Recent trip to England!

Just before deciding to return to Trinidad my husband and I received in the mail a wedding invitation.  It came to us from my childhood friend who lived in England.  He had proposed to his girlfriend and the mother of his most adorable baby girl.  We were elated.  We immediately decided we would attend.  We returned to Trinidad in December of 2012 and in that there is a story of its own (another post, another time).  The wedding was to be in March, Thursday before Easter.  We started psyching up for the trip.  So the day has come and we leave for 10 days to this fabulous place, full of history and promise.  My friend promises that we would tour the city of London and holds steadfast as promised.  Firstly being reunited with my friend of over 30 years was absolutely surreal.  I felt overwhelmed with emotion, welcomed and at peace, all at the same time.  The wedding is glorious and fun.  They had it in a local barn which was spruced up for the event.  Even though the place was frigid and murky the atmosphere was full of cheer and splendor.  The white and yellow décor uplifted the spirits of what we knew would turn out to be a fabulous day.  People came in their numbers to wish this couple God’s blessings and marital bliss. The place was then transformed into a reception hall and the enjoyment continued, the DJ setup and the party began.  After all of this we went back to the home of the newlyweds and prepared for the following day for a brunch at the local pub.  The pub was a tad bit different from what I expected.  It had modern day charm and resembled more of an American restaurant.  The menu however was unique and definitely British.  Choices such as ‘bangers and mash’, ‘fish and chips’, ‘scrambled eggs and baked beans’, to name a few.  I chose the steak and potatoes combination which also came with an assortment of vegetables, it was quite tasty.  Pubs are known for their ale, and being a ‘none’ drinker I pursued some sort of pineapple mango medley that had a slight fizz to it, it was different but surprisingly refreshing.   Saturday morning we were told we were going to ride the ‘tube’ into London and get a walking tour.  We were in for a treat.  We rode the train south into the city and immediately upon exiting we were confronted with the English architectural charm.  We arrived at Stamford Bridge, the home of ‘Chelsea’ the football club that my husband absolutely adores.  You have to understand that football rivalry is the thing in England and therefore if a club is not where you pledge your allegiance you don’t want to be caught dead in the vicinity of their stadium, so this was a huge feat for my friend who is an avid ‘Tottenham Spurs’ fan.  We gracefully acknowledged his hospitality and good cheer in allowing my hubby the pleasure of being able to visit his team, and oh how they did.  We were escorted on a grand tour of the grounds, lockers, press room, and history hall of fame.  To see the joy on my husband’s face was beautiful and refreshing, to see him that happy, well it transcended to us.  We were all grinning fools for him.  We continued on and rode the tube too Buckingham palace, but first the Ritz where all the famous movies are made.  We walked along the park leading to the palace gates, snapping photos of the Ritz, the trees, the people, ourselves.  Ah we arrive just in time to see the changing of the guards, we take more pictures.  What stiff shoes they wear, ‘Clunk clunk clunk against the sidewalk as they lift their feet up high in their customary trance whilst the other stands still with the wind whipping around his face.  In front of the palace gate there is a monument of sorts, with water around it, with various statues of lords and knights from historical eras.  We walk along a wide sidewalk somewhat like a boardwalk towards Big Ben and the London eye and we pass in front of the apartment of ‘William and Kate’ where more guards are putting on a show.  We continue along this passing a tower and it’s of ‘Fredrick Duke of York 1763 – 1827’.  We continue on to Trafalgar Square.  Trafalgar Square houses the Charles 1 statue which marks the center of London and is the point from which all distances in the city of London is measured.  Again we photographed and photographed.   We journeyed on from there into surrounding shopping districts and met up with friends of the happily married couple at a pub and sat for drinks.  We decided we were famished and moved on to a local restaurant and had dinner.  What a day it was now late night and time for us to hop on the tube back north to their place of abode.  We chill for a few days and then off to London again we go, this time a double-decker bus tour………..so exciting.  OH MY!!! A photographers’ dream, pictures and more pictures. Snap snap!! It is absolutely beautiful.  We are greeted on board by the driver who hands us each an individual pair of headsets, each seat is fitted with two ports for your listening pleasure.   A guide takes us through the history and tells us of each place of note that we pass, our heads are swiveling 'hingeless', so many sites, so much to see, so much to absorb.  In front the grand St. Paul’s cathedral, the statue of a woman “Queen Anne’ with thirteen children carved in the stone and as the story goes; “Poor Queen Anne, left in a lurch, she faces the gin-shop, her back to the church”. We went over bridge after bridge (including the 'London Bridge'), all around the town, heard of the great fire that burnt London down and of how the bakery owner in whose shop the fire started was charged with rebuilding the city and thus the birth of a new era of furniture design and architecture was born in England, ‘no more wooden structures’. We see Shakespeare’s area, Sherlock Holmes monument, travel through numerous shopping districts, see the original arch designed for Buckingham palace, the Buckingham botanical gardens, several international consulates, John F. Kennedy’s statue (the only none brit statue honored for his work), MI6, Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye and several other notary architectural structures. Once again we are famished, we decide to exit the bus at Trafalgar square and go find something to eat.  Ah! Nando’s we’ve heard so much about you and they didn’t disappoint, the food was fabulous.  We walk across one of the many bridges taking pictures along the way and end right below the London Eye.  What a day.  Now extremely ‘knackered’ we head back north via tube and train.   Dawn of a new day, we are driven further north to the city of Birmingham home of ‘Aston Villa’ to do some jewelry perusing. So many shops, we see ‘Frederick Street’ (the main street in the city of Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad and Tobago’), I snap snap.  I buy two watches.  We eat fish and chips.  We go to what I would refer to as a mall, they refer to it as ‘Birmingham city center’ and we walk around, and my husband secures several football memorabilia as gifts.  Another fun day.  Again we are enthralled by another outing this time to Northampton where we secure another two watches and other small trinkets.  What a wonderful trip.  Things of note.  This was not my first trip to England, but it was my first with my husband.  I spent one year here for school, however, I did not do the tourist thing then and used most of my spare time going over to Italy to be with an older cousin.  England reminds me so much of Trinidad and I know it is because the Queen had us under her reigns for a long time.  However, as England has moved on with technology and their first world structure, Trinidad has remained dormant.  We will definitely do this again, this time with the family and go to other European destinations.  We are off back to Trinidad and Tobago.

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited.  

On the plane on the way to Gatwick.

At the train station

At the train station

Note

At Stamford Bridge

Inside Stamford Bridge

The Ritz

A typical London Bird

Buckingham Palace

Guard at Buckingham Palace

Exterior Gate at Buckingham Palace

Interior Gate across the yard at Buckingham Palace

Sitting outside the Buckingham palace at the water works and statue

The road to Trafalgar Square from Buckingham Palace

Monument on the way to the square

London Double Decker bus

Note the spelling of 'Whiskey'

Trafalgar Square

On to the shopping district

Map of the area

Casino at a very busy intersection

Bicycle transportation on the street

The pub we drank at

Beautiful Architecture

Along the route on the Bus guided tour

More of the bus tour

The top of a statue

Old fashioned telephone booth

Clocks everywhere

Another clock

'Left on a lurch, head to the pub, back to the church'

One of the many bridges

New age archictecture

Old time castle preserved (only one of its kind)

Yet another bridge

Statue

Along the 'Thames'

Yet another bridge

The Beau and I

Under the 'eye'

Birmingham

Clock in Birmingham

British Police force

Found it interesting 

Along the tour

Busy street in the heart of London

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited.