Canada Day in London

Canada Day in London~~~
London loves Canada.



There was a festival in Trafalgar Square.  There was a stage with music (when we were there, it was definitely country music, the only time I have ever heard country music in London), food stalls selling poutine (or as one stall suspiciously called it "chips with cheese and gravy".....), big screens with travelAlberta videos playing, contests to win trips to Canada, and, best of all, a giant tournament of street hockey!  Go Canada!

CARS

We went back to the West End festival the next day.  After watching some performances, we wandered around, and stumbled upon something awesome! (That happens in London from time to time.)  There was a fenced off area with the cars they had used in many famous films.  Just, sitting there!

There was:

1990's Batmobile

1960's Batmobile (Adam West Style)

Kitt from Nightrider

Herbie the Lovebug

James Bond's Aston Martin

Mr. Bean's mini

General Lee (Dukes of Hazard)

and the Flintstones' car

There were a couple of other famous characters walking around as well...

Storm Troopers

Darth Vader (I failed him for the second last time, I guess)

Johnny Depp

and Angry Birds!

Lara Visits London

We had more visitors!  Disa and Lara came to London.  We all had dinner on Friday night and walked around Hyde Park, and then Disa went back to Glasgow on the sleeper bus because she was in a wedding the next day, and Lara stayed with us for Saturday.  And there was London fun to be had...

Albert Memorial in Hyde Park with Disa

Checking out the British museum with Lara

Awesome free West End theater show in Trafalgar Square.  Every West End show put on a short performance.  It ran all weekend.

Big Ben.

Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream", performed at Regent's Park Open Air Theater.

Zoolates

During the months of June and July, London had Friday late night parties at the zoo.  It was a great venue for a party, and lots of people were dressed up.  One thing that I liked was the "silent disco".  Because the animals need to have quiet when it gets later, there couldn't really be loud music.  So people could rent headphones in the dance area, and everyone silently danced.  We didn't get any head phones, but it was fun to see.

It wouldn't be London without some sculpture

Kew Gardens

Doug and Heather went to Portugal for a week while Dave and I went back to work.  They came back to London on the weekend, and we spent a day at Kew Gardens.

 

***

That evening, we went on a ghost walk.  We walked through tiny alleys, and this market place, and by a few old churches and heard old London ghost stories.

Reeses in England and Wales

After a couple of days in London, we went on a UK adventure.

England:

Stonehenge

Doing yoga in front of Stonehenge, just because.

The cute B&B we found.  It was a nice place in a delightful village.  We ended up staying here again on the way back.

There was a piano to play.  So, being us, we played and sang!  The second night we were here we had a sing-a-long after breakfast, and three other guests joined in.  The owner loved it, and said that was how it was supposed to be.

An old abbey near our B&B

Wales:

Cardiff Stadium

Cardiff Castle

Olympic fever is all over the UK

*****

There was some really heavy rain and flooding while we were on our trip.  This is normally a tiny stream.

We stopped in Beddgelert, a town named in honor of a dog.  There is a legend about a man accidentally killing his dog because he thought the dog killed his child, when really the dog saved the child from a wolf. 

Goat Major.

We hiked a while on Snowdon, the highest point in Wales.

 

Back to England:

The Roman Bath in Bath

People would engrave wishes or curses (usually curses, often quite nasty) onto these thin tablets and throw them into the bath.  The baths were used for everything - business, socializing, cleaning, and for special healings.

Points for spotting the rest of the family...

Georgian architecture in Bath

Bath Abbey