Rick's Roadshow: London

My trip is now officially winding down. Rick's Roadshow from London isn't really a roadshow, as I've been here so many times I rarely take photos anymore. Well that and the fact that I'm conducting some business means I am primarily working during this brief stop in the UK. I did, however have time to meet a Blogger buddy, (c) Karelian Blonde. We've been reading each other's blogs for several years now, and I finally had the opportunity to make contact! We met for a pint (or two) after work, to spend some time chatting about life, friends and the virtues of having a regular pub to call home. She is very sweet and a lovely person. Stop by and say hello to her if you have a chance. For those of you who have met other Blogger buddies, well you know how fun it is to meet.

above: Hard at work.
All kidding aside, a proper pub photo, like this is a must when you visit London. Well today its back to the old London salt mines for me. I probably won't post anything tomorrow as today will be a combination of being busy with a few last minute meetings and then I head back to the US. Thanks for joining me for Rick's Roadshow through Asia these past few weeks. I have many fond memories of Asia and appreciate the time you took to follow along.
-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Bath Spa & Buckingham Palace

Rick's Roadshow continues with updates from the beautiful city of Bath, which is 95 miles southwest of London. It is an ancient city, dating back 2,000 years when the Romans lived here. Bath is the only known place in the UK with a natural hot spring still flowing continuously. It was here the Romans built the massive Spa facility- much of which still stands today, having been unearthed over many years. Today visitors can explore the site and follow the exact steps the ancient Romans did when they enjoyed the healing powers of the hot mineral waters. It is an important historical site, and is the most popular tourist attractions outside of London. I've been to Bath many times previously, but as it was John's first visit to the UK I'm showing him a few highlights of England on this brief visit.
above: the lovey River Avon, flowing through Bath provides a calming ambiance to this city.

Above: a view from above of the great Roman Baths, built as a temple in 60 AD in honor of the goddess Minerva. It is an impressive structure.

above: I paused for a few minutes to reflect on the history of this great site and think about the people who enjoyed these waters over the past two thousand years.

The Roman influence of Bath can be found everywhere throughout. I love the carvings like this one above.

above: This gives you a sense of the architecture style in the city.

above: another photo of the Baths, with a view of the spire of Bath Abbey in the distance.

above: a quick photo inside Bath Abbey, which is stunning.
Now, Back to London
No visit to London is complete in my mind without a visit to Buckingham Palace. Despite the fact that I lived in London, and have also visited the Palace on numerous occasions, it still seems exciting to me each time I return. And so, here are a few quick images of the beautiful "Buck House" as locals like to call it. Keep in mind that while this is the London residence of The Queen, it is really sort of a work residence; she actually prefers Windsor Castle or Balmoral Castle, as they are truly her "homes". However, duties of State and her responsibilities as Monarch, as ceremonial they may be, keep her in London.

above: another view of The Palace, with the side gate in view.

above: anyone who has ever visited Buckingham Palace has taken this exact photo. The gates are truly magnificent, and captivate everyone.

above: the St James Park, that leads up to Buckingham Palace is quite relaxing with this lake.
A Spot of Afternoon Tea

after visiting the Palace, we stopped for Afternoon Tea at the fabulous and legendary Fortnum and Mason's, at the St James restaurant on the fourth floor. There are only a handful of places in London who serve tea as well as Fortnums. I also recommend The Dorchester Hotel, The Ritz or The Savoy. I couldn't take any other photos, as there was Lord seated next to us as we took our tea, and I didn't want to be an ugly American. Well that's all for today. Thanks for visiting Rick's Roadshow. The journey continues, so stay tuned.
-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: More from London

Welcome to another installment of Rick's Roadshow: More from London. Admittedly, this first photo above left of a display case of gourmet cupcakes is not what one would expect to find as the lead photo in a post about London. However, as regular readers know, I am on a Cupcake Quest, and when I discovered this shop in London I nearly passed out. They were simply fabulous cupcakes. It made my day just seeing these, so I felt it was a fun way to start today's post. So this photo is dedicated to Empress Bee of the High Seas, who loves cake too. This cupcake shop is in an area of London called Covent Garden, a very old shopping market with early Roman influences, built on cobblestone pavers with shops, push carts, street performers, museums and restaurants. I had decided Covent Garden as the site for lunch. So we went to a place called The Crusting Pipe, where I had been many times years past. I've always liked the ambiance of inside Covent Garden. It is bright and cheery, with lots of things to see.

above: we sat in the lower courtyard at The Crusting Pipe restaurant, and people-watched while sipping a nice beer.

above: This area features a continual stream of authorized performers- musicians, singers, jugglers, etc who all play for tips. They were great.
Later, A Typical English Dinner
Later that day we ate dinner by Tower Bridge. I wanted to be someplace by the Thames River and enjoy a spectacular view of London, which is why I chose Tower Bridge (see photo yesterday further below)

above: Beef Rib, with traditional Yorkshire Pudding on top. It was delicious

above: This wasn't my pork chop but it looked wonderful

above: John had some cut of steak, served on a cutting board with grilled veggies, potato wedges and served with some brown gravy. Wow, what a meal.

above: after dinner I ordered a cheese board. I love English Cheeses especially. It is a perfect way to end a meal in London. As you can see from this post, food was a sub theme...I do love to eat.
-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Tower Bridge

Busy at the moment but wanted to share this lovely photo I took after dinner last night. We had dinner adjacent to Tower Bridge, on the Thames River. More to come later today...Enjoy!

Rick's Roadshow: Dinner in London

I've been away from the blog for awhile, quite busy with all sorts of travels. Today begins a fresh installment of Rick's Roadshow, this week from London. I'm on my way to the Interzoo pet supply trade show in Nuremberg, Germany next week. This week I'm in the UK for some meetings and squeeze in a bit of R&R along the way too. It's always good to be back in England. Having lived here what seems like a zillion years ago, I still have an affinity for these green lands, this sceptered isle. The weather has been fairly pleasant, although I suspect I'll encounter a bit of the wet stuff today while out and about town. Last night I met up with an old friend for dinner. We went to a lovely Sardinian restaurant called Olivo in West London, close to Victoria Tube station. In this photo I was still a bit of a zombie, not having much caught up on sleep still. I'm smiling because I was about to enjoy a piece of Tirimisu, which turned out to be quite delicious.
In fact, here is a better view of it- the cocoa dusting around the plate made me especially happy :-)
The big news here is all about the UK's new Hung Parliament, with a single party not having garnered a majority in yesterday's General Election. Most people seem happy that the current Labor PM Gordon Brown will be out. Looks like David Cameron will have to assemble some sort of coalition government I suppose...we'll wait and see. I imagine he will be headed to Buckingham Palace shortly to meet with HM The Queen. After a General Election if there is a change in control, she formally "invites" the winner to form a government. Not sure exactly what happens when its hung like this. I suppose Cameron will be busy! Tomorrow I'll be sure to post some more photos and a proper update from Rick's Roadshow in London, so do come back.
-Rick Rockhill

London Hodgepodge: This 'N That

Much of the weekend was spent unpacking and doing laundry. Once I got caught up on sleep, I fired up the old laptop to organize photos of my travels. I found a few photos taken in London that were not posted during the "Rick's Roadshow" series. They are totally unrelated odds-and-ends type photos, but things that struck me for some reason. I'll try to share background info, or at least the reason why I took each photo. This first one was in a pub in Isleworth called "The George". There are two resident "pub dogs" named Zoe and Charlie who mingle with guests in between their naps. I was missing my kids Koshimi and Owen, and was thrilled to have dogs to pet and exchange affection that only pet owners can understand.

Walking in and around London...

above: nothing special here, just a street of houses in Kensington, considered a nice part of London. They are usually quite nice homes inside. This is the set up for the next two photos I took:

above: while walking in Kensington I photographed a few doors along the street. This one was quite nice, I liked the detail of the heads on these handles.

above: another house had these door handles with lions heads, which were also quite interesting.

above: The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The Royal "Lion and Unicorn" arms has always been attractive to me.

above: when I took this photo I had NO idea what store it was. I just liked the window display. Later I showed the photo to a friend who screamed in excitement. Apparently Christian Louboutin makes women's shoes that are legendary among women who worship fashion shoes.

above: The Capital Hotel, where I dined one evening. I snapped this photo because the front flowers were so cheery on the sidewalk.

above: the sitting room at The Pelham Hotel where I stayed in London. This room has an old men's club feel to it, but it was so warm and inviting.

above: I posted a version of this photo where I was standing. But this photo is COMPLETELY different, right? (I needed a strong closing photo to this post). This was in the main drawing room at The Pelham Hotel, where I was staying. We enjoyed full use of the facilities, including their "honour bar". Well there you have it, my London Hodgepodge: This 'N That post. Thanks for stopping by today.

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: Last Day in London

Rick's Roadshow continues from London. Yesterday was a free day for me, from a work perspective I had taken Thursday as a "vacation day" in order to have one full day to do anything I wanted. The day flew by much too quickly! I had all sorts of plans, but the time just slipped away. My day started with a traditional full "English Breakfast" (fried eggs, bacon, sausage, mushroom, tomato, baked beans, wheat toast, fresh squeezed orange juice and a pot of tea). With that fuel, I was ready for a busy day in Central London! Off I went to shop at the legendary Harrod's department store to pick up a few things. Much of the afternoon was just being out and about in the city and enjoying my last full day in London. The big finale, so to speak was dinner at the Institute of Director's Club (IoD). The IOD is an exclusive club in a magnificent building, located adjacent to Buckingham Palace. I was the guest of cousin Sean, who has hosted me at his club on previous visits to London. As you can see from these photos, it is quite posh. Here I am standing in front of a beautiful portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, painted quite early in her reign.

above: I took a moment to relax in the Great Hall at the IoD. Here I sit, underneath the portrait of the Queen Mum, (now deceased)

above left: This is the grand staircase at the entrance of the IoD. above right: The dining room at the IoD. If you look carefully, the walls have enormous portraits of all sorts of historically important Brits: Prime Ministers, Royals, and Generals.

above left: Cousin Sean and I dined in this cozy corner of the IoD dining room, which had lovely views of Buckingham Palace. above right: after dinner we left the club and went to the Rose Room at the Sofitel hotel for some champagne.

Earlier in the day....

above: Westminster Abbey.

above and below: close up detail of the exterior of Westminster Abbey, which is stunning.

above: the very top of the statue at Picadilly Circus.

above: nothing extraordinary, but a view in and out of St John's church near Covent Garden. I just liked the way it all looked.

above: at Harrod's department store, in the Egyptian Room in the lower level. It is unlike any retail experience you've ever had anywhere else in the world. Rick's Roadshow is nearing it's end. Tomorrow I'll post a few last photos of this journey. Thanks for stopping by today!

-Rick Rockhill

Rick's Roadshow: More from London

Yesterday was a very full day at work. The morning started with a business breakfast meeting and we continued all day. The setting for the meeting was at our hotel, so at least we didn't have to travel anywehere and able to be more productive. Despite working all day, I was able get out and have some time for myself. Fortunately it stays light quite late here in England, so I was able to get out and take some photos in Central London at the end of the day when our meetings finished. Before I get to those photos, I'd like to explain this one. It was taken of me before dinner, in the drawing room at the hotel. It is a beautiful room that feels like home and is very comfortable. Although dinner each night are with work colleagues, we try not to talk "shop" all night long and relax a bit. A pre-dinner glass of wine or a gin and tonic usually helps everyone to unwind a bit before dinner. More of Rick's Roadshow from London...
A Few Sights in and Around London

above: Statue of Oliver Cromwell, and a view of the House of Parliament, with "Big Ben"

above: Whitehall Palace guard house, and the flag adorned "Pall Mall road", which leads to Buckingham Palace.

above: Trafalgar Square. It was raining a bit when I took this photo.

above: I didn't waste anytime and went to Harvey Nichols department store in Knightsbridge, a fabulous retailer. I enjoyed a refreshment in their cafe on the top floor, just next to their fantastic wine shop.

above: a lounge also on the top floor of Harvey Nichols. this gold padded wall hallway led to the open lounge area which was bustling. It was THE place to be that evening...

above: Carnaby Street shopping area in London has many unique shops that are less mainstream. I love this one shop: "B never too busy to be beautiful" Seems like a good mantra to me! (I'm dedicating this store front photo to "B" of B- My Life My Thoughts)

More fun and photos tomorrow, when Rick's Roadshow continues...
-Rick Rockhill