Snow… yay…..gone

Newsflash:

Many of other countries and cities have snow regularly in Winter.

London, UK doesn’t.

BUT:

Yesterday it rained really heavily,

then I couldn’t hear it any more,

looked out

and

it snowed. 

Snow in London!

How exciting.

A little bit stayed on the car roofs.

The children in school were so excited , some of them had never seen snow before.

One child came to the first aide saying he got a snowflake in his mouth. Bless him.

Well, by the time I wanted to take a picture it was all gone.

I said it was a news FLASH, 🙂

gone in a flash….

… so we just look at the lovely snow pictures again.

Keep warm!

 

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Very close to the former Olympic Village which is now called East Village,

there are some lovely parks and many green spaces.

This is 15 minutes from my home away.

On my walk I found this today:

East Village and the RSPB ( Royal Society for the protection of birds)

have joined up with local carpenter Pete Bagg

to create 10 London skyline inspired bird boxes

to help bring birds back to the capital.

 

 

Wonderfully done.

I have a picture of the original London Landmark

combined with the bird box.

See for yourself.

BT Tower

BT Tower

 

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Olympic Velodrome

Olympic Velodrome

Battersea Power station

Battersea Power station

Olympic Orbit

Olympic Orbit

Big Ben

Big Ben

Canary Wharf – HSBC Building

Canary Wharf HSBC Building

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

The Tower of London

London Tower

The Gherkin

Gherkin

What a fantastic idea.

The boxes are displayed for one month here

before each box is moved to its permanent home

at green locations around the area.

Let the birds come…..

 

More gardens in London

I discovered another lovely green space in London.

A little oasis right in the middle

of the concrete jungle of the Barbican.

There is the second biggest conservatory in London

which is like a mini Kew Gardens with exotic plants,

like cacti, orchids, bamboo etc.

It is home to exotic fish and over 2,000 species of tropical plants.

It is open on Sundays to the public for free.

See for yourself what we found there:

 

 

 

 

 

A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon in London.

 

 

 

 

 

IL DIVO night

I was fortunate to get tickets for an Il Divo concert in the London O2 Arena yesterday.

 

Il Divo are 4 young men with amazing voices, they have been created 12 years ago and go from strength to strength.  I have followed them for at least 9 years now. They do sing pop opera or as it is called popera.

 

They are David Miller ( American) Tenor, Sebastian Izambard (French) Tenor, Urs Buehler (Swiss) Tenor and Carlos Marin (Spanish) Bariton.

 

I got tickets for their tour called Amor et pasion which goes up to November and they are visiting all different cities all over the world.

 

 

In this tour they added solos, dancing and playing instruments themselves to their amazing singing.

 

They also added dancers to some of their latin american songs.

 

It was a feast for ears and eyes.

 

There were 7000 people there and we didn’t want to let Il Divo go home, demanding more songs which they gave us. ❤

 

 

 

It was a totally enjoyable and amazing evening and I can only recommend that if they are near you, go and see them.

 

This was after the final good bye song!

 

 

Here another beautiful track.

 

 

 

Still smiling?

Good Morning my friends.

It has been a while

since I had enough time to sit and compose something

and visit all your blogs regularly.

Even though holidays I have been away and had visitors,

which I thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Finding new places in London to show my visitors I stumbled on some

yet fairly unknown places.

One of them is Crossrail place.

This is a new development, not even finished,

but the beautiful roof garden is finished.

It looks rather futuristic.

 

It features plants from East and West, meeting in the middle. A calm garden on top of a new railway station which is being build in Canary Wharf. It was calm and quiet in the middle of a concrete world. We had a lovely walk and enjoyed the amazing plants and trees there. Have a look for yourself!

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There was a piano in the middle of the building so I couldn’t resist to do a fun bit on it which my aunt taught me.

 

It was great fun and a great place to visit!

More discoveries in the next post!

Keep smiling and enjoy the warmer weather!

Treasure Hunt in London

We’ve been invited to take part on a treasure hunt

from work as a fun activity on Friday evening.

I joined and we met at Liverpool Street Station.

The hunt was around Shoreditch, a trendy place now.

London keeps changing constantly.

When I came to London this was not a place to be … now it is!

It was amazing and  I learnt more about my London.

 

Here are 2 facts:

 

Beigel Bake , a place which bakes bagels 24 hours a day

in the traditional  Jewish style with different fillings.

They apparently sell 7000 bagels a day!

Wow – Well it was busy when we passed it.

***

We found underground trains on top of an old bridge

which was knocked down as the railway lines were changed.

 

 

We found many trendy places to eat or hang out, all packed on a Friday night.

We had a fun evening and I will explore more in that area soon.

 

I love London!

 

 

Street Art in London

London has more than just all the tourist sites to offer….

I went on a Street Art Tour in London the other day and was amazed what I saw.

It was like a walk through London’s largest living art gallery.

We had a super, very knowledgeable tour guide and it was great fun.

The tour was well managed and was enjoyed by everyone. I can only recommend it!

It shows very different views of London’s back streets. around Old Street.

Do you remember this?

Now, I know it was a street Artist called Art is Trash who did this.

Art is Trash

Street Art is different to graffiti,

Street artists want to communicate with the public, make the neighbour hood nicer and also want to express certain views or highlight some social relevant issues.

Here is a taster.

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His Holiness The Dalai Lama – in London

I have had the fortune to see His Holiness The Dalai Lama,

when he visited London yesterday.

He talked about compassion,

happiness,

love and affection

and ended with a question and answer session.

 

“Compassion is a marvel of human nature,

a precious inner resource

and the foundation of our well-being

and the harmony of our societies.”

The Dalai Lama

 

It was fascinating to listen to his wisdom directly in his spoken words.

 

2 monks made a peace Mandala with coloured sand all day outside.

I managed to see it at the end stage.

The Dalai Lama likes to laugh and has a wonderful smile.

 

“The first step toward living a happy life

is to treat every other human with kindness.

There are several steps after that,

but I can’t remember right now. “

 

It was an amazing experience!

 

 

Sky Garden

Over Easter, I visited the Sky Garden, the highest garden in the UK. It is on the 35th floor of a building called ” the Walkie Talkie” in London.

Security is high , just like on an airport.

It was amazing to walk around this exotic garden!

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It is free for the public but still needs to be booked and only open during working time, so I was happy to get tickets in the holidays.

Well worth going when you are in London!

 

It was wonderful to add this day to treasured memories.

Enjoy your day and see the beauty along the road!

In the Tower of London

Time flies and it is already weekend again… hurray!

We went to the Tower of London the other night to see the Ceremony of the keys which is being performed since 700 years every single day and it is open to the public to witness it. The waiting list is long and we waited 3 month for our turn. One is not allowed to take pictures. I did take some while waiting outside the gate to be let in!

It is so much fun to discover more and more of my wonderful London. So come with me.

 

Elizabeth II

London by night along the Thames

The Shard

Tower Bridge

King George VI

The Tower

It was very interesting and we enjoyed a pleasant and fun chat with the guide/ high ranking soldier afterwards who told us more interesting facts around the tower.

Wishing all a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

♥♥♥