sterlingstyle: James Jeans Giveaway

sterlingstyle: James Jeans Giveaway: "Blazer- H&M, Tee- Wildfox Couture c/o Bicyclette Boutique, Jeans- c/o James Jeans, shoes- Cathy Jean, Handbag- c/o Modcloth, Ring- YSL, ..."

The best places to go in London

The best places to go in London:

South Kensington tube stop:

- Harrod’s & Zara for shopping

- The Hummingbird Bakery (the best cupcake you’ll ever eat; 47 Old Brompton Road)

- Bliss Spa (60 Sloane Ave; blisslondon.co.uk)

- Chelsea Physic Garden (66 Royal Hospital Ln)

- Royal Hospital (There are about 300 men who fought in WW2 & are widowers that live here. You can look around, go to the shop, go to the cemetery, etc.)

Camden Town tube stop:

- Camden Road Markets

- Ice Wharf (cheap drinks)

- Club Vinyl (try the mojito)

- Hache (the absolute best burgers in London; it’s next door to Vinyl)

- Club: Barfly (49 Chalk Farm Rd)

- The End of the World pub

Trafalgar Square tube stop:

- St. Martin in the Fields (lunchtime recitals are free)

King’s Cross / St. Pancras tube stops:

- British Library & café (amazing reading rooms; 96 Euston Rd.)

- The Harrison Pub (28 Harrison St WC1)

- Many hostels are located near this tube stop

Holland Park tube stop:

- Kyoto Gardens in Hyde Park (beautiful waterfall at the foot of bridge)

Hyde Park Corner tube stop:

- Rent a row boat or paddleboat on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Then eat gelato and lay around amongst the roses in one of the gardens.

- Wellington Arch, the original gate into the city of London

- Walk under the Arch down the Queen’s lane to Buckingham Palace.

Embankment tube stop:

- Gordon’s Wine Bar (really nice & romantic; 47 Villier’s St., WC2; phone for reservations 020 7930 1408)

Notting Hill Gate tube stop:

- Portobello Road Markets. They’re best on weekends because that’s when antique furniture and vintage clothes are brought out but it’s open during the week too, until 5pm.

- Awesome bar called Gate. Took a right out of the station and we ran into it down the street on our right. The inside is a beach with sand on the floor, lounge chairs, & umbrellas.)

- Park/ Ladbrooke Square Gardens (Some of these parks are secured with gates. Only the homeowners in the area have keys to get into the park.)

- Hummingbird Bakery- there is another location! Bliss! Try the lavender cupcake.

Westminster tube stop:

- Parliament

- Westminster Cathedral

- Westminster Abbey

- Big Ben (it’s literally the first thing you see when you exit the tube)

- Go to a bridge in St. James’ Park

- Ministry of Defense. James Bond’s office. Awesome.

- The London Eye is across the Westminster Bridge over the River Thames

- Dali Museum & the aquarium

- Yo!Sushi serves their food on conveyor belts that circle the restaurant.

Picadilly Circus tube stop:

- Burger King & the huge Sanyo sign

- Lillywhites for 6 floors of sporting goods (where we bought beer pong balls & tennis shoes)

- Pigalle club

- Club: TigerTiger on Haymarket Street was fun. Get there early to avoid paying cover.

- Sports Café on Haymarket Street was huge and very American! It’s half sports bar (billiards too) & half dance floor. Tuesday nights are 1 pound pints for students so that always attracted a good crowd. They also serve dinner.

- Bar Italia (This café is so famous and so good; 20 Frith Street. We ate outside and sat next to a gypsy who was sketching our faces with both of his hands. This is the SOHO area and there are plenty of weird people to watch.)

- The French patisserie next door to Bar Italia. It serves great pastries and hot drinks and even has a boutique in the basement floor. Its name escapes me.

- Ronnie Scott’s (Infamous jazz music venue; across the lane from Bar Italia)

- There’s also a Hookah bar directly across from Bar Italia & next door to Ronnie Scott’s

- Waxy O’Connor’s (The tree house pub! It’s so cool on the inside because there are cave like rooms throughout the place. It really resembles a tree house.)

Liverpool Street tube stop:

- Brick Lane Market

- Columbia Road Market

Holborn tube stop:

- LSE

- Fish and chips: Fryer’s Delight on 19 Theobald’s Rd, WC1

Charing Cross tube stop:

- this is the SOHO and Covent Garden area

- Trafalgar Square

Covent Garden tube stop:

- shops: Paul Smith (40 Floral St) & next door is Ted Baker shop

- Covent Garden has great market stalls (where I bought home made patchouli soap) & street performers in the plaza

- cute boutiques on Monmouth Street: Orla Kieley and Koh Samui

- Neal Street: Neal’s Yard is tucked away in Shorts Gardens

Leister Square:

- This tube stop is also near Bar Italia, which is open 24 hrs a day

- Patisserie Valerie (no cell phones allowed; 49 Old Compton Street)

- Bar: the Floridita is so beautiful

Oxford Circus tube stop:

- University of Westminster! Regent Street Campus

- For lunch: Melts & Make Mine serve paninis. Itsu has good sushi.

- Store called Habitat for home wares

- Burberry, H&M, Oasis,The biggest TopShop I’ve ever seen, a FCUK, and an Urban Outfitters

- Orange (Cell phone store; there’s also a Carphone Warehouse nearby. You can top-up any brand of cell phone there.)

- The Clachan pub & The George pub

Archway tube stop:

- Highgate Cemetary; home to Karl Marx’s grave

- Clive Owen lives here

- Furnival House!

- My Hair spa

Others:

- Absolut Ice Bar

- Spitalfield’s Market (best on Sundays)

Bags & the Netherlands

I'm in Amsterdam right now and I'm headed to Berlin tomorrow morning. The airline that I flew to Amst. on lost my bag so I have nothing here at the hostel! My friend that I'm traveling with is a guy so he doesn't have any facewash or cute ensembles for me to borrow. I had to buy all 'the essentials' including a new dress to wear since I only have the outfit I wore on the plane!! Ugh it's been a drag & they haven't even located my bag yet. Super.

The Final Week is Here

I only have one more week to leave my mark on Europe and England, so here I go!

Sunday August 5

travel to Amsterdam via plane

London Gatwick (South Terminal) To Amsterdam flight 5113; dep. Sun 05 Aug 08:25 arr. Sun 05 Aug 10:40

Monday August 6

Amsterdam

Tuesday August 7

travel to Berlin from Amsterdam via train

Wednesday August 8

Berlin

Thursday August 9

Travel to London from Berlin via plane

Friday August 10

London; stay with Ailsa

Saturday August 11

London; Ailsa leaves for the US/ move back into Furnival House

Sunday August 12

Back to Dallas on AA Flight #51 10:20 AM

Closing Time...

The following pics are:
afternoon tea next door to st. paul's cathedral.... Tommy and me on the tube... Keri, me, and Colin at the George pub for a Westminster event... Patrick and I playing pool at Sports Cafe... Keri and I on the escalator... Keri and I freezing cold at Ice Bar....

It's Thursday, the last day of class! I submitted my Princess Diana paper this morning and am ready for some shopping with Keri & Leanne before we head over to a pub for our University of Westminster goodbye party!

Here's Liz and I at Tiger Tiger last Tuesday night before 6 of my girlfriends and I hopped on a one-man rickshaw to get home.

The other picture is Jeane, Keri, Leanne, Carolyn, me, and Natalie at Ice Bar. It was like 10 degrees in there!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Monday, 7/30
Leanne and I got back to Furnival in the morning around 10 am. Sunday night's travels added up to twelve hours of journeying since we left Dublin at 715 pm! I don't know how I wasn't more tired than I was because I probably only slept a few hours at a time between each transfer & I have always needed 8 solid hours a night. Whatev. After I had a shower I went out to school, grabbed some buddies, and headed to Traflagar Square. From there we went ot the NPG to view the Diana exhibit, then over to Neal's Yard and Covent Garden. We ate paninis at the infamous Bar Italia, which is across the street from Ronnie Scott's in SOHO.
That night we tried to go to a punk rock place called The End which we thought would be a good club but we were denied because the guys dressed too frat. Seriously. We ended up going to a great place that a local called 'posh'. Maybe because the Swarovski crystal chandelier was the size of a highway billboard? In all it was a good night. Great company.

Tuesday, 7/31

Tourguide Tara came up with a great plan for Tuesday. Danielle and I perused the Camden Markets and met up with LA so we could eat gourmet burgers together at Hache (Camden Town; Inverness Street). The market here was somewhat of a bust since all the clothes looked cheap and smelled like curry, but I did leave with a fun mint green and gold Juicy wallet.

We hopped on the tube and scooted over to the Portobello Road Markets. The boutiques and people were all so upbeat and warm! We stopped at the Hummingbird Bakery for cupcakes -->(http://www.hummingbirdbakery.com/flash.html. Found a really cute print of London at a tea shop, some earrings from Appletree Boutique, and a silk dress from a street vendor.

Wednesday, 8/1

Leanne, Colin, Evan and I went to Hyde Park today after I cruised around the Westminster area and looked into taking one of those cheesey bus tours. The bus tour thing was a no-go since we've already seen all the places the bus tours. Instead, we walked down the mall from Buckingham Palace through the Wellington Arch to get to the corner of Hyde Park. Luckily the weather was perfect today! The roses were in full bloom throughout the gardens. The four of us decided to rent a row boat and paddle along the Serpentine amongst the swans and weeping willow trees. This is probably the most peaceful and relaxing activity one can do in the city!

From there we walked down Picadilly Street over to Jubilee Gardens to meet up with our ISA facilitator and our group. We hopped on the London Eye- the largest ferris wheel in the world/ operated by British Airlines and came home early to do schoolwork.

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

Thomas Wolsey, then Archbishop of York and Chief Minister to the King, took over the lease in 1514 and rebuilt the 14th-century manor house over the next seven years (1515–1521) to form the nucleus of the present palace. Wolsey spent lavishly to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court, which he was later forced to give to Henry as he began to fall from favour.
Tudor sections of Hampton Court, which were later overhauled and rebuilt by Henry VIII, suggest that Wolsey intended it as an ideal Renaissance cardinal's palace in the style of Italian architects such as il Filarete and Leonardo da Vinci: rectilinear symmetrical planning, grand apartments on a raised piano nobile, classical detailing. Jonathan Foyle has suggested (see link) that it is likely that Wolsey had been inspired by Paolo Cortese's De Cardinalatu, a manual for cardinals that included advice on palatial architecture, published in 1510. Planning elements of long-lost structures at Hampton Court appear to have been based on Renaissance geometrical programs, an Italian influence more subtle than the famous terracotta busts of Roman emperors by Giovanni da Maiano that survive in the great courtyard (illustration, right above). Hampton Court remains the only one of 50 palaces built by Henry VIII financed from The Reformation.

Christopher Wren's south front
The palace was appropriated by Wolsey's master, Henry VIII, in about 1525, although the Cardinal continued to live there until 1529. Henry added the Great Hall — which was the last medieval Great Hall built for the English monarchy — and the Royal Tennis Court, which was built and is still in use for the game of real tennis, not the present-day version of the game. This court is now the oldest Real Tennis Court in the world that is still in use.
In 1604, the Palace was the site of King James I of England's meeting with representatives of the English Puritans, known as the Hampton Court Conference; while agreement with the Puritans was not reached, the meeting led to James's commissioning of the King James Version of the Bible.

Queen Mary's State Bedchamber is one of the rooms in the section of the palace designed by Sir Christopher Wren
During the reign of William and Mary, parts of Henry's additions were demolished, a new wing was added (partly under the supervision of Sir Christopher Wren), and the state apartments came into regular use. Half the Tudor palace was replaced in a project that lasted from 1689–1694. After the Queen died, William lost interest in the renovations, but it was in Hampton Court Park in 1702 that he fell from his horse, later dying from his injuries at Kensington Palace. In later reigns, the state rooms were neglected, but under George II and his queen, Caroline, further refurbishment took place, with architects such as William Kent employed to design new furnishings. The Queen's Private Apartments are open to the public and include her bathroom and bedroom.
From the reign of George III in 1760, monarchs tended to favour other London homes, and Hampton Court ceased to be a royal residence. Originally it housed 70 grace and favour residences — one of them was once home to Olave Baden-Powell, wife of the founder of the Scouting movement — but few now remain occupied. One of the warders at the palace in the mid-nineteenth century was Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.
In 1796, restoration work began in the Great Hall. In 1838, Queen Victoria completed the restoration and opened the palace to the public. A major fire in the King's Apartments in 1986 led to a new programme of restoration work that was completed in 1995. Here's most of our group last Friday at the Hampton Court Palace. This is the south end of the property in the formal gardens.

This is the London Tower Bridge! Jeane, Leanne, Carolyn and I went there during the first week of our stay in London.