Small World

This weekend we met up with our Australian friend Mick and his girlfriend from New Zealand Sarah. They are currently living in Amsterdam, so it was a little bit shorter flight than from the southern hemisphere!

We pretty much spent the entire weekend on a gastro tour of London. We walked through Soho and Covent garden, stopping in for a coffee here, hitting a pub there and enjoying the balmy spring like weather and had lunch at a place devoted to bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes). We ended up in Brick Lane for killer Indian and entertainement from all the shop keepers trying to get us to come in.

Today we met up with some of Sarah and Micks friends and had lunch at a tiny Brazilian restaurant and the food was out of this world!

That is the great thing about London, there is so much fantastic ethnic food... Still on the quest for an authentic Mexican restaurant though!

Quick Blog Note

Tip from our friends: You can enlarge any picture by double clicking on it!

Feb. 3: Leeds, Canterbury and Dover

On Feb. 2 we spent the day running through Regents Park, enjoyed reading a paper over coffee and a pastry, and had a fabulous supper with Nate's family friends, the Fischers. At night, we went to a local pub and discovered a new favorite beer, "London Pride".

Feb. 3 began with an early start as we had booked a tour (we needed a weekend of non-driving:)!)! It was an incredibly cold day, but we were able to see, at our leisure, Leeds Castle -the exterior is magnificent! and an American heiress lived in the castle before donating it to be a "working castle"-, the town and Cathedral at Canterbury, and the Cliffs of Dover. All of the sites were brilliant (wow, I'm saying that a lot lately!). We also had an incredible Moroccan meal in Canterbury- Nate had pork belly, roasted peppers in sauce, potatoes and salad and I had chicken skewers, vegetables and couscous in two sauces. It was one of the best meals we have ever had (I didn't think I would be saying that while in Britain)!

Happy Chinese New Year to all our friends! May the year of the Rat be good to you!