Snow day!

London had a good snowfall last night. It had been accurately forecast for several days so of course the entire city seized up. As usual. Showing a fine disregard for traditional British absenteeism we made our way into work - no trains, no buses, just enough tubes to get us there. Eventually. Of course it was a complete waste of time because no-one else bothered, so we were both home just after lunchtime and took the opportunity to go for a walk to the park.

Paul making his way out of the house

Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Prudential Building

The canal at Angel

Amy at the Canal

Cannonbury Square

Cabbage trees!

A couple of snowmen

Paul at Highbury Fields

A few shots from London in winter.

We’ve been London based for the past few weeks. While Paul had ventured outside the city for rugby, Amy can safely say she’s not been outside zone two on the tube (and in fact this weekend only left the postcode to go to Waitrose).

It’s been a chilly few weeks (and is snowing at the moment) which has proved to be ideal museum conditions and we’ve been to some great exhibitions: Byzantine, Babylon & Darwin.

Here’s a few photos taken in the hours of day light. Hope to post some more soon from warmer places!

A frozen fountain in Trafalgar Square

One evening at Picadilly Circus (Amy playing with her new camera)

The crew after a Sunday service at Westminster

Heading indoors for a birthday pub lunch for Jess

Paul outside Buckingham Palace

Amy's "to-do" list

It's only a small list consisting of 878 places... although between the two of us we've already done 65!  That's only 813 to go.....

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list

The land of Cheese & Chocolate

Last year, whoops... in 2007 when we were travelling through France for the RWC, in the Rue de Rugby Marseilles we met a blond man wearing a shirt saying "Maori Boy". MB was a Swiss guy who we are now good friends with. More importantly as MB is about to head to NZ to seek his fame and fortune before he left, we took the chance to visit him in his home town of Bern.

The famous Ogre fountain

View to the city

We had lots of fun over our few days in Bern seeing the historic city, checking out local culture (yodeling, Swiss German comedy and ice hockey), meeting the entire NZ ex-pat community (consisting of a Samon bloke and a 17 year old exchange student) and their Swiss rugby playing friends. We didn't go skiing but tried out ice-skating and sledging. Paul also got to catch up with an old uni friend which was an unexpected bonus.

Big thanks to MB for arranging such a busy and interesting time (and for keeping Amy supplied with cheese).

MB ice-skating

Amy and Paul not falling over

These guys were a little bit better than us

Paul checking the pitch

Amy not falling over (again)

Paul in Basel