Skip to main content

My Brother's First Visit to London

To say we were all excited for Dave's first visit to London would be a massive understatement. Dave had a planned business trip to Dublin and we're grateful that he was able to stop by London along the way. We only had two days though, so what do you try to squeeze in?

I picked Dave up at the airport early Saturday morning, with a couple of the kids coming along not being able to contain their excitement at their crazy Uncle's arrival. But we're Kriebels, which means there's no time to rest.

We decide to stay close to home on Saturday, meaning the obligatory visitor to our local 500 year old palace, Hampton Court, home to King Henry VIII (quite the fascinating character indeed). We took the bus, to give Dave a true London experience. Beth basically now had a 5th child to look after.









We left the kids at home and headed to our favorite pub (The Grey Horse) for dinner, where we met our other friend, John Casey, who was in town to take in some football matches. After a fantastic meal, we decide a pub in Teddington was a good idea, I mean, we're not driving after all. So off we went to The King's Head in Teddington. What more harm could another beer or three do after you've already have five or six? Plus, this was all about giving Dave a true London experience. That's what pubs are for! Home by 11:45pm!

We had a big day of walking planned in the city for Sunday, which meant an early wake up call to get my marathon training in. This also happened to be the longest run of the entire training cycle. So off I went at 5:30am for a 3 hour run. I guess that's one way to sweat out the booze.


21.5 miles later I was home and Beth had whipped up a great American breakfast. Exactly what I needed! We made out of the door by 11am, pretty good for us! A quick bus and train ride and we were up in the city.

Beth and I had laid out a walking tour, figuring we didn't really have enough time to stop and tour inside anything, yet we wanted Dave to see as many of our favorite sites as possible.

First stop, the London Eye and a great view of Parliament on an unusually sunny day for London.

Next stop, Westminster Bridge for one of the best views of Parliament and Queen Elizabeth Tower.

Our tour was taking us from Westminster Bridge to Buckingham Palace then back to Trafalgar Square for lunch.

Westminster Abbey

Goofing around at Buckingham Palace


Truly loved showing Dave our new home town

Duke of York Column on our way to a late lunch

After lunch we hopped on the tube and headed to Tower Bridge for a tour. We didn't have much time, but enough to go up inside the bridge so Dave could see some of the most spectacular views of London and learn a bit about the history of London's most iconic bridge.

The glass bottom floor makes for quite an eerie feeling.


Some post tour ice cream to keep the kids happy. Thanks Dave!!



One more dinner and just like that he was gone. It was a quick weekend and one I'll never forget. I hope he gets to come back again soon, maybe with the family??? I need more time with my brother. He's my best friend and I don't get to see him often enough. We need to fix that!
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 6, 2017 at 3:02 PM

    Hey Bro! Thanks for writing this up and the excellent trip. It was so nice to see you all. Two great days that I will never forget either. I hope to get back there sooner than later with more time for pints and fun. Give the kids hugs and kisses from their Uncle Dave. Love you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VizWizMay 6, 2017 at 4:18 PM

      Glad you enjoyed it as much as we did! Next time bring the family.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No more trips to Vietnam

Well, last week was a big week for me. I decided to leave FCG and return to work for Coca-Cola Enterprises. I had been talking with the people I know at CCE since late last year about working with them and they finally had a position open up a couple of weeks ago. I'm excited to go back there and work on the business side of the company versus the IT side. I start on Apri l16. I will be working in the Revenue Management Department as the Forecasting & Planning Manager. Essentially I will be the business process owner, facilitator, and coordinator of all forecasting and planning activities within the company. That involves working with all of the regional and corporate business units to ensure that the tools and related processes are thoroughly integrated across finance, revenue management, supply chain, logistics and sales. I will also be responsible for managing all of the support tools and solutions, so I still get to be a Project Manager. This is a big job with lo
6 comments
Read more

Double Chocolate Chip Dream Cookies

If you love chocolate, these are the cookies for you. The name says it all...Double Chocolate Chip Dream Cookies. Indeed, they are a dream! It takes about 10 minutes to make the batter, then eight minutes to cook. You can be eating these in less time than it takes to watch an episode of The Office. To make them vegan:  Use 1/4 cup of applesauce (from Whole Foods in the UK) for each egg Replace the butter with margarine (make sure it's stick margarine) Use dark chocolate chips (you can get a 2KG bag of chocolate chips at Costco).  Unlike last time, when I used tub margarine and melted it too much, use stick margarine and let it come to room temperature to soften. This made a HUGE difference.  They're super delicious! Enjoy!
Post a Comment
Read more

Saigon Walking Tour

I was going to put the picture of me with the two Thai twins here, but I thought that'd probably not be the best idea. David, Jeff, Scott & I went on a walking tour of Saigon Saturday. Our goal was to hit as many of the historical places as possible. This will probably come as no shock to most of you, but I was the tour organizer. The pictures from our tour can be see here . - Hotel Continental: Built in the French colonial days, this was a common meeting place for journals and diplomats during the Vietnam War. - Nha Hat Thanh Pho (Municipal Theatre): Built in 1899 as Saigon's Opera House, it later served as the National Assembly (Congress) of South Vietnam until 1975 when it became a theatre again. - Nha Tho Duc Ba (Notre Dame Cathedral): Built in 1880 by the French on the site of an old fort, this is still an active Catholic church. - The Virgin Mary: This is the statue of that was reportedly seen crying. - Buu Dien Trung Tam (Central Post Office): Built by the F
4 comments
Read more