Viva la Vida

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We don't usually enjoy traveling in large cities. If you read back on our travels we usually enter cities just to stock up on essential stuff as well as essential pleasure (you sometimes just HAVE to have a good meal and a latte)

Some big cities are worthwhile to visit. Rome gets the taste-buds flowing, San-Francisco is pleasant, Hong-Kong combines the East and West, Jerusalem is truly the most beautiful city in the world, Berlin is so...well...German and Paris has that je-ne-sais-pas that makes it really romantic. I'm positive that living in these cities is an enjoyable experience that I would like to experience as well. However, visiting the touristic sites in these places makes me feel a little stupid by standing in the same place as 18 million other tourists that year taking a photo of the same icon.

But (and I might sound like a Hillbilly in this next statement...) there are only 2 cities in the world that one could never be fed up of visiting. 2 capitals of the world that if you start visiting every site, museum, café and club you would not tire. And, by the time you finish all sites you could start from the top with completely new exhibits, shows and pleasures.
We had the privilege to have a 60hr weekend romantic getaway in one of them.

I’ll take you back to the start.....

We have both been studying in the last years for our MBA. Hagit finished a year ago while I finished about 6 months ago. The day I finished my last test I was in a kind of high. After about 29 years of consecutive studying and exam taking I not only finished my last test on this diploma but I had no expectation of having any more tests in the foreseeable future. I returned to my work and felt pretty good about myself. Suddenly a cellular phone rang in the corridor (I never found out who I need to thank...). The ring tone was the music of Coldplay's song "Lost". Without planning, I found myself surfing to the band's web-site to see where they are playing next. I found that their world tour ends in a concert at Wembley Stadium in about half a year during a 3 day weekend in Israel. I pressed the "buy tickets" link and bought 2 tickets. I went to ElAl's web site and got 2 flight tickets using my frequent fighter points. I then called Hagit to tell here where we will be in Rosh Hashana.

When the time came we left Liya at our parents care and already had very precise plans with tickets to Coldplay, a West-End comedy and a Premier-league match. We had been invited to sleep at Hagit's cousin’s house - Ilan and Annie - who had made us feel at home giving us a key to their house where we could return to whenever we wanted. Also visiting were Hagit's uncles which was an unexpected treat. We enjoy being invited to Sara and Adam's house for rosh-HaShana meal and we were a bit sad we would miss it this year. But one week before our travel we found out that they too will be in London with us!

We were out and about all day long. London is so full of things to do that it was a shame we had to go to sleep every night.

Contrary to popular-wisdom London also turned up to be a fine colonary experience. London is a true micro-cosmos of all human cultures. We had fine Italian coffee in Covent Garden, delicious ice-cream in Notting-Hill, a tasty fast-food Mexican lunch in the City, an authentic south-indean meal in the West-End, a tasty hamburger BBQ in Fulham (thanks to Ilan) and even a traditional Sunday roast and beer in a British-pub on King’s Road in Chelsea .

What we did not realize is how romantic London will be. It was the first time we were only the two of use for a weekend since Liya's birth 2 years ago. We enjoyed eating slowly, waking up whenever we wanted, walking slowly hand in hand in the sunny weather and having the freedom to do what we both want at our pace.

twitting

We attempted to micro-blog our travel. This is how our real-time blogging folded out:

Day 0

Sept 17th 11:23pm - Yaron - off to the airport headed for London - happy new year

Day 1

Sept 18th 2:46pm - Hagit - just finished a power nap and is on her way out to explore London

Sept 18th 2:49pm - Yaron - next we go eat lunch, then Tate, then Coldplay!!!! lets go!

Sept 19th 2:18am - Yaron - returned from the show. Chris Martin is an extraordinary performer! (and Ganey Yehoshua is a better venue then Wembley). must go to sleep now

Day 2

Sept 20th 12:29am - Yaron - Coffee at Covent Garden, enjoying all of human civilization at the British museum, eating some soup pasta and wine, a stroll at Notting Hill, ice-cream, resting in a park, seeing a West-End comedy (39 steps) and devouring an excellent south-Indian dinner - that is a day well spent.

Sept 20th 12:40am- Hagit - It was a great day 😊

Sept 20th 1:02am - Yaron - we really need to rest tomorrow. but I'm pretty sure we won't 😊

Day 3

Sept 20th 11:33am - Yaron - off we go again.....

Sept 20th 8:04pm - Yaron - 3:0 !!! there's only one team in London

Sept 20th 9:02pm - Hagit - the week-end has ended - i'm going to the airport now ....

Day 4

Sept 21st 5:30am - Yaron - Back to work. on my way to Hamburg...

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Photos

This bird has the right idea
sitting on the millennium bridge, watching the Thames and boats drift by...

Hyde Park
on a sunny Sunday

Wembley Stadium
before the Coldplay show

Wembley Stadium
ever since i first heard Coldplay's "fix you" i imagined it in live concert with fireworks going off at a specified timing. indeed the fireworks came during the song (although at a different cue)

Wembley Stadium
after the show, 70,000 people flowed out from the stadium to the tube-station

the 39 steps
on Saturday evening we saw a play in this theater on Piccadilly Circus.

millennium bridge
for both of us is has been over 10 years since we last visited London so passing the millennium bridge on the way to Tate was a first time experience

Stamford Bridage - Chelsea Vs. Tottenham
Thanks to Hagit's cousin Ilan we got 2 tickets to see a Premier League game. Chelsea won 3-0

Stamford Bridage - Chelsea
we especially liked the crowed, singing and atmosphere...

the British Museum
with its interesting roof over the yard. Hagit fell asleep in the garden after 2 hr of watching a few of the 6,000,000 items on display

Parsons Green Park
not far from Ilanie's house in Fulham

Comments

[Ohados]

Viva la vida loca!
Hey guys, seems like you had really good time. I envy you seeing CP live, would like to do it myself soon. I guess it was really fun being there ony 2/3 for one time :). Cheers, ohados

[liliram]

Unbelievable......
[:)] I would love to sleep in the British Museum next time I visit! Hey, good read. Thanks for sharing.

[Ruth from Wales]

Cool
Hey, some great photos here. When you live in London you sometimes forget how much there is to do here other than work!