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Published: March 17th 2013
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I was truly looking forward to my first white christmas but it was not to be!
LOVE Christmas over here, the do it RIGHT and all the Christmas cards make sense! Bury had its own wee Christmas market, which was all rather festive. Mulled wine, carols, wooden toy stalls, lights everywhere really started to make sure you knew it was Christmas. Friends of ours visited so we took advantage to show them around on "the tour of Bury" and soak up the Christmas atmoshere.
Roger and Lena, friends of our in Sussex had offered their hospitality for the Christmas period. Lena looooves Christmas and even embroidered our initials into our very own stockings! We had an awesome week with never ending food and snacks, Santa came past one night in his sleigh and we were spoilt rotten with chocka full stockings on Christmas morning! It was a great time for Vaughn to catch up with lots of Zimbo scool mates he hadnt seen in years on Boxing day....it always seems that card and board games are the fitting way to spend the day......doesnt seem to happen at any other time of the year!?
We headed back
to London for the new year weekend. We visited Hyde Park, which turns into a Winter Wonderland over the period. This was amazing with all the lights, little shop huts reministent of a german market and all the fun park stuff. We had a drink in a german themed bar with bar wenches included which impressed vaughn and steve....
As Anna had a car for the weekend we thought we would take the opportunity to visit somewhere that you couldn't get to on a tube - Hampton Court Palace! After...shall we day....taking the scenic route, with a few close calls, we finally made it to Hampton Court Palace, amazingly before closing! Navigation through London and beyond is never easy! We were not dissappointed though and seeing the huge palace before us was worth all the traffic. Brief history is that Hampton Court Palace was the home of King Henry VIII who is famous for his six marriages, beheading some of his wives and other types of lovely stories that come with being the King of England (for a glamourised, not so factual version what The Tudors series). The palace itself is incredible and I will take Vaughn back there
as I don't know if I got to see it all. Summer would be perfect as the gardens are amazing and huge! The palace has been restored to it's partial former glory and Tudor actors walk around the place, acting out scenes. The old kitchens are in full swing too, cooking traditional food and it all smelt rather good and probably a little more hygenic than back in the day judging from the butcher house we saw. The palace is divided up into different wings and sections - it is very surreal looking through the private chambers of King Henry VIII, Queen Katherine and later Queen Mary's residence. I will go back!
The following days included visiting the British museum where we got to see real mummies! ?...kinda creepy but amazing at the same time. We spent alot of time in the ancient roman, greek and egyptian areas. Amazing to see these pieces of history to close, but sad to see alot of it defaced and away from its original place....what is now in it's place? Unfortunatly we arrived there close to closing so time was cut short, but you could probably spend a few days there with all
there is to see.
The Natural History museum was another hightlight -even if we did have to cue for an hour in the rain to get in....im morphing into a brit now i think, go out in rain, hail or snow, cue for long periods if time and have a handbag sized brelly "just in case"! We got to meet Dippy the dinosaur who lives in the most beautiful building....that building alone was worth the cue. They had an amazing dinosaur display which got you thinking, well worth a visit and all for Free!
We were very fortunate to be able to stay with anna and gareth at anna's bosses place. A very nice London residence in Kensington. I got very fit as the house, like most London houses was terraced over five floors...our bedroom was at the top! We were taken on a tour of Primrose Hill within Regents Park which gives a pretty good view of the London Skyline. Walking down from here to the village a bit of nostalgia set in as the Sally Army band played their carols on the street corner...aww. We walked back past the London Zoo, sneaking a peek over the
fence. There are canels that run through Regents Park which used to be used for traders taking supplies into London. We saw a couple of house boats motoring on by, apparently you can hire them and wind your way around London and further out...could be fun?
After some deliberation we decided NOT to face the New Year crowd in central London to see the fireworks over Big Ben and the London Eye. The display was meant to be spectacular, being an Olympic year.....maybe they had left overs....? So instead we opted to stay in Kensington. We went to the pub breifly down the road and managed to score some poppers...then left again just in time to see the fireworks on TV which were Spectacular and surpassed expectations! It was amazing to be able to see it on TV and hear them live outside...so at least I can say I was in London at the time. The next door neighbours were up on the roof, letting off lanterns into the sky. Anna and I raced upstairs to the top floor and were surprised to see fireworks and lanterns being let off all over the London skyline, was awesome to see!
So although we didnt venture out we had a very memorable new years without having to fight people on the tubes to get home, probably till 5am in the morning!
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