Across the Pond

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After a wild ride out of Toronto, we’re safely settled in London.  The first hour and a half of the flight were as bumpy as I’ve ever experienced- just like you would expect for a flight minutes ahead of the storm.  (Toronto fared fairly well, considering the terrible damage done other places. There are many trees down, and some flooding, and lots of wet basements (including ours, but we were anticipating that) and many folks without power, but overall it looks like we got off easy.)

Once we were clear of Sandy, the rest of the flight was uneventful, if you don’t count Joe knocking a pudding onto me at 3am, and I’m sure he would rather we didn’t count that – and before we knew it we had arrived.  So far, all we’ve really done is navigate the tube and have dinner with family, but that’s no small accomplishment.



Today’s our day of adventure in London.  The weather looks fair – we’ve got our Oyster cards for the tube, and we’re going to see everything.

97 thoughts on “Across the Pond”

  2. Congratulations, you have make it this far.
    Sally forth and have adventures. (the link of the Toronto photos were great)

  3. We also just arrived in Europe (Rome) and are having a great time. Weather not as good as London but still an adventure. Tired. Enjoy!

  4. Woohoo! Hope you enjoy London – there are some fabulous sights to see, and lovely places to go – galleries, cafes, LYS…. you might want to look at Jane Brocket’s yarnstorm blog (if you dont already – for all I know, you are staying with her!), she regularly reviews cafes and cakes in the capital. Enjoy, enjoy. How lovely to have you this side of the pond – maybe next time we can entice you to Edinburgh?!

  5. Welcome to London! I’m looking out of my office window at St Pancras and it looks like a bright lovely day 🙂

  6. have a great time. and if you ever feel really adventurous, come to australia with the family. we have lots of warm right when you are reallly cold

  7. Glad you made it out! The invitation to the south of Portugal still stands (there are some really cheap flights from England (I’ve seen them as low as 15 euros)to Faro. No snow, sweater weather and still lots of flowers… Just saying….

  8. Welcome to London. It’s so funny that you posted a pic of Tooting Broadway tube. I used to live in Balham and passed through that station everyday on the way to school. I can’t tell you how much we would love it if you were speaking/teaching here. But as you are not working, I hope you have a fabulous time in the best city in the world! (biased, sorry)

  9. And your Oyster card will work on buses too–a good rest while you survey London sights when you get tired of walking and walking, which is our favourite way to get around.

  10. Welcome. It’s good to have you here. And I hope we haven’t used up all our friendliness on the Olympics!

  11. Welcome to the UK – hope you have a wonderful time and discover many fabulous fibres….

  15. I adore London–go to the theater, if you can. It is always a highlight. And happy walking in the parks, and the British Museum, and all the fun touristy places. Hampton Court was really fascinating. I want to go back in the worst way!

  17. Welcome to England :o) And a fact for you about the Northern line when going southbound, just get on the first one that comes, even if it terminates at Kennington :o)

  19. I want to know what pudding it was that fell on you?? Treacle pudding would have been nice…….

  21. Have a good time! My favourite thing to do in London is look up above the shopfronts (usually dull as ditchwater) to see the buildings above – there’s marvellous variety.

  22. Here’s hoping I run into you on the underground and if I do (consider it a warning) some Harlot-Kinnearing might happen! Enjoy your day!

  25. Glad you got here safely. Enjoy the trip, even though the weather isn’t fantastic at the moment.
    One of my grandaughters is on a school trip in NY (since Saturday morning)!!!!! (from the UK). They are staying in a Youth hostel near Central Park and are all fine apart from not being able to go out for a couple of days. A holiday to remember!!!!! and I feel for the teachers with them. Next task is to get them home…Supposedly by Friday morning!!!
    Greenwich is a good place to go…get there by river (up, or is it down the Thames?)
    Lol just read the date on your message. Hope you are having a great day. Its raining a bit here (in Amersham……end of the Met Line on the underground!!!) but not too cold.!!!

  28. Welcome to England (sorry it’s raining but that’s not been unusual this year) – hope you have a lovely time…enjoy the fireworks (5th Nov officially, but lots this weekend)
    if you visit the London Eye then you might want to check out IKnit which is round the back of Waterloo Station in Lower Marsh Street.

  30. What a wonderful surprise to see London on your blog. Are you going to be anywhere we can pop in and see you?
    Please have a wonderful time!!

  31. Welcome to London!! I have only been here a little over a year but I have really fallen in love! There is history at every turn & I agree with “Awfulknitter”, look up there are little architectural gems everywhere.
    Even though I hope you have a wonderful holiday I am so sad that you are not doing an event as it would be lovely to hear your knitting wisdom & witticisms in person.
    Have a great time
    Lush
    London now, originally Sydney, Australia

  33. Enjoy London! England is one of my favourite places to travel! I still have my Oyster card (and I haven’t been there since 2008!)

  34. I love London! The most unexpected treasure we discovered when we visited is The Mews. It was fascinating and fun. Ask questions every where you go, the attendants are fantastic at all the attractions and we learned more from them than the tour guides and audio tour guides

  37. I took a picture of Tooting Broadway, too, when I was in London. Are we childish on this side of the water or what?? 😀

  39. Welcome to London from me too! If you are doing any events please do let us know – I’m pretty sure it would be a sell-out.

  42. Be sure to tour the tower of London — too fun and see Agatha Christie’s play, “Mousetrap” — fabulous, and wander through Harrods, and visit Windsor Castle and when you stop to eat, it MUST be at the Cinnamon Bar — best Indian food in London!!

  43. If you are a fiber nut which I think you are – don’t miss the V&A. The knitted pieces are fantastic and when I was there the library was open so you could get up close and personal with the embroidery, knitting and fabric dating back to the 14th century!!!

  44. Hey Stephanie….looks like you’ve got a HUGE
    ‘fan club’ across the pond toooo!!! HAVE FUN!…(:

  46. London! The Tube was my fave part and that Oyster card can’t be beat for getting around. Did you know that the British Museum is FREE? Such a deal. We stayed down Craven Hill from Paddington Station (and Tube stop) and ate a couple times in Ask! an industrial deco Italian restaurant just past the Charles Dickens pub. Faburlous food. Enjoy.

  49. Welcome to London. You have loads of fans here as you can see. If you have time visit Loop knitting shop, it’s gorgeous. But of course you would have the scoop on all of the lovely places to go. Enjoy your stay.

  51. Welcome to London. If you make it to Greenwich you can use your oyster card on the cable car across the Thames too. Also if you want to stand in the rain and NOT get wet go the the exhibition at the Barbican!

  52. Enjoy London. I loved the pictures of the tube station. My husband’s family lives in Vauxhall and I’ve been to Tooting. Have a great visit and wedding with your family.

  53. Welcome to England! I came to see you at IKnit in London a few years ago – that was a lot of fun. Enjoy your trip and take home some happy memories 🙂

  54. I’m pea-green with jealousy–the best “Halloween treat” of all–to be in my favorite city! Spent a term there Freshman year of college, & would move then in a misnute once I win the lotto!

  55. I love London so much!!! I look forward to seeing your adventures. Have a great time, and enjoy everything!

  58. We took a family vacation to London last summer and loved it! Check out Foyle’s Bookstore (nearby to the British Museum). Huge and incredibly well stocked.

  59. Wow! You’re in England – let me add my own welcome. I always have a lovely time when I’m in London – I do hope that you do too! I too saw you at Iknit some years ago. x

  60. My all-time favorite London place name remains All Hallows Barking.
    I think it’s a church near the Tower.
    Paternoster Row is of course a close second, but there’s hardly anything left of it now.

  61. Have fun! London is one of my favorite places. I’ve been 3 times and still have a long list of things to see..

  65. Welcome on our side of the big pond, and enjoy fabulous London. My personal favourite: Afternoon tea in the Royal Portrait Gallery. Great view, great service, great tea and geat scones! 🙂

  68. Welcome to the UK! I’m coming to London (my home town) next week, will keep an eye out for any recommendations on here… Have a great stay!

  69. OMG, I am dying of squee – you are totally in my ‘hood! If you have time, you should check out the Sewing & Craft Superstore at Tooting Bec tube station – it’s my lys and it’s lovely 😀

  73. Yay, you made it! So glad your flight was able to get out – now have a fabulous time in England!

  74. Oh, London! We were SO lucky to visit London about seven years ago and had the most wonderful time. So much to see, so much to do, and the tube runs exactly on schedule ALL the time. Have a marvelous visit!

  75. I’m glad you’re safe! 🙂 (I heard about the dammage in Toronto, and when I heard about the woman that was killed by a billboard a part of my mind thought about you, but it’s good to know that you are safe.)

  76. I just got back from London yesterday! It was amazing. Glad to hear you got the Oyster Card first thing. We got completely bamboozled taking a cab from the airport to our hotel. It was bad. Like, I don’t even want to say how much it cost kind of bad. I highly recommend taking some of the back streets between locations. We found some of the most friendly and delicious pubs and restaurants just a block or two off the main roads in some of the loveliest little squares. Enjoy the UK!

  77. Somehow, “Tooting Broadway” sounds more like a possibly dangerous habit than a tube stop, but, OK, have it your way. 🙂 Have a marvellous time.

  81. I loved my Oyster card – still have the last one I purchased. A stunning world capitol. Have a grand time!

  82. Welcome to town! Are you going to Loop or iKnit on your travels? Either way have a fabulous time x

  85. Welcome to the UK, I hope you enjoy the crappetty weather and find much yarn. Gotta say though, dude I just finished uni in London, and moved back home to Suffolk, you should come to Suffolk so I can go harlot hunting in the wild! We have one good yarn shop.
    Also do you not think London should have better/ more yarn shops?
    I am knitting my IKnitLondon sock yarn and wishing you happy tubing and few muggings 😀 x

  86. I hope your day of adventure is everything you could dream it to be (at least the good things. If you are like me at all, then it is pretty easy to think of bad things that could happen too). I am so glad that there are knitters all over the world. It is how I can vicariously travel to distant places that I might never get to see in person.

  87. Welcome to London, Stephanie! I hope you have a lovely time. It’s a pity you’ve missed the Knit & Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace – lots of lovely British yarns including Jamiesons & Smith and UK Alpaca – but iKnit London stock quite a few. And, if you’re staying in Tooting, you’re only 10 miles or so from Mrs Moon in Twickenham. Of course, there’s always Loop. Hope you get some time to buy some yarnie goodness.

  88. Isn’t it Joe’s birthday today? Hope you all have a wonderful time and that Joe enjoys his day (which is pretty much over by now…as I recall, London is 9 hours ahead of us. Well, me, anyway. I’m in B.C.)

  89. Oooh Tooting Broadway, just up the road from me. Hope you have a great stay, and please consider running a knitting camp in this country – you’d sell out very quickly!

  90. Have a lovely time in the UK! I got the biggest laugh a couple of days ago, watching the ‘pilot’ of the old series ‘Little House on the Prairie’, and thought of you – in one scene, Mrs. Ingalls is sitting at a spinning wheel, supposedly spinning. The wheel is whirling, she’s treadling away, her hands are very busy — but what she’s actually doing is pulling FINISHED YARN off (yes, OFF!) the bobbin, and flinging yard after yard of it BEHIND her, presumably into a heap on the floor. I don’t spin (yet), and even I know that’s not really how it’s done!

  91. May I be jealous? We just got back from Taiwan. NO YARN THERE AT ALL!!! Plus, HUGE language barrier! Plus: Great weather on the island!

  92. Be safe. Be sure to leave before Christmas. I’ve heard strange things happen in London each year around that time. However, if a man in a blue phone box shows up, it’ll be ok, you can trust him. 🙂

  94. Whilst in London, should you see an LDS missionary by the name of Harry Larsen, say hello and be extra kind! He is far from home, is my little brother and he has a fondness for knitters!

  95. Oh! Have a great time Steph. We love London. Been there twice. LOVE the tube! Try to go to see some plays. National Theatre is amazing. The London Eye is a fun way to view the area too. So jealous. Report back on any yarn shops please!
    Deb

  97. Don’t forget to check the textile collection at the Victoria and Albert (also a good place to have lunch).

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