A Night in Bermondsey...

While staying at Thomas’ studio in Bermondsey, we took some long walks. One night we went to the Bermondsey Arts Club, which Jimmy had been to before but I had no idea what to expect.

Little did I know that it used to be a public restroom, but was converted to a cocktail bar in 2014.  

The bar was charming, but as a mixologist Jimmy was disappointed that the drinks were premixed. 

Rise Up Rhino

Afterwards we walked along Southbank and enjoyed seeing some more incredible sculptures by Gillie and Marc, who specialize in putting wildlife and conservation into their public art. 

The White Rhino was Thinking Ahead with Dogman’s Encouragement

The African Elephant Never Forgot What He Learned and Neither Did Rabbitwoman

They Were on a Wild Ride to a Safer Place with Rabbitwoman and Dogman 

This was the most impressive due to both the location and the interactive sculpture itself.

 

Our New Neighborhood...

When we stood on the deck of our new flat, we looked across at a pub in Rotherhithe that seemed familiar to us. Then it dawned on us that it was where Thomas ended his trail for London H3 in October while Jim was visiting from Berlin. 

Jimmy then remembered that I had taken a series of photos when we witnessed a cruise ship being turned around right in front us while standing on the pub’s patio. Little did I know that I was taking photos of our future flat in the smaller building just to the left of the tugboat. 

While we can’t see the Tower Bridge or all of The Shard from our new flat, this lovely view is less than a 10-minute walk away...

…and just a few minutes further away is St. Katharine Docks. You can expect that I’ll be posting lots of photos of similar views.

While there are five pubs in Wapping, three of them on the river, we have designated The Prospect of Whitby as our “local” not just because its the closest, but because we really like it.

We were rather shocked when we saw a noose hanging outside, but at least there’s a logical explanation. The pub was a favorite of The Hanging Judge, who regularly had pirates hung and eventually died himself in the Tower of London.

Not that this map covers our entire giant city, but you can see our new district on the far right along the northern bank of the Thames River.

Wapping Overground Station is just a five-minute walk from our flat and is connected to the Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel in the world built under a river for transportation. More on that later...

The platforms at Wapping Station are very narrow, but at least there are nice historic panels throughout.

 

Canary Wharf Winter Lights...

The following day we checked out our local Saturday market. It mostly consisted of food trucks/stalls with plenty of seating, which was convenient as we were in search for some lunch.

The market is along Shadwell Basin, a remnant of the historic London Docks...

….with nice views towards the City of London.

Later we walked to Canary Wharf, London’s financial district built in the early 1990s to replace much of the dilapidated London Docklands. 

Our goal was to visit the Winter Lights Festival. It wasn’t as impressive as Amsterdam’s Light Festival, but still entertaining.

We especially enjoyed walking through these long strands of changing colors.

This wasn’t actually part of the show, but some cool lighting that Jimmy spotted by one of the Tube stations. We had assumed we’d eat at one of the food halls, but they were too crowded. So we walked back to Wapping, arriving at 9pm, to learn that all of the five pubs close their kitchens at 9pm. And the Italian restaurant serves until 9:30pm, but was full. At least the local minimart was still open, resulting in our second dinner in our new flat being a baguette and hummus.  
 

Finally, Our Own Flat...

After four months of being a temporary employee in London, we were thrilled that Jimmy was offered a three-year contract starting on November 1. Thus it was finally time for me to start looking for a rental. After seeing quite a variety of properties, I knew instantly that this flat was perfect for us and we went straight from the viewing to sign the paperwork. We had to wait a long two months before it was available, but on January 26, we received the keys to our own place: a beautiful flat in Wapping, in East London between Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf. After a walk-through with the company responsible for inspecting the condition of the apartment, Jimmy headed back to work. 

We met back up later that afternoon to see our first sunset from our new patio on the 5th floor of a converted banana and tobacco warehouse. You can imagine how excited we were to find an apartment with such an incredible view. The tall buildings in this shot are in the area called Canada Water.

We can also see a bit of Canary Wharf, which looks like it’s across the river, but it actually also on the northern bank of the Thames, which is so curvy that it creates a lot of optical illusions with buildings seeming to change banks as you travel along the river.

It was especially exciting to see our view at night for the first time, which we celebrated with some bubbly...

…and a picnic dinner, which is our usual tradition when we move into a new place. We had considered sleeping on the floor, but Thomas said that would be silly since he’d be on a ski trip and we could easily stay at his place in nearby Bermondsey while waiting for our shipment to arrive on the 30th. We truly appreciated his generosity and the comfort of a bed. 

 

Too Long at Atlanta Airport...

After Marc cooked us an incredible breakfast, it was time to hit the road for our final segment: driving back to Atlanta Airport. Since we’ve had bad experiences with traffic and trying to find a gas station near the rental car return before, we built in a very long cushion which ended up meaning that we had nearly five hours to hang out in the airport after security. Despite forking out the big bucks for cocktails and an upscale Japanese restaurant, I can attest that having that much time in the airport sucked. 

Luckily everything went smoothly with our flight...

…and we arrived back as planned in London on January 25.

 

Last Stop on Our Whirlwind US Tour...

Our final stop was even further west, in Asheville, North Carolina to stay overnight with Marc, a dear buddy from our years in the Triangle who visited us twice in Holland.  

Our walking tour of his neighborhood began at this eclectic bar...

…where we enjoyed some high octane jello shots.

On our way to dinner, Jimmy couldn’t resist doing a little bit of juggling outside of a hostel. 

Poor Nigel had surgery that day and would be stuck as a conehead for several weeks. 

Marc’s house was charming. It was funny for me to see this sculpture on the wall as the last time I saw it was at his apartment in Washington, DC in 2009. Ashlynn had strangely woken up in the middle of the night, sat up and said something about the angel falling. It was quite a creepy experience for me; she didn’t remember it in the morning. We ended our evening in the hot tub. 
 

Another Family Visit...

After our excellent visit with many friends in the Triangle, it was time to head west. Our next stop was Burlington, North Carolina. It had been many years since we had last seen Jimmy’s Uncle Joe and Aunt Ann, and they were still living in Jacksonville at the time. After Joe retired, they decided it was time to move closer to their cousins, whom Jimmy and I hadn’t seen in nearly 30 years. 

Joe and Ann was as hospitable as ever and it was great catching up with them and their cousins.

Their house was lovely, backing up to some woods with regular visitors in their yard.