Spring has Sprung... Kind of

The first evidence of spring was out in full force this weekend... Hyde Park was bustling with people, Primrose Hill was aboslutely packed, and we actually got warm weather on Saturday. It's now rainy and cold again, but I have proof that the sun does shine in London:

Visitors!

We do love our visitors, and are currently enjoying spending time with Sara and Jeff, great friends (and loyal Bremer Blog readers) from San Francisco. They are completely impressing us with the sheer number of touristy activities that they've managed to fit into a couple days of sight-seeing. I'm hoping to get a full list (which I'll post here)... mainly so Ric and I know where to go! Special kudos to Jeff who spent a lot of time flipping through the Rick Steves London tour book and did a great job of coordinating full itineraries for their visit. I hope they spent a little time relaxing this afternoon in Hampstead, before leaving tomorrow for a few days in Paris.

I'll post a few pictures here of our weekend activities, which included enjoying London's one warm and sunny day, and wandering through Hyde Park where the tuplips are in full bloom.

In the meantime, here are some great photos from our last vistor's trip to London - my dad! He got great shots of Hampstead, and of course, the pubs...

Hampstead: http://www.flickr.com/gp/22007114@N05/d41tn4

Pubs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22007114@N05/sets/72157604767465519

ENJOY!

Salman Rushdie

Just wanted to put in a plug for Salman Rushdie's new historic novel - The Enchantress of Florence. We saw him speak on Sunday night and it was extremely interesting and entertaining. He's one of the most well spoken people I've ever heard and is amazing at distilling huge concepts (like religion and freedom of speech) into concise statements.

This novel sounds different than his previous ones, but intriguing all the same. Our copy just arrived from Amazon, and I'm guessing it will take a fair amount of time to get through. But once Ric or I finishes it, we'll let you know what we thought (I can't imagine we'll be anything but impressed).

On the topic of books, here are a few that we've read lately and really enjoyed... let me know what your current favorites are!

Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight - the true story of an African childhood

Charlie Wilson's War - Ric said the book was amazing, and it sounds like it was even better than the movie

Inheritance of Loss - a Booker prize winner and amazing story about a family and a house in the Himalayas. Great characters

God of Small Things - another Booker prize winner. Really unique writing style, very lyrical

Half of a Yellow Sun - Ric just finished this and loved it. The story is set in Africa and is told through the eyes of three different characters

And if you haven't read it yet, Ric and I both really liked A Thousand Splendid Suns, the second novel from the writer who did The Kite Runner.

Enjoy!!

Weather

For the first 9 or 10 months of living in London, I didn't think the weather was that bad. Sure, it rained almost every single day in June and July. And yes, the temperatures were in the 40s and 50s during what was supposed to be summer. But we were coming from San Francisco, which isn't much different. And the winter months weren't that bad... it got cold, but it was winter, it's supposed to be cold! And it didn't rain much, so we just bundled up and enjoyed the changing of the seasons, the festive holiday lights, the warm fires in the pub. Well, now it's April, and we're getting rain and cold. And snow (on Saturday). And hail (which just stopped a couple minutes ago). It was in the 70s in Cape Town when we were there, Amanda said it was 79 in Atlanta, and mom reported a comfortable 75 and sunny from Charlottesville. So now that it seems like the rest of the world is enjoying the beginnings of spring, it's getting harder and harder to put on the heavy winter coat, then grab the scarf, the earmuffs, the gloves, and the umbrella, all before heading out. I'm not quite as upbeat about the weather these days, but I guess that just makes me a true Londoner!

In other news, we're going to see Salman Rushdie speak about his new book - The Enchantress of Florence on Sunday. Here's a review in the Times Online. That, plus dinner on Saturday is all we have planned, so looking forward to a little R&R...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Long time no see

Wow, it's been almost four weeks since the Bremer blog was last updated. I hope we're not losing our loyal fan base and apologize for the silence... Ric and I emailed or spoke with most of you after returning from Africa, so I thought a full update on the blog might be a little redundant. And then my dad came to London for a visit and that has certainly kept us busy! He had a fun trip and even managed to see snow on Saturday (the most snowfall London has seen in April in 20 years). According to him, however, the biggest accomplishment was hitting every single pub in Hampstead. Followed only by seeing the Olympic torch (and the associated protests) almost by accident. We literally came out of the tube at Parliament, our intended sightseeing target, and found out from one of the hundreds of police officers that the torch was passing in 20 minutes. No more than 5 minutes later, we saw it coming with a huge crowd of protesters huddled around and following behind. I was shocked that people were allowed to get so close. It was certainly an interesting sight and a little sad that the running of the torch and the Olympic athletes were completely overshadowed by political protests.

We have a pretty quiet weekend planned, yay, and then head off to Stockholm next Friday.

Hope everyone is doing well!