Alley

Of course we had to take a trip to Platform 9 3/4!

One of the many bridges we walked over.  You can tell that Tommy loved walking over the bridges.  He was not happy I made him stop for a picture, but this was the most secure feeling bridge.

Tommy and a bust of Hercules in the British Museum

The last day we rented a car and drove out to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle

In Italy, they have signs on the hi-way for cow crossing.  In England, you have to look out for tanks crossing.  Can you imagine driving down the road and seeing a tank coming out of the fields? 

The kids in front of Windsor Castle

Sam at the Roman Bath, in Bath, England.  It is a natural spring with warm water, you can see the steam. 

 Tommy's video from London 

 

Orange Picking

Tommy is supposed to be working on a video for my London post, so here is a little something to hold you over until he finishes.

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to go to an agriturismo with some friends where we first picked oranges, and then got to eat a fabulous breakfast.

                     

Giant oranges that are sweet and juicy with very few seeds.  It only takes about 1 orange to make a cup of orange juice.  Yummy!

And  here is what we have done with many of the oranges....

Delish!

December 2012

December was a relatively busy month.  We started it out with the Christmas concert, which was so nicely done.  The band, the strings class, and the chorus all performed.  We have a small school, and a very small music program, so community members filled in and helped, at least in the band or chorus part.

Sam is next to the boy playing cello.  Most of the kids in strings were beginners, so the teacher had the 4 who had more experience shine in a quartet.

Sam was so excited when we moved here to find out they had a strings program.  She hadn't had an orchestra experience for 2 years, and nothing with school for 4.  Unfortunately, the strings/band teacher was offered a job with the international school in Belgium and has left us.  The school was unable to find a certified substitute, or a sub with any kind of strings experience, so the class has been dissolved.  The kids had to be moved into a different class in the same period, and with a small school, there isn't a lot of options. Sam was smart enough to be sure that she got into another music class since this was to be her fine arts credit.  Hopefully they will be able to find someone for next year.

I was lucky enough to chaperone Sam's Italian class on a field trip to Caltigerone.  We started the day at an Italian Catholic school where we picked up their 10th graders.  Then we headed into town and had a nice tour from their English teacher and the students.  Fortunately, their English teacher was from England, so there were no problems with communication breakdowns.

After a tour around the town.  We went back to the school where the kids who didn't come with us had made and set up food for a social.

The Italian kids were much more social than ours.  I think we had a bout 10 kids and there were a lot of Italian kids.  Ours got food, sat down on the chairs around the room and then were surrounded by Italians practicing their English.  It was a little overwhelming for our kiddos, but a good experience.  I believe the kids we met will be coming to our school sometime in the next couple of months.  We don't really have a tour for them, so it will be mostly social and then spending some time in classes to see what school is like for Americans.

Finally, Christmas.  We decided to head out for Christmas this year, and flew to London on Christmas Eve. That meant that Santa had to make an early stop at our house.

This is the first time we haven't had a fire place to put up our stockings, but we found a way!

Tommy was very excited to be able to set up his Christmas village.  He loves every piece and we didn't really have a spot to set it up for the past 2 years.  He takes a lot of time thinking about where each piece will go.

And our tree.  I hadn't set it up for the past 2 years either.  Again, we didn't really have a good spot, and we had a tree in NY waiting for us.  Since we weren't going home, I took the time to set it all up, but it was down the day we opened presents.  I had no desire to come home from vacation and have to clean up Christmas decorations.

Just a couple of photos of the kids opening presents.

So that was our semi-traditional Christmas.  Next up will be Christmas in London.

Belgium, part 3

Monday, after all the swimming was done, we left Antwerp and took the train to Brussels.  As we got off the train and walked up into the station, Sam's first observation was that Brussels smelled GOOD!  I am not sure if we were smelling chocolate or waffles or both, but it did smell good!  We only had Monday and a little bit of Tuesday to explore Brussels, so we quickly got to our hotel and were able to check in early.  We dropped our stuff and headed to walk around the city.

All of the museums were closed on Monday, so we were limited in what we could do.  First we headed out to find waffles.  And along the way we searched out what is the most famous statue in Brussels.  It is called Manneken-Pis.  It is this little statue of a boy peeing in a fountain. It is supposed to represent the irreverent humor of the people of Brussels.  My understanding is that he has several different costumes, but he was not wearing any the day we were there.

Along the way, we walked through a main square with some beautiful buildings.  They were setting up the Christmas Markets all over Brussels.  However, they don't open in Brussels until December.

Finally, the Manneken-Pis.  We thought he would be a bigger statue, but not so much.  After I forced my kids to get their picture here, we walked around the corner to find.....

What Tommy would probably describe as heaven!  A waffle stand, or actually, several!  So many choices!

The gummy on top of our waffles is the Manneken-Pis.  He showed up all over Brussels.  Tommy couldn't bring himself to eat the gummy, but had no problem with the waffle!

What we learned is that waffles in Belgium are nothing like Belgian waffles in the US.  They are sweeter and chewier, and oh-so much better.  I did find a recipe and have done a fairly good job and recreating them since we have been home.

A war memorial, if I remember, it was kind of like our tomb of the unknown soldier (however, I could be wrong)

Since Mike shot down the idea that the building in Bruges was my ancestral home, then this one must be.  It's the royal palace, and I think the flag flying on top indicates that the royals are present.  I wanted to knock on the door and introduce myself to my long, long lost family, but Mike and the kids, as well as the guard, didn't think it was a good idea =)

Before the day was over, we had to get some more fries!  So we searched out a shop...

YUM!

So that is a brief overview of our time in Belgium.  We were there for about 5 days, but I could have stayed there so much longer.  Tommy and I both felt like it was home.  Tommy said the first day we were there he was checking out what the people look like in Belgium, and he felt like he looks like the Belgians.  If we have time and the desire repeat some of our trips while we are in Europe, Belgium would be top on my list!  For now, we will continue to explore other parts of Europe.  It is early in our time here, and there still might be someplace that will top this trip.