Two years ago, we went to Oxford as a friend had just moved there and organized a house warming. We had a great time there, and decided to establish a new tradition for that, the Biennal Oxford BBQ, where we would come every other year to this famous city to share quality time with friends around a BBQ.
Things move fast, and this year we came back for a second and probably last time as she is moving to another wonderful city in Europe, which we will soon be visiting, of course.
The good thing of coming back to a place you know is that you can slow down during your stay. Walk slowly, and enjoy every piece of the city a bit more. I come from a few weeks getting up early, and this weekend was not an exception, so I went for a long walk along the Thames River and into an empty Oxford, where most of these pictures were taken.
Last stop in our trip (in August) was York. We did a stopover here in our way back to East Midlands airport, as it was the only city which someone was able to recommend us in that area. For me, it didn’t have many special things, after 7 days in Scotland, but it was interesting to see the huge cathedral, the medieval remains like a city gate or an old castle.
And, of course, being in the city, which was home of one of our favorite products (York Ham) is also a plus. According to Wikipedia, the origin is that the way the ham was cooked in a Blossom Street’s Butcher’s in this city became so popular in 19th century that soon people all around England asked for York Ham in their respective butcher’s. Almost 200 years later, we still call it the same, and consume in huge amounts… If the butcher had had a bit more of business mind… 😉
In August, we had organized a trip to Scotland. For cost reasons, we flew to an airport next to Nottingham, and therefore we had to cross half England until we reached Scotland. But before that, we made an stopover in Lake District, which is the largest Natural Park in England. As we say in Spain, “An image is worth more than a thousand pictures”, here you are a couple of thousand words…
The blue line in these sheep is to distinguish them from the neighbour's ones. There were blue, orange, pink, yellow sheep all around. Quite funny.
Really impressive, and we could probably have stayed there for a couple of days, instead of just one night… but we had other goals… 😉
I love cities with rivers, even if it is not the nicest of the rivers, you get some water, and nice walks and views to get inspired.
As I wrote earlier, I went to London in June to visit Alex, my cousin Bea, Paula and Mario, together with Alex (another one) and Dani. This was the second time I visited this city, and the previous one was 13 years ago… So, we can say this was almost the first time.
I must say that I am not in love with London. It has probably helped to this mindset that I “enjoyed” the typical british weather, which basically consists of all types of weather in a day: sunny and hot; sunny, windy, and chilly; cloudy, windy and cold; rainy and warm; rainy and cold; cloudy and warm; … and all that in the same day. I am surprised I did not get a cold with such temperature changes… Anyway, I will try to abstract from this memory in this a future posts about London. 😉
This post is called London Classics, because I am going to show a few classic spots from London, which I am sure you perfectly know and have seen in hundreds of pictures and movies.
First, the Big Ben. It is the name of the bell of the clock of the tower of the House of Parliament, but everybody thinks it is just the tower, as it is what you can see. It is so familiar, that you do not really get surprised when you see it “live”. 🙂
Another too-many-times-seen monument, but anyway interesting: the Tower Bridge. I do not recall that blue color which has been used to paint it.
London is one the most important city in Europe in the financial world, and you can clearly see it through the different financial districts it has, and especially, the one called “The City”, which is in the city centre, and next to the Thames. Skyscrapers with modern windows, and a representative Norman Foster’s building: the Swiss Re Tower.
But the best thing of London, and the whole Great Britain, are the telephone booths. Everybody using the mobile phones nowadays, but you can still find lots of this classical red booths… Even a few of them in a row! I guess they keep them there because they look nice… In fact, the inside of these boxes is in a quite poor state: full of hotline advertisements, and not very clean… but who cares.
