Thursday, September 22, 2011

Bury Bury Bury

So the produce at the commissary is TERRIBLE!!! Literally you buy a tomato and the next day it is rotten. Or if you want to make guacamole and you look for avocados they are florescent green and cost $1.70 a piece!!! So needless to say I haven't made much guac. And we LOVE guacamole. sad...but since this is a common complaint (the poor quality of produce) people let us know about a great street market that happens every Wednesday and Saturday in Bury St. Edmunds. By the way its really difficult to type with a bandaged finger. I sliced open my finger last night when I was opening a can of cream of mushroom soup. Luckily my own private EMT was home and he had me fixed up in no time. :) But back to Bury St. Edmunds, we decided to give this market a try. So we drove 30 minutes to the historical district  and parked in front of the Angel Hotel and walked up the alleyway past lots of cute shops to their market.


The Angel Hotel

The alley of shops.

What the market looks like.
I am so glad we went!! They had loads of fresh produce that was super cheap (or the guy miscalculated). We bought 3 small pkgs of strawberries, 4 avocados, 3 apples and 3 pears for 4.55 pounds. We were very pleased. Also we decided to try some cheese from a cheeseman. We bought some Brie and a different type of Swiss. They were so weird tasting and we accidentally bought huge chunks of it and it was NOT cheap. :( We basically ate a bite of each cheese and tossed them. We bought some beautiful bread from a baker. We bought rosemary and olive oil foccacia and a hearty multigrain bread. The foccacia was delicious and the multigrain bread was...blah. After our shopping we ate at a lovely italian restaurant, Prezzo. Yum!! Ty had his first experience sitting in a highchair and he loved it!! But he also liked eating and ripping up the napkins, stealing my silverware, getting his hands in my pasta and trying to eat my menu. He is a busy boy.

loving mommy

He wanted to be held by daddy.

They're so cute!!!
Across the street from the Angel hotel is the St. Edmunds Cathedral and the ruins of the old Abbey. We decided to explore.
The cathedral is in the background.

The abbey gate.

Ty and I chillin' at the ruins.



In the abbey gardens eating not very good pistachio ice cream.

Add caption


The pillar behind Matt talks about how the Magna Carta was signed at this location.

Heavenly picture behind the Cathedral in their rose garden.
We had a wonderful time in Bury and brought home lots of yummy food to eat.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

A Wonderful London Adventure!!!

We finally made it!!!!!!!!! 3 cheers for the Meekers!!! London attempt 3 was a blast! Exhausting but a blast! We got on the tube in Epping where we almost had to turn back because we couldn't find parking but with a little scavenging we did. We rode the tube all the way to downtown London and only had to change lines once. Let me tell you if you have a stroller and are planning on riding the tube just carry your baby and carry the stroller cause there are so many stairs and  crazy amounts of people it's just not worth it. But, once we got out to the street level it was all good.

We started in Trafalgar Square which is beautiful and has an amazing fountain, a huge boat in a bottle, and lots of street performers. We saw a mime dressed as Charlie Chaplin, a man dressed as a statue and though it was boiling hot outside didn't move at all, and of course what street is complete without a man dressed as Darth Vader. Our first stop was to get some Gelato. I got hazelnut (YUMMM) and Matt got Strawberry (he's very predictable). Gus will be happy to hear their idea of Frozen Yogurt is that nasty stuff he gets all the time, original tart (bleh).

We got to explore the National Gallery which had the original Sunflowers by Picasso, Waterlilies by Monet and several other paintings that literally took my breath away. Since this was a belated birthday adventure for Matt he got to choose where we went. The Cavalry Museum struck his fancy and so we took pictures with the horses and saw all it had to offer (which wasn't much).
Matt and Ty petting the horse in front of the Cavalry Museum

The courtyard in front of the Cavalry Museum

I totally tried to make him smile and I swear he did with his eyes. He's too much of a pro!


Obviously Matt has control of the camera. These are some things from the museum.

Matt has made the comment that he wants to collect replica helmets and armor while we're here. (And where will he keep these dust collectors? No idea.)

More uniforms.

A bullet went through his cigarette case, journal and stopped in his bible, saving his life.

Matt outside the museum.
Then we went to the Churchill War Rooms which is a museum that's in an underground bunker where the British Government would conduct business and be protected during air raids during WWII. This was the coolest museum we have seen so far. An audio tour is included in your admission and they even include actual recordings of conversations between Churchill and other world leaders. It was thrilling!
The actual war room.

A map from one of the rooms.
 We got super tired but prevailed and walked to Buckingham Palace and we were in awe of how HUGE it is. I can't believe they used to live there!

The palace.

Ty and I in front of the gates to the garden.
We were exhausted by this time and starved. I REALLY wanted to go and see Harrods so we headed that way all the while looking for something to eat. We finally made it there and we saw all the crazy expensive things in Harrods and found a hole in the wall restaurant. Matt ordered a Pina Colada and it was the most vile thing I have ever tasted. It was like water with sweetened condensed milk that had been mixed to add foam on the top. Bleh!! But our actual food was pretty good (we were so hungry I'm sure it really wasn't but we couldn't tell).

One nice thing about living so close to London is that we didn't have to stress about not seeing everything. We know we can go back anytime. Can't wait to see all the neat museums. British Museum here we come!