Another weekend walk

It was  a busy week for us so instead of going any where we decided to make it an easy weekend. 

Coach doesn't really care what we do, just as long as he can run.

First thing Saturday was a walk around Holland Park. 

The weather is finally starting to break here after a few weeks of cold weather.

Next Leanne was off to Kensington garden with plans of going to Hyde park. I was lazy this morning and didn't leave when she did. I met up with her in Kensington by the time i got going. There was a lot of riders on horse back so she decided not to go to Hyde. 

This is Queen Caroline's temple. 

It was designed for Queen Caroline, for whom the Long Water was created, in 1734-5 and is attributed to William Kent.Some of the graffiti inside the temple dates back to 1821 when the park was first open.

The flowers are starting to come up, it was a great day for a walk.

Coach on the other had was looking for squirrels. 

He was on the wrong side of the fence for a few of them.

That is also one of the very few area's in the park where dogs must be on a lead.

A water break for Coach.

They must have fixed the water line, this is the first time it had water in it.

We walked back home thru Holland park and it was full of young soccer players. Back in the states it would be baseball, here its soccer.

Saturday night we played bridge at a wine bar. We played for about 4 hours with some beginners like us and other that have played for years. It is a learning experience that will take some time to learn all the tricks.

Sunday we did a short walk at Regent park,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent's_Park

This park has a large number of football pitches (soccer fields) and also houses the London zoo.

Leanne wants to go one way and Coach the other---

Leanne and Coach checking out the camels. 

This was on a building near a pond of waterfowl, there is a fence around it so Coach doesn't get in trouble.

After the walk we stopped at Paddington station to get some breakfast treats. We felt we deserved them.

A few other things that happened this week. I found my first beer vending machine at a pub. I wonder if there is a gin and tonic machine in the future.

We will leave on this funny note:

I was checking the flight, hotel and other info for our trip to Copenhagen this weekend. I found a problem with my plane ticket. When I went to the British Airways site they had my name as Earl Donald DuRussel instead of Donald Earl DuRussel.  I figured this may be a problem being the names are out of order. After a few calls I got the problem figured out, being were in the UK the computer automatically assumed the “Earl” was a title. 

In case you were wondering where an Earl is in the ranks of the Great British peerage are 

Duke, 

Marquess,

Earl, 

Viscount 

and Baron

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

There is no Earl of DuRussel----but i'm working on it.

Bridge and Paris

Working on a the next few months of travel. The books seem to pile up.

For the weekend we took a two day bridge class. We have been wanting to learn it for years and finally found a place to take a class. I would be a two day crash course and we had a great time. We do realize that we have a lot to learn and are planning on playing once a week at local clubs.

After the class on Sunday we took a train to Paris. Leanne had a bank meeting on Monday morning and we would meet for lunch after it.  We got to our hotel room about midnight only to find out our TV did not work. In one room and then into another it was about 1:00 before we finally got settled. The one nice thing was that the new room had a view. 

We were up early and had a quick breakfast. A French croissant? of course.

I walked with Leanne to her meeting and went for a walk around town. 

It was a great sunny day to walk down the river Seine.

Another view with the Eiffel tower on the left. There was a flood last year and the water was almost over the banks. 

I met up with Leanne for lunch, she had gotten a name of a restaurant from one of her coworkers. This would be our Valentine lunch, a day early.

 On our walk we passed a chocolate shop. Check out the hand made boots.

Another view, 

The walk would take us down a lot of streets. They all seem to have a lot of caricature. 

The restaurant was small and only held about 16 people. The food was fantastic, the appetizer was Portobello mushrooms in a garlic and Gorgonzola sauce. This was a meal all by it's self.

I had beef in a Gorgonzola sauce with "French" fries.

Leanne had Chicken with mushrooms and pasta.

Dessert was Chocolate Lava cake. A great Valentine dinner.

Leanne had a two conference calls she had to make. First one was at the restaurant, we tried to find a hotel lobby to sit in for her second but couldn't find one. She ended up on a side street and made the call.

 I told her this was her Paris office.

Before our ride back to London we stopped at another small bistro for a glass of wine. 

This building is close to the train station. I noticed a strange marker on the corner.

Not sure if this is marker means something for the train or that Pacman was born here.

Last view of our trip in Paris.

Deer's, lots of them.

Another weekend of walks, for Saturday we went to Hampton court. 

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

The one time home of Henry the 8th. We have been here before and decide to walk the grounds again.

We would be going by way of the train, our normal mode of transportation.

Some times we have to wait a while.

After a short ride (about 25 minutes) we have arrived. We may have to come back after this tree has it's leaves.

And this one too. Leanne wanted this picture to show the mistletoe in the tree.

OK, lets get walking. This is Leanne's favorite time of the day, a walk with Coach off his leash.

This month they were doing some filming for a TV special 

There was equipment and people everywhere. 

We finally get past them and got to the back side of the property where the golf course is. I don't think it was here when Henry was King.

Coach and i staying away from the driving range on the left. He was walking all over so he was getting his miles in.

We got away from the golfers and  made it to another open field.

Coach was in his element, there were a lot of holes in this area. I mentioned to Lee that they may be fox houses------"I think they call them dens" was her reply.

Leanne and Coach checking out the horses. They must have been draft horses by the size of there hoof marks.

We will miss these walks, no people and lot of open ground.

But then we saw the royal deer, and we had to put the leash on Coach.

The deer roam in the park and you have to be careful around them is you have a dog. They can do serious harm to a dog if they get near them. And you can get a ticket if your dog is chasing them---

As Coach wanted to do.

He was whining as we left.

Away from the deer we walked to Long water.

as you can see it is long. It was excavated during the reign of Charles II, in 1662. 

The water leads to the back side of the palace. 

A view of it thru the gates.

and more views of trees with mistletoe. 

It was time for us to take a break and have some champagne----yes i said champagne. It's how we roll here in merry old England. 

 But first we have a problem we have to take care of. Coach decide he needed some perfume for his body and rolled in something. We got out some wipes to clean him off. 

This is his "what me" look.

And his "i have nothing on me" look.

Off and going after the cleanup we walked to the front of the Palace. 

Not sure what this was supposed to be but here it is.

Sunday we did a short walk in the Mayfair area. 

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

This section of London was started in 1600's and got its name from the fairs it had in May. 

At one time there were many large mansions here, this has change over the years and now there are just a few. This is one of the few. 

Now there are lots of stores for shopping and also arcades for stores.

This is another arcade with high end stores. Nice to walk thru but to expensive to stop.

Nearing the end of our walk we passed another street typical street in London.

From there we walked thru Hyde park where Coach was able to chase a few squirrels. And he got a good look at some horses----after we put his leash on.