London / Getting Our Tourist On Pt. 3

Closing up on our day as London tourists, we went over towards Green Park, Dover Street specifically. As one can imagine, being located just behind Regent Street and Savile Row means it's still a pretty posh area and is full of several high end flagships. 

Of course, with high end shops come high end cars too! This Infinit FX is in fact the limited Vettel edition. Of course, not everyone in the car community was impressed by it, and the staggering price tag of £100k ($160,000!!) certainly didn't help. Is it really worth $60k more than a new Range Rover that's more powerful, more capable, has more features, and holds higher "brand prestige"? Good thing it was limited to just 200 examples...

I'm a big fan of the Sebastian who races for RedBull, just not this one.

Gettin' that Quattro love set in early.

Finally! The first proper classic car I've shot while in the city. I mean, who wouldn't want to take a pic of an XKE? It's just one of those cars everyone can agree on being so pretty. Even Ferrari's proud and egotistical founder Enzo Ferrari was a fan of the Jag, quoted famously by calling it "The most beautiful car ever made". 

I would have shot more pics of it and done a spotlight on it if the rather grouchy-looking owner wasn't sitting in it glaring at me. Be happy man! You have a great car!

BMW's Grand Coupes seem to be a hit over here. I see more of the 4 door variants than the traditional 2 door coupes. Personally, I'd take any version. I'm a big fan of this gen 6er. 

Ok, last car pic. Never cared much about 80s/90s Bentleys (Sorry Jay-Z) but then again I rarely spot them in perfect condition like this. Knowing you can pic one up used for around $20k back home, it's something one can consider for having a timeless luxury car. Gotta be in a dark color though, bright colors make it look a little cheesy IMO. 

AKIRA!!!!  The front pillars of Dover Street Market, which was an interesting boutique to say the least. Unfortunately they were pretty strict with the photography inside, so no pics of that. Afterwards we headed to Regent Street to visit one more shop for Michelle's class project. 

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Michelle with a few of her classmates.

London / Getting Our Tourist On Pt. 2

Picking up from the last post, we continue our day as tourists. As it would turn out, we couldn't have picked a more appropriate day for our next stop. 

Buckingham Palace! So turns out it was Veteran's Day, but unfortunately we arrived too late to see the parade they had here only an hour or so before we arrived. At this point, the queen was already tucked back into her corgi-filled manor, but there were still several military groups out to pay respects to V-Day. 

Pretty snazzy gates they have here. 

First time we saw these guys and they're as funny to see in person as they are in pictures and cartoons. They all looked so pissed off, though I would be too if I were forced to march around in those hats. 

Pretty day, pretty place. All for the queen of course. 

More fancy gates, thanks to...  Canada?

After a peaceful stroll through the park, we unknowingly made our way over to one of the WWII Veterans memorials. 

As we left the memorials, there was a nearby Vespa meet! It seemed like they're were mostly ridden by older Veterans as most of them were sporting their badges from service on their coats.  Some of them were pretty accessorized out, I think there was a contest to see who can put the most amount of lights on their scooters. 

London / Getting Our Tourist On Pt. 1

I woke up this Sunday around 7:30 and as soon as I saw the weather for today, I knew we had to take advantage of it. Early Sunday mornings are clearly Michelle's favorites. 

Despite the fact we've been here for over a month, we actually rarely see the Thames, mostly because we rarely have a reason to go near it. Today though, we planned on playing tourist and hitting some of the major attractions London has to offer. Stop 1; Tower Bridges. Cool battleship though, yeah?

The weather was a little chilly, but otherwise perfect.  

On our way, we swung by the Tower of London, an old castle that houses the crown jewels. Unfortunately, we had to meet with some of Michelle's classmates around 2, so we didn't have time to check it out. 

Perfect place to just relax and stroll on a day like this. 

And here it is! Fortunately, it's a lot easier to walk on than the Golden Gate. 

This building, the Leadenhall Building is a little crazy. Standing far above every other building in the area, I can't compare to the few other skyscrapers in London but it looks like it'll be the new tallest building once complete. 

Neat ferries, they look like they could go a lot faster than what they were doing though.  

Of course....

Yeah, it's a real drawbridge. A little unsettling how big the gap was.  

Guess where we're going next? 

London / Victoria & Albert Museum

After the walk through Holland Park, we headed over to a nearby art museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum. One of the great bonus's of England is that most of their museums are free, so there's really very little excuse for not going to one!

The museum housed mostly older, classic art, but there were still a couple of cool newer pieces, like these lights "pouring" in through the ceiling. 

"Back off! She my woman!!" 

Lots of religious art housed here.

Jesus! Have some decency!  

This room was pretty incredible. Those pillars were absolutely immense, the largest easily over 120 feet tall with a spiraling sculptures around it. 

Now THAT'S a beer mug.  

Some kickass crossbows...

...as well as some real medieval suits of armor. Interestingly, the REAL suits that were used are actually quite flexible and didn't hinder the soldier's movements, countering how hollywood often depicts them. 

Car Spotlight / Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3

A V12 powered Aston Martin built for endurance racing. Yeah, that sounds just about perfect to me. 

Go Bruins!

Aston Martin races their V8 Vantages in GT3 as well, but only their V12 models have the cool fender gills, I presume to help assist with cooling down those extra 4 cylinders. 

Of course wearing 007. It's not just for show either, Aston Martin actually uses the 007 number during racing as well, though last I remember seeing it was on the Prodrive DB9R. Maybe different series/class means there are multiple AM's out there racing with Mr. Bond's number?

I'm still more of a Porsche/BMW guy than Aston Martin, but I still love their cars and would jump to have the chance to race in one. #millionarewishlist

London / Holland Park Pt 2

Oh hey there. 

While roaming around Holland Park, we found Kyoto Garden, a zen garden complete with Koi fish and water falls. 

Animals here can get pretty nosy. 

Peacocks...   they're basically turkeys dressed in drag. As I've often seen in gardens, these guys were just roaming about where ever they pleased. 

The weather and surroundings offered a great opportunity for some folks to do a photo shoot. 

Even Michelle got in on the action. #selfie

After leaving the park, we started heading towards a nearby museum. On the way, we spotted a fewer rare cars including a Spec V. 

And a real Exige S, though the wing and front splitter don't match. Owner likely added the newer wing to an older model; looks good!

Astons are almost a daily sighting here, not that I think I'll ever get tired of their looks.  

London / Holland Park Pt 1

Once again we find ourselves in west London, this time heading towards Holland Park. I normally don't like the 1 series (1 M Coupe being an exception, of course) since I'm not big on the styling, but in this dark grey, I gotta admit it looks pretty good.

Our first American store! Unfortunately, it didn't have much and whatever it did have was either too overpriced or available in other stores. The best place to buy American food is still Chinese grocery stores.

Great cafes and bakeries everywhere you go.

Like Michelle's new haircut? She loves it!

Some nice cars over here, like this RS5.

And some really, really nice cars. Black Bentleys in autumn…

The wheels have seen better days though.  All those leaves must be hiding some nasty curbs, er, I mean "kerbs". 

The park had a pretty fancy entrance.

Did I mention I miss nature? Because I really miss nature.

I will definitely be coming back here again. 

London / Portobello Market

Picking up where we left off, we're still over in West London which we're starting to really, really enjoy. East London has its perks, but personally, I miss some of the little things, like trees. East London can be pretty grim at times, so it's nice being able to head out to the west to get a breath of fresh air. And great Defender right? Perfect base model in a lovely colbalt/grey. I'm sure the locals think its pretty odd I find such a mundane truck to be so fascinating. 

Coffee, paninis, ice cream and waffles. Sounds like the perfect diet to me!

So we're here in Portobello Market to check out all of the knick-knacks they have for sale. The weather had started to get pretty dark at this point, but against the colorful buildings, it still felt a lot more cheerful than Shoreditch. 

If you ever need something a bit useless but at the same time a little fascinating, this is a great place to go. Opera binoculars? A set of tea spoons?

Or maybe a vintage set of boxing gloves? You won't find what you think you need. Here, you'll find what you never thought of. 

Despite the recent attention Banksy has been getting in NYC, he's still quite popular here in UK, which leads to a ton of people selling copies of his work... 

I'm honestly not the biggest fan of R8's, but here in the London streets, they look outstanding. There's a white V10 model I've spotted several times that just looks amazing under the dark skies, but this black one looks just as sharp. Also, never seen one with the RS wheels on it before, I really like it. 

Neat Samsung shop tucked among the shops, very welcoming and friendly vibe to it. Felt a lot less corporate than an Apple store, though whether the lower impression of professionalism could be a good or bad thing depends on your point of view. 

This Milktea shop was still being built when we went by, we'll definitely need to check it out later on.  

Ah the California...   One of those cars I secretly hope the car community continues to hate so that it'll drive down the residual value for me to pick up later in life. ;P

Had to get at least one pic of these, the Honda HR-V. It's like the Honda version of the original 3 door RAV4. A little cool in the weird-Japanese-car-from-the-90s kind of way, but at the same time, really really dorky. 

Oh yeah, since everyone has a mobile nowadays, they've cleverly started converting some of them into ATMs. And if you look closely, you'll see they still even kept the phone.  

Never cared for the brand in the States, but they're actually kinda nice here in UK.  

Started looking a little bit like SF here. Maybe that's why we grew so fond of the area... 

Sort of strange seeing an old church converted into a modern art gallery.  

Mmmm, that foliage. Seriously though, I cannot stress enough how refreshing all this has been since living in East London. I really, really miss nature. 

This was more of what I was expecting while being here in UK. Looks more Spring than Autumn here.  

And to end the day, how about some pizza in an original 500? Cute little car.