Adrian's Birthdays
I said birthdays not because london1952 is like Her Majesty who has two (one real and one official) but because this post is a list of what we did on Adrian's birthday over the years. The list starts with 1999, which is the year I met him.
(I originally posted this in 2010 before his surprise trip, so now there are 5 more to mention).
1999: Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Putney, London (Buongustaio). He later found a wristwatch hidden in a chocolate box.
2000: This one is a bit fuzzy. Dinner out but then I flew to Italy the following morning (Adrian joined me in Turin a few days later, and then we went to Bergamo, Mantua and the Monferrato).
He had a belated birthday surprise trip to Paris in November.
2001: Tuscany. I believe that we were in beautiful and romantic San Gimignano for his birthday
2002: 50th birthday!! Dinner out with family and friends on the evening of his birthday and then we went away for a week the following day to a mystery destination.
It was Taormina, Sicily.
2003: Rome and Umbria. We were in Rome on the evening of his birthday. We went to see "La Traviata" performed in San Paolo dentro Le Mura (an Anglican church). It was also the night of the big blackout in Italy
2004:Sitges. But don't remember what we did on the day, only that we had dinner at a restaurant outside Sitges, near where we were staying.
2005: London. We had a full day out. The Freda Khalo exhibition at Tate Modern, lunch at "Fish!" near Borough Market.
Then an afternoon wandering around and casually ending up on Old Compton Street. As we walked past the Prince Edward theatre, Adrian mentioned that he would have loved to go and see "Mary Poppins" some time... I said "Let's go now!" and produced the tickets out of my pocket! [That's a hard act to follow!]
2006: London, again.
Another full day out.
Lunch at the Quirinale Restaurant in Westminster (and during that meal we decided to get officially married), followed by a recording of the "Paul O'Grady Show" at the BBC, cocktail at the Waldorf and surprise show at the Peacock Theatre ("Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo" in "Swan Lake")
2007: Day trip to Dublin, for afternoon tea at Shelbourne hotel
2008: Toronto. We were staying with the lovely bobalone and paulintoronto and had a great meal out with some other fabulous LJers: shawnsyms , brunorepublic , jeffbriggs (and 'Tall Paul')
2009: Krakow (surprise week-end trip). But we spent most of Adrian's actual birthday in Auschwitz.
2010: Copenhagen (surprise trip). The night before his birthday we went to the Tivoli gardens because they had fireworks to celebrate the end of the summer season. The fireworks at 10:45 pm lasted for about 10 minutes - accompanied by music - and they were rather spectacular. LJ reminds me that we did quite a lot of sightseeing on his actual birthday but we also celebrated it by having an early afternoon tea with a glass of crémant at the oldest tea shop in Scandinavia. Then we enjoyed an hour-long harbour cruise followed a hot chocolate (and more cake) before heading back to the hotel and then the airport.
2011: Arundel (surprise mid-week trip). Arundel is near the south coast and home to the second largest castle in England. On his birthday, after a walk around Arundel we caught the train to nearby Amberley, where we visited the Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre and then walked to the local castle (now a luxury hotel) for a glorious afternoon tea.
2012: 60th birthday!! We were in Spain for a 10-day surprise trip around Castilla, Leon and Extremadura. We spent his birthday in beautiful Salamanca. It was rather chilly, I recall, and we walked around most of the day - apart from a bumpy trip on a tourist 'train' on the cobbled streets! Shock and horror, we had a Mc Donald's lunch but then a rather lovely dinner which included a version of a 'sticky toffee pudding'.
2013: Venice (it was meant to be a surprise but I told him a couple of weeks before we went, when I wasn't quite sure I was up to it after my surgery/convalescence). It was part of a week around Lake Garda and the Dolomites. Adrian absolutely adores Venice - we have been a number of times. On his birthday we took a vaporetto the Lido where we walked much longer than we had planned (and I was still using my crutches), then we a pizza in Campo S. Stefano and visited the Rudolf Stingel installation at Palazzo Grassi (part of the Venice Biennale). We went back to the hotel to get changed and rushed to La Fenice for our favourite opera, La Traviata!
2014: Prague. The birthday celebration started the night before with a trip to the State Opera to see... La Traviata. The following morning we took the funicular railway to the top of Petřín partk where we ascended the tower (a 63 m mini Eiffel Tower built for an expo at the end of the 19th century) and had fun in a vintage mirror maze. We then walked around Malá Strana for the rest of the day - the last stop was the breath-taking Vrtbovska Garden with wonderful views of Prague. We then went back to the hotel, got changed and went out for a surprise 3-hour dinner cruise on the Vltava river.
Pictures to follow. We got back from Prague 2 days ago.
UK 5
Italy 4
Spain 2
Ireland 1
Canada 1
Poland 1
Denmark 1
Czech Republic 1
(I originally posted this in 2010 before his surprise trip, so now there are 5 more to mention).
1999: Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Putney, London (Buongustaio). He later found a wristwatch hidden in a chocolate box.
2000: This one is a bit fuzzy. Dinner out but then I flew to Italy the following morning (Adrian joined me in Turin a few days later, and then we went to Bergamo, Mantua and the Monferrato).
He had a belated birthday surprise trip to Paris in November.
2001: Tuscany. I believe that we were in beautiful and romantic San Gimignano for his birthday
2002: 50th birthday!! Dinner out with family and friends on the evening of his birthday and then we went away for a week the following day to a mystery destination.
It was Taormina, Sicily.
2003: Rome and Umbria. We were in Rome on the evening of his birthday. We went to see "La Traviata" performed in San Paolo dentro Le Mura (an Anglican church). It was also the night of the big blackout in Italy
2004:Sitges. But don't remember what we did on the day, only that we had dinner at a restaurant outside Sitges, near where we were staying.
2005: London. We had a full day out. The Freda Khalo exhibition at Tate Modern, lunch at "Fish!" near Borough Market.
Then an afternoon wandering around and casually ending up on Old Compton Street. As we walked past the Prince Edward theatre, Adrian mentioned that he would have loved to go and see "Mary Poppins" some time... I said "Let's go now!" and produced the tickets out of my pocket! [That's a hard act to follow!]
2006: London, again.
Another full day out.
Lunch at the Quirinale Restaurant in Westminster (and during that meal we decided to get officially married), followed by a recording of the "Paul O'Grady Show" at the BBC, cocktail at the Waldorf and surprise show at the Peacock Theatre ("Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo" in "Swan Lake")
2007: Day trip to Dublin, for afternoon tea at Shelbourne hotel
2008: Toronto. We were staying with the lovely bobalone and paulintoronto and had a great meal out with some other fabulous LJers: shawnsyms , brunorepublic , jeffbriggs (and 'Tall Paul')
2009: Krakow (surprise week-end trip). But we spent most of Adrian's actual birthday in Auschwitz.
2010: Copenhagen (surprise trip). The night before his birthday we went to the Tivoli gardens because they had fireworks to celebrate the end of the summer season. The fireworks at 10:45 pm lasted for about 10 minutes - accompanied by music - and they were rather spectacular. LJ reminds me that we did quite a lot of sightseeing on his actual birthday but we also celebrated it by having an early afternoon tea with a glass of crémant at the oldest tea shop in Scandinavia. Then we enjoyed an hour-long harbour cruise followed a hot chocolate (and more cake) before heading back to the hotel and then the airport.
2011: Arundel (surprise mid-week trip). Arundel is near the south coast and home to the second largest castle in England. On his birthday, after a walk around Arundel we caught the train to nearby Amberley, where we visited the Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre and then walked to the local castle (now a luxury hotel) for a glorious afternoon tea.
2012: 60th birthday!! We were in Spain for a 10-day surprise trip around Castilla, Leon and Extremadura. We spent his birthday in beautiful Salamanca. It was rather chilly, I recall, and we walked around most of the day - apart from a bumpy trip on a tourist 'train' on the cobbled streets! Shock and horror, we had a Mc Donald's lunch but then a rather lovely dinner which included a version of a 'sticky toffee pudding'.
2013: Venice (it was meant to be a surprise but I told him a couple of weeks before we went, when I wasn't quite sure I was up to it after my surgery/convalescence). It was part of a week around Lake Garda and the Dolomites. Adrian absolutely adores Venice - we have been a number of times. On his birthday we took a vaporetto the Lido where we walked much longer than we had planned (and I was still using my crutches), then we a pizza in Campo S. Stefano and visited the Rudolf Stingel installation at Palazzo Grassi (part of the Venice Biennale). We went back to the hotel to get changed and rushed to La Fenice for our favourite opera, La Traviata!
2014: Prague. The birthday celebration started the night before with a trip to the State Opera to see... La Traviata. The following morning we took the funicular railway to the top of Petřín partk where we ascended the tower (a 63 m mini Eiffel Tower built for an expo at the end of the 19th century) and had fun in a vintage mirror maze. We then walked around Malá Strana for the rest of the day - the last stop was the breath-taking Vrtbovska Garden with wonderful views of Prague. We then went back to the hotel, got changed and went out for a surprise 3-hour dinner cruise on the Vltava river.
Pictures to follow. We got back from Prague 2 days ago.
UK 5
Italy 4
Spain 2
Ireland 1
Canada 1
Poland 1
Denmark 1
Czech Republic 1