I and my American friends in London have struggled to find microwave popcorn in stores around here. We did not understand how this wonderful product could be absent from the shelves at even the large chain supermarkets. Apparently the demand for microwave popcorn is small.

Well, just recently, I finally found it!

***Popz Butter Flavour Microwave Popcorn***

And it was on sale for only 99 pence. Yay!

I think one company must produce microwave popcorn for the entire continent of Europe because the instructions and nutrition information are given in 11 languages! That's right--11!

Here is the phrase 'Butter Flavour' in 10 other languages:
smørsmag
smørsmak
boter-aroma
bettergeschmack
smorsmak (with 2 dots above the first m)
gusto burro
boût beurre
voinmakuinen
sabor a mantequilla
aroma de menteiga

The languages represented happen to be: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish. Can you identify which is which? I can't for all of them--the Scandinavian languages are tricky, I think.

Interestingly, the word popcorn is written 'popcorn' in all the languages except Spanish (palomitas) and Portuguese (pipocas-I like this one!)

My multi-lingual response to microwave popcorn is mmmmmmmmmmmm!

While all of you the US celebrate Memorial Day, I will be celebrating 'Spring Bank Holiday' along with the rest of the citizens of the UK. There was a bank holiday three weeks ago and one in April too. These special days seem to be randomly scattered around the calendar. I do not understand what the point of a bank holiday is. And asking an actual British person for clarification does not help.
When I asked "What exactly is the bank holiday for?" or "Why are banks and other businesses closed?" Their answer is "I don't know, it's just a bank holiday..."
Thanks. It all makes sense now.
From what I gather, it's just a day off for the sake of having a day off--it's not to commemorate anything in particular.
I have not been in England for a full year, so I don't know for sure, but there doesn't appear to be any national holiday where people wave the Union Jack at a parade or honor veterans or show any sign of unity through acts of patriotism. Kind of a shame, I think.
Happy Memorial Day to you all!

It hit me this week that my time here in London is running out. After this realization, I promptly made a list of the things that I still wanted to see before I leave. Thankfully, I have been able to do and see many things in London and the UK already, but if I leave without accomplishing these few more things, I may regret it.
All week I had been working hard on my various papers, so I figured Saturday was a great day for a field trip to check out a couple more London sights on my list.

I started by taking a stroll to The City, which is basically the financial/business district, kinda like the Loop in Chicago. The City is the sight of the original Roman settlement of London and from there the rest of the city grew. The whole area is pretty quiet on the weekends, and there is not a ton to see since it's mostly buildings with big corporations. But there was one thing I wanted to check out: The Monument.
The Monument commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666. (I wonder how many cities have had a 'Great Fire'?--Chicago had one, so did Holland and probably many more!)
The fire broke out at the king's baker's house on Pudding Lane in the early morning hours. Over the next four days much of the city burned to the ground.

The pillar is 202 ft tall.

311 steps up a very narrow staircase to the top.

Finally made it!
There's an open air observation deck at the top with views of London.

See the London Eye in the distance?

Looking west at Tower Bridge.

Not a magnificent view, but it is crazy to see all the construction cranes!

Looking down. Yipes!


From The City, I took the Tube to Regent's Park.

I had heard there are beautiful rose gardens there and thought it would be a perfect
time to see them in bloom. I was right!

A short video of Regent's Park--you'll see
black swans and herons along with some of the rose gardens.

And finally, the London Central Mosque has a nice view of the park.

:)

Erin visited for just over a week.

I showed her around London but we also went to Brussels and Amsterdam for three days.

LONDON SIGHTS

The British Museum

Piccadilly Circus

St. James' Park looking at Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey from the front (above) and side (below)

Victoria Tower (part of the Houses of Parliament)

Walking on the Thames Path toward Tower Bridge

The London Eye

Helpful reminders for everyone before crossing the streets.

No one can resist the phone booths.
(Unfortunately, we picked one that smelled like it had been used
as a toilet by homeless people.)

A classic--fish and chips.

WINDSOR CASTLE

While The Queen, Lizzie Windsor, was in the USA, we checked out one
of her modest abodes here in the UK.
Windsor is about 30 minutes outside of London by train.
The castle is over 900 years old.
The grounds are teeming fluffy-hat guards. Very threatening.

(We saw the Changing of the Guard at Windsor, but I'll be putting up the video another time.)

Visitors are allowed inside to see some of the rooms, but no photography is allowed.

BRUSSELS
We took the Eurostar train from London to Brussels.

The next several photos are of The Grand Place in the
city center of Brussels.
The plaza is surrounded by ornate guildhalls.

Fancy shopping plaza with glass ceiling.

Restaurant-lined lane

Famous Brussels monument--Manneken Pis.
(Look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis)

We enjoyed some delicious Belgian treats:
Chocolate

One of these, a couple of those...

Waffles

and beer, of course!

Waiting for the train to Amsterdam, hoping we get on the right one...

AMSTERDAM
Our first day in Amsterdam was rainy. :(

Dam Square

A good day for the museum.

And a good day for tasty sausage rolls, all warm and flaky!

Rather than get soaking wet exploring the whole city on foot, we took a canal boat tour.

I think living on a house boat would be swell.

Or maybe just staying in the Botel the next time I visit would suffice.

Some of the buildings are crooked because they're sinking!

Stroopwafels! This is what I think of them:

For our second day in Amsterdam, we...

experienced a little history


and took a bike tour.
(It rained a bit this day too, but special ponchos were provided.)

We were able to see a bit of the countryside on our bike tour.

Pete (or Piet?) was our guide. He is Canadian, but lives in Amsterdam.
He led us to a windmill.


This is our whole tour group.


We also stopped at a farm. They make their own cheese and wooden shoes.

It felt like I was at Dutch Village in Holland, MI, except this was real, not a theme park.

The farmers hand make about 5 varieties of cheese.

I sampled them all, naturally!

We were a bit disappointed about not seeing any tulip fields.
Guess I'll have to go back someday.