Day 84. Arrive in Buenos Aires.

Well, I arrived anyway! Katherine's flight out of Atlanta was cancelled and so she won't get here until tomorrow. Flights in London were also being cancelled right and left due to thunderstorms, but mine was one of the few that ended up taking off. It was more about planes not being able to get into the airport, so luckily my plane must have been there already. We were originally supposed to arrive within 10 minutes of each other, and so arrive at the apartment that we have rented together. She is bringing the remainder due on the apartment, as they wanted it in cash, and it wasn't realistic for me to carry the cash around. But they let me go ahead and check in, and we will go to their office on Monday and pay the balance.

This apartment is awesome, by the way! So it might be hard for me to go home in two weeks! Today marks only 15 days remaining :-(.

Those overnight flights are always a zap on my energy, so will just relax, go to the grocery store, and save the sightseeing for when Katherine gets here.

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Location:Ayacucho,Buenos Aires,Argentina

Days 82/83. Departing London.

Mary Kathryn and I had a great time in London! Except we were not happy with the apartment service that we used here. The apartment was in a wonderful neighborhood, and had a lot of nice features, but.....we had some major issues with the service, Home from Home. Without going into too much detail, let's just say I haven't washed my hair for six days now. So we wouldn't recommend that anyone coming to London use their service.

Yesterday, I got her off to the airport on the Heathrow Express train. There were some anxious moments waiting to hear if the airports were going to be disrupted by the volcano ash cloud or not. Ironically, my sister and I were scheduled to come to London last year, a trip that was cancelled by the ash cloud.

I then spent the rest of the day hanging out and catching up with my CRE Finance Council colleagues. It was great to see a few of my very favorite people! Am having lunch with Charles today, and then I will head off on the last leg of my trip (I just can't believe the trip is so near its end!) to Buenos Aires, Argentina! My friend, Katherine, will meet me there, and we have lots of fun stuff planned.

So adios and stay tuned! (I sure hope its one of those planes with full beds, as it will be a 14 hour flight!).

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Location:Wright's Ln,Kensington,United Kingdom

Day 81. Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz.

...but, before we go there:-), we had debated whether or not we would go to the Chelsea Flower Show or the neighborhood of Camden this morning, and Camden won out when we learned that the flower show was sold out. You apparently need tickets way in advance for the flower show as it is a BIG deal...the Queen attends, as well as a lot of stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as Helen Mirren, after whom a flower was named this year. So not an option for us!

So off on the tube's Northern line to Camden. I had read about this area in either the New York Times or the airplane magazine....and were we ever thrilled we had gone to check it out. It was way funky and cool! There were markets everywhere! The Inverness Street Market...



...the Camden Lock Village Market...


...the Camden Lock Market...


...but the best of all was the Stables Market...


...which was an old stables/horse hospital. Each shop was in an old horse stall...


In one market area, there were old motorcycle seats where you could eat lunch...


...or just sit to relax...


...by the canal...


...and all of the store fronts had a sculpture which indicated the business of the store...such as shoe store...


...or shoe store, gothic store and Chinese restaurant...


...or furniture store...


...or one that rang with me... an "around the world in 80 days" restaurant...


...it was all extremely fun!! And there was so much to see! We would have also liked to have tried out the nightlife there, which included jazz bars, blues bars, and "NYC" night clubs! But...the theater called, so back to freshen up, and head to the famous London Palladium Theater...


...for a new production of The Wizard of Oz, with Michael Crawford (the original "phantom") as the wizard. And it was a fantastic production, with Toto and the wicked witch stealing the scenes! They had t-shirts that said "I am a friend of Dorothy" and I wanted to buy some for some of you, but Mary Kathryn didn't think any of you would wear them :-). I thought that Linda H might :-).

But, the day was not yet over....we had wanted to check out Sticky Fingers Restaurant...


...which was a Bill Wyman restaurant...he was the bassist with the Rolling Stones...


...until 1993....he's the second from the left....


...and his restaurant had lots of Rolling Stones memorabilia, including gold records, guitars, posters, etc...it was worth the visit! It was just around the corner from our apartment, so easy walk home to end a fun, great day!

(posted on day 82).

Day 80. Eric Clapton at Royal Albert Hall!!

...But first, this morning, we decided to go walk along the Riverwalk and do The Eye, as I had never done that and it offers spectacular views of the City of London. Mary Kathryn had done it once before, but was willing to brave the heights once again! It was a little overcast, but it still looked like visibility would be good. We got off of the Tube at Big Ben...



...and then headed across the river to The Eye...



...seeing a couple of cool things along the way...











...we didn't have to wait in line at all, so Monday morning might be a good time to check it out. We immediately got on the next car to the top of the world...



With the skies starting to clear up, we had some great vistas of Parliament...



...and Buckingham Palace...


...and other views...














We even saw something going on down near the parade grounds...


So when The Eye descended, we decided to go the few blocks over and check it out. On the way, we noted lots of activity going on at 10 Downing Street...hmm, an American President on his way, perhaps?

We found out that what was going on with the soldiers was a practice for the Queen's birthday!! So we got to see them complete their line-ups...


...and march down the road right in front of us!...again...front row views!











...of course, we also knew that Obama was going to be a part of those festivities! A lot of electricity in the air with the Queen's recent trip to Ireland, her birthday, and the anticipated arrival of Obama!

Then we headed back to complete the Riverwalk...seeing the old Blackfriars Bridge, planned, in the mid1700's and completed in the mid 1800's...


...hopefully it won't take them that long to build the additional bridge which is under construction adjacent to this bridge (see cranes in background), as I'm sure they will need it for the Olympics next year!

We also went to the old Shakespeare Globe Theater...


...I've never been there for a performance, so will have to add that to my list for my next trip to London.

And finally, at the end of our walk, St. Pauls Cathedral...





Then time to hop on the tube and get back to our apartment to get ready for the Eric Clapton concert at the Royal Albert Hall!! The Hall was opened in 1871 by Queen Victoria, who named the hall in honor of her husband...Albert, of course. The hall was originally his idea, but he didn't live to see it come to fruition. The acoustics are phenomenal, primarily due to these acoustic discs in the ceiling (photo from wikipedia)...


We had great seats in a box, front row...





...so could see everything....and it was a great concert...he played old stuff, new stuff, including a lot of his blues stuff....AWESOME!!!





What a great day in London!! Tomorrow night, the theater!

(posted on Day 82).

Day 79. Sunday in London.

Sunday was a fairly lazy day. We hopped on the tube over to Harrods for brunch at a French cafe....






Yes, I bought a new hat on Saturday at the market, too.

The place was adorable...






Then we did a little shopping at Harrods...





...before walking through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. On the way, we checked out the Royal Albert Hall...












where we'll be going tomorrow...stay tuned for that :-). Across the street was this wonderful building, which was the School of Music...





We ran across this phenomenon....a phone booth....remember them?...





Then after lazing around, we headed over to the neighborhood pub for dinner.

Big day planned for tomorrow!

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Days 77/78. Arrive in London.

Mary Kathryn made it!! She finally got a flight out of Vermont to Philly and had to run to make her connection to the UK. So we both arrived in London on Thursday (day 77) as scheduled. The first thing we did, of course, was to hit the neighborhood pub to catch up with each other. We have an apartment here in London in the Kensington High Street neighborhood which is a great area. So we walked around looking at all of the cool little houses up and down the side streets. We definitely felt we could live here...if we would only win the lottery.

Since we've both been to London previously and have both already done most of the "touristy" stuff, we decided that we would mostly focus on checking out the different neighborhoods.

The next morning, we decided to walk up to the famous Portabella Market in Notting Hill, which is only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment...


....on a cool street of multiple-colored houses..


Mary Kathryn had asked me what the market was like...did it have fruits and vegetables, etc....I told her she would have to see it for herself...



...because they have anything and everything...hats...


... jewelry, antiques, old signs...


clothes, household goods, DVDs, scarves...


...art, and all manner of food stuffs. It is a phenomenal market, and has grown significantly since the first time I went there, about 10 years ago or so. It goes on and on for blocks and blocks. It is quite an experience! (Pat, that little store near the market which we loved when we were here last September, called Chocolate Elephant, closed down two months ago..I was extremely bummed).

When we got "home" to rest our weary feet, I mentioned that I had really missed going to the movies since I left home! So we hopped on the tube, which is right on the corner, and headed over to Leicester Square....which is like Times Square in New York, in that it is where many of the live theaters are located, plus at least four movie theaters. We saw The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon...it was different :-).

Back to our little home away from home! More neighborhoods to explore tomorrow!

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