To my husband…
I LOVE YOU!
Happy 2 wedding anniversary!
xxxxx
Tanja
Tag Archives: love
Wandering around London in 72 hours (part I)
I arrived to London on Wednesday evening (11 May). I stayed at a hotel at Norfolk square, Paddington so naturally the first thing I did in the morning was to visit the Paddington bear at the Paddington railway station (platform 1). I didn’t realize until the last evening that there was another statue of Paddington bear at the Norfolk square’s garden. Have you seen the Paddington bear movie? I remember going to the cinema with my husband on a Sunday morning in December a few years ago. We were the only adults there without the kids. Oops! Of course, the movie was based on a series of books written by Michael Bond and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum and other artists. The first book was published back in 1958 but Paddington bear’s popularity is still very strong today.
Paddington bear at the Paddington station
Snapshots from London (May 2016)
Some things always bring a smile to my face: chocolate, cats and the sight of Big Ben, just to name a few. I love travelling and I’m sure that a lot of you fellow travellers have a favourite city, place, region or even a country but I also know that it might be difficult to explain to other people why you prefer one place over another when there are so many gorgeous places in this world.
London is loved by many but you might wonder what made someone from a small country by the sea (Croatia) fell in love so much with such a huge city. I’ve tried to explain it a bit before but I’ve come to realize that love cannot be explained. We are who we are and we love what we love even if it defies logic or reason. I’ve first visited London in 2006. Since then I’ve been coming back almost once a year, always finding new things to discover and always re-visiting my favourites. It was a coincidence that I booked my eleventh visit to London on 11 of May, 10 years after the first visit. I usually go to London with my best friend ( I also showed London to my husband when we visited Scotland) but this time I went alone.
I arrived to London on Wednesday evening and returned home on Sunday morning so I had 3 full days in London; 72 hours to wander, to admire, to take photos, to say goodbye. I’ll write about my adventures but for now just a teaser of what’s to come. Enjoy 🙂
What’s a blog without some cat photos? And upcoming London trip
my cat when he was just a kitten
I’m leaving for London tomorrow! So excited! It’ll be my 11 th visit (it was really a coincidence when I booked my flight for 11 th of May!). I’ve got lots planned for this trip. I’m sorry that I haven’t had time/willpower to write about my recent trip to beautiful Stockholm but as soon as I got back from that weekend trip I started thinking about my London trip and I just couldn’t focus enough to write properly about my time in Stockholm. When I get back from this London trip I’ll write about Stockholm and I’ll post a lot about London:)
So, in the meantime you can have a look at my cat‘s photos! His name is Munchkin and my husband named him after his favourite game. He’s been with us for almost three years now. We got him from an animal shelter. He adores my husband who hasn’t had a cat before. Our cat spends his days chasing balls, eating, sleeping and cuddling with us. I squeezed one of his photo before in my post about different cats that I’ve encountered on my trips but he definitely deserves his own post ( hmm…maybe my hubby also deserves a post? but he isn’t really reading my blog so..:) ). Of course, you also saw him attacking my Christmas tree in this post (the cat, not the husband!). I do miss my husband and my cat when I travel alone occasionally. So, thank you for reading my posts and I’ll talk to you/write more when I get back next week!
Xoxo
Tanja
my cat when he was a kitten
How many times have YOU visited London?
I’ve visited London 10 times, 10 trips! So, my upcoming trip in May will be my 11th visit to the best city in the world-London. You must think I’m crazy, but I call that love (or obsession). I could have visited so many other cities instead of spending my money to go to the same place again and again (and as you know London’s not cheap). But what can I say? I really believe in Doctor Samuel Johnson’s words: “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford “.
10 trips to London, but out of those 10, there were a couple of weekend trips and two 4-5 days trips and 4 day trips. It all began with my first visit (actually it all began way way back when I was a child and just dreamt about visiting London ).My best friend ( and my maid of honour) and I spend 5 wonderful days (from 28th Dec 2006 to 02 Jan 2007) exploring London. One of the things we did was to find the bookstore from the movie Notting Hill :). Naturally we did all the usual tourist stuff: visited the Tower of London, visited the Westminster Abbey, crossed the Tower Bridge, took million of photos of Big Ben, saw the Buckingham palace and St.Paul’s cathedral and so on and so on. We also went to the Ice-bar and to the Sherlock Holmes museum as well as walked through the Leadenhall Market and gawped at the ancient monuments in the British Museum. Furthermore, we visited the Harrods and chased some squirrels in the Kensington gardens (not really, they came to us freely). 🙂 But after that trip we decided that we have to do it all over again-another trip to London was already on our minds.
London:the bookstore from the movie Notting Hill, 2006
Hello London!Have you missed me?
I know it’s been a while, but don’t you worry, I haven’t forgotten you. How could have I? But I’ve just been busy with life, you know. Getting engaged, getting married, going on a honeymoon, working, travelling, hoping for something to happen which still hasn’t and so on and so on. But you’ve always been on my mind. Yes, it’s been a long time since I last roamed your streets, almost 3 years actually. However, it’s only two more months till I see you again. And this time it’s going to be just you and me. 🙂 I have so many photos of you but I will take so many more again. I will re-visit some of your unmissable sights and some of my favourites but I will also discover new parts of you. I’m so looking forward to spending time with you again. Oh, my London, I’ll see you soon! 🙂
Xoxox
Tanja
Aug 2013-last time in London
Big Ben
This fellow needs no introduction. It’s quite possible that every child and every adult wherever s/he lives would be able to recognize it and say where it is. For me Big Ben is London. Moreover, Big Ben is Britain. I remember my excitement when I first saw it during my first trip to London for New Year’s 2007. It was as beautiful and striking as in the photos. Whenever I re-visited London I made sure to come close to it and have a look at it again and I’d feel equal joy as I did the first time I saw it. I know, it’s just a clock tower annexed to the Houses of the Parliament but for someone who has dreamed of London for as long as one can remember it represents so much more.
So, let me refresh your memory with a few basic facts about this British landmark. First of all, Big Ben is the nickname of the Giant Bell inside the clock tower not the tower itself. The tower used to be called St.Stephen’s but in honour of the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee it was renamed after her so it’s called the Elizabeth’s tower now. But the real name of the clock tower is actually just The Clock Tower. The tower is 97 m tall and it was built after the Palace of Westminster (widely known as the Houses of Parliament) burnt down in 1834. The official name of the clock is the Great Westminster Clock.
Big Ben isn’t the only bell inside the clock tower’s belfry. There are also four other quarter bells inside that chime every quarter-hour. Big Ben was cast in 1858 and it weighs about 13.5 tons. There was even one MP imprisoned in the tower briefly because he didn’t want to take an oath on the bible. If you’re a British citizen then you can go on a tour of the tower for free! You go up 334 steps to the top to hear Big Ben strike the hour and you can go behind the clock’s dials and see the mechanism room too (for details check http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/tours-of-parliament/bigben/ ). How awesome is that! However, it’s not fair that I can’t do it. Tours of the Houses of Parliament are available to all and I think I’ll do that one day 🙂
Now, enjoy the photos of this handsome fellow:
my friend’s photo!The first photo of Big Ben from our first London trip
