Last month of the year I can’t believe this!
This year has been full of challenges and I don’t doubt the incoming years will bring other challenges and experiences. This post is to give thanks to my followers on this blog.
The last weeks I’ve been a bit busy, with university labs, visiting my fiancè’s family and my mum got an operation as well, but I’m proud of how this blog is going, it might not be such a breakthrough anyone is talking about. Although I’m happy because this is my safe place of sharing with you, and I’m glad about that, so… coming back to the matter, I went to England last week, and here I leave you some of the tours we did this time:
I usually don’t like travelling in winter, you know, gotta bring your winter clothing and everything, I like travelling light, but I’m happy I could bring some happiness to my new family with the presents.
This time, for the first stop we’ve got to Birmingham’s Christmas market, which is more like a german kind of market, really lovely, all I wanted was to eat some pretzels.
People certainly love beer, there was a circle in the middle of the market to place the food, and most people were drinking a huge glass of beer.
After our journey and visit to some of my fiancè’s relatives, we went back to Derbyshire, as you know, the world cup is still going around, and I cheer Portugal and Spain because of my origins, so I decided to cook for these days traditional meals of those two countries.
Spain was due to play first, so for lunch paella, and for dinner as Portugal played, Cod with chickpeas, I like cooking for the Scotton family, they look so pleased with anything I cook, it makes me happy, and of course, I made some cakes 😛
Of course the outfit of the day:
Unfortunately, Spain lost against Marrocco, but hey, at least Portugal did great! What matters it’s sharing and having fun.
The day after we were heading off to my fiancè’s sister at Epping, and then tour around London, I gave him sort of a wishlist of places to visit, I like exploring new places very much, in fact, his sister said “You are like Americans, they want to see everything”, well, what’s the point of not doing it?
My wishlist includes Notting Hill or as I call them “Coloured houses”, Harry Poter’s platform at King Cross train station, Leadenhall market, Leake Street Arches, London Eye and possibly a better picture of Big Ben, last time I went to take a picture it was under maintenance.
We start the journey at King Cross train station, we got lost, we got to the wrong train station, but fortunately, you can cross the road and here it is. Once we got to the platform there was a huge queue, I’m patient to a certain point, plus paying for just taking a picture, no way, so we just skipped the queue and observed how was it and run over the centre of London.
Next stop: Leadenhall market, the market is pretty lovely, it has a unique selection of boutiques, shops and some restaurants and bars, I read they used some of the shops and the market itself to record some scenes of Harry Potter. It is a hidden gem – both outdoors and covered – with rich heritage and stunning architecture dating back to the 14th century.
It’s the first time I’ve seen this part of London, so like a modern businessman kind of, from there we went to Tower Bridge, I think it was on my wishlist, I don’t remember now but it was quite cool and we crossed the bridge, so freezing and Victorian, the view of the London houses with cloudy skies, so like movies.
Tower Bridge is a bascule bridge in London, located on the River Thames. Considered one of the symbols of the English capital, it connects the villages of Southwark and Tower Hamlets.
Some records of the time testify that the first stone was laid on 21 June 1886 by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII).
Tower Bridge is now one of five bridges in the English capital that has passed under the ownership and management of the City Bridge Trust, a charitable association. This is the only one of the bridges supervised by the CBT that does not connect the City to the Southwark shore, as the bridge ends at the Tower Hamlets borough.
This work of Victorian engineering quickly became one of the symbols of the British capital.
After going through it, we went to the art tunnels Leake Street Arches, you know you’re close because of a wall full of graffiti before getting in, quite urban, I like it, the expression of art even with the unlike classical paintings are always art and I respect it.
I couldn’t take enough pictures, my current phone is presenting some battery problems, so these were the best pictures I’ve taken before it died.
Our plan was to get a place to eat where I could plug my phone to charge, my fiancè’s phone was almost out of battery as well, but because he forgot to charge it.
After visiting the Leake Street Arches, we went through Big Ben, and then the plan was to stay close to the London Eye, we got tickets for 4 pm.
Once we got to Big Ben, my phone died completely, so the rest of the pictures were taken by my love.
We ate close to the London eye as commanded, I had an interesting salad I’ve never eaten in my life, it was a bit spicy and sweet, but I was told English people like spicy, in fact, they have a fast food place called Nandos, and apparently, it’s spicy food.
At 4 pm we got on the London Eye, you have to climb inside the platform while it’s rolling, I really loved it, you can see most of the city, and they go really slow, so perfect to have a better view, in our platform we were together along Spanish, it’s funny because my fiancè is supposed to be learning Spanish to communicate with my family, they were like crazy hungry wolves around the panoramic windows taking lots of pictures, I don’t blame them it was really lovely, I didn’t have battery tho.
And that’s how our trip to London ended, having a great time with the children of my fiancè’s sister and going for a walk around the Park at Epping forest the day after.
In 1542 King Henry VIII commissioned what was then known as the ‘Great Standing’. This was essentially a wooden framed platform; a grandstand, from which to observe the hunts in Chingford. There is no evidence Henry actually visited this particular stand but certainly enjoyed hunting in Epping Forest.
Afterwards, we went back to Derby to get my ring sorted (It was too loose).
As usual, it was hard to leave, I came back to Italy on 10th December, with my ring adjusted and my heart a bit sad because I don’t like being far away from my fiancè but we need to be strong, and I’m glad I’ve seen him after a long time.
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