January 2007

More water-ice skating! This time at the Tower of London! These folks didn't have their fridge on cold enough either. And there was a massive wind going through the moat. There were a lot of wet bums here too! It was rather hilarious. Especially since we didn't fall over at all! We are known as Torvil & Dean over here.

Quite an impressive site, really.

More ice skating! This is on Peg's birthday at Somerset House. This was the best rink yet - really good ice. Fantastic to skate on. Lovely setting too.

Drew taking a breather while skating. Its a real shame, Peg hasn't fallen over yet (don't worry though - the skating season isn't over yet), Drew fell over once this day - but we didn't get a photo of it!

On the way to Peg's birthday dinner!

At our favourite pub, The Churchill Arms on Kensington Church Street. The pub is basically one big tribute to Winston Churchill and is absolutely full of random little things about him. Really quaint and cosy. And happens to have the best Thai restaurant attached to it. All meals are 6 pounds. Even with prawns. Incredible.

The view from our window last week when it snowed! It never really snows big time in the city as its too warm, but as its been literally freezing, it settled! Caused absolute chaos on the transport system though. As does excesseive wind/rain/heat/sun/time/air/days-ending-in-"y"...

Peg is in heaven with all this snow!!!

More pretty snow pictures. It was quite a site.

Canary Wharf and snow.

Copenhagen, Denmark - Dec 2006

Nyhavn Canal, Copenhagen. Unfortunately, we didn't see Princess Mary here.

Us at Nyhavn Canal. Mary didn't take this photo, we did.

Still at Nyhavn. We thought it was pretty picturesque.

Mary's city digs. She wasn't home though. We knocked and asked.

Another shot of Amlienbourg Palace. Its rather huge.

The Little Mermaid. A beautiful little statue a bit of a walk from the city. The guy who had it made saw the opera, "The Little Mermaid", one day and commissioned a statue made. Apparently, she has been graffitied, decapitated, had limbs amputated many times in her history.

We thought The Little Mermaid was the best site in Copenhagen. Although, we didn't see Mary here either.

Drew and Hans Christian Anderson. He wanted to see what he could see see see. All he could see was more rain. And no Mary.

The main square. It was wet. It was cold. It was dark. The beer cost 60DKR (AU$15) per pint. And we didn't see Mary.

This is an interesting little weather gauge. If you look up the top, just under the Phillips sign (subtle advertisement that it is), there are 2 gold statues. One is a girl riding a bike, the other another girl holding an umbrella. If the bike girl is out, its going to be a lovely day, if the brolly one is out, its raining. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the bike girl. Or Mary. And, yes, the temp is 2 degrees.

The Tivoli Gardens. This is where the Copenhagen Christmas Markets are held! We love Christmas Markets (although when we say "we", we mean just Peg. Drew is slightly sick of them. Like a big bit slightly).

World's biggest snowglobe in the foreground. Except it wasn't snowing in the snowglobe. Looked good though.

The Tivoli Gardens by night. Mary wasn't here either.

December 2006

Greenwich! And according to the dumb girl who sits behind Peg at work, "where time was invented".

A common British measurement.

Right. So we went to Greenwich to be there at 1pm as that is when the ball goes up then comes down again. It was used to allow the mariners on the Thames to set their clocks correctly. So we absolutely haul it to get there, run flat out up the hill only to find that it was broken. So here is picture anyway cos we're not going back up that hill again.

View of the city, Canary Wharf in particular, from Greenwich.

Best Day In The World! George Michael concert! It was FANTASTIC! Peg was in heaven. Unfortunately, at the same time Peg was in heaven, Drew was in hell.

Awesome concert!

Even Drew admitted that it was a good show, maybe just the music could have been improved.

Really, Drew is the biggest Careless Whisperer since Last Christmas!

Portobello Road markets in sepia tone, courtesy of Drew's phone. A lot of sepia photos were taken that day as we had just discovered that function.

On the "water" rink. Ice skating in Canary Wharf. They didn't quite have their fridge on cold enough. We saw many many wet bums. Not what you want in a London winter.

A great Christmas gift from Drew's Mum - her special home-made tomato sauce! Drew licked the bottle clean in 1 day!

What a better way to start Christmas day than with a bottle of Bollinger?! Our regular tipple.

Closely followed by a vast amount of prawns! Bliss!

Us in Hyde Park walking back from the pub after Christmas lunch. I think we're ready for a snooze.

Zurich - Dec 2006

Swarovski Christmas Tree at the Zurich Christmas Markets. Full of lovely Swarovski crystal ornaments ...that you couldn't buy.

Saw strawberry. Bought strawberry. Ate strawberry. Felt a bit sick. Too much strawberry (or sugar)

Zurich Christmas Markets. Yes, they were inside. Not even half as good as the Vienna ones last year. These Swiss dudes were more like hippies trying to sell candles. Had traditional Swiss Christmas Markets fare - cheese on toast. Hmmm. Not Swiss, not Christmasy.

This is the "Singing Christmas Tree". There are about 20 little kids all along the tree singing Christmas carols (in English, funnily enough! Even the commentary was in English). And it was pouring rain. We hoped they didn't get electrocuted with all their sound equipment! So cute!

Another part of the Christmas Markets, but still raining.

Did a day tour out of Zurich and it was snowing after about 10 mins. This photo was taken from the bus window as we drove through a "blizzard".

The story with the lion statue is something like they sent 1000 men to battle and only 1 survived so he came back and made this as a memorial in Lucerne.

This bridge in Lucerne is decorated with lots of murals of hangings and other executions as apparently it was one of their favourite things to do back in the day. These days they make chocolate. Much better days.

The river in Lucerne

Taking your puppy for a walk Swiss style.

1st of 3 gondola (chair lifts, really) rides up to the top of Mount Titlis, 3kms above sea level.

The was, as you can tell, a fair amount of snow. Fantastic!

The last gondola was a big one that rotated 360 degrees as it ascended. It was great!

Right. So Peg is also asking herself why she is the only one on this open ski lift not wearing ski gear. At the top of Mt Titlis, where it was -14 degrees (yes, thats right, -14), there was "The Ice Flyer"! Wow! Except, after trekking along to find it, in blizzard-like conditions, -14, in normal shoes and coats (and not enough scarves), it turned out to be just a big ski lift. Did it anyway though. Thought her fingers fell off on the way though.

Ice Grotto at the top of the Mountain.

Peg making Drew stand still so that she can throw a snowball at him.

Peg throwing said snowball! It was great!