Posts made in August, 2012

Shopping & Amazing Food

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 14, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 6 comments

Today we had a great day…not a lot on the agenda except shopping, eating, and enjoying ourselves. We started the day at Tom Tom where we enjoyed coffee and poached eggs on toast. Then we walked about a mile over to Harrod’s for some jewelry shopping. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything I liked, but that was fine because next we headed over to Liberty of London, another high-end department store and I found the most beautiful scarf that Andrew was nice enough to buy for me. After that we headed to lunch at Mother Mash where we had some amazing bangers (sausages) and mash (potatoes). What a treat!

After that we headed to St. James’s park to see the Horse Guards Parade where the Olympic beach volleyball tournaments took place. While they had most of that side of the park blocked off, we were able to enjoy some local wildlife (squirrels and pigeons) and beautiful flowers there. When it started to rain, we took shelter under a tree and just relaxed for a while listening to the rain and watching people run through the park. It was a good rest since we had done miles of walking while we were shopping earlier.

More than a month ago, as soon as I knew the dates of our trip, I immediately booked reservations at a restaurant called Dinner by Heston Blumenthal here in London. It is rated the 9th best restaurant in the world and I couldn’t resist such a tempting treat. Tonight was the night of our reservation. After we had finished shopping, we came back to the hotel and got ready to go. After a quick taxi ride we arrived at the Mandarin Oriental hotel where the restaurant is. It was a beautiful, warm, and inviting space and the service was top notch. As good as the service was though it was the food that was the real show stopper. The inspiration for all the menu items at Dinner come from historic British cooking with a modern twist and it delivered in all respects. Everything was amazing. I started with Meat Fruit which turned out to be and a yummy chicken liver mousse encased in a tangerine-flavored gel that was made to look like an actual tangerine. Just beautiful! Andrew had a delicious saffron rice dish with calf tail called “Rice and Flesh.” For our main courses I had the Cod with Mussels and Cider Sauce and Andrew had Powdered Duck Breast with fennel. We also ordered some delicious carrots with caraway as a side dish and I can say without a doubt that those were the best carrots I have ever eaten. We finished up the meal with an indescribable yeasted cake with a spit-roasted pineapple that took 30 minutes to make. Again, it’s hard to describe, but think of the best doughnut you have ever eaten and then imagine something that tastes 100 times better. We also ordered the post dessert ice cream where they came by with a cart and made us tableside ice cream using liquid nitrogen. They also let us pick from some unusual, but tasty toppings. Andrew had the chocolate hazelnuts and I had sugar-coated fennel seeds and homemade apple “pop rocks.” Overall I would describe the food as exquisite. This was probably the closest I’ll ever get to feel what it’s like to be a judge on Top Chef. It definitely earns a spot in the top 5 meals we have ever eaten.

Although it was late when we got out of the restaurant, we just couldn’t resist one last nighttime stroll along the Thames taking in the sights of the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben all lit up at night. As my previous boss Lael would say, “we just had to lay eyes on them” one more time. Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Amsterdam to continue the adventure.

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew

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Our Once-in-a-Lifetime Olympic Experience

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 13, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 5 comments

We keep saying to ourselves that we can’t believe we’ve been in London for less than 48 hours. We have experienced so much that it feels like we’ve been here a week already. Today we pretty much only did one really cool thing. As we announced yesterday, we got last-minute tickets to the Olympic goal medal men’s basketball game. As soon as we got up we wasted no time getting some takeaway (that means to-go in British) croissants and coffee from Tom Tom. We then headed to The Tube so we could pickup our tickets from the Will Call center clear across town. Even though we were a few hours early, we decided to go to the arena right away because it was another 45-minute Tube ride away and we have heard lots of warnings here about the public transport getting really congested right before Olympic events start. It turned out to be a really great idea to show up early. We breezed through security, had time to buy some official Olympic merchandise, and ate a pretty tasty lunch at Pizza Express (the restaurant is more upscale than it sounds).

Even though we had found the tickets at the last minute, the seats weren’t bad at all. We were in the first row of one of the higher sections so we had nobody sitting in front of us. You can see our view in the pictures below. There were lots of celebrities in attendance including David Beckham, Jesse Eisenberg, and even Arnold Schwartzenegger who scored a seat right next to the Mayor of London. Both the Spanish and American fans had lots of enthusiasm and the costumes were downright entertaining. The guys with American flag jumpsuits, elbow-length stars and stripes evening gloves, and clown wigs were my favorite. NBA jerseys and cardboard cutouts of Kobe’s head were also popular ways to show support. If you didn’t watch the game on TV, Spain put up a great fight and it was neck and neck right up until the very end where we overtook them and won by 7 points (107 to 100). Just like at a basketball games back home, between periods and time outs, they kept the crowd entertained with dancing, jump rope acrobatics, and even this funny bongo cam where when the camera comes to you, you are supposed to pretend like you are playing the bongo drums. It was quite hilarious really. Immediately following the game, the medal ceremony took place…USA for Gold, Spain for Silver, and Russia for Bronze. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see our flag raised and our national anthem being played for all to hear. Seeing it on TV just doesn’t do the experience justice. It was truly indescribable and something we will never ever forget. It would have been extra nice though if some of our basketball guys knew the actual words. I saw lots of lip synching that didn’t quite match up.

After the game, we sat on a small grass area right outside the stadium and watched all the people come streaming out. We had some more celebrity sightings and got to see the Russian basketball team walking to their vans. It was fun to see all the different types of people from around the world. Since we still weren’t too excited about getting on the hot and crowded Tube, we hitched a ride back into town on a boat and found a highly-rated trendy Mexican restaurant where we had some pretty tasty street tacos. I know what you’re thinking…Mexican in London? We thought the same thing. It definitely didn’t beat the tacos back home, but it was authentic, hit the spot, and was close by so we considered it a win. Finally we headed back to our hotel room so we could catch the Closing Ceremony live on BBC. Overall it was an amazing day. Again, we still can’t believe it’s only been a day and a half since we got here. Rio 2016 anyone?

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew

P.S. Andrew added a google maps widget to the right hand side of the page so you can generally see where we are at any given moment. If it always seems like we’re in the same place, that’s because we’re sleeping most of the time you guys would be checking the blog. Enjoy!

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UPDATE: We scored tickets to the Gold Medal Men’s Basketball Match USA vs. Spain!!!

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 12, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 4 comments

We are so excited we can hardly stand it. We just scored tickets to the gold medal Men’s Basketball match tomorrow…USA vs. Spain. We checked one last time for affordable available tickets right before we went to bed and what do you know, some magically appeared on CoSport’s website. Looks like we know what our plans for tomorrow will be. Tom Tom for breakfast, to the will call office, and then on to see an official Olympic event. Go team USA!!!

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First Class, the Northern Lights, and the Olympic Rings

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 12, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 6 comments

We made it! What a great flight. It might be the only chance we get to fly first class so we definitely enjoyed it while it lasted. We watched movies, we ate our dinner off of real plates with real silverware, and we slept in a lay-flat bed. All that was great, but the best part of the flight actually had nothing to do with our first class seats. About 4 hours in Andrew started noticing faint white streaks of light outside the plane window. Over several minutes, the lights became brighter and brighter and started taking on a green hue. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing…it was the Northern Lights! For those of you that don’t know, we had originally planned for our trip this year to take place in October and include Iceland and Scandinavia. One of the main highlights was to be seeing the Northern Lights which is a bucket list item for Andrew and I. Unfortunately, because of Andrew’s school schedule and my work schedule, we weren’t able to take that trip. We decided to take this trip instead knowing that we would have to put off our dream to see the Northern Lights for at least one more year. Well it looks like Mother Nature was smiling down on us because we got to check that bucket item off after all. We were so amazed that we strained our necks trying to take everything in until slowly but surely the lights faded away. Andrew was able to get some really cool photographs out the window.

Getting through customs, picking up our luggage, and and finding our driver was a breeze. Our flight landed at Noon and by 1:30 p.m. we were already checking into our small boutique hotel on Eccleston Square. On our first trip to London we stayed with my cousin Mickey in his flat just a few doors down. Since we know the area really well and our favorite coffee shop Tom Tom is right around the corner, we thought this would be an ideal place to stay. The hotel is great. The rooms are a little on the smaller size, but what is lacking in size is definitely made up for in technological advancement. We have a 3D TV, an in-room iPad, heated bathroom floors, a bed that has a built-in foot massager, and clear shower doors that fog up for privacy at the touch of a button. Andrew is in heaven. :)

After a quick nap and a shower, we headed to Tower Bridge to take pictures of the iconic Olympic Rings. It is so strange seeing them on TV one day and then being here in person, half a world away, the next. There were relatively big crowds as we expected, but nothing too bad so far. The tube was pretty crowded too. At one point we walked across the bridge to see all the commotion going on on the other side of the Thames. The city had setup a huge projector showing live Olympics events and there was a noisy mob of people watching. It got particularly rowdy when Tom Daley of the UK was fighting the US and China for a gold medal in 10m platform diving. We saw lots of people sporting national pride including a guy wearing full Leprechaun getup with an Irish flag tied to his shoulders like a cape. There was also a guy in a gorilla suit playing an electric guitar. We ate a delicious dinner at a tasty Indian restaurant on that side of town and then did some more walking and nighttime photography…or “night shots” as Andrew and Mickey like to call it.

We landed back at the hotel at around 11:00 p.m., watched some Olympics recaps on BBC, and are headed for bed. So far its been a great start to our trip. We hope everything is going well at home and that the heatwave is almost over by now. We will post more tomorrow.

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew

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