Week 11: November 12-18

Katie & Webster
Nov 18, 2018
4 min read

Well we are officially one month away from coming home to Canada…we are trying to get everything checked off our list here in London as the days seem to fly by.

On Monday, Webster went to his usual soccer game. I finished up my Christmas shopping, yes I am officially done! It was a cold evening in London (about 6 degrees) so it was nice to cuddle up in bed and watch some Netflix before our busy week.

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to go to an arthritis support group organized by my work. It was held in central London, very close to our flat. It was great to see what the charity does on the membership side and meet some people who have really improved their quality of life living with their condition. Webster spent the evening doing some laundry and catching up on his Netflix show.

On Wednesday we both raced home from work to have dinner. Then we got all dressed up and headed to Wicked! The show was on at the Apollo Victoria Theatre which is less than 10 minutes from our flat. We walked to the show and arrived just in time to check out all the souvenir booths and get a photo before the show started. I had seen Wicked before in New York, but it was Webster’s first time seeing the musical. Needless to say, Wicked has been on repeat throughout the week - we loved it!

On Thursday, Webster worked from home and we went to our usual spot at Buckingham Palace for lunch. When we arrived there was a big crowd of people waiting in front of the palace. We were lucky enough to see Princess Anne as she was leaving Buckingham Palace!

That night, we had a quiet night in before our busy weekend. I took some time to go through our video footage from our Europe adventures in August. We were lucky enough to do a croissant class in Paris! The video is attached below.

On Friday, we spent the night on the hunt for Christmas lights! We visited Oxford Street, Regent Street, and Carnaby Street, all which were decorated with huge light displays. It was neat to spend some time walking through all the shops, listening to Christmas music, and looking at all the lights.

Carnaby Street was specially decorated this year for the new Bohemian Rhapsody movie. The lights were all Queen lyrics, and if you followed the road all of the lights would spell out the song. We finished our night off with some yummy food from Selfridges!

On Saturday, we took our time getting up, then headed to Abbey Road Studios in the morning. We walked across the road that the Beatles crossed for their album cover and took some time looking through the gates at the studio. The fence/wall was covered in messages to the artists who have recorded there. As it is still a working recording studio, it was not open for the public to tour, but we did get a chance to go in the building beside it to see a studio history and visit the gift shop.

After Abbey Road, we headed to Walthamstow to visit God’s Own Junkyard. This is a place we heard about online and Webster was very keen to visit. It is a storage unit that has been made into an art gallery with recycled signs and lights. It was definitely a very hipster area, as we walked past many breweries and second hand shops to get there. Once we arrived, it was SO busy. It was hard to even move around. We spent some time looking at the signs and taking photos.

Then, we headed to the Southbank Winter Market, a Christmas market right behind the London Eye. There were tons of carnival rides, handmade gifts, food stalls, and street performers. We spent some time wandering the area and walking through all the stalls.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed for Greenwich. It is about 45 minutes outside of central London so we got a coffee before our long journey. Once in Greenwich we walked through a beautiful park with lots of autumn leaves, all the way up to the Observatory. We had a wonderful view over the city! We could see the river, the banking district, the shard, St.Paul’s Cathedral, everything!

Then we walked up to the Observatory and saw the big telescope that was used many years ago. We also saw the Prime Meridian Line (Greenwich Mean Team, 0 degrees longitude).

After we climbed down, we took our time walking through the park towards the little town of Greenwich. We stopped along the way to take some photos in the autumn leaves.

Then we walked towards the Greenwich market - stalls of art, souvenirs, and food lined the covered area. It was packed full of locals and tourists. Although we didn’t buy anything it was fun to wander and look around.

To end our afternoon out, we took the Emirates Air Cable Car back across the River Thames. It is a cheap way to see the city from more than 300 ft above the ground. We timed it well as we were up in the air during the sunset which meant we got beautiful photos!