Royal Parks

The last two weekends have been absolutely beautiful.  Low 70s, sunny, light breeze.  The locals keep saying enjoy this while it lasts because typically if there is nice weather in April it means it will be a cool wet summer.  I am keeping optimistic and hope we have many more beautiful days in store.  One of the things we are enjoying is the London park culture.  In the city, most people have limited outdoor space so where KC folks hang out in their backyards or driveways, Londoners head to the park.   You see just about everything in the Park – young families having picnics, teenagers kicking balls around, alternative dread wearing folk jamming to their guitars, women in bikinis, parties that have full on tailgates set up with tables, chairs, music.   Just about anything goes in the park.  You can enjoy a bottle of wine, take a snooze or just sit and people watch.  The other nice thing about the parks is they are pretty much all free and they are extremely well kept.  The flowers are beautiful and there is always an ice cream truck or cafe within a few minute walk. (accessibility to treats is high on my priority list)

We have made the rounds the past two weekends so I’m going to give our quick park synopsis.

Richmond Park:

It’s on the south side of London.  I’m going to call it an outdoorsman park.  It had dirt trails, lots of trees and tons of deer.  Most people we saw in the park were walking dogs, riding bikes or running.  I am usually a running shoes kind of girl, but I choose to wear my knee high boots & leggings and felt a little out of place in the outdoorsy park.  Next trip we will ditch the stroller, put on our hiking gear and strap Brady into the backpack.

Regent’s Park:

This park is near our house.  It’s good for picnics, kite flying, watching a game of impromptu football (soccer) or feeding the ducks.  We tried to feed the ducks, but unfortunately I think they get more than their fair share of bread on the weekends and wouldn’t eat a bite. 

 

Primrose Hill:

Primrose Hill is a park with a huge hill you can climb and see fantastic views of the city.  This is very eclectic upscale part of town.  I am always on the look-out for celebrities as Kate Moss and other famous folk are frequently spotted.   I am in the market for a pair of oversized sunglasses so I can fit in when we go here.  Last weekend we enjoyed a picnic at Primrose.   I sprawled out on a blanket while Brady and Cory kicked a soccer ball around.

Kew Gardens:

Kew Gardens is a very large park with green houses, a treetop viewing area, playing areas for kids and much more.  Scattered throughout the park were chocolate exhibits that had various Easter shapes carved out of chocolate.  Only in the mild climate here can you have chocolate carvings that don’t melt.  I really enjoyed the gardens, but the one downfall is it costs £15 pounds to get in.  Cory says we are probably won’t go back, but Brady proclaimed that he “loves this place” so perhaps we will make a return visit.

Misc. Park by our house:

Riding in Style

We have a number of trips planned over the spring and summer so decided Brady needs some new traveling gear.  Brady actually walks most of the time, but his little legs can't make it an entire day.  The stroller is great for flat surfaces, however it seems as though we're always ending up on cobblestone, rock paths and other terrain where you really need an all terrain vehicle to successfully navigate.  Well, I came up a solution for our stroller woes.  Brady will ride in style on Cory's back.

My sales pitch to Cory:

• Added accessibility!  With the backpack we could have gone on the Brewery tour in Bruges that had all those stairs.  We can navigate crowded markets.  No need to worry about if our things will get taken from the stroller park.
• Added storage space!  The backpack has more compartments than you can imagine.  I won't even need to bring a purse.
• Calories burnt!  The backpack has to burn at least enough calories to offset dessert.
• Rock hard Quads & Butt!  With all the squats that Cory will get in there will be no need for me to beg him to come to Body Pump with me anymore.

I may decide to take a shift, but being the nice wife I am I want to put Cory first so he can get all the benefits the backpack has to offer!

Visitors

The past two weekends we've had fun playing tour guide and showing our visitors around London.  Two weekends ago Cory's cousin Christopher and his friends Rob and Nick stayed with us for a couple of nights. We made sure the boys fit in some cultural experiences, but I'm pretty sure the highlight was boys night at the pub.  I know Cory had fun at least.

Then this past weekend my cousin Niki stayed with us for four nights.  On Saturday there was a major protest in London that decided it was going to take the same route as our tour.  We were perhaps a little close to the action considering Brady was sleeping in the stroller, but all turned out ok.  We also checked out the London Eye for the first time.

First Big Screen Movie

We've been wanting to take Brady to a movie for the last couple of months, but wasn't sure how he would do at the movie theater.  The perfect opportunity came up this weekend as the theater had Toy Story 3 playing for £1.  We recently watched Toy Story 1 & 2 at home so knew that Brady was a fan of Buzz Light Year and Woody.  Overall, we would say Brady's first movie was a success.  We did have a couple of points in the movie where he said it was "very scary", but other than that he did great.  If you ask him his favorite character is Woody, but he runs around the house saying "Buzz Light Year, to affinity and beyond."  If you watch the clip below he'll also tell you about the "naked boy".   Naked boy is a doll that doesn't have any clothes on.  He insists that naked boy is his name.

Transport for London

My blogging has been pretty much non-existent recently because to be quite honest things have been pretty boring in our household the past couple of weeks.  Despite the fact that flowers are blooming and it looks as though Spring is just around the corner, it's been cold.  Not freezing cold, but cold enough that staying in the house is more appealing than getting out.

Last weekend we did get out on Saturday.  We visited the Transport for London Museum in Covent Garden.  It's a bit ironic that Cory and I both paid to go to a museum run by the organization that runs London public transportation.  TFL, the people who are constantly striking, consistently closing our main line on the weekends and always have delays at the most inconvenient times.  However, we can overlook those things as Brady LOVES trains, buses, taxis and basically any other form of transport.

What did we learn from the Transport museum?

1. Digging tunnels is hard work.
2. Riding in a underground steam train is not a pleasant experience.
3. In the day of horse transport the average horse could only work for 4 hours a day.
4. London Taxi drivers study on average 3-4 years before being certified to be a driver.

Since our tube line was of course down, we ended up walking home.  We hadn't really spent any time in the Covent Garden area before and I actually think it's a place worth revisiting.  There were lots of restaurants with patios, street entertainments and other fun things going on.  Best of all, we happened to stumble upon a wonderful cupcake bakery calling Hummingbird.  I had been looking for the place for months and in the past two weeks we have stumbled about two different locations.   YUM!

Garra Rufa Pedicure

The rage here seems to be fish pedicures.  Haven't heard of them before?  Basically you dip your feet in a tank filled with little garra rufa fish and they feast away on the dead skin on your feet.  They do not have teeth, but use little suckers to eat the dead stuff.  Garra rufa are used for medicinal purposes in many countries to treat conditions such as eczema.  In the past couple of years it's become a trendy spa treatment.  When a friend offered me a voucher for a treatment how could I say no.  I'm glad I tried it, but don't think I'll get another one.  It tickled really bad.  Also, this treatment is banned in almost all US states so this may have been my one chance.  You'll notice we even drew a crowd.  I told them I was taking their picture and they were going in my blog.

Barcelona Take 3

For our last full day in Barcelona the agenda included more Gaudi, Paella, the beach, another scenic park and the Magic Fountain.  We started the day with a visit to La Sagrada Família which is a Catholic church designed by Antonio Gaudi, a famous Catalan architect.  Construction started in 1882, but is still not complete.  It is however a World Heritage Site and the pope visited in November 2010.  They are anticipating a completion date of 2026 to celebrate the centennial of Gaudi's death.  The line was huge so we just enjoyed the outside. 

After La Sagrada Familia we started a long, uphill trek to Parc Guell.  My knee was bothering me so I let Cory assume all stroller pushing duties.  I wanted to document the steep climb so have included a picture.  Brady was super excited once we got there because there was a man making huge bubbles.  If you ask him what his favorite part of the trip was 'Bubble Man' will be at the top of the list.  The park was very scenic and had more Guadi architecture.  I don't think we followed the normal path through the park and wasn't able to find the very famous Gaudi lizard.

Next stop was a lunch break to have Paella and Sangria.  We found a nice place close to the beach and it was warm enough to sit outside.  Paella was great, but one suggestion, pay the extra money for a bone and shell free batch.  We opted for the chicken and fish Paella and noticed that you could order it regular or bone free.  I think we anticipated chicken breast and grilled fish, but we had a nice bowl full of shells, bones, legs, etc.  It was still good, but it would have been well worth the additional money to have it come minus the bones, shells and legs.

It wasn't warm enough to put our feet in the water, but we did enjoy walking on the beach.  Brady second favorite part of Barcelona was throwing sand on the beach. 

Last destination of the day was the Magic Fountains.  They are similar to the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas as they perform to music.  Brady had fallen asleep in his stroller, but woke up when we got to the fountains.  We weren't able to stay long as according to Brady, "Don't like fountains.  Scary.  Go back to hotel."  We thought he would really enjoy them but I think we must have been too close to the action.

We went back to the hotel, grabbed dinner and hit the sack.  Our flight left bright and early the next day so this wrapped up our Barcelona weekend.  It was a great trip and hope at some point we are able to see more of Spain.