A stroll through London with family

So this weekend we had a few visitors in London. Annelies' aunt Hilde (sister of Herman) and cousin Els (daughter of Herman's oldest sister Mita) came to London for a few days of fun, exploration, to catch a museum, and perhaps see a play or two.

We met up with them on Sunday afternoon near Russell Square and headed over to a restaurant in the Covent Garden area called Navajo Joe's. The restaurant was relaxed and with a modern vibe; the style was a fine combination of Native American meets Morocco (or so I think since I haven't quite been there yet :) ). Pretty decent food as well! Then we took a bit of a walking tour through London, criss-crossing the Thames a few times while checking out the important sites such as Parliament/Big Ben, the MI5 building (Scotland Yard), St. James Park, and Trafalgar Square.

All that walking ended up taking it's toll, so we stopped at a nice little pub in Leicester Square for a small pit stop. We rounded out the walking tour of London by taking a stroll through Chinatown. Annelies and I like to go shopping at some of the Chinatown markets; you can find very interesting food (well, from our Western perspective) including squid, fishballs (think meatballs), dim sum, tofu, seaweed, and even some sake. Some of the restaurants have their wares on display in the window - marinated short ribs, squid, and duck just waiting to go home with you too!

It was a nice trip and we're glad that Hilde and Els looked us up. As it turns out, we found out that Hilde is a regular fan of the blog (glad to know that it's read once in a while!) and she now gets to make a guest appearance :)

This week we're off to Morocco for 5 days over the Easter holiday (here in the UK the Friday before and the Monday after Easter are bank holidays). We've been advised to brush up on our French language, general haggling/negotiation skills with street vendors, and tune up the cameras. Right after we get back, Jason is off to Los Angeles for one week to work in the Shopzilla LA offices; Annelies is heading up to Birmingham next week for the BSAVA - "the biggest veterinary conference in Europe".

We hope that everyone else is doing well and hope to hear from you (or see you) soon! Take care,

-Jason & Annelies