Easterweekend London, part 1

[beelikej]

After being busy with negotiations at work this past week, I signed a contract of resignation yesterday. The countdown has begun: after almost 19 years on the job, I will be unemployed from September 1st. Obviously I hope to find a new job before then, but I managed to at least make arrangements to avoid an immediate crisis, I'm rather proud of that, considering the circumstances and rather unusual communication within the company. In between looking for work I'm going to focus on fun to keep going. So let me entertain you with a picspam...

I made such a ridiculous amount of photos in London, I'm dividing them into two posts. Part the first: architecture, shopping and a musical. (Click to zoom!)


Friday evening 5 April

View from the train to Amsterdam and the 21:30 nightbus to London:)

Saturday 4 April

After arrival at Victoria Coach Station I walked to the Victoria Train- and Underground station, took tube to Green Park, changed to Piccadilly line for Russel Square. After dumping my backpack in the hotel (no room available yet) I walked into town. This is the south end of Russel Square; reminded me of the description of a building in Rivers of Londen, a book by Ben Aaronovitch I was right in the middle of:)
(for some reason the title is changed for the USA into Midnight Riot - it's Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone all over again. Why, America? WHY?)


Full English breakfast at La Roma Bella, right across from the British Museum. (Photo made with my phone!) - I substituted fried tomatoes for an extra sausage \o/ (Didn't know you could do that, bless the sweet waitress:)


Always looking up to check for cool decorations on buildings.


Colourful office buidings near Shaftsbury Avenue and a peek through an alley to Neal's Yard.
(In between I did some serious shopping at Forbidden Planet, see goodies below;)


Don't ever stop being pretty, London. View on different streets from Seven Dials.


Back on the busy streets from quiet Seven Dials; I love this Agatha Christie monument (don't think I ever finished one of her books).


Corner of Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square. *stares*


Sheep all over London for charity; this is Mossy Bottom. I joined a raffle for a ticket for Book of Mormon, but no luck. So instead I went back to the hotel to claim my room and check out my loot. (Alison Hendrix is my favorite from Orphan Black)

After a bit of freshening up (I may or may not have actually taken a bath *innocent face) I went back into town.


Just walking by the Palladium; look at the cool light effects with the cat-eyes!


Another artistic sheep for charity; this one is called Ba-Bushka. The beauties on the right are cakes from Choccywoccydoodah; I made a quick stop to check if they were open on EasterSunday. Turned out they were, so I could save a proper visit until then. Onwards!


Mostly windowshopping at Liberty, although I did leave their chocolate shop with a bag full of nom;)


More beautifully decorated buildings.


I had hoped to score shoes at Selfridges, seeing as they claim to have the largest shoe department in the world; I was mostly dissapointed by the loud music and lack of variety. The displays were cool though and I loved the neonceiling above the escalator:)


From the tough lady above the entrance of Selfridges to the ladies at The Playhouse for a musical version of Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown. I've not seen Pedro Almodovar's film, but Tamsin Greig was great on stage, I didn't know she had this amazing voice!


The Bar & Ladies sign amused me and I had a great seat with no-one in front of me, yay.


How cool is that fabric on the wall of the theatre? Back at the hotel I unloaded all the afternoon shopping, took (another!) bath and crawled into bed a little after midnight.


Continued in part two!

P.S. Did you see I managed to put a background on my phone? *giggles* (I hid it in one of the goodies-piles;)

Comments

[meesasometimes.livejournal.com]

that breakfast looked delicious altho I would have happily eaten the fried tomatos. It's making me hungry, I should probably feed myself. Those cakes are out of control and I want a bag for of nomnom chocolate goddies too!! That theatre looks adorable, altho I'm flashing back to my visit to NYC a couple of weeks back in which we had similiar high balcony seats and my little niece wanted to switch seats with me cause she couldn't see so I had to straddle my older niece and climb VERY VERY awkwardly over (while people behind me laughed and pointed) and I was like, why don't you guys play swappy swap and see how funny it is. Good times.

I do always enjoy your travels so, I like to never leave the US.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Heehee, I felt so brave telling the waitress I would like the breakfast without tomatoes and then immensily rewarded for my courage when she offered to replace them with something I did like. :-)

I spent a lot of time in chocolate heaven that weekend.

Those balcony seats are so very tiny, I had to crawl over people to get to mine (feeling very British going 'excuse me, excuse me';)

I'm glad you travel along from the comfort of your home. My country is small, so it doesn't take long to cross a border *g*

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

:)

Always fun to see people experiencing London. Thanks for sharing!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

<3 Once again I discovered new places, I love London a LOT!

[sillie]

*hugs* re the job. I really hope you'll be able to find something before september 1st.

Anyway, on to the fun things! Great pictures from London! (Do I spot JDM on your phone there? I'm not surprised in the slightest. :') )

*goes to find the second part*

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*clings* Thank you.

I swear it was one of the few photos I had access to from my phone, it was totally an accident *shifty eyes*


source: alternaurora@Tumblr
<3

[tmn1966.livejournal.com]

Oooooh wow! I had to wait until I had time to properly look at all the beautiful pics.

The breakfast looks yummy to me - might have a little to do that I haven't had breakfast yet. lol

All the beautiful buildings, I really like the colorful office buildings and the sheep!! I can't believe those are cakes - I thought they were sculptures, which I guess they are, just cake sculptures! Amazing!

I did spy your phone but I couldn't tell what the background was (or who, I should say!) until I read it in the comments. Perfect background!!!

The shoe display is really cool as well as the ceiling - I think I could stare at the ceiling for quite a while.

I love it when you "take us" along with you on your travels! So much good stuff (and I have to say I'm excited to see what photos you'll be taking on our trip hee hee!)

Now on to part 2!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I appreciate you taking your time to stroll along:) The English breakfast is very different from the Dutch morning food; on workdays for me it's just a simple whole weat piece of bread with a slice of cheese and a glass of orange juice;)

Choccywoccydooday has a show on TLC where they show artist Dave creating the cake sculptures. Such fun.

That ceiling with the little cherubs in neonlight was so very cool, I was dissapointed with the shoe-collection though, hrmpf.

It makes me very happy that you enjoy my silly travelpicspams:)