Bob and Laura In London: 2009 May Bank Holiday, Take Two

Last weekend was the second bank holiday weekend in May (gotta love the lazy English summers). You may remember that for the last bank holiday, bobby and I spent our 3 day weekend in Bruges. This time, we decided to stick around London.

We spent what ended up being one of the prettiest Saturdays of the year in Victoria Park. This is a beautiful, enormous park not too far form our flat. I finally got to use the picnic basket (or picnic hamper as it’s called here) that bobby gave me as a “welcome home from the hospital” present. We spent the afternoon hanging out with friends, playing soccer, and making friends with squirrels.

Me in Victoria Park

Bobby's New Friend

Saturday night we went to a performance by a cabaret band called the “Tiger Lillies.” I bought the tickets because they were only £10 each (ridiculously cheap for London). It was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. The advertisement labelled it “black comedy cabaret” which I guess was a good description since all of the songs were about death. I actually found it quite entertaining and funny, but Bobby said he would have walked out if we had been on an aisle. I guess that’s what you get for £10?

We spent all day Sunday at a 7s rugby tournament in Twickenham. 7s rugby follows basically the same rules as regular rugby, except that there are only 7 people on each side (instead of 15) and they play 7 minute halves (instead of 40). This was our first sporting event in the UK, and we had a FABULOUS time. The atmosphere was unbeatable. The USA lost all but one game (to Georgia), but England won the whole tournament!!

Me and Bobby at Twickenham

Twickenham

On Monday, we went to a little town about an hour outside of London called Whitstable with some friends. Whitstable was a beautiful picturesque little beach town on the North Sea that I just adored. We spent the day walking along the shore, eating fish n chips, and watching some elderly people play English bowling. We had great weather until about 4:30pm, at which point it stormed, but it was still a great day! I would definitely go back to Whitstable to spend a quiet weekend and think it is a much better beach town than Brighton (even though I enjoyed Brighton as well).