A lovely weekend in London

I was lucky enough to spend a lovely weekend in London with my friends Jeremy and Karen Goddard. My mother and Jeremy's mother were good friends and worked together at the Dutch embassy in London during the WWII. They continued to stay in touch and traveled together once every few years to such places as Hong Kong and Istanbul. I have very fond memories of sailing with Jeremy and his family when we were teen agers and he and I have also stayed in touch over the years and have exchanged visits for the past 40 years. 

I left Karlsruhe on Thursday afternoon (May 10), took the train to Frankfurt, then the 90" flight to Heathrow. Heathrow security is beefing up in preparation for the Olympics, so it took some time to get through Immigration. However, Immigration in Frankfurt on the return trip on Sunday took just as long! Can't wait to see what the line will be like when I get to Atlanta next week. 

Friday morning we took a walk along the Thames to the Petersham Garden Center. This landscape (pictured here) has remained unchanged for several hundred years and has been painted by many famous landscape artists. The rich and famous (e.g., Mick Jagger) own houses up on the hill overlooking this pastoral scene. The Petersham Garden Center was established so that the view would be preserved and tacky houses or apartments would not be built that would ruin this view.

Petersham Garden Center was a wonderful (but very overpriced) collection of plants, planters, furniture, and garden ornaments. 

Karen in one of the greenhouses. 

As we continued our walk along the Thames, we found the Royal Barge, which will transport the Queen in the 1000 boat parade; this is but one of the celebrations to honor her 60 years on the throne. All the shops are full of 60th Diamond Jubilee memorabilia, as well as Olympic souvenirs.

We continued our journey through Richmond Park to the Isabella Gardens, which were full of magnificent azaleas and rhododendrons. Richmond Park is the largest of the Royal Parks in London, and has some 650 deer roaming its 2500 acres. The Park also has a public golf course (*sigh*...looked like a really nice course).

As usual, the picture does not capture the glorious color of these rhododendrons. 

Here is the Silent Pond, aptly named (silence only interrupted by all the clicking cameras). 

Dick and Kath Blackshaw, friends of Karen and Jeremy since their university days together, also spent the weekend. Dick was on his way to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he is helping with the insurance dilemmas caused by the recent earthquake there. 

I love this picture of Karen and me. 

I love this car!

Alfie and Joey, the King Charles spaniels, surveying their domain from the kitchen door. 

Karen and Jeremy have lived in this wonderful home in Surbiton for almost 25 years. As with any older home (~160 years), it requires constant attention and maintenance, hence the scaffolding as work was being done to the roof. 

On the back deck outside the kitchen; in the summer, this area has beautiful flowers in all the planters, along with herbs, tomatoes, and other veggies. 

Jeremy in his study; I interrupted his guitar practice to take the picture early Saturday morning.

On Saturday, we took another stroll along the Thames to Kingston. 

The older market area of Kingston.

Walking along the Thames is hard work, so we stopped to have a local pint (I much prefer the English beer to the German beer). We also visited my favorite local Indian restaurant for a curry one night. I believe Cindy and Sam have good memories of visiting this same restaurant the year we came to spend New Year's with Karen and Jem.

I must confess that is was really nice to be in a country where I actually understood 90% of the conversation going on around me. And, Karen and Jeremy were such gracious hosts. Jem is a wonderful cook, and I did not each any schnitzel all weekend, just fabulous pork belly and chicken with lots of great veggies. Heaven. Thank you, my dear friends. I look forward to seeing you next year and hope we get to go to the Masters!