Its neat, that Mike's interests were very different from Lori's, making for an ENTIRELY different adventure! Lori wanted to see everything... all the tourist sites. Mike wanted to live like the locals, good restaurants and shopping.
Mike arrived on Thursday. Marcus Gladson picked him up and gave him a tour around Southall, where he ministers. I met up with them around dinner time back at the flat and we went up to Bayswater for dinner. Had a delightful meal at a Persian restaurant. Sooo yum. Took a stroll and then got ice cream. Mike kept insisting that he couldn't even tell he was in London. He could be in Boston for all he knew! Well of course I saw that as a challenge and had to change that.
With both of us still jet lagged (translated, no where near ready to go to sleep), I took him for an evening tour of all the sites. We hopped up the Tube in Piccadilly (Time Square), walked down to the famous Trafalgar Square and down Pall Mall to Buckingham Palace. The Mall was decorated with brilliant giant flags left over from the Queen's Jubilee (birthday) the weekend prior). Mike sure couldn't say we were in Boston anymore! We continued down to Westminster, Parliament and Big Ben. We took the typical pictures, including the phone booth pic. Walked along the river (saw The Eye) and up into Embankment and home. Great night.
On Friday, I had to work, but Mike slept in and then spent the day in Victoria. I'm still trying to figure out why, ha, ha, but he says the shopping was good. After work we'd planned to go to The London Eye, but got distracted by a music festival on the South Bank. Very fun event. Stayed for quite a while and then back to Paternoster Square for a fancy English dinner. After dinner we were off for another evening stroll... to check out Smithfields. Mostly bars and restaurants. We didn't go in, but it was nice exploring.
Saturday we spent exploring in Covent Garden and shopping on Oxford Street. Mike was very excited to get some Euro jeans. I got a fun shirt. We both got tea. Then we meant up with Marcus for dinner at this amazing little restaurant, Incognico, on Shaftsbury Lane. Three brilliant courses with champagne for 25GBPs! From there, met up with some coworkers of mine to see a show, The Drowsy Chaperone. It was decent. Not Wicked, but decent. (And fortunately not Mary Poppins either, which Kevin and I saw last week and REALLY weren't thrilled by. I think he wanted to blind himself to make the pain stop.) Anyway... after the show, we walked around Leicester Square and hung out in a pub for bit. Wonderful evening.
Sunday we ventured by boat up to Greenwich to see the meridian. Neat! I got to stradle a date line. So childish, but I loved it. The whole observatory area was beautiful with quite the view. And the boat ride was much fun. Wrapped up the day with church at HTB and then dinner in South Kensington.
Monday I was back to work and Mike did some last minute shopping before some lunch and then off to the airport. I'm so glad he came. It was truly a wonderful weekend.
Here's the pics!
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