London Bridge is Falling Down....Not Really!

I cannot believe I forgot to upload my favorite sites so I just had to add it. I usually put my descriptions above the pictures but it won't allow me on this top picture so they are below.

The Westminster Abbey, formally titled The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, is mainly Gothic, on the scale of a cathedral, is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English monarchs.

St. Stephen's Tower, although more commonly referred to as Big Ben is a clock tower. Big Ben is actually the massive bell inside the clock tower, which weighs more than 13 tons. The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower are among London's most iconic landmarks.

London Bridge is a bridge between the city of London and Southwark over the River Thames.

The Victorian Tower Bridge is now 100 years old. It was designed by Wolfe Berry and Horace Jones and completed in 1894. The middle of the bridge can be raised to permit large vessels to pass through. As you can see from the picture, it was rainng when we went there. The picture is actual and taken through a bus window and not enhanced.

Wow! This week really went fast, too fast! It's already Saturday? Oh well then, it's time to have fun. Let's show off our pretty pinks and let's go sightseeing.

Pink Saturday is brought to us by Beverly of http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Week after week after week, Beverly hosts this wonderful meme so join in on the fun and visit her. Take a look at all the pinks being displayed in Blogland.
We just arrived from London last Tuesday. I was so happy to see Whittard of Evelyn because I love their instant tea. In addition to that, they have many neat serving items. I spotted these pink egg cups set and they were on sale. Yipee! Aren't they cute? I love how the egg cup is on a pedestal. I borrowed my amber egg so you have an idea of how it looks with an egg. The spoon is also very cute. I bought 3, keeping 2 and I will include the 3rd one to my 200th post giveaway. It is fast approaching so watch out for it.
Well, of course it is also Sightseeing Saturday and since we just came from London, I will tell you about our trip while it is still very fresh in my mind. Thanks to Laurie of http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/ for her mosaic tutorial. This post really benefited from it.
We stayed at Marriott's Grosvenor Hotel and the pictures below are its sorroundings. Using rewards accumulated from past travels allowed us to stay there for 5 days for free. The roof top topiary garden is what you see when you look out from our hotel room window. We were on the third floor. The church is Ukranian Catholic. We woke up so late on Sunday (jetlag) so we weren't able to attend mass at St. Paul's Cathedral. We passed by this church so we went in. The service is not the same as a Roman Catholic service so we did not stay long.


We walked around the hotel a lot. I just love all the beautiful red brick buildings with wrought iron balconies. I especially like the hanging flower boxes.
We took a "Hop Off, Hop On" bus tour for 2 days but did not really go down to any site cause we wanted to see all of them in 2 days

Do you see the guards all lined up at Buckingham Palace?
I labeled the pictures but I cannot remember what the building with arched entries is.Trafalgar Square is where you can find the tall monument of Lord Nelson. The area looks magnificent and none of these pictures do it any justice.

The ferris wheel is well known as London Eye. It is 443 ft tall and is the tallest ferris wheel in Europe.


The Marble Arch was built in 1828 as the chief entrance to Buckingham Palace, but when the Palace was extended in 1851, the Arch was moved to its current site as an entrance to Hyde Park. This was walking distance from the hotel and it is near the tour bus stop.



Next is the Tower of London. According to Wikipedia, the tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.





And I believe it is home for ghosts too, LOL.

Aaah! This is my favorite part of the trip....Shopping! The hotel we stayed is only a block away from Oxford St., where all the neat shops are. It was nicely decorated for Christmas.

The primary reason we went to England was to attend John's co worker's wedding in Manchester. We took the train to go to Manchester. It took about 2 hours. The bride and groom are both of Nigerian descent. The wedding ceremony was Christian but the reception was traditionally Nigerian. It was very interesting and very enjoyable to watch. Do you see John dancing with the groom's dad? LOL! Both bride and groom and the groom's parents are doctors.
We had to hitch a ride to go to the reception. We did not know that there weren't any taxi where the church was located. The groom's sister was kind enough to ask another guest to give us a ride. The one sitting next to John was the one who gave it and she offered to take us to the train station after the party too. Isn't that so nice of her? The woman wearing purple and yellow is the groom's mom.

Another interesting thing about their tradition is the party favor, actually favors. We received so many gifts, not only did they come from the bride and groom but relatives were distributing them too. We received flip flops, candies, soap, towel, t shirts, platters, a charm, keychain, etc. I joked and said that we should have brought an extra bag. And would you know that the next item we would receive were bags? LOL!When we got back to the hotel, I left a comment on my classmate's friend's blog about her picture which was taken in London. Next morning, I got an email from her asking me to call her. I did not know she lived in London. All the while, I thought she was just visiting when the pictures were taken. We set up a time to meet at Piccadilly Circus.

According to Wikipedia, Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context a circus, from the Latin word meaning a circle, is a circular open space at a street junction

The statue of Eros, a winged archer made out of aluminum is set in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. It is one of the most recognizable symbols of London. Originally known as the Shaftesbury Monument, it was unveiled in 1893 as a memorial to the Victorian philanthropist, Lord Shaftesbury. My new blogger friend took us to China town and we ate dimsum there. And then, she also took us to their condo. Meeting Cora was one of the highlights of our trip.

It was time to go back home last Tuesday and here I am relaxing while waiting to check in. I was excited because I was about to meet another blogger friend, Athella of http://athellag-ocdesigner.blogspot.com/ at New Orleans airport. You see, she has been visiting her stepmom in New Orleans and when she mentioned that she is flying back the same day we arrive, we made a plan to meet. And we did! She met me in the baggage claim area. We chatted and chatted and we were both so excited. Too bad she had to catch a flight so we only met very briefly but what a special moment!

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Thank you all for coming and thanks to Beverly also for allowing us to participate in Pink Saturday. Have a nice weekend y'all!