Weekend in London

Last Thursday I flew to London to visit my good friend Sarah Beth who has been living there since August.  It was so nice to only be a 2 hour flight away!  I followed her well detailed instructions taking the train and the tube, and met up with her by her work.  We had tickets to a play that evening, but had a bit of time to grab a glass of wine and a light pre-theater dinner.

yummm...eggplant and goat cheese on toast with some greens

we saw Hay Fever...which was quite good, and in a super cool theater.

After dinner and the show, we headed back to Sarah Beth's apartment in West Hampstead, and had a nice proper cup of English Tea before bed.  She had to work Friday morning, so she armed me with maps and a general idea of some loops I could walk that would allow me to see the most things (plus another cup of tea)

The weather Friday was beyond unpredictable...one minute it would be pouring rain...then you'd see the sun and some blue sky...and then while you had your sunglasses on it would start raining again...but I suppose that's just a London thing.  I started my day at Buckingham Palace, also fun since this weekend marked one year since the Royal Wedding, when I was up at 5am eating fancy french toast on my couch with friends watching the live coverage...and a year later here I am! 

From Buckingham Palace I walked down towards Trafalgar Square (close to Sarah Beth's office) again playing the up and down game with my umbrella.

Once I made it to Trafalgar Square, I walked down towards the river to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

I walked across the river and back...in the driving windy rain the whole time...just about the time I got back off the bridge the sun came out, so I walked along the river a bit and stopped in the gardens along the way.

I met up with Sarah Beth and one of her co-workers for a nice pub lunch, and then took off walking the opposite direction after lunch...notice the nice blue sky for a moment 

I walked around...and to Covent Garden, and about then it started to rain again, so I went into the National Portrait Gallery for a while, and into the National Gallery as well...both gorgeous buildings with wonderful artwork...but no pictures allowed anywhere inside. Oh well.  

I met Sarah Beth outside her office once she got off work, and we walked across the street to this really cool wine bar.  This is a picture of the inside seating...which is really dark with a really low ceiling, since it was full inside, and not raining at the moment...we opted for an outdoor table to enjoy our wine.

From there we headed towards her boyfriend Tim's apartment for a nice relaxing evening of home cooking...or as close to home cooking as we were willing to get at the moment...heating up some pizza and mixing up salad...which was plenty for me.

Saturday was a more steady day of rain, but we had decided we wanted to go check out Borough Market in the morning, so we headed down there, thankfully most of the market itself is covered, so we were fine walking around to all the different stands and tasting local foods.

By far the most amusingly correct sign 

"Enjoy your day with our Prosecco or Summer Spritzer or Mulled Wine 

According to the Changing Weather Conditions"

After Borough Market we walked along the river so I could see Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, although by then we were pretty tired of the rain and wind, so this is about as far as we got before we ducked into a nice cozy pub for some lunch.

That afternoon we mostly just stayed around Sarah Beth's apartment, talked, watched amazingly bad television...we met up with Tim and his brother for a very nice dinner though, and we all watched it pour rain and watched people's umbrellas flip inside out while we sat by the window eating.  We finally geared ourselves up to go back outside when the restaurant closed, and walked back home in the rain.  

Sunday we got up and went to church which was really nice, and then Sarah Beth, Tim and I had a quick bite of lunch before dropping me back off at Victoria Station to head back to the airport.  Thankfully the trip home from the airport in Vienna is super easy and fast, which I'm definitely going to get spoiled doing. 

I think that's about the general London run-down.  It was a really fun weekend, and so great to get to spend time with good friends.  I'm not sad to be back in Vienna's weather though...especially this week which has been really warm and sunny, but I will definitely make the trip back to London again, and hopefully SB will find a good time to come over this way :)