Return from the Baltics

Lake across from hotel, Helsinki

Sharing some knowledge - Estonia is one of the Baltics, with the others being Latvia and Lithuania. We had a good trip to Helsinki and Tallinn, extending our August Bank Holiday (basically, Labor Day a week early for you Americans) by two days. It was very nice to get away for more than just a long weekend. What was unexpected is the impact of a two hour time change. Seems pretty minimal, but makes for what feels like some early mornings and some late going to bed.

Anyway, on to the trip. We left Thursday afternoon for Helsinki on an airline we'd never heard of (Blue1?) that doesn't give away water, on a plane probably older than us. But we survived, got to the Helsinki airport, caught a cab, and found the hotel. We were staying just outside the downtown core so had a nice walk into town and caught some dinner - Italian. I know, I know, not at all authentic, but exactly what we needed - it was late, we were hungry, and we didn't feel like eating anything with "pickled" and "fish" in the same entree description.

Helsinki was a really pretty town. We wandered all over the city, seeing the harbor from multiple vantages points, crossing over to some islands. And the weather couldn't be beat. Twice we've been to Scandinavia, and twice we've had good weather. We don't question, just enjoy. Interestingly on the way in from the airport Katherine commented that it looked quite similar to the US, and the northwest in particular. They drive on the correct side of the road, new freeways, evergreens, and new construction. Off the freeway, they do have some really interesting architecture throughout town, with their homegrown architect Alvar Aalto well represented

We both left Helsinki feeling like it was a very comfortable and livable town. Walking and bike paths everywhere, lots of public transport, and a great community feel. Friday night there was a huge festival all over town - we walked down to the park across from our hotel and saw some fire dancing and music - surrounded by literally thousands of Fins. Very cool. The next morning we walked through the neighborhood behind our hotel and stumbled onto a local market where we had breakfast. All around us were locals meeting up with friends and family. It felt really nice. Monocle magazine recently ranked Helsinki #5 in their most liveable cities (Seattle, not ranked, Portland #25, Vancouver #8). I don't know how livable it is in the winter, but for the weekend we were there it definitely made sense.

Saturday afternoon we caught the jet boat hydrofoil thing over to Tallinn. I insisted that it was broken because we never took off (shouldn't a jet hydrofoil really move?) and thought we were going to be really late in getting there. I was, of course, wrong, and we arrived perfectly on time. Given the weather and proximity we walked the kilometer to the hotel. Hotel was good, modern design which I love (if you have a stone sink in a non-curved shape, I'm yours). Saturday was a good start, nice weather, did a preview of the Old Town to get us set for the next day. Unfortunately, the next day was raining, and windy, and totally miserable. It felt like an October day at 6pm all day long. After slogging around for a while, seeing some interesting church art, climbing the castle walls, and nailing the top 10 attractions according to our guide book, we retired for a bottle of wine and a movie on pay-per-view at the hotel.

I think that Tallinn was a bit disappointing for both of us. We gave it too much time (two full days), and the weather was not at all cooperative. Helsinki was nice, with good weather. So a bit of a mixed bag, but as always, just glad we have the opportunity to explore.

Russian Orthodox Church, Helsinki

The Harbor, Helsinki

Exploring Old Town, Tallinn

Gardens by the Presidents Palace, Tallinn

St Katharine Docks

Rich and Clara arrived in London 11th August, I have neglected to post about their visit here until now, the day after they left. Horrible, I know. It was great having them here, showing Clara the city, introducing them to our friends, shopping, sightseeing, etc.


On their last night we went to see our friend Neil's boat. He has recently moved it from Brighton to St Katharine Docks in the heart of London. Catherine and I made our way from our respective offices in The City to the boat, a quick journey by cab. It's an amazing location, right in The City, next to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.


We enjoyed a fabulous meal by Neil, not sure how he cooks so well in such a tiny space...not only was this Rich and Clara's last night in London, it was also the night Andy and I said bye to Catherine. She's moving this weekend and we're heading off to Heksinki and Tallinn today so won't see her. Fortunately she'll be back in about a month for a long weekend!! And, we're trying to figure out a way to NYC in the near future ;)

catherine's leaving do...

our good friend catherine is moving to nyc in less than two weeks! it's going to be very sad when she goes. andy and i met her right when we moved over and we've seen each other almost every week since, apart from all the time that either andy and i or catherine are off traveling somewhere - taking that into consideration we've probably seen her about every other week ;)

about a month ago andy, catherine and i met up in west hampstead for lunch at la brocca, a place we went to often when before andy and i moved into our current flat.


saturday night was catherine's leaving do, we had a great time, met some new people and saw some others that because of everyones busy schedule we hadn't seen for a while.

she's a good friend and we'll stay friends, and it will be fab when we're all living in america at the same time and she can come visit seattle and the pacific northwest.

it's lame, i know, but i can't help it...

it's been tough for me to think of blog posts lately, as i'm sure is obvious. life here is just as it is. it's no longer interesting to me to post about funny, quirky daily goings on here. we/i are entrenched enough here with daily life and living that it's difficult to find things worthy of posting about when we're not traveling about. having said that, there were a few goals that i wanted to achieve when moving, 1. take up yoga/pilates 2. take the opportunity to do something different with my career 3. learn to knit. i feel very good and confident that i have achieved/ am working towards 1 & 3, 2 is still a sore point for me in my life and part of what makes posting difficult. i'm still very much working towards figuring out what i want to be when i grow up, which is harder and harder as i get older.


so, with this i post my second completed knitting project - a baby blanket. originally i thought i would give it to the next person i knew having a baby, that's why i made the neutral colour palate, but it was so time consuming, i might just keep it for when andy and i have babies down the road...

new bed

midnight turned three sometime in the last week or so - hard to say the exact date since we didn't get her until september 2005 - we say her birthday is the 18th though. we've never done anything to 'celebrate' it since she's a dog and doesn't know it from any other day, but this year we bought her a new doggie bed. she ate the one we brought over with us from seattle. by ate i mean destroyed it by tearing it apart with her teeth, i'm not sure she actually ingested any of it, but saying she ate it sounds better ;)

dublin

a few months ago i requested to have this past friday off from work. andy and i hadn't decided at that point where we were going to go for our july holiday, but knew this would be a good weekend based on other social obligations we already had. we started thinking about amsterdam, dublin, somewhere is scotland, etc. looking for somewhere that would be a quick flight. then we expanded our possible area to poland, northern spain, etc. through a series of events we decided on cornwall, an area of the south-western part of england. i know, going somewhere in england seems crazy! so crazy that through another series of events, after booking tickets, looking up hotel/restaurants to book at etc, we went to dublin!


i'm pretty confident in saying that we made the right choice. our friend clay from college lives there and was kind enough to put us up for 2 nights with only a week or so of notice. hopefully he'll have a chance to come visit us so we can return the hospitality.

view of dublin from the guinness bar

we left friday morning, slightly delayed because the radar was out at the dublin airport - not exactly sure how that happens or how it goes on for 5 days! we ended up arriving only about an hour late, made our way to clay's place and filled each other in on what's been going on the last few years - andy and i hadn't seen him since our wedding (almost 6 years ago). after a bit of relaxing we made our way to the guinness building, they teach you all about the brewing process and part of your entrance fee is a 'free' pint of guinness in a bar at the top of the building with 360 degree views of dublin.

howth shore

afterwards we wandered around the city to a pub, then another pub, found an italian place for dinner then one more stop before grabbing a taxi home.

temple bar

saturday we took the train to howth, a trip recommended to me by my irish co-worker. it was a quick journey right outside of the city. a really lovely little town, we had lunch and wandered around trying to get to the top of the hill. because of the off and on rain we never made it, turned back after walking for what felt like hours (probably 30 minutes or something more in that ball park!) after making our way back into dublin we met up with some of clay's friends for dinner and drinks, and drinks after dinner.


sunday was pretty relaxing, mostly just brunch and a bit more walking around the city with our tour guide.

yes, andy is drinking a coors light - in dublin of all places!

great weekend, probably a little too boozy, but it was dublin after all...

Happy 4th of July!

I hope that everyone has a great day today and an amazing long weekend. If you're reading this know that you're in our thoughts today. And when I say that, I mean mostly in a bad way since we've both been working all day today! But the weekend is here, the sun is shining, and we'll be tipping back a glass (or two) for American Independence.

not the best weather...

to knit, but what the heck! a month or so ago i was taught to knit and i just finished my first scarf. i made it for andy, and he graciously modeled it for me last night, even though it was about 80 degrees outside (and inside for that matter).

Wimbledon II

Trouble with pics, Catherine and I at Wimbledon

So, crazy story. We've been here long enough that we, or at least I, have traditions. The All England Club kicked off the oldest major in the professional tennis. Last year you may remember that we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed down for a day of rainy tennis, but an amazing experience. And now I can say comfortably that I go to Wimbledon every year. It's weird though, having been here long enough to start repeating activities.

This year, the more things stay the same, the more they change. I went with Catherine, except that it was our friend Catherine vs. the other half of the American Couple. Second, they've redone the queuing rules for the 1st t ime since 2001. You can camp in new spots :) And this year, instead of going at 530 am, we went down after work for 530 pm. We queued up as number 13457 and 8, and got into Wimbledon on the returned tickets. When people leave for the day, if you turn in your ticket they will resell it to people like us, and donate the second sale profits to charity. Pretty cool.

Saw a couple of great matches, had a quick beer, and called it a night. We saw an amazing 5 setter of mens tennis - the score says it all 4-6, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4. Last match going at Wimbledon last night. Good stuff.Courside, sweet!

Look at those readerboards - manual!

Hell of a serve...5 set match, 3 breaks total

This went 5 sets...

A visit to the Grand Duchy

I had a bit of a crazy week last week. In the course of 7 days I was in four countries. Which, when I say that, sounds pretty cool. As outlined in the previous post Katherine and I want to Nice and Monaco (lame). I was back in London Tuesday, and then flew to Luxembourg Wednesday morning, back Thursday afternoon. Last night, I fell asleep on the couch at something like 9pm.

As everyone knows (hehe) Luxembourg is a Grand Duchy - that is they have a monarch but they're not quite big enough to be a King, or even a principality like Monaco. That said, once you get into the airport you know something is going right in this dukedom. The airport has been open for 2 weeks and is running smoothly and makes sense. The airport is ~10 minutes from the middle of Luxembourg. And then there's the city. It feels almost like a Disneytown downtown because of all the old buildings, trees, the castle walls, etc. History there goes back to the1200's, you can still see castle walls and tar holes that go back to the 1400's. Part of it is a Unesco World Heritage site. It was very cool. And because they are a banking capital (good tax laws) they have a ton of money coming in the coffers so surrounding the old town is a lot of new, good looking buildings.

My companies headquarters are the nicest I've seen. They are way better than the ones here in the UK, and an incremental upgrade from those in the States. Right down in the valley in the middle of the old town, close to the river, a couple of good bars, and they even have their own garden with wireless access.

I was only there for 24 hours and didn't bring a camera. Hopefully Katherine and I will make it back to explore a bit more fully, visit some friends we have living there, and take some pictures!

sunny weekend away

me and andy

Early Friday morning Andy and I hopped on the bus, to the tube, to the train to arrive at the airport to set off to Nice...as we flew over the city towards the airport I was amazed at the blue, blue water! It was an absolutely amazing color, and looked just as amazing once we were walking along the promenade.

andy at sunset

We spent the weekend exploring the different ares of Nice, lounging on the beach, eating lovely food (fish, mussels, scallops, pizza, pastries, etc) and a glass of wine or two. Friday we spent getting oriented and used to the sun in the sky. We explored along the promenade and into old town a bit, called Ville Nice. Saturday we explored a bit more through old town, found a great market, and then headed for the beach! We went to a private beach so that we could get a lounger and towels, as well as food and drink service right to the lounger (they do a great job overall in having some private beach and then public beach all along the waterfront). Dinner that night was seafood all the way down in the port area.

me, working hard to avoid my skirt blowing up in the wind!

champagne on the beach

Sunday we took the 20 minute train ride up the coast to Monaco. I'm glad that we went, but it was not as glamorous or posh as I expected. It also wasn't that pretty of an area. Nice, and some of the small Riviera towns that we past through on the train, were much nicer. And speaking of glamor, Andy "gambled" away 20 euro's in 5 hands of video poker inside of THE casino in Monte Carlo. Very glamorous indeed.

monaco

The people, food and weather were all really, really lovely in Nice. Something else that was great was the wine - the wines of the area were cheap, but always really good. I wish we had gone for longer than 4 days, it's a place I would go back to. Even though I'm not a fan of swimming or water sports, I just adore the warm weather vacation at the beach (and thankfully, Andy's a fan too)! Next time we go, we'll bring Midnight along, I must have commented on all the cute dogs there about every 5 minutes, it was great!

little maltese on a shop counter

off in search of sunny weather......

will report back about Nice and Monte Carlo early next week....

11pm and the sun ain't down!

Sunday and Monday have been absolutely spectacular. The kind of days that you hope to get in a city that doesn't get sun all year round (which most of you will relate to very closely), where on those sunny days people come out of the woodwork, everyone has a smile on their face, and all seems right with the world.

Today was a work day (seems like in a city like London they should make a day like this a bank holiday. All the bank holiday's could be floating holiday's and government could get together on a Sunday night and declare - tomorrow is a day off, it's going to be too nice to work so we won't even pretend. Enjoy. Anyway). What inspired me to throw up a post though was that as I was walking Midnight at the usual time (11pm, post whichever CSI re-run is on that night, very exciting) it was still bright on the horizon. Pretty cool. Also, I was wearing shorts, t-shirt, and flip flops and perfectly comfortable, which is also quite nice.

Sunday was pretty great too. Met some friends in Regents Park for an impromptu picnic since it was so nice. Sat on a blanket in the sun for a few hours, had a bottle of wine, and enjoyed good company and good weather.

By wednesday it's back to rain, so while summer is here we've got to take full advantage, and just wanted to share it with all y'all.

good weekend

neil, emma, chappers, catherine, tim & andy

andy & catherine

after having a pretty mellow week we managed to have a pretty exciting friday and saturday. friday night i went out with a co-worker for drinks and dinner then went to met up with andy and friends in (at) harlem - an american soul food resturant. they all ate dinner there, from the sounds of it, mostly consisting of fried goodies in different shapes and sizes.

tim, with his towel, on the way for a bath - the door does say Bathroom after all

saturday night andy, catherine and i went for dinner in kensington to the roof gardens - a posh resturant on top (7th floor) of a building in kensington with amazing views to the south and southwest of the city. as the name suggests there are lovely gardens on the 6th floor of the building that for a small fee can be viewed.

andy and the k/catherines

me and andy

great evenings both nights, and really lovely weather during the day, a change from the last few weeks of rain and clouds.

Tube Party!

Our new mayor, Boris Johnson, in his first act in office banned drinking on public transport - particularly on the Tube - from June 1st, 2008. Now a funny thing about this - no one actually knew it was legal to drink on the tube. However, once it was banned, and with May 31st being a Saturday night, you can guess what comes next. That's right - party on the Tube!

Katherine and I, being a little bit adventurous, and a little bit crazy, decided to buy a few beers, wander down and check it out. On the Bakerloo line, not a whole lot of activity. At Paddington we changed over to the Circle line. Yee-Haw! We missed the first train but it was absolutely jam packed. Everyone drinking, smoking, dancing, clothes off, boom boxes, whole train shaking, debauched fun. We got the next train which was actually a total let down in comparison, with just a few people on it. Not to worry, two stops down the line and now our train was party central. We only made it to Baker Street where the party moved onto the platform because they unofficially, then officially, shut down the Circle line. We hoped back on the Bakerloo and went home. Unfortunately, we didn't bring a camera with us as it was a last minute decision to head down. Above you can see the crumpled map of the tube line, normally stuck calmly inside the tube car.

And here is a link to a pretty entertaining article and video. It's of Liverpool Station but it pretty much sums up the feel of the night. Ignore the commentary though, that person is an idiot.

SATC - the movie

The 5 of us before the movie with our cosmos!

Last night I went to see the Sex and the City movie on the opening night. It was a really good time. As a follow up to the TV series, it was much better than expected - I was pleasantly surprised. Since it was opening night it was only the die hard fans there - mostly female - and based on everyone crying and laughing together I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it was enjoyed by everyone.

Stockholm baby!

Stockholm from the Water

I think that Stockholm blew all four of our minds (we traveled with our friends, keep your comments to yourself). Before this trip I had never had too much interest in heading to Scandinavia in general, and Katherine shared that sentiment. Well, having now been there I don't know why it was so low on the list. The city was just beautiful, with water running all through it creating multiple islands in the downtown area. The weather was just perfect at more than 70 and sunny every day (vs. London which was rainy all weekend). We ate amazing food (and there were plenty more restaurants we didn't make it to). And of course, the days were amazingly long, with sun rise before 4am and light staying on the horizon until midnight. Very cool - the furthest north that either of us have ever been.

We went with our friends Kevin and Colleen (see below for some awesome pictures :) and for Katherine's birthday. We flew out Saturday morning (7am flight) so had a full day that day and then flew back on Monday afternoon. Between those times we had some very good times including:
Checked out some markets, including Ostermalm Sulahall and Street Market
A tour of Gamla Stan, the original town area of Stockholm, guided by yours truly (assist to Time Out - Stockholm)
A trip to the Ice Bar - Stockholm
A birthday dinner at Operakallaren - amazing location, service, company, food and wine. Not as good for the pocket book.
A high speed Rib Boat tour of the Archipelago
A walk about Djurgarden, yet another island. Here we went to Skansen, click the link because I can't explain it, and went to the purpose built Vasa. museum. It houses a boat that was THE Swedish warship went built in 1628. Then, on it's maiden voyage it sunk after 20 minutes, in the bay!
Some relaxing enjoying the sun.

Beyond that we ate great coffee, walked through this very pedestrian friendly city (with the exception of bikers - they were really working on taking us out), and generally enjoying this city with some wonderful friends.

Definitely check out the pictures to the side and links in the post - was a very cool city.

American Couple after an amazing dinner

Colleen and Kevin in full gear for the Rib boat tour

Again in full gear, this time for the Ice Bar

View of Stockholm from Skensa