Carolina visitors.

This week we had our friends Linda Alley and Susan Casanova from Charlotte visit us. It was a great visit. 

After they arrived and we dropped there stuff off at our house we were off to see London. We rode the #9 bus to Trafalgar Square and walked from there. They were able to see Big Ben and the London Eye before our stop for lunch. Our lunch stop would be at Gordon Wine bar, the oldest wine bar in London.  http://gordonswinebar.com/

After that it was back to the house for a break and then dinner.

The next day would be a trip to the Canterbury cathedral, walking the white cliffs of Dover and Dover castle.  But first we have to walk to our pickup point.

This is Canterbury cathedral, building started in 1070.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral

The outside was weathered, but the inside was beautiful.

A view from a court yard.

Another beautiful church, we never get tired of looking at them.

As with most church's in Europe they always have a crypt of someone in the church. This one had Edward the Black Prince. A little history about him here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward,_the_Black_Prince

We generally only use the pictures we take, but every once in a while we have to find one on the internet. This is one of them.  

Next to the Cathedral was an herb garden where we took one of our many group photos.

Next stop was the Cliffs of Dover, where on a good day yoiu can see France. Today was not a good day to see France as it was a little cloudy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Cliffs_of_Dover

A short ride from the cliffs was Dover Castle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Castle

Dover Castle is the largest castle in England, 

A view from the top of the castle looking towards France. 

The next morning we were off to Paris by train, but first a little champagne before we go.

We would be staying in the same hotel as we did in November with the Kennedy's from Charlotte. This and the fact we have been to Paris makes things a lot easier for traveling.

When in Paris, eat. Here are a couple of pictures of some of our meals. The first is lamb,

the second are prawns, lots of prawns

and the third is pork tenderloin. All were fantastic---well bring i'm allergic to shellfish i never tried the prawns. But the women loved them.

After our early dinner it was time to walk off some of that great food. We started by walking across the La Seine river towards the Louvre. Seeing it was a great photo opp we decided to take a group picture. Susan walked over and asked a guy to take our picture. Not sure if he misunderstood what "would you take our picture" meant, but he said no and ran away. He really ran away, and Susan wasn't even chasing him. We all just stood there and wondered what the heck was that all about, then we all started laughing.

As you can see we did get someone to take our picture. 

From the bridge we walked around the Louvre and then took a cab to the Arc de Triomphe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe

and then another cab to the Eifflel tower. No one wanted to go up the Eiffel tower, just a picture would be enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower

After a long day it was time for one more drink. Well for some of us, Susan was to tired to hang with us and went to bed early.

Our second day in Paris was spent at Roland Garros to watch some of the qualifying for the upcoming French open. None of us had ever been there, so a good time was had by all. 

We were able to watch three matches and also one of the pros practicing on one of the stadium courts.

And then it was more food, this is a picture of them preparing my crepe Suzette. 

The finished product, yes it was good.

It made for a long two days, the last portion of the trip can be seen by the happy but tired faces.

Back at it the next day we were at Wimbledon for a tour of the grounds and also to see the museum.  

Perfect looking grass for the upcoming grass tournament. 

Leanne, Linda and Susan at the interview table at Wimbledon. We have all seen this on

TV, now we can say we have been there.

A food stop after the tour, we found this place on our walk back. Fish and chips, a must have if you come to England.

The next two days would be easy walks thru the parks. This was the start of Kensington gardens.

And as we got close to Hyde park we saw this dog swimming in the water. Good thing the dog cant read.

Last park to visit was Holland park, the closest to our house. It was a good day to visit the park, the sun was out and so were the peacocks. 

A view of one of the gardens in the park. 

and also so of the wild life.

It was great to have our friends from Charlotte visit us.

Vienna weekend

This past weekend we when to Vienna Austria, a city with lots of history and sweets. And i did my best to try as many of them as I could. This shop was a short walk from our hotel and if i had another month i may have been able to try everything they made.

After arriving late Thursday we pushed on to Friday to do a city walk. The walk started at the Opera House, opened in 1869. It plays an opera 300 days a year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_State_Opera

This is us at the side of the opera house.

Farther down the walk was St. Stephen's Cathedral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral,_Vienna

As with most large old churches it took years finish. This was started in 1137 and after a few fires and other problems they stopped working on it in 1511.

This side shows the damage from pollution, acid rain from car exhaust and other things has turned the stone black. They are working on it to get it back to the white stone.  

The inside of the church was one of the most beautiful ones we have seen. There were stone carving everywhere,.

This pulpit was carved from three pieces of sand stone. 

The roof is made up of  230,000 glazed tiles and there is a bell in the south tower that weighs 44,380 pounds. Its the second larges swinging bell in the world. The north tower in this picture took 65 years to build.

From the church we walked down one of the pedestrian streets.

Well it was supposed to be a pedestrian only street, this guy was making a delivery.

There are old and new buildings, the old were very ornate. While the new ones that came after the bombing of WWll were more modern. 

The tour book said to stop here for small finger sandwiches and beer.

They were right about the finger sandwiches.

but the beers were small too.

Rest rooms in Vienna are self explanatory, you either stand 

or sit.

We take a lot of pictures and get

photo bombed all the time. The guy over my shoulder is mad about something.

and this guy either has a migraine or is blowing his nose with out tissue. 

This is the Plague column

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pests%C3%A4ule,_Vienna

This was build after the plague if 1679

St. Peters was is jsut down the street from the plague column.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterskirche,_Vienna

It was started in 1701 and mostly finished by 1722.

The inside was very small but very beautiful. Every where you looked  there was something.

Next was the Hofburg, a complex of palaces where the Habsburg emperors lived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofburg_Palace

The long and short of it is, its good to be the emperor.

The buildings are mostly used for museums now. 

Time for lunch, Leanne had Wiener Schnitzel with potatoes. The potatoes were like German potato salad with out the bacon. So i guess it would be called Austrian potato salad. 

I had goulash, not at all like what we make, it was great. 

A night view of the opera house.

We did take a long break between lunch and dinner, we just didn't take any pictures.

For dinner Leanne had a sausage platter with three types, that was fantastic. I had a meat stew platter with horseradish bread. The horseradish bread is a mixture of bread, horseradish, sour cream and salt and pepper. An interesting first taste, but the rest went very fast. 

Breakfast on Saturday we sat a an open air cafe. I had a view of the dessert counter and Lee (as you can see by the reflection) had a view of the opera house.

This is how my breakfast came,

and this is Leanne's. We also had some pastry. 

We would do a hop on hop off bus tour today. Yesterday we did the blue line and today we did the red line. Both lines give you a tour of different sections of the city.

A ride past the opera house

and then past a church. This one we did not go in.

And more museums.

After bus tour we had a piece of Sacher-Torte. This is the signature dessert of Vienna. Two layers of cake with a layer of apricot jam and then covered with dark chocolate icing. Yes it was good.

While we were eating a lady in the table next to us had her purse stolen. 

After this Leanne and I went to two different museums, she went to look at paintings and statues and i went to the royal treasury.

Besides all the jewels and stuff the had this sword and sheath . Legend states that it was made from a unicorn horn. Its actually a narwhal tusk.

Well all the talk about the Opera house, lead up to this. We would be going to see Fidelio, the only opera Beethoven wrote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidelio

The Opera house was built in 1869 and plays 300 shows a year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_State_Opera

We were in the upper deck but the seats were great.

We had a great view of the orchestra. The string section had 36 violins and to see them all playing at the same time was great.

As we left we made our way to the sausage stand. We noticed that every time we walked by it there was a line--a long line. So when in Vienna do as they do. 

We opted for a sausage with cheese and mustard, no bread.

This town has great sausage, 

Sunday morning we got up early to here the Vienna boys choir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Boys%27_Choir

They sing every Sunday in a small church in the Hofburg. Its a catholic mass, spoken in Latin and Austrian. 

After that we went to watch the Royal Lipizzan Stalions at the spanish riding school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipizzan

It was a 80 min show an no pictures were allowed.

But i did sneak this one in.

This are the stables for them

There born black and then turn gray and finally white.

It looks like they live the good life.

Another great trip.