UK, 2009 - Just a Walk in the Park

Just walked around in the early morning taking pictures with the new camera.  I walked down past the cathedral to the end of the park.  I found some Roman ruins, not much to look at, just a wall.  Found a few more pubs but it was too early to pop in.  Got back to the hotel around lunch time.  Micheal was in his room working on the database stuff.  I gave him a shout and we had lunch at a little café’ then back to the hotel.  I worked on my pictures and went out shopping at the out door mall.  For dinner we went to Marco's near the other restaurants.  Called it a night.

UK, 2009 - Back to St. Albans

Got up a tried to get tickets to Pairs via the chunnel.  However, the tickets were not for sale on the day of departure.  Micheal had a late night so while he slept I went out photo shooting again.  Came back a few hours later and picked up Micheal. We continued to do the tourist thing.  Checked out of the hotel and caught the train back to St. Albans.  When we got back we grabbed dinner at a Thai restaurant.  This was another great restaurant.  Hit another cool pub next door to the hotel and called it a night.

UK, 2009 - First visit to London

Went to London with Micheal via the train around noonish.  We missed our stop and got off at Elephant and Castle.  I pulled out my GPS, and started to find our way to the hotel.  We check into a Holiday Inn near the river on the South bank.  A low rent hotel but cheap.  The weather was nice, we went sightseeing, hit a few bars.  Found one that was on the third floor of a condo and had several cool balconies on the Thames.  We met up with Eman, his family owns a couple flats in town (wish we knew that before we booked the hotel).  We hung out awhile went to the "real" Elephant and Castle bar. Around 7PM Micheal and I caught a cab and met up with Darrell for dinner at Barney’s.  The food was pretty good but not up to expectations.  After dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe’ so I could get my souvenirs.  Micheal took off to Eman’s place and I went back to the hotel to grab my camera and walked down to Big Ben for plenty of pictures.

UK, 2009 - First test with the new camera

I took my new camera out and shoot photos at the cathedral and park across the street. We met downstairs around 6PM to try the Italian restaurant one more time. The food and wine was just as good as last night. We walked down the hill to the Lower Red Lion pub this time. Then went back to the hotel.

UK, 2009 - Real Ale

Had breakfast and then went to the AECOM office for the day. One of the locals came by (Jonathan) and introduce himself and offered to take us out tonight after dinner.

After work, I went camera shopping, found a camera shop and purchased my Nikon D60 with an extra 70-300mm lens.  Met up with the crew and went to a local Italian restaurant.  That one was packed and could not sit eight of us.  Therefore, we went to another Italian restaurant down the street.  They sat us in the lower level to accommodate our party of eight.  I had a calzone and ate the whole thing.  I called Jonathan just before we finished our meal, he said he would meet up with us at the hotel bar.  At the hotel bar we met up and had a few before he took us out bar hopping in the neighborhood.  We ended up going to three different bar and hung out at the White Lion real alehouse.  They had a group of locals in one part of the bar play live music, in another part of the bar a there were several game of backgammon.  The rest of us were just chatting and drinking.  Got in around 2AM.

UK, 2009 - Flighing to London, for a week in St. Albans

It was a good flight. When we got in it was raining. Four of us grabbed a cab, the cab had two seats and two jump seats but no trunk. It was a tight fit. The fare was around 160£, Steven put it on his expense. I was able to use my GPS. We met everyone at the hotel and went out for dinner at a restaurant called “Serving only 21”. The food was good the beer was better. Had a night cap at the hotel bar and called it a might.