satellite Images of London

I have been playing around on maps.google quite a bit lately and thought that some of you might like to see some of the famous sites of London. Just click on the name below to see satellite images of these places. Feel free to zoom and pan around. London is one of my favorite cities.

Tower Bridge and Tower of London
St. Pauls Cathedral
London Eye
Westminster Abby and Parliment
Big Ben close up
Trafalgar Square
Buckingham Palace
The Serpentine in Hyde Park
Cutty Sark
Millennium Dome

Feb 14th and 15th

Well as you all know, yesterday was Valentines Day and since Megan and I have to be careful where we spend our money we decided to have a picnic somewhere. We drove north to a place called Thetford passing the Elveden War Memorial and Grimes Graves (A national trust property that is closed until March just like all other national trust properties). About 10min past there is a town called Wheeting. Its a small town but apparently had a castle so we went over for a look. After driving down a farmer’s dirt road for a bit we found this awesome Church and beyond that was a path that took you to a few old walls of this castle. The castle wasn't anything to marvel at but we ate our picnic just outside the church. We drove around the Thetford forest after that for a while and then into the town of Thetford itself. As we came around a corner we saw a red car with a ton of smoke coming from the engine. Upon further inspection the red car turned out to be a Red Ferrari ...hahaha. We drove past it, got the camera out, and at the lights Megan filmed it and took some photos in our side mirror of the car. Its ok....if he can afford a car like that he can afford to fix it. The look on his face and his "dates" face were pretty hilarious though.

Today (Feb 15th) we got up bright and early and headed to Greenwich which is south London area. We left at 7am just in case there was a lot of traffic on the M25 (ring road around London). We were heading down there for an audition with jinxrecording as they are looking for new talent. Megan's audition went really well and she was very happy with her performance. She finds out in 2 weeks so lets keep our fingers crossed.

We got to Greenwich 2 hours before the audition so we drove around for a long time looking for a cheap place to get breakfast. Are any of you surprised that it ended up being a McDonalds....lol. Well on the way we saw the Greenwich University, the downtown area, the Cutty Sark, and yes the Millennium Dome. Quiz. Does anyone know which James Bond movie the Millennium Dome was used in?

You might have heard of Greenwich before now as it is where East meets West at the Greenwich Meridian (0° Longitude). Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) has been the World Time since 1884 and sets the offical time for each time zone around the world.

The Cutty Sark is the only tea clipper still in existence and is located on the River Thames in Greenwich. It first set sail in 1870 to Shanghai taking alcohol and returning with tea. It had high expectations to be the fastest tea clipper in the world but due to some misfortunes it was not. It was a great ship to see but since we were there so early it was not open for us to go on and also it was £5 each. That is one best saved for when we finally get jobs and some money. Check out the pictures below and let me know what you think.

The Church in Wheeting

Elveden War Memorial for WWI and WWII

Broken Down Ferrari

Millennium Dome

Millennium Dome close up

The Cutty Sark

Stern view of the Cutty Sark

Close up of the Name on the Stern

A short Update

Well nothing new has really happened in the last week. We are both jobless but are widening our search this week. When not job searching we are usually out driving and exploring. We have taken a few trips around to small villages; one of them being the town where I used to live called Ware. I have not being there in a long time and I was surprised that I found my way to my old house. I have attached a picture of it below for you all to see where my first house was. Funny enough the it’s on is called Milton Road. Plans this week include getting jobs, making money, and planning for a trip. Ryan will be coming in March and we want to take him around and show him a few sites. Malta might have to wait a while depending on the cash flow but there are a lot of places we can get to for a low price. We are now considering Paris, Bruges, and Amsterdam again with Ryan, but its still up in the air. Hope you are all doing well and are still enjoying reading the blog. I know its not as exciting lately but we will try and make it more interesting once we have money and all the good sites open up as they are closed until March. Cheers.

A drive in the Countryside

So while we are waiting around for jobs we are taking a lot of day trips out and about seeing a lot of small English towns, churches, and countryside. In the last few days we have explored places like Thaxted, Halstead, Clare, Finchingfield, and our favorite (just because of the name) Steeple Bumpstead. Each is a little different from the others having something unique to offer. The Church in Clare was amazing, the Guildhall in Thaxted was built in 1390 and is well worth the visit, and you can't pass up a drive through Steeple Bumpstead. Finchingfield is supposed to be one of the prettiest towns in England. It was very picturesque but there are other places we found just as nice.

Today we tried to find this Canadian pub in Halstead that my sister and her boyfriend used to go to. Unfortunately it looks as is if it has changed hands and no longer has any ties to the Canadians that previously owned it. Megan has written a funny poem about it on her blog. We had a nice lunch anyways in a town called Braintree which was surprising cheap for what you got. I can't recall the name at the moment but I am sure we will end up eating there again at some point. Below are some pictures attached for your viewing pleasure.

Church in the town of Clare

Steeple Bumpstead (as seen on the sign)

Finchingfield

Guildhall in Thaxted