Summertime in London has been so wonderful. August was a bittersweet month.
Boricua & I are waiting anxiously to see if our visa applications are approved, which will determine where we are living in the near future!
Porchester Terrace
We love our little piece of quiet in the inner courtyard of our building.
We especially love this absolutely lovely garden across the street from us - even though we have Hyde Park nearby, this one has been great for picnics and relaxing in the evenings every once and a while. If we stay in London, we would love to stay in this neighborhood!
This is the haul Boricua and I made shopping one the evening - the supermarkets put the food they can't sell the next day on discount each evening, and all of this was less than ten pounds! There seem to be less preservatives in the food here, and high fructose corn syrup isn't allowed, either, which we love! The bakery across the street inside the rather posh Waitrose supermarket (we shop elsewhere for staples) sells all kinds of pastries and doughnuts for mere pennies at the end of the day. It's definitely become one of Boricua's favorite hobbies.
Sky Garden
The Sky Garden is inside a big building coloquially known as the "walkie talkie building." There are places to eat and walk around as you enjoy the views. Boricua had taken a long weekend (we were supposed to be celebrating the completion of my dissertation) off from work since Monday was a Bank Holiday, so we decided to make the most of it around London (not hard)!
You have to make a reservation to visit the garden, and they are usually booked weeks in advance, but we found some midday on a weekday - perfect! I absolutely loved biking there and
back, and understanding London from an aerial perspective!
We keep meaning to take our Yi (off-brand version of the Go-Pro) on a bike ride with us, because taking the cycle superhighway that runs East-West is a dream. From our home, we ride through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Wellington Arch, pass Buckingham Palace and then depending which direction we are headed, Trafalgar Square taking us to West End (where all the theatres are), or Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament (where Big Ben/Elizabeth Tower is), the London Eye and the Thames river. When we are riding along the Thames, all I can do is wonder at how awesome it is that we get to experience such a bike ride! Anyway, we didn't bring the Yi (again) so I just took some photos along the way.
Harry Potter
!!!!!
Boricua is a sweet, sweet guy. He knows how much I love Harry Potter, and although he has never read the books, understood how cool it is that we live in the same city where the Cursed Child play debuted! We had someone offer their tickets to us, but we held off not knowing our plans at the time. She sold them to someone else and we thought our chances were gone - the play is apparently booked well into winter of NEXT year, and the resell prices are exorbitant! We discovered, however, that at the theatre itself they sell returned tickets to those waiting in line before they put them online - so we showed up at 9am on a Saturday morning for a 2 o'clock play, and were so happy that although we were twentieth spot in line, there were still some left!
It is a two part play, and we went for tickets on the same day as opposed to two separate evenings. Whoever returned their tickets missed some amazing seats. The play itself was incredible! The characters of Harry Potter (nerd-alert) feel like friends I grew up with, I was the same age as they were when I started reading the series, and I read each book (taking turns with my sister and various friends and relatives) as it came out. I remember a couple of girls' camps where we would stay up late reading Harry Potter as fast as possible and then pass it on to the next person.
So it was a little bit weird that the play was set 19 years after the last book - Harry, Hermione, Ron & Ginny are now in a part of their lives that I haven't entered yet, although we could definitely commiserate about "adulting," I think. I didn't love Ron's character, he felt more two-dimensional compared to previously - he was definitely the comic relief in this play - nonetheless, the whole thing was fabulous!
In between parts we explored the National Gallery, did some people watching at Trafalgar Square, and walked around after grabbing a bite. Part II started at 7_30. The set was very good - and even the walls of the theatre had Harry Potter-themed wallpaper!
Wherever we move after this, it will be hard to beat.
