NO VACANCY - Doug, Ed and Deirdre's Trip - Jan 2009

The week of January 18th proved to be an exciting and fun time at Hotel Anthony (as Amy's dad so lovingly refers to it). On Friday night, as Amy and Anthony were sitting down to a home cooked meal, Amy's brother Doug arrived from Boston. Luckily, Amy made plenty of food and Doug was even willing to try it! You have to admit, Doug - not bad. For Doug's first trip to Europe, Amy and Anthony had a very special weekend planned. We started the weekend off with a trip to the local "football" stadium where we watched our very first match.



After a slow first half where the home (and heavily favored team), Chelsea, was down 1-0, they came back in the final minutes with two goals to win it 2-1! Come on Chelsea, come on Chelsea! The Brits and their football - they were going absolutely nuts. We now know why the no longer serve alcohol at these games - all the fans would have rushed the field!



Next, we took Doug to our favorite restaurant in the city- Zuma, where he bravely ate anything put in front of him- including his first bites of sushi! Given the early start with bloody mary's and guinness, we decided to have an early night also because we had BIG plans for Sunday. On the advice of one of Anthony's friends, on Sunday we headed to the Winston Churchill Museum. It is a newly designed museum that showed not only a history of Churchill, but also the bunkers he and the British government used during the blitz of WWII. Knowing Doug and Amy's father's love of history (and certain numbers) they took this especially for him.



Later, we walked around to see some of the more typical London sites like Big Ben and Parliament.



That night, we got cozy on the couch and did something only American - order pizza and watched playoff football. All were in bliss. The next day, Amy started her art classes and Doug was left to his own devices...but not for long. On Wednesday, we had two more visitors and the house was full. Amy's dad, Ed, stopped by on his way back from Hong Kong and Anthony's cousin, Deirdre, was here on her way to Sarajevo. We had a good time going out to dinner two nights with the crew - first to the little Italian spot around the corner, Prezzo, and next to our favorite Italian (sensing a trend here) restaurant, Zafferano. In order to make feel more at home and how he was treated during the summer in the Hamptons, we picked out a special air mattress just for him as he got kicked out of the bed upon his father and Deirdre's arrival.

On Friday night after Doug and Ed left, the three "leftovers" went out to celebrate Deidre's new adventure. She was bravely moving to Sarajevo for 6 months - where she knew very few people, didnt speak the language and was far from home - to work with some of the people affected by the conflicts in that region. Anthony and Amy really enjoyed hearing about her plans and admired her passion and independence. We had a great meal at Nobu in Berkely Square - a great spot for sushi and "the scene".



Saturday morning the fun ended and Deirdre went on to her new adventure in Sarajevo and Amy and Anthony headed back to the US for some wedding fun (and a Superbowl party).