London Photos #1

Nice photo-bomb behind Tim at the airport in Brno, Czech Republic.   (It's pronounced like "burn-o".)

The English Channel!!   :-)

We took an airport transport bus to downtown London (the Liverpool train station), and we immediately saw a pasty shop.  Our first Cornish pasty was delicious!!!  

This is the 4-bedroom flat that Anna booked for us near Kilburn Park Station in Zone 2.  It was great to be in a neighborhood on a typical London street away from other tourists! 

Our first view of Parliament across the River Thames, when we all headed out to explore London on our first morning. 

Heading across the river with Timko and Zuzanna, going towards Big Ben

The side of Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey's front entrance was magnificent.  We were lucky enough to go to an afternoon service, so we got in free, plus had a wonderful worship experience! 

No photos allowed inside, so this is a clandestine one. 

We attended an evensong service, with a guest choir from another church. 

The British flag flying over the parliament building.

Our "London Photo" with Big Ben in the background, at exactly 18:00, or 6:00 p.m., with church bells ringing everywhere, and Big Ben chiming too!!

We took an evening "Free Walking Tour" (with a ghost theme), and we heard some stories about this tavern from our tour guide.  But this scene of business people and tourists alike relaxing with a pint while standing outside a pub was very typical.  

For our designated break on our walking tour, we all stopped at a pub, so we sampled what was on tap, and drank it standing up outside, like typical Londoners.  (Mine's not a pint, since I don't really like beer!)  

The mounted guards - on our free walking tour the next morning

Enjoying London's sights!!  :-)

Walking through St. James's Park on the way to Buckingham Palace - this is a caretaker's cottage.  

The flowers and gardens were gorgeous in St. James's Park.

The gardens and gates near Buckingham Palace as we waited for the changing of the guard ceremony.  

On our tour, we only saw the guard companies marching in and out along the parade route into the palace.  Still very cool.

St. James Palace

10 Downing Street - the gray building 

Just some random buildings in downtown London that I thought were beautiful!!  

Our tour guide had said that we should go directly to the theatre to find tickets for musicals instead of trying all the discount ticket operators, so we all a went and got tickets for "Phantom of the Opera" for three different performances!!  

The "Tim's" in the theatre district. 

The National Gallery and St. Martin in the Fields Church on Trafalgar Square. 

Heading to Her Majesty's Theatre for "Phantom" that same afternoon (Saturday) --- so excited!

The opening set before it started.  It was our first time to see "Phantom"!!  

The theatre balconies filled up fast!

The stage at intermission time, with the chandelier after it had fallen.   The performance was absolutely amazing - with awesome singers, orchestra, costuming, and special effects!  

After our matinee performance of "Phantom", we headed out exploring again, and we saw this sidewalk chalk artist drawing maps of countries around the world.  

But for us, it was really cool to see Slovakia and the U.S.A. right next to each other!!  The guy did this same gig every day, and we never saw this configuration again.   It made us happy to know we were there in London with our Slovak friends!!  :-)  
(P.S. - Paul pointed out the other coincidence, that the Taiwan flag was also next to the U.S., which is where he and Alana spent 18 months teaching right before we came to Slovakia.  And of course our first blog was of our trip to Taiwan to visit them!!)   

The crowds on Trafalgar Square

On the way home, we decided to walk through Regent's Park.  We love how all the royal parks have these beautiful gated entrances.  

The English Gardens were absolutely stunning!  

The color combinations, statues and fountains, and tremendous variety of types of blossoms and geometric configurations were astounding! 

So, that takes us up through the first three days of our London trip.  More London pictures coming soon!!  

Loving London!!

So, on Thursday, July 17 we took a bus to Brno, Czech Republic, where we met Zuzka and Timko as well as a college friend of hers with her family, and we all flew to London together.  We are staying in a 4-bedroom flat near Kilburn Park Station (for any of you who know London), but our internet connections have been terrible all week.  Tonight for some reason, it's working, but not well enough to load photos, so at least I thought I'd check in with a little news.   :-)  

We have been trying to do London 'on the cheap', since it's so expensive here.  Most of the main tourist sights have huge entry fees, so we've been just taking pictures from outside, and then hitting up many free museums and attractions instead.  We've also attended several church services and recitals, which have gained us free entry to places like Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, plus we've enjoyed the worship and music experiences there greatly.  

There are several grocery stores near here, so we have our breakfast and supper here at the flat, and then we have enjoyed some typical London lunches of fish & chips as well as Cornish pasty's which are fabulous --- just like the ones in the U.P.!!   :-)  Today we had a baguette, cheese, apples, and water from our refilled bottles, in the courtyard of the Albert and Victoria Museum, sharing a table with a delightful retired couple from here in England.     

We did 'splurge' on one item --- tickets to see "Phantom of the Opera" in Her Majesty's Theatre.   And it was spectacular!!  It's one show we've never seen, and to have our first time be here in London was amazing.  The theatre itself was gorgeous, and the music, costumes and special effects were over the top.  WOW!!

All of us got an Oyster Card --- the public transportation pass for a week - so we've gotten accustomed to the underground/tube and bus systems, which has made it so easy to navigate all over London.  And tomorrow, we'll be leaving already!!  The week has gone by quickly because it has been so much fun.  Zuzanna, Anna, and the four young people have been delightful too.  

I'll try to get photos up once we arrive in our next destination ---- Vienna!!  We'll arrive there on Friday evening, and then we'll meet my cousin Steve and his new bride Joan there on Saturday at the airport to share a few days with them at the tail end of their honeymoon.  

Well, that's at least a short synopsis of the past week.  The next post will just be a photo highlight reel of our time in London!!  :-)   

Rafting, Cookies, and Caves

Our friend Tana and her husband Jano run several tourist-related businesses, including a rafting operation, so they've been wanting to set up a time for us to raft down the river Vah! The day after we returned from Italy, the Mráz family headed out with us, thanks to our friends!  

Ivan and Tim ready to get on the raft.

The girls, ready with our paddles!!  

The Mraz younger generation ready to conquer the whitewater!!  

My sweetie and I, all set to go on the raft!!  

And here's the whole group.     :-)

And, we're off!!  (For our Slovak readers, we started near Kralova Lehota.)

Tana's brother was our driver, dropping us off and then meeting us at our endpoint, so he drove to various locations along the river to get pictures of our rafts.   Sweet!!   The scenery was so beautiful!!  

There wasn't really a lot of whitewater, since the river wasn't too high, but there were a few places like this where we had to go over a little rapids/waterfall.  So, it was mostly relaxing, and a little exciting too!!    :-)

The scenery was gorgeous, and the day was perfect.  It had been rainy and cool in the morning, but the weather turned out to be nicer than expected.   :-)

Our trip ended after about an hour and a half, just before the dam ahead.  

It was really a fun time for our first rafting adventure ever, and we were so thankful for Tana setting it all up for us!!  

Next, we all headed over to a barbeque at Tana and Jano's house.  Tim really liked Jano's moveable grill rack over the coals.  

Playing with the puppy!!  

Fun times and good food shared with dear friends after rafting together!  

Checking out the new message board just outside the front of the church on Sunday morning.  

Sunday afternoon was the Drama Club end of the year party.  It had to be postponed from the original date, so not so many kids could be there, but those who came had lots of fun!

We were in Pat'ka's garden house in Liptovská Trnovec, on a lovely afternoon.  

Some of the group enjoying being together!  (And the sign Rivi made, above the wood!)

Monday night we had a 'baking lesson' with our two Slovak daughters, making chocolate chip cookies together with the very last bag of chocolate chips from the U.S.   We brought a lot of American ingredients back to Slovakia after Christmas, and of course we have received several wonderful 'care packages' of baking goods from the U.S.A. over the past two years.  So our Slovak friends have really enjoyed all the American cookies I've been able to bake and share!!  

Janka learning to measure our American brown sugar, packing it into the measuring cup.  (Only granulated sugars are available here.  And measurement is done in Europe by weight, not by volume!)  

Janka's first pan of chocolate chip cookies, ready for the oven!  

Katarina putting the dough on the next pan, while Tim and Janka sample the first batch, still warm and melty from the oven!!  It was Tim's idea to have our daughters over for a chocolate chip cookie baking lesson, and then we'll send ingredients over to them later so they can continue the American cookie traditions!  

We walked the gals over to the bus stop after our fun time together.  For supper, I had made buttermilk pancakes with blueberries and blueberry syrup, and bacon.  This was a rather unusual combination for them, but they enjoyed it anyway.  (After they finally stopped laughing about how crazy it sounded!!)  

Then on Tuesday afternoon, Saška had invited us to see the famous Liberty Cave in the Demanová Valley near us, which we had never gotten to in our two years!  

Saška and Tim heading into the cave.  

Perpetual rain - one place in the cave has a waterfall constantly.

The cave formations were really beautiful!

Huge stalactites and stalagmites.

Enjoying our tour through the cave!

A river flows underground through the cave, and it has a beautiful emerald green color.

Not a clear photo, but you can see the color anyway!

We descended really far down through huge caverns.

Some of the formations were enormous.

Quite impressive!

It's interesting to see these formations that have formed over millions of years.

This is a cross-section of agate - beautiful!

This 'waterfall' of stalactites was something like 75 meters high, and we climbed up forever on stairs alongside it! 

More cave sights

Saška leading the way.

Tim enjoying the cave expedition.

More interesting formations.

Thanks Saška, for our fun trip through the cave!   :-)

Wednesday we were invited to Katarina's house for lunch and the afternoon to spend time with our Slovak family!  The food was delicious, and of course there was much laughter!

A wolf pelt rug down in the 'man cave' in the basement!

This pic is for "Tim's sister, the Wisconsin hunter" --- some more of the pelts and antlers taken by the Slovak hunters, Juraj and Juraj.  

And the other side of the room.    It's like a natural history museum!

Relaxing on the porch with Katarina's parents and grandma.  

And her brother Juraj too when he got home from work.  

And this time Katarina walked us to the bus stop before our ride back from Východná.

We really love the beautiful trip back through the valley, with the views of Kriván' and the Tatra Mountains.  

We had a wonderful time for a few days back in Slovakia after our trip to Italy.  It was awesome getting to spend time with good friends before our next adventure.  This post is actually being finished up and sent from our next destination --- London!!   More on that later, of course!!