WELCOME - 

this little exposée illustrates my first experiences in London after leaving beautiful Swabia and was written with encouragement of and for the people I left behind. 

It dates back to the time when I still saw and explored London with the eyes of an excited tourist. 

Work 

has slowly but securely replaced tourism 

(which does not mean that I am not venturing out anymore whenever I get a chance)

but I still hope you enjoy reading it, 

and more important:

 It inspires you to come and visit London one day 

- it is endless to explore and there is a lot to see, with the excited eyes of a tourist!

A fake Queen-Double for the practice of the Big Day

Living in London, obviating royalty is not always straightforward. 

Especially, if complete roads one usually takes to get from A to B are blocked unexpectedly. 

In order to coincide with fine weather 

- which can be nontrivial in the UK - 

the annual Queen´s Birthday Parade is held around two months after her actual birthday in April. 

This year, it will be held on Saturday, 14th of June, 

but the practice of the actual parade is exerted with equal pageantry and precision 

already one week before. 

Together with my visiting siblings I became witness of this spectacle without previous anticipation:

A lot of horses, Trooping the Colours, all Commonwealth countries represented by their flags, many spectators and the area around the Cavalry, Buckingham Palace and St. James' and Green Park being completely devoted to this event -

all had to be concerted for the appearance of Her Royal Highness: 

 

Final instructions between Guards and policemen, 

endless parades ...

and some adjustment and fiddling

of the famous bearskin
and uniforms

... all, to finally please: 

a Queen-double  - 

as Her Royal Majesty was obviously the only one on this day, 

who did not have to practise!

I do not always know why, 

but nonetheless: 

Being back in London 

I realized, 

the bird´s eye view on this massive city 

is still my favourite. 

Climbing the shard, 

by night 

and 

riding  the London Eye 

 by day and night 

is a good approximation for now - 

until I will finally learn to fly: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQ_3sBZEm0

Training-Time Reloaded

Trying to train for my return to London just in time for the marathon, 

as well as supporting the Brain Research Trust this year again

http://www.justgiving.com/SarahWiethoff

finding my way through snow-immersed Maryland ...   

... is not always 

... straightforward. 

Nonetheless ...

 I am trying 

to keep the running

up

and I am enjoying weekend trips to discover New York, 

Princeton and the close by Washington, D.C..

Please keep me running: 

http://www.justgiving.com/SarahWiethoff

Bethesda-Skies

Analysing basepairs during the days 

and contemplating Bethesda´s skies from my apartment 

high up during the nights, 

slowly things fall into place and I have time to reconcile

with the last three turbulent weeks:

http://moritzsarahasia.wordpress.com/

Stormy Times

Those last weeks it has turned rather autumnal

- meaning in general wet and ugly in the UK -

 but luckily at times beautiful and clear 

and very stormy in London

- with its aftermath still visible throughout ...

For me personally this autumn involved a lot of travelling to reconnect with my family and friends

but also there is a gentle distance to London creeping in 

with the dark and uncomfortable season: 

Seeing things over and over again,

 being less excited about novelties which also get harder to detect each time

and remaining annoyed and uncomprehending regarding the long distances, 

the lack of real nature,
the crowds and the ceaseless traffic 

after a year in this city now.

More upcoming travel-time to escape the gloomy months and

sail through Thailand in order to hopefully arrive in time at Pavitra´s and Winni´s wedding in India 

will give this blog a break and current updates might be found here 

(if internet connection turns out to be reliable during the travels):

 http://moritzsarahasia.wordpress.com/

From January till April I will work in Bethesda, MD,

so please mind the gaps and 

remember:

It will be time for 

"London calling ... me" 

again in April next year. 

Largest natural lake in England? 

Needs to be swum ...

 regardless of the weather - of course!

 

The Lake District is beautiful, no question.

For me there was no hesitation when I got invited to be support rower for an attempted crossing (lengthwise, of course) 

of England' s largest natural lake

 - the Lake Windermere -

in the heart of this beautiful National Park. 

Having never been so far up to the Northern regions of England I was astonished by the instability of the local weather (well, I am in the UK, so what the hell did I expect?). 

But: 

There was no way out, and the challenge was arranged months and months before the day - which unfortunately turned out to be very rainy, foggy, dark and cold.

Nonetheless, there were about 10 swimmers plus their support rowers, facing the challenge that day: 

Being a "true" open water swimmer with an addictive love for cold water, 

one can easily guess 

for whom I was crewing ... 

(Yes: The skinny, "naked" one, all in the middle).

Some like to fight "with" ...

... others "without" ...

... some even with one forearm less than the rest:

But as we are in the UK, everyone does it -

for charity:
http://www.chect.org.uk/cms/

http://www.love2donate.co.uk/latest/windermere/ 

With the lake being 10.5 miles long, a slight shoulder injury, an average water temperature of 13 degrees and a totally clouded and rainy day

(with high local inhomogeneity in water temperature), 

of course, this mission was "fatal", 

but romantically beautiful ...

... From the water the landscape just looks like in a fairy tale ...

 ... 

sounds get swallowed and one is totally alone, surrounded only 

by this one beautiful element
...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to reality:
Being into the water it feels damn cold!

After three hours in the swim, we decided to turn the solo-crossing into a relay and loosen up some further rules, deciding we would come up for the "real crossing" on a better day and try once more. 

This gave me the opportunity to join into the swim: 

... which I happily did and enjoyed a lot ...

... intermittently trying to scare swans and other lake animals away:

Only semi-successful though. But we are all still alive!

The next day we woke up (long ago reheated of course), 

just to discover that days at the Lake District can also be a little bit less cloudy and the lake 

then even more beautiful: 

Definitively more motivation to come back again!

Let the Sea be my Harbour

or Roadtrip Southern English Coastline 2013 

Escaping from London 

to explore the very different parts of England 

was one of the projects I worked upon with high priority this summer ...

In the end 

- as so often - 

travelling England was easier than thought 

and chosing reasonably from the vast amount of promising destinations 

was probably the toughest part of the journey ...

Finally

- of course -

a lot was about 

the sea and wild swimming, 

while exploring the English National Heritage along the Southern Coast ... 

Perfect match! 

You can try and track our official route here (:

or get a personal version and travel-recommendations from me directly.

- - - 

The English coastline is just too beautiful 

and the water too tempting ...

     

                

to miss out on any single

...

                    

(how ever cold) 

swim.

Hikes and climbs were used for warming up ...

 

           

 

... where sunset 

brought cold 

       


             

                             

but romantic

  nights.

Sights along the way ...

... were examined with deadly precision

and being in constant proximity to the sea 

...

and to its companions 

...

was again very liberating:

However obscure 

the future will display itself 

(in London and around) 

...

I am going to be out there 

looking forward to it.