Monday, July 23, 2007

Rainy days

This summer has been not much in terms of warmth or sunny skies. I am getting impatient with the weather and dream of tropical heatwaves (I know that a lot of friends complain about being exposed to too much heat, so I would suggest swapping places, what do you say Viki?). To be fair, there were a couple of days when the sun shone, and those moments were truly cherished. Which makes me think about these yummy fruits, which Martin picked (oh ye tall ones, you have lots of advantages in the picking of fruits, that's for sure) and I ate!

Friday, July 13, 2007

London trip

After half a year or more of blogging absence, here I come with a wee bit of information about our latest excursion, to the UK, or more precisely to London and Cambridge. We stayed with friends, and that was great, and then we traveled around the city with the (in)famous tube. One of my best moments, besides the obvious ones, was to find a very nice South Indian restaurant and to eat a huge Masala Dosa, something I have longed for since I left India three (!!!) years ago. It was the real thing, with coconut chutney and dhal, delicious! Also in terms of food, right in the middle of the city, in the Covent Garden area, we stumbled upon a Romanian sweets shop, loaded with some of my favorites. The decision was hard to make, but eventually I picked one, a chocolate-filled amandine!
Cambridge also blew me away, despite the massive amount of tourists. Charming old town, and ideal colleges. Some cozy and nice, some imperial in proportions - King's College by far at the top of the scale. Nowhere was the English obsession with the perfect grass carpet more evident than at King's, as I hope you will notice in the pictures below. King's College, built by Henry VIII at the height of his power, also displays a magnificent cathedral where we had the chance to listen to an organ concert which filled me literally with good vibrations. Final point on Cambridge, punting on the river Cam. When you see the pros, you think they are as graceful as the gondoliers of Venice, but when you see the novices, you cannot help but laugh until you drop at their acrobatics. We also observed some very interesting traffic jams and small accidents which cruelly amused us :-) !



Punting Chaos on the River Cam

More Punting, with spectators watching from the Magdalene Bridge

Greenwich time ball, on the zero meridian

A typical London view, rows of identical houses (here, Highgate)


Now Cambridge, where lots of colleges are closed on weekends to avoid tourist invasion

King's College was open though - here is the marvel called English grass carpet

King's College majestic cathedral
















The delicious Amandina mentioned above

















The angel (or Eros?) of Picadilly Square
















In some cases, old unused churches are desacralized and used as apartment buildings
















Besides its collections, I really likes the hall of the British Museum




















The Rose and Crown, one of the many Elisabethan pubs spread around town (this one in Greenwich)