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The Roma B & B has been open for business with a busy spring season. Spring certainly arrived fast in London and we took advantage of the lovely weather and did lots of walks on the weekends. The daffodils in Green Park were particularly stunning as they carved out beautiful garden beds, and we were not the only one's out enjoying the spring time, everyone was having picnics, walking their dogs and eating ice creams in the sunshine.
Kate's best friend Marianne came to stay in March which was not only a fun time, but it was also quite a reunion for them both as they had not seen each other since Mari was Kate's bridesmaid at our wedding. So almost 2 years, which was incredible as before that they had always seen each other every day at school and then a few times a week after that! But the reunion didn't end there. Mari and Kate also went to school with Trina who also lives in London and it was about 5 years since all 3 of them had been together! So you can believe lots of fun times with reminiscing were had.
Kate was able to take
some time off work and showed Mari some of the London sights as she had not been here before. They even went on the London Eye which Kate found particularly exciting since she could recognize the sights, buildings, and almost point out where we live! We also took Mari out for some traditional English pub grub, with Mari having a guinea fowl pie!
Mari used out place as a home base and she went off for some travels in Europe with her parents before returning to London and then heading off again. But over Easter we made it a group trip with Mari, Trina, our ex-flatmate Sam and us all going to Paris. It was all organised a little last minute so we all arrived and left on different days, but we were all there on Easter Sunday and so we went to Disneyland! Mark and Sam were not quite so keen on the roller coasters which left the rest of us in stitches with plenty of laughter all day. Fairy floss, costumes, and sunshine galore made for a fun day. Although the highlight for us all was squeezing all 5 adults into one little tea-cup and Mark and
Sam working as hard as they could to spin us all as fast as possible. Every one of us was crying with laughter.
Paris was amazing yet again. Whilst we didn't really do any sight seeing on this small trip, we certainly went out in the evenings, danced the nights away, ate in the french restaurants, with french onion soup and foie gras being the hands down favourites. What treats! We had plenty of time just hanging out together, often pitching ourselves on the grass - beneath the Eiffel tower, by the museums, by sacre coeur.
Mari also had her birthday when staying with us and Kate took her to Bath for the day. By the sounds of things, the 2 ladies had a relaxing day, wandering the streets, eating pasties, drinking in some locals and marveling at some of the amazing architecture. They also went to the Roman Baths and also a fashion museum where they got to try on old style corsets and hoop skirts. Some of the photos were very amusing!
As we do with many of our guests, we had a day down in Brighton, walked along the Pier, had fish and chips
and wandered through the eclectic side streets with shops and stalls. But the other highlight while Mari was with us was Kate took her to High Tea at the Ritz as a Birthday Gift. The girls got all dolled up, curled their hair, took shawls, although no pearls! The Ritz was beautiful, very old school with traditional 5 star service and the sandwiches, scones and cakes were served in a tiered caddy and we each had out own pot of tea. It was so classy that we were told not to take photos, so were glad we sneaked in a few. The food was really yummy but we did feel that we were in a world of the very upper class, a little out of our comfort zones, but fun never the less as a one off!
And after 5 weeks it was over and it was time to say goodbye to Marianne again. So we went out for drinks (probably had a little too much) and said our goodbyes, not knowing how long it would be agiain to see her again. There were a few tears, but I guess that's a sign of a true friendship.
Mari
left on a Monday, and that same week we flew to Amsterdam for a week of more festivities as it was the Queen's Birthday Festival. The whole city was orange - with lights, people wearing orange, streamers - you name it and it was orange. We stayed on a canal boat for the first few nights which was fun. Our room was tiny, as expected, but the use of space in a room that was the floor space of a double bed was amasing as 2 single beds, a small wardrobe and a basin vanity was all squeezed in and we had about a metre of floor space in the middle! We even had a round port window. The same nights the city had massive street parties. We just wandered through, stumbling along various music set-ups. It was a bit like the Notting hill festival in London but better with less people agro, no police and better music, and of course at night. One of the best streets we came across was in the gay district. It was set up as a dance street, complete with rainbow flags, men wearing fairy wings on top of dance stages lined along the
road, mirror ball, flashing lights and live dance music that was really good. We stayed there dancing the night away for ages! There was also a fair set up in Dam Square with a Ferris wheel, shooting galleries, the works. But best of all was the Wurst! Yep, German sausage was back! It was a truly amasing night, and the following day the streets were lined with people selling their stuff. It's the one day of the year that you do not need a permit to set up a stall and sell things. It's like everyone having a car boot sale, or a garage sale, with plenty of trash and treasures! But along with this, it was also the day of canal parties. Every boat, barge and Roondvaart was out on the water, covered in orange decorations ad orange people. Almost every one had it's own DJ set-up with music blaring, and everyone was having yet another day of celebrations. Our friend Rhys from London arrived in Amsterdam the day of the street markets, so we met up with him that night and spent some time with him over the next few days. We went to Anne Frank's House together
which we all found very humbling. We also hired a paddle boat for an hour, and we let the boys do the paddling! It was a different perspective being on the water, looking up at the streets. We went to the Heineken Factory again and this time even had our name put on our own bottle! It's a keeper!
But another highlight of this Amsterdam trip was the day we spent at the Keukenhof. Unfortunately most of the fields of tulips had been cut already, but the gardens were beautiful. Despite the large number of tourists in the gardens, we spent time sitting on the grass, relaxing and felt that we were a long way from the city. The gardens obviously had plenty of tulips, which we were amazed to see such a huge variety of sizes, colours and shapes, but also a wide variety of other flowers and plants too. They had specific exhibitions for orchids, a Chinese garden with bamboo and purple coloured trees, and a pond where you can walk on water! (cant give away the secrets tho!) It was a beautiful day.
We were back in London less than a week when we were
preparing to say farewell to a couple of our close friends. First it was our ex-flatmate Sam and then it was Kate's old school friend Katie, both were returning to australia. So it was one farewell party after the other with plenty of hugs and a few sniffles thrown in. We were starting to feel that we might be the only one's left!
So we planned a little get away for the May long weekend, and we hired a car and drove to the Brecon Beacon National Park in Wales to go camping with our mate Rhys. The Beacons is just north of Cardiff, so took about 3 hours to get there from London. We had the tents up, had our fold out chairs, pots and pans and an open fire. We cooked on the fire, told stories into the nights, and had marshmallows on long sticks! Perfect. We were away for 3 days, and on the Sunday we went for a 6 hour walk in the National Park, rushing back to be in time to get fire wood (otherwise a chilly night would have been had). A few tired legs the next day, but the feeling amongst us
was very relaxed and generally pleased with our camping efforts.
We drove back to London on the Monday bank holiday and that night caught up with Kate's parents friends Jill and Michael for dinner. They had just been on a tour in Eurpoe and were now lose and on their own in London. Kate had given them some tips on how and what to see and when we caught up with them they were very grateful for the help as they had already seen some of the things and they only had another 2 days left. Itw as nice to see them and show them the south bank at night time.
But we weren't lonely for long, as the next day our next guests arrived. Unfortunately we couldn't make it back to Adelaide for our friends wedding, but we were very glad we could still congratulate them when they came to stay with us here in London. Eddie and Kellie-Jo were a little jet lagged after arriving from the States so it was nice for us to just have some down time with them, just walking to the pub for some dinner. Mark took some time off work
to show them around this time, with the usual walk around the city sights. We had quite a lengthy visit to Harrods and we also treated them to a night at the theatre, as a wedding gift, to see Chicago. They were with s for only over a week and it seemed to fly by. We ate at our favourite places, took them to the shopping areas and took advantage of the warm weather, walking everywhere we went. And then in no time at all it was time to say goodbye again.
We had some time on our own for a short while and we had some R&R time. We've had some picnics in the local park for dinner, and had a few catch ups with old work mates which were well overdue. We also had a fun night out seeing Jimeoin live. We do love a good laugh and we could relate to everything he was talking about.
Mr and Mrs Denton were in London again and we caught up for dinner with them both, along with their friend Liz and another friend from Adelaide, John Hough. It was a fun night of swapping travel stories with
plenty of discussions about the pros and cons of London vs Adelaide. Some very interesting perspectives! But it's always a pleasure catching up with them and they always appreciate us sparing the time - especially since it happened to be when there was a 48hour tube strike!
And that brings us up to very recent events. The weekend before last we went to Royal Ascot again. We went with some friends, packed drinks and picnic food and made a day of it. We got there as the gates were opening so we managed to secure a table and chairs undercover as the weather was not at its most glamorous, and we settled in for the day. Mark, being the budding punter, put a small bet on every race, and had 2 wins and 2 places so came a nice £30 ahead. Kate wore the feathers in her hair and Mark donned the suit and tie for the occasion, which was fitting while we waved at Lizzie as she passed us in her carriage.
The weekend after tat, only last week we went to Glastonbury. But on that note we will leave it there and write all about Glastonbury
in a special blog!
So we hope you are well and enjoying life as much as we are. And don't forget to take the time to smell the tulips!
All our love and best wishes.
Kate and Mark
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