Borough Market

A couple weekends ago we took a day trip into London by ourselves. I forgot my camera so these are the not the best pictures, but they'll have to do. I wish I would have taken photos of the tube station and the train we rode. We got a little bit confused and got off on the wrong station, luckily we only had to wait a couple minutes for the next train to come and we were on our way. That was rookie mistake but if you saw the London Underground you'd understand how we got confused. We got off at Tower station and walked just a short way and we were at Borough Market. Some friends of ours had suggested that we check this place out because it's their favorite market in London. I was not disappointed! Boy, it was big and very crowed there was food everywhere you turned.

There must be at least a 100 stands selling meat, fish, cheese, flowers, drinks, sweets and ready to eat food. It was awesome, we walked all the way around but still missed some things, I'm sure. We couldn't make up our minds were to eat because there were so many choices.

Those giant round packages are cheese and it smelled so good!

I got a kick out this restaurant next to the market, because it looks nothing like the food chain back home.

Brody requested some of the biggest brownies he'd ever seen.

See his little devilish fingers and smile once daddy bought him that brownie.

We finally settled for this food stand near St Martin's church, which is just up those stairs and to the left. I had paella, the kids had hot dogs, and Micky had the skewered chicken. It was a lot of food we couldn't finish it all and there are no such thing as a doggy bag or tray in this area. 

I recommend this area to anyone who wants to literally sink there teeth into something different in London and not the usual tourist trap areas. Anyone who has a love of food and is willing to try something new then this is the place for you. This market has been around since the 1700's being so close to the water you can only imagine all the years of trading and selling that has gone on right here. I feel so blessed to have seen the things that we are seeing and doing the things we are doing.


As soon as you turn the corner you end up right in front of the Shard, it's the 2nd tallest structure in England and they just opened an observation tower earlier this year. I hope that next time we come perhaps we'll go up and enjoy the view. It's quite beautiful and it looks like a glass pyramid, it sits where London Bridge Tower once sat. It's owned partially by a development company and the state of Qatar. One would be amazed to know how much of London is owned by middle eastern countries.

Friends that are just like family

When you move around and you live hundreds of miles away from home, other people become like family. I'm pretty used to having friends that I treat like family. When I was about 5 years old we moved from Texas to Louisiana and left behind all our family. There were times when I really hated not having them nearby especially during the holidays. In our small town it seemed like everyone knew everyone, or they were related to one another. But I've made some great friends that are better than family. My husband and I spend time with them every time we go to Louisiana and they treat us like relatives and I love them and know I can count on them always.

So now that we are really far from home, we've met other military folk that are just like us. We now go to church, and spend one day a week going to bible study and sharing food and stories.  I also volunteer once a week to make food for new Airmen and their families. But most of all I can already tell that we have met friends that are going to be like family by the time we leave. The funny thing is that the first people I met and that made me feel at home were from Louisiana. One is from Shreveport, and the other is from Metairie what a small world, and how funny is it that God puts people in your life just when you need them.

Tonight we are going to game night, and I'm making a pot of chili to share. And tomorrow I'll be going with my new friend to Ikea to buy some stuff I need to make our little English home feel a little more like home. I feel really blessed to have the friends that I do and even more blessed to make friends along the way.

Here's some of the friends at a baby shower we threw for one of them. 

Reunited and it feels so good.

So, excited our dog arrived today from Washington DC. We had to leave him behind when we moved because he was a short nosed breed and they wouldn't allow him to fly. We were so upset to leave him and couldn't wait until September 15th when the embargo would be lifted to get him home. I couldn't wait to take him to the bus stop and let the kids see him. 

Louie has been with us for three years and has been the best dog. We paid a lot to get him shipped to us but he was totally worth it.

I wish I could turn back time to when they were both little. 

Norwich

On Labor Day we took a day trip to Norwich. It was perfect weather and not very busy which gave us a chance to look around and see some of the city. Pictures are not as clear because I forgot my camera, these were all taken with an iPhone and they're not that great.

This is the Royal Arcade it's a walkway between the Norwich Castle and it's so pretty with shops lining both sides.

The market in Norwich is opened everyday, and it's also one of the oldest. I believe that it's 900 years old. This market here is a lot different from the ones we've been to so far. They have rows and rows of permanent shops. There are about 2 aisles of just food. And I especially like that they are covered to keep you dry in this rainy England weather.

This is the Norwich Cathedral, as you can tell from all my other post there are a lot of cathedrals around England and almost every village has one.

This cathedral like many in England is old and has been through reconstruction several times. This building has been through a fire, riots, and abandoned. So even though it may be 900 years old, different parts of the church are newer, and by newer I mean like 17th, 18th and 19th century. There is no admission into the church they only ask for a donation to help with the upkeep.

I didn't get a picture, but just to left of the this photo is a large square and on the day we went, there was street performer singing. Just right of the kids sitting on the steps, was a TV and Movie store, it was awesome! They had Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and lots of other TV and movie merchandise.

This is Norwich Castle...
It was mostly used as a prison, and then a museum. But it started out being built as a castle for William the Conqueror. The area where the castle sits use to have about 100 homes and they were demolished, so the king could build his castle. Even though the castle was built as a home, no king has ever lived in it.

The museum received a large sum of money in 2000 and they have refurbished a lot of the exhibits.

Here's a display of the dinnerware that was used at that time.

The inside looked a scene from a movie like Game of Thrones or Elizabeth. It has big arches, and stairways that lead up to the second floor but really it's just a lot windows. In this room, there are two wells covered by glass so you can still look down and see them.

          We had to duck down to get through some of the walkways, maybe people were short back then. Or maybe I'm pretty tall... Not!

These were found buried in a large pottery jar in 1849. It's so interesting to me that in this country you could find treasure literally in your back yard. Even the local grocery store has a plaque outside with information about Anglo Saxon artifacts found when they built the store.

The museum had a large natural history display. Most of the large animals in the displays were shot and killed by former kings. That includes some of the tigers in this one.

Norwich is not as exciting as some of the cities we've been to so far but the shopping was great there's a two story mall right next to the castle. And then there's the market and some newer department stores towards the cathedral which was all very close and within walking distant.

Nottingham, Robin Hood Festival.

A few weekends ago we took a trip to Sherwood Forest for the annual Robin Hood Festival and had a good time. When I was kid my siblings and I watched Disney's Robin Hood all the time, and now Brody watches it all the time. I never imagined that I would ever be in the real Sherwood Forest, in Nottingham. The actual forest was beautiful and seems like a good place to hide out.

This is a statue of Robin Hood and Little John

We had to bribe Brody to get him to join the other kids, and then he just stared at his instrument.  

These guys were really funny, they made us put on hats and made us say "Robin Hooooood!"

This is Major Oak,  it is supposedly the tree where Robin Hood and his Merry Men's sought shelter. But mostly it's between 800 to 1000 years old which makes it pretty cool.

Bird show was pretty cool except for all the dead mice he kept throwing in the air.

Brody got a Robin Hood sword, and of course  he got into character.

Robin Hood and Maid Marian stopped to pose and Brody was lucky enough to get a picture.

Sherwood Forrest has some pretty interesting trees and we stopped to let Brody play since this chance may never happen again.  

Playing in the trees made us a little late for the final show and so we had to make the best of our view.