Friday, March 22, 2013

Anniversary trip to London and Paris!! DAY ONE

So I've gone from not posting anything on this blog for months to finally catching up on things. The blog is great if for no other reason than to document our travels as a travel journal of sorts so that we can remember the great places we went, things that we did and our favorite restaurants and cafes! I planned this trip as a surprise anniversary gift for hubby and boy was he ever surprised!!! He's never been across the pond so this was a great first trip to the UK and a quick jaunt over to Paris as well. Amazing how close everything is once you get over there.

Day 1:

I splurged and used up all of my FF miles with Delta (along with robbing some miles out of Tommy's and the kids accounts as well unbeknownst to them!) for first class seats to London. Boy were they ever worth the 200,000 miles! I'd like to fly internationally like that every time!


champagne anniversary toast before departure!



somebody enjoyed himself with the cocktails and upscale headphones for the personal entertainment system chock full of current theater movies etc.! I didn't want to go to sleep!




a few glasses of wine and warm nuts before dinner




and a 6 page menu with first, second and third courses, dessert and a fabulous wine list! Yay for me and the fabulous wine list! Haha!



The food was pretty good! I'm sure better than in the back of the bus like we usually get.




Ooooh la la look at the dessert cart complete with liqueurs, fancy cheeses, cakes and ice cream sundaes! Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and the gorgeous model are sitting in first class and he says "More everything!!" Hahaha!



Kevin and Sharon, our British friends, arrive at Heathrow to pick us up and we headed directly to Leicester for a rugby game! Pub first of course...


A major fan pub - the place was packed! It's interesting how pubs in the UK are primarily for beer, etc. with relatively no food served aside from a bag of peanuts or similar. But people can bring in their own sandwiches!  Nice!




Cheers with Sharon!




Tommy's first proper British pint! (many more to come I can assure you...)




Only in England would a PRISON look like this!! Yes that's right, this is a prison!!!



Here we are at the Leicester Tigers "ground". Apparently it is NOT called a stadium despite the fact that it holds about 35,000 people. It would be a bonafide stadium here. It was chilly so I was glad I had my giant puffy North face jacket!




Here we go!


Fun to watch this game, probably the closest thing they have to American football although after scoring a touchdown (called a Try) when they go to kick the extra points (a try is worth 5 points and the kick is worth 2) the entire stadium hushes to complete silence!! CRAZY! I felt like I was at a PGA tournament NOT a football game. I can't wait until Sharon and Kevin come visit us in September and we take them to Spartan Stadium. If you see a bald British guy standing up trying to Shoosh everyone during the kick for the extra point just say "Hey Kevin - welcome to the States mate!" Haha!



They will also be in for a rude awakening when they find out that no beer is served in our stadium!




We look pretty good for having just gotten off an overnight flight! Now off to head back to S and K's house in a town called Longbridge near Birmingham.



Yup - another lager at home before dinner! They knocked themselves out painting and getting the place looking fabulous for us and it was exactly that - FABULOUS!



and some wine for the girls! 




Sharon decorated the room JUST for me!! The Royal Visit - LOL!
My favorite color (how did she know?!) and of course I have to try to find this pillow for home!





Here they are out front. Hmmmm...why is it called Casa Pylon you ask???? Check out what's in the backyard! HA!





Gee we didn't even have to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower! :-)



We ended the evening with dinner out with great friends of Sharon and Kevin's, Jo and Bern. Loved them! We had a fabulous Indian dinner at a restaurant called The New Dilshad in the cute little town of Alvechurch. This restaurant was SO good that Tommy has now converted to an Indian food fan from a former non-fan. Yay!! Now to find anything nearly as good in the States...

That's day one in a nutshell and it was a very busy one at that.  Day two coming up next. Stay tuned!




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