New York City as seen coming from Washington DC on my return flight from London
Wishing everyone (even the farbissine misnagdim out there) a good Shabbos.
As a side note - this post is post 900!
Technorati Tags: New York City, Airplanes, Photography, Travel, Picture of the Week
Click on the link for photos from Chief P's wonderful wedding, and more!
Though seeing London was a joy, and worth a trip in and unto itself, the main purpose for the trip was to rejoice at the marriage of my dear friend, The Chief.
The wedding, way out in Watford, was truly a blast!
Various members of the London Lubavitcher community
Though I came as a surprise guest, I was surprised with a brocha under the Chupa
Following the chupa there was a very British style buffet reception of various smelly fishes and fruit . . .
Followed by the dancing!
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The Cehvra: Chatzkel, Yossi, Chief, Dear Dan and one Mottel
Yossi sings!
The breaking of the fellowship
After the wedding we spent some time going to Dear Dan's old mivtzoyim route from his days in London, visiting various people to put tefillin on with them.
While neading back to North London, we made a stop at Abbey Road . . .
V'dal
For Shevuos we went to Manchester.
To my surprise and pleasure, I would find out that our host H. (who along with his wife is a most amazing machnis orchim!) had been following my blog since the early days in Poland!
In the bus station
Stay tuned for the fourth and final installment of the Legendary London Trip!
Technorati Tags: London, England, Weddings, Manchester, Blogging, Abbey Road, Mivtzoyim, Photogrraphy, Travel
Tower Bridge
For continued photos and experiences from the Legendary London trip, click on the link!
Through all of my travels I have become somewhat of a power traveler. Despite a general 'lazy' aspect of my "home base" personality, when I'm on the road, I run nearly non-stop - trying to take in every thing at hand.
The Warszawa Chevra, those seasoned few that traveled across Eastern Europe, the Former Soviet Union, across Socialist (I mean Wester) Europe and beyond, were all able to do it.
Not everyone else can handle the break neck speeds and constant picture taking of my traveling.
Thus I did not see the inside of the Tower of London . . . nor the British Museum.
But that's another story.
Tower of London
Thirsting for something cold, we stopped by a Starbucks conveniently located next to the tower.
I've been to Starbucks often enough to figure out their wacky cup sizes for ordering (Tall, Grande, Venti) . . . But it would seem the either Starbucks has not caught on in London (perhaps something to be thankful for) to the extent that even the baristas don't know what a doppio on ice in a grande cup, or the staff there was completely out to lunch.
Dear Dan and Yossi schmoozing over empty cups.
Detail from the Middle Tower
Memorial for the Merchant Seamen and Naval officers drowned at sea
From there we went off to Canary Wharf. Though a yeshivah student had raged about the place, it seemed that beyond a few sky scrapers, there wasn't all that much happening there.
Camden town swarming with weirdos and stands selling chachkas was much like my own Los Angeles's Melrose . . . and thus full of Israelis.
With Shachar
A Polish Store . . . oh the memories
Zonked after traveling
The next day, before the Grand Wedding of the Chief, we made a short trip to near by Hampstead.
Milk at the door
The Willow House
The Sundial House (I loved how every house had a plaque on it naming after some distinguishing mark)
Stay tuned for the next post: The Grand Wedding of the Chief!
Technorati Tags: London, England, Hampstead, Starbucks, Travel, Photography
This post is long in the making . . . over a month.
So let's not waste time - click on the link and enjoy the pithy comments a wonderful pictures of
My Last Trip Abroad (before marriage) to London!
My grandmother was born in London, and her persona, as engraved in my childish mind, was one marked with all things British . . . So I've always felt a connection to the country.
Yet, save a five hour layover in Heathrow on my way to Gan Yisroel Lithuania - Rimini, I've never been there.
So when my dear friend and partner in arms, the inimitable Chief of Staff, Mendel got married in London . . . despite it's close proximity to my own wedding (I'd ultimately return six days before my own) . . . I grabbed one of the 340 dollar tickets floating around the interwebs and along with Dear Dan (of Colorado Springs Two and a Half Rabbis fame) set off for one final adventure abroad before tying the knot (of the gartle that is . . )
Mind the Gap
The first day in London, brimming with excitement, I grabbed my Kasket, my brand new Leica D-Lux 3 camera (a wedding present fun di heilige Mama), and with Dear Dan and Yossi in tow, began to cross the street. Walking past an elderly lady, we stopped on the parkway in the middle of the street for the (backwards) traffic to clear.
As I stood by the light, the elderly walked over to my side and, with a stern look of annoyance in her eyes, declared in the Queen's English
"How rude! Don't they teach you any manners in the Yeshivah?"
With a huff she then preceded to walk off, leaving me none the wiser to what I had done to so greatly offend her.
So be it, we bought a Oyster Card, the charge card used for metro transit in the buses and the Tube, and set off.
Buckingham Palace: Home of the Hassids
Our first stop was by the palace . . . 
O Canada, our home and native land!
The sorta changing of the guards . . . on the days that they don't change the guards
Chldren by the gate
For some reason, people by the Palace felt that it wasn't enough to have their picture taken in front of the home of the sovereign monarch of the British Common Wealth . . . No they needed their picture taken in front of the home of the sovereign monarch of the British Common Wealth with Hassids.
First a large Russian man came over to us and asked to take his picture with us . . . fine.
When he was done, he said,
"Fank You" in such a way that it was hard to tell if was saying Thank you with an 'F', or something else with an 'N' . . .
Next was the Italian man who wanted to take his picture with Dear Dan . . . Yossi got one for our own record as well.
Then, as seen in the striped shirt in the right hand corner of the picture with the Italian, two Israelis decided that they needed a photo Im HaDosim. So they two got a picture.
As we were walking away from the palace, we were pulled over by one final group . . . from Indonesia (near East Timor to be exact).
They too needed their Hassid photo . . . 
Yossi in front of the Grand Australian gate
A reminder to the tourists not to be run over by cars
Walking around, I noticed that on literally every street corner there was a surveillance camera recording our nearly every move - serving as the first of several reminders that London is one of the least private cities in the world.
Famous red phone booths - no tourist can return to his native land with out photographing one . . 
Asking a cop for directions "You're going to Watford, out in Hertfordshire? Quite nice. Now to get to the London Eye, uou're going to go strait ahead. Not left, not right . . . strait ahead."
10 Downing Street - home of the PM
After a local marathon . . .
The London Eye
The Eye with Big Ben and Parliament over the other side of the River Thames.
Street performers 
The London Eye and the Sun
From the Salvidore Dali museum that kicked me cruelly out for trying to take a picture with a statue of melting clocks.
Big Ben
Here ends part one of the Great trip . . . stay tuned for more!
Technorati Tags: London, England, Travel, Photography, Cameras, Marriage
In years past, when traveling abroad on Merkos Shlichus, I wrote for Chabad.org's Roving Rabbis blog.
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| Oh joy! I remember last year's Roving Rabbis blog and can't wait for this year's edition! Is that Chanan character going to blog again? And what about the Lightstone dude? Posted By Sammy Ekole | |||
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