What a surprise - our day with the Rizzardos
Today was our big day to tour London and see what we could. That plan lasted until about 830am (all had a good night's sleep - Alyssa a full 16 hours!).
At 830am I received a call from our cousin Anna Rizzardo who lives here in London - we had planned to talk around 9am today to plan when to visit (Anna's dad and my dad our second cousins or something - my grandfather and Anna's great grandfather may have been siblings. I was understanding most of what I heard). Where was I... oh yes, Anna called with a big surprise! Her parents were here in London and they all wished to spend the day with us.
The great thing is Anna lives just a few stops away from our hotel here in Greenwich - she lives in the Canary Wharf area. So we put Operation Get Fast Breakfast into play and my parents learned what it is like to grab breakfast on the run London underground style (I am sure my mom was not too happy with the plan, but she is pretty easy going).
The Canary Wharf train/underground station is amazing - a few train platforms within a high end mall (shops ranged from expensive to crazy) - but within this shopping mecca is the pulse of the financial heart that Canary Wharf has become. Formerly the port of London and home of the dregs of London society - this area has been dramatically revitalized and is now a major financial center for London and includes One Canada Center which was at one point the tallest building in the UK and possibly Europe. So the need for a train center to be more than just a train center is key and besides blowing your life's savings on bling, suits named after guys with two first names, french perfume, and Italian sports cars is mixed in vital businesses like restaurants, markets, and coffee shops. All with one goal...feed the mobile masses. I was quite happy with my breakfast - a prosciutto, provolone, and tomato sandwich grilled to go. The kids ate fruit. Maria was happy because she found chocolate milk. I don't know what my parents ate, but they were happy.
Meanwhile, the Rizzardo family arrived - Anna was with her fiancee, her parents, and her parents' friends. It was a huge family reunion/meeting among the glamour of Canary Wharf. Luckily they wanted to do the same as us - go see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace and who knows from there. So off we went with two "locals" and made our way to the Palace.
By the way, I am currently using photos that Alyssa took with her camera so you get what you get.
Here are some other photos Alyssa took while we were watching the guards change.
After the guards, which honestly was kind of boring because we were not right up front at the gates to the palace, so we could only see them go in and out and there was a lot of things we could not see for about 35 minutes. ... anyway, after the guards, we all split up. Dad and I went with the guys (cousin to cousin) to see the Cabinet War Rooms (another London must see) and then had a great lunch at a pub not far from Trafalgar Square and Admiralty Arch while the ladies went shopping and on the tour bus around the city. Lunch was great because we had a good 2 hours learning more and more about the Rizzardos - at least as much as we understood in Italian. The girls are just now got back to our room so I am currently getting the down load. I'm getting version from each girl, Jule, ... this is kind of interesting.
Scenes from London:
Well that is all for now. We promised the Rizzardos we would meet for dinner at 7pm and that is just 30 minutes from now. We'll see Anna's parents again in a week while in Italy. So this is great to see them twice in one trip. What an amazing time today!
At 830am I received a call from our cousin Anna Rizzardo who lives here in London - we had planned to talk around 9am today to plan when to visit (Anna's dad and my dad our second cousins or something - my grandfather and Anna's great grandfather may have been siblings. I was understanding most of what I heard). Where was I... oh yes, Anna called with a big surprise! Her parents were here in London and they all wished to spend the day with us.
The great thing is Anna lives just a few stops away from our hotel here in Greenwich - she lives in the Canary Wharf area. So we put Operation Get Fast Breakfast into play and my parents learned what it is like to grab breakfast on the run London underground style (I am sure my mom was not too happy with the plan, but she is pretty easy going).
The Canary Wharf train/underground station is amazing - a few train platforms within a high end mall (shops ranged from expensive to crazy) - but within this shopping mecca is the pulse of the financial heart that Canary Wharf has become. Formerly the port of London and home of the dregs of London society - this area has been dramatically revitalized and is now a major financial center for London and includes One Canada Center which was at one point the tallest building in the UK and possibly Europe. So the need for a train center to be more than just a train center is key and besides blowing your life's savings on bling, suits named after guys with two first names, french perfume, and Italian sports cars is mixed in vital businesses like restaurants, markets, and coffee shops. All with one goal...feed the mobile masses. I was quite happy with my breakfast - a prosciutto, provolone, and tomato sandwich grilled to go. The kids ate fruit. Maria was happy because she found chocolate milk. I don't know what my parents ate, but they were happy.
Meanwhile, the Rizzardo family arrived - Anna was with her fiancee, her parents, and her parents' friends. It was a huge family reunion/meeting among the glamour of Canary Wharf. Luckily they wanted to do the same as us - go see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace and who knows from there. So off we went with two "locals" and made our way to the Palace.
By the way, I am currently using photos that Alyssa took with her camera so you get what you get.
Here are some other photos Alyssa took while we were watching the guards change.
After the guards, which honestly was kind of boring because we were not right up front at the gates to the palace, so we could only see them go in and out and there was a lot of things we could not see for about 35 minutes. ... anyway, after the guards, we all split up. Dad and I went with the guys (cousin to cousin) to see the Cabinet War Rooms (another London must see) and then had a great lunch at a pub not far from Trafalgar Square and Admiralty Arch while the ladies went shopping and on the tour bus around the city. Lunch was great because we had a good 2 hours learning more and more about the Rizzardos - at least as much as we understood in Italian. The girls are just now got back to our room so I am currently getting the down load. I'm getting version from each girl, Jule, ... this is kind of interesting.
Scenes from London:
Well that is all for now. We promised the Rizzardos we would meet for dinner at 7pm and that is just 30 minutes from now. We'll see Anna's parents again in a week while in Italy. So this is great to see them twice in one trip. What an amazing time today!
Comments
Post a Comment