Last week in London

After nearly 3 months, Bobby time in England is finally at a close. He flies home tonight, I can't wait to have him home! I'm sure our tandem bikes have also missed us. I am going to miss spending time in London, though. We've had a wonderful time exploring the city and eating all the lovely ethnic food that we can't get in Copenhagen. We did get to venture outside of the city. We visited our friends Nick and Clare in their home in the lovely southern town of Lewes.


 

Just north of University of Sussex, Lewes was only 1 1/2 hours from London via the train. Nick was kind enough to introduce us to his town. Lewes is in the middle of the South Downs, and there were many chalk cliffs in the area, like the one in this photo.









There is even a castle in Lewes! Built in 1069 by the First Earl of Surrey, the castle saw action during the 1264 Battle of Lewes. The battle was between the English barons and the royalists. The result of the battle eventually led to the confirmation of the magna carta!

Lewes also had some other lovely sights, including the 1839 Church of St. John sub Castro (quite a name, I know!).

Here, Bobby and Nick walk along one of the beautiful alleys near the castle.

Lewes is not a large town and is quite rural. We took a walk along one of the downs and were accompanied by many grazing sheep. These sheep had some crazy fleece, and many of the sheep were rubbing against trees and fences to rid themselves of the excess fleece. Luckily, none of them attacked us, even though Bobby was provoking them. You know Bobby, he just can't help himself.


It was an incredibly windy day, and the wind was all the more powerful going over the downs. Here, Nick and I attempt to fly away! We all had a lot of fun running and jumping into the wind. It felt like walking on the moon.

After our fun weekend with Nick and Clare, Bobby and I headed back to London. We arrived back on campus to find ourselves surrounded by hundreds (possibly even thousands) of Vespas! The Vespa World Days 2012 was taking place in London during that weekend, and all of the riders were staying at Queen Mary University with us. We saw riders who had ridden all the way from Austria, Germany, and Italy.

We did a few touristy things during our last weekend. We spent several hours in Harrod's, goggling over the caviar (some small bottles cost over 1000 pounds!), chocolate, cookware, and china. Somehow, we managed to leave the store without having spend a single pence. Now that is what I call self control.

I also went to the original Twinings tea store. I was expecting something more similar to a museum, but it was in fact just a store, selling the same tea you can find in the grocery store. The location was pretty fantastic, though. The store, opened in 1706, is right across the street from the Royal Courts of Justice.


Now that Bobby's time in London is over, we can start enjoying the Danish summer. That is, if the summer ever comes to Denmark...