Keelen's in England

less than a year ago my parents came to visit us in New Zealand. That trip seems like forever ago..

Last week my parents came to visit me while Kit was in the US for work. We spent most of our time in Leicester, decorating the house, site seeing, walking, riding the bus and just relaxing. We did spend one fun filled day in London also. It was an amazing visit and I am so lucky to have parents that can hop on over for a quick visit. My parents had been to England 32 years ago and were amazed at how different it is now. When they were here before, there were no big supermarkets, you got your meat from the butcher, fish from the fishmonger, milk was delivered, etc. There are still those options today, but it is much more like America now.

We don't have a car, so my parents got a taste of the walking and buses we take everywhere. I think they were amazed that I walk to and from the grocery store. It was nice having someone else to share the load of groceries with. (I usually go almost everyday) It was a great visit and we got a lot accomplished, we even bought a tv!

My parents pictures of St. Pancras Train station in London when they first arrived.

My dad and I in front of our house

My mom loved the cobble stone streets around Leicester

My brother's walk way, near the old Roman ruins in Leicester. We also found a St. Mary's Church (my grandma's name) and a St. Steven's Church (my dad's name)

My mom and I in the old part of Leicester

City Center Leicester

Mom and Dad by the river in Leicester

Dad and I on the Peace walk near the Veterans memorial

and on New Walk Street

Pictures from our Day in London next

Our first visitor

When we lived in Oregon for six weeks we stayed with Anna and her daughter Mira. Anna came to visit us and do some work with Kit a couple of weeks ago. She was our first visitor and we had an amazing time. She spent the week here in Leicester working and then we all went to London for the weekend.

Hanging out at the Old Horse in Leicester

Kit and Anna

Leona and me

For some reason that is all of the pictures I took of Anna and us while she was in Leicester. Onto London...

At our hotel room that we scored the day before we left. Wimbledon was going on while we were there and it was hard to find a hotel room, we got lucky!

Friday night we went to eat dinner at Inamo, which if you are ever in London you should try. We went there for Kit's 30th Birthday and our first night in London. The tables are like a big computer screen. You order your food and drinks right from the table. You can change our background, play games and watch your food being prepared in the kitchen. The food is Asian fusion and very yummy.

Kit and the table

Kit and I

That night we stayed up late dancing to 80's and 90's music, we had a blast.

on Saturday, taking the bus to the Tate Museum.

Me taking a picture of Anna taking a picture of us.

The Tate Modern Art Museum, is huge and free. We only had time to do one floor but that just means that on future trips we have more to see.

Anna by the Thames River

 

Kit and Anna trying to figure out where we should go next.

St. Paul's Cathedral in the background, while on the Millennium bridge

Tower bridge, we didn't get a chance to visit it, but next time.

We did a lot of walking along the Thames river and saw this obelisk: the Cleopatra Needle given to England in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt. There is a twin one in New York.

me pretending to be an Egyptian princess.

Near Buckingham Palace

Taking a break in St. James Park

The three musketeers.

We had been walking for awhile and it was getting warm out so we decided to have a beer in a pub. We found the Lamb and Flag down this alley way and thought it looked like a good place to stop and rest for a bit. It has been around since 1623 and is the oldest pub in Covent Garden and possibly the oldest in London. Charles Dickens actually drank there!

Kit having a drink at the bar upstairs

We ended the night going to see Wicked the Musical. It was amazing. We highly recommend it.

  It was a great trip and we were so thankful to have Anna visit us. We love having visitors if anyone else would like to make the trip :)

For those Harry Potter lovers, King Cross Station. We were just driving by in a taxi, but I think I might have to try to find platform 9 and 3/4 in my next visit.

Bath

While we were in Wales, we decided to take a short train trip to the city of Bath. If you have ever read any Jane Austen books or seen the movies, the city of Bath is a huge part of many of her books. Bath was a popular place to visit during the 18th century. It was a place to shop, see friends and take part in the hot springs, which were said to have medicinal properties. The Romans built a spa/ baths around the hot springs in AD 43, some of the remains are still there today.

Today Bath is a a great shopping area and a tourist attraction because of Jane Austen and the Roman Baths.

For me it was fun to pretend to be from the 19th century and walk the same streets that Jane Austen did.

The circle

The Royal Crescent

We went to the fashion museum and they had a place where you could try on a crinolines and corsets.

Clothes from the 19th century

We visited the Jane Austen museum, which was informative, but kind of boring. We did have tea and scones in the tea room there, which was delicious. All of the employees dress up in time period, which was fun to see.

Me and Jane

Kit hanging out  near the abbey.

A street performer, playing the violin on a tight rope.

Inside the roman baths.

The abbey

The roman baths were  excavated and they built a museum around it. This was a main wall in the original bath. this is what it would have looked like

and what it actually looks like

The source of the hot springs. It was orange from all of the minerals in it.

The water was green here from the different types of minerals also.

We had a fun visit to Bath, pictures from London next :)