Thursday, 7 February 2008

Our first football match!

So, we finally made it to watch our first football (soccer) match here in England a few weeks back. Our friends Libby and Scott were able to get their hands on some tickets for us for the Carling Cup where Chelsea was playing Everton at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea's stadium). It was a great game, with Chelsea (our team) pulling ahead to win in the last minute of the match!


Saturday, 19 January 2008

New Year's in Mallorca

Happy New Year everyone (albeit a bit late now)...after we came back from the US for Christmas, we flew to Mallorca, Spain and spent a week there. We stayed in a very small beach town called Cala Pi, which was about 30 mins SE of the capital city of Palma. We spent a good amount of time in Cala Pi because we couldn't resist a restaurant there called Cas Busco. We did get to explore the rest of the island in other coastal and mountain towns as well, though.

This was the view from our hotel room balcony, and Conrad about to hop in our tiny little Fiat we had all week long. :)



Prehistoric site remains near Cali Pi:



The Palma Cathedral fountain-side, and a view inside of how ornately it was decorated for holiday worshipping:



Conrad and I outside of Bellver Castle, waterfront-side. Bellver Castle, which sits NW of downtown Palma, once served as the city's fortress:



View from the terraced mountains in the NW of the island, and cross atop a mountain right outside one of the monasteries we visited closer to Cali Pi.



Our favorite restaurant...



where we celebrated on NYE. Conrad ate all of his 12 grapes (a Spanish tradition, apparently) before the stroke of midnight, and I made good use of some of the many props they were handing out.



And most importantly, this was by far the best paella we ever had!



We had a great time and are looking forward to upcoming trips we have planned to 1) Cologne, Germany to celebrate Carnival there with Conrad's high school exchange student 2) Paris and 3) Prague in the next coming months!

Final, Updated Contact Info, Etc.

Jenn Work: +44 (0)207 803 2373
Jenn Cell: +44 (0)788 148 4648
jenniferwideberg@hotmail.com

Conrad Cell: +44 (0)751 536 5403
conradtallariti@hotmail.com

Both Home (this is through Vonage, and runs through our broadband so we were able to get a US #): 253 238 9310

Here are some good sites to use when figuring out when/how to call us (if needed), as well as the world currency converter site if/when you come to visit:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/dialing.html
http://www.xe.com/

Thursday, 20 December 2007

Happy Holidays!!

Well, everyone has been asking for snapshots of our place, so here you go. Have to say, we don't really live in a very quintessential English building...it's a newer high rise, but it's comfy and spacious and become our home for the time being. Take a peek if you like...










We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! Conrad is headed back to the Seattle area (Gig Harbor) to spend Christmas with his family, and I'm headed to NY/NJ to spend the holiday with mine. We're then off to Mallorca, Spain together for New Year so can't wait for that.


If anyone has international dialing access, my UK mobile is +44 788 148 4648 and Conrad's is +44 751 536 5403, and we'll have those on us while at home. Hope I get to meet up with many of you in NYC on the 26th or 27th possibly, and I'll also be sending good vibes cross-country for the Seahawks this Sunday since Conrad's going to the game.


Here's to a great 2008--hope everyone is happy and healthy in the New Year!

Thanksgiving weekend spent in Bath, England

We didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving this year, but still had a great time. Here are some pix of our trip--enjoy!


This is the lovely B&B we stayed in (not too far from where Jane Austen spent many years actually):





We were about a five minute walk from the center of town and got a nice view of the Pulteney Bridge on our walk in each day. It happens to only be 1 of 4 in the world left that actually has shops within the bridge (1 other is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, but not sure what the other two are?!). We couldn't ever miss the beautiful architecture of Bath Abbey either!







Heading further into town, we found the oldest house in Bath left standing (which is the home of the famous Sally Lunn Bun--which of course we sampled, and its coffee house), along with Lord Nelson's house, and the Jane Austen historic center.




One of our favorite parts of the trip was of course going into the Roman Baths on Saturday...




where we did cure all that was ailing us with that fine-tasting fresh water straight from the pumps and felt like a king and queen by the time we were done! ;)




And on Sunday, before we took off for Stonehenge, we found a great, hidden (to us, anyway) cafe where of course Mr. Sweet Tooth ordered hot chocolate and chocolate cake for breakfast!




Then it was off for the hour drive to Stonehenge to walk around in a circle for an hour and then drive back immediately after. Definitely worth seeing; just wish we could've gotten a bit closer, I guess.



A very relaxing, much needed weekend-getaway! We would definitely go back again with any visitors--hint, hint.