Iceland

The stop after the Faroe Islands was Iceland.  We went to the Blue Lagoon and "swam" them for an afternoon.   The lagoon is a "dent" created by an old volcano and warmed by geothermal waters.  It also seemed to be heavily salty.  Anyone could float.  You just lift you feet up and float away.  There were stations with natural silica that you could put on your face or body (mostly the face) and was supposed to be a natural defoliant.  Anyhow it was like being in a huge hot tub with a thousand of your friends, well maybe hundreds.

We didn't do any walking around in town due to my husbands knee.  But I did take s few photos as we went thru town on our way to the lagoon.  Our tour guide was not kindly disposed towards Americans.  He kept mentioning that we never seem to leave.  I'm sorry that us spending our money there upset him so much.  Oh well.  Can't please everyone.

Here are the few photos I have.

Thru the bus window

 

The lava fields on both sides of the road going out to the lagoon.

Back to London.  I nearly forgot one of the stops in London.

Many of you know that I am an avid tea drinker and I am particular in my tastes.  My favorite two teas are Twinings and Lipton.

It turns out that Twinings has 3 shops in London and one of them was a tube stop on the way back to the hotel.   The directions were awful!  I went three different directions and a couple of miles out of my way to finally arrive.  It turned out to be about two blocks away.

Anyhow heres are some of the photos and across the street is the Royal Courts of Justice.  Gorgeous building!

Weymouth

One of the stops on the crusie was a place called Weymouth, England.   I took the shuttle into town and had a delightful afternoon shopping and walking.  The shuttle dropped us off at a park near the canal.

Lots of shops and cafes in this area, then you walk over the canal to get into the real downtown.

Much to my amazement, I found the 99 pence store.  Just like the dollar stores here at home.  I foun a fabric store which had some cross stitch in the wondow but it was closed (it was on a Sunday). So no stitching in these photos.

Weymouth is a seaside town.  One of the main streets had the beach on one side and B&Bs , one after another - basically town home/row home style.

Where it looks like the building changes, it is another B&B but the buildings are all attached to each other.  Lots of building styles.

At the end of this long, long row and the end of the beach before it turns, was this lovely church.

On the way back to the shuttle, I just had to get this photo.  I loved the name !

Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands were one of the different stops on the cruise.  It wasn't just the incident of the mast hitting the power line, it was just the wholeplace.   We stopped at the main port (but not the main town).  We took the shuttle bus into town.  From there we walked around a bit and took in  local craft show.  VERY tiny compared to what we have here in Indiana.  If there were 15 tables, I would be surprised.  Not much interesting except one table where the lady did absolutely beautiful lace work.  And she knew it and her prices reflected it.  It was gorgeous!

In the middle of  the main traffic circle was this tiny park/garden.  There was this interesting piece of "art".

 

What can I say??

 

The trip out of the port was gorgeous.  The islands are basically mountains formed by volcanoes.  Not much grows on them.  Great for raising sheep (which they do).

More Needlework in London and elsewhere (photo heavy)

I'll start with the elsewhere.  While I was watching a past episode of Project Runway. the designers were in Mood (fabric store) and two of them walked past this familiar carousel.  I promptly hit the rewind button and after a few attempts to stop in the right place - there it was again - a carousel of DMC floss!  What a pleasant surprise.

Day 2 of London found us at the National Potrait Gallery and St. Martin's-in-the-fields - basically across the street.  Both were fabulous places to visit.  The "crypt" of the church has been turned into a lunch place, shop and rooms for changing displays.  One of the display area was honoring the para-olymics which was happening while we were there.  Much to my delighted surprise, it was put on by the Emrodier's Guild.  All the stitched pieces were potcard size.  Each country particiapting in the games were represented.  There were several "postcards" for each country.  Each row, going down represents the country.  Here are a few.

 

I was dispappointed in Minnie Mouse representing the USA.  Not exactly how I would want my country to be thought of.  Nor do I think that Hoolywood truely represents us either. 

On board the ship, I did meet a very nice English lady who admitted that all she knew of America was what she read in mystery/crime novels. 

You never know where someone gets their viewpoint from.

 

The gift shop did sell brass rubbings already complete.  Here's the one I wanted which they were out of, as well as all my alternate choices as well.

 

And finally, here is the church itself.

(no idea who the guy is - he just had bad timing for me)

 

 

 

Day one of London - photo heavy

Today needs a title so if you want to skip photos of London and needlework.  Yes, I managed to find needlework in London without ever finding a shop selling it.

I'll start with St. Hallows Church - known to be the oldest surviving church.  They found a section of the Roman road in what is now the basement of the church.  There are sections of the basement that dated back to the early Saxons.   Part of the church was bombed during WW2 but rebuilt later.  So it is a real mix and match and yet it doesn't look it.  First photo is the back of the church.  Not sure what happen to one of the front.

St. Hallows Church was maybe a quarter mile from the hotel.  Turn one way, you go to the tube station and turn the other direction and cross the street, a beautiful church.

 

Yes, it is cross stitched. Excellent work!   Date unknown.

This is the only church that would let me photograph the kneelers and I still didn't get them all.  They are all hand done and were wonderful to look at.  This is an active (working) church, so you know these kneelers are being used.


As I said, the tube was almost right there from the hotel.  This is the view from the tube station before you went in.  This is the infamous Tower of London. 

I loved our tour of the Tower(s).  Yes, there are actually 20 towers within the grounds.  I'm quite willing to go back again since I didn't get to go into everything.  Hubby was just not up for walking very much.  Here are a few photos of the area.

 

Traitor's Gate

 

The Ravens

It's said that if the ravens ever leave, the tower will fall.  So they ensure the ravens are well cared for.

 

Our guide.

Beefeaters must have reached the rank of SgtMajor and served a minimum number of years (over 20) in the Royal Army before they can apply for a position.  They and their families live on the grounds.

 

The White Tower. 

The wooden stairs may be more recently built but the Kings have always had wooden stairs since King Richard had the tower built.  The idea was that the outstairs were "throw-away" in the case of an attack.  This is the oldest part of the overall Towers.

I had intended to post more often this week but things just kept getting in the way.

I had to make sure to get to my Wednesday stitching.  I needed to follow up on my fellow stitcher who discovered cancer why I was on vacation and then I wanted to check in on another friend who lost a cousin while on duty in Afgahnistan (those 9-11 killings tht the president doesn't think was a terrorist attack).  I'm crossing my fingers that this is it for tragedy with my stitching friends and yet, usually things come in threes.  So part of me is waiting for the other thing to occur.

Meanwhile on the home front, my husband finally admitted right before vacation that he has a knee problem (from his fall in February) and so we have seen the Dr and surgery is scheduled.  It should be a short recovery (hopefully).

I'm late again with my TUSAL.  THis time I have a special edition - the vacation TUSAL.

This is my travel ort container.  The ortshave now been transferred to my regualar ort collection.

And now for my actual vacation stitching:

The actual sttiching

The stitching with the charts.  This will is the 12 months Snaps from Bent Creek.  I decided to do a short and very wide piece.  I have a place where this will fit into the house and look good.  This was also a gift from a dear friend (thanks Marilyn).  All I need to do was supply floss. 

I took 3 projects on vaction and this is what won out.  Obviously I didn't do a lot of stitching but enough to keep me sane.   I did stitch on this twice since I've been home and another project (canvas).  This may turn out to be a travel piece since I have two more trips scheduled this year yet.