Rino and Beth's UK Adventure: 12/01/2007

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Merry Christmas from London

Tree with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

Monday, December 17, 2007

Ho Ho Ho from London...

Some random pics from this past week in London... all with a holiday twist.

Heather felt we could stand outside on Redcliffe Gardens with a sign that says "Kids, get your picture with SantaCat: 5 GBP - Come upstairs!" and thus kindly provided the costume for Candy. So far, no kids...

We took a trip to see a craft fair at Somerset House... there is a huge skating rink setup outside.

Even the construction blokes are in the holiday spirit - Can you spot the tree?

Two picturesque churches on The Strand

1 box of Honey Maid graham crackers + 1 bag of Kraft marshmallows (both purchased in the "American" section of Partridges) = 8 GBP = $16... no, $17. Plus some local chocolate (they ran out of Hershey's). Using a fork and the gas stove, we had Smores. PS - don't put the fork in your mouth just after doing this. I still can't taste my food.

This looks like the frozen turkey that we tried to defrost on Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

München

When visiting Germany, there are several cities that one can choose from. We thought Munich would be a great introduction. Hopefully we'll have time to see a few others. I'll let the pics below explain what we did over the weekend.

Center of the city - Marienplatz - which held the Christmas Market

Beth in front of an outdoor rink setup for the Christmas market

Sampling some local Worst

Christmas market

Giant candle fan thing at the market

We happened to be walking through the train station when a large crowd gathered around an approaching train - It was the first ever arrival France's TGV at the station... That's what a celebrity train engineer looks like.

The famous beer hall, Hofbrauhaus which showcases Bavarian beer culture

A sample of some mulled wine at the Christmas market... yes... it was my first one. I have no idea what caused the strange face.

Another shot of the market with part of the old town hall (left part of the picture)

Hafbrauhaus at night

Something that ends in fahrt. Many things seem to. Ok, I just Googled it. It means run, ride, or drive. I get it now.

Munich

12 inch Christmas trees

BMW pride everywhere

Beth drinking Andechser - a famous brew made at a monastery

Andeschser selection

Marienplatz as seen from a tower that we hoofed it up

Beth atop the tower

Christmas goodies

Man those are big

On the final day we took a trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps and used as a model for the rest of futher Nazi facilities. It was quite a moving experience to be there.

All prisoners walked through this gate that said "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "work brings freedom."

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Catch-up...

Apologies that we've slacked on the blogging in recent weeks. We promise to pick up the pace!

The last week was chaotic... we were both very busy with work, Thanksgiving, a guest from the States, final MBA exams for me, etc.

This past weekend (yesterday) we went to a Holiday Festival in Hyde Park: Winter Wonderland. Today we saw a matinee: American Gangster - Great movie.

Going back in time one week, we (actually Beth) cooked our first turkey... The delivery service of Tesco dropped off all of our groceries on Tuesday night (2 days before T-day)... one of the items included a frozen turkey. Thinking our fridge would thaw it out, we did not realize it needed a whole 48 hours to thaw. Wednesday night rolled around, and to our surprise, the bird was still frozen solid... Some one's clever idea was to thaw it in a hot bathtub of water. After wrapping the turkey in about 27 bags (to avoid soap scum contamination), we thawed it over night. Well... while at work on Thursday morning, I founded about 50 websites with tips on how to thaw a frozen turkey. All recommended ICE COLD WATER to avoid bacteria setting in (and getting your house guests sick)... Luckily Whole Foods had a quick replacement for us...