Since I have been on vacation for the last week it has been silent here on my blog. The last days I spent in London with friends and had such a great time that I decided to stay 5 instead of the 3 original planned days.
After arriving in London I met the special person I already mentioned below and we went directly to a pub (where else? 
) and had a pint. Later at night we had a reservation at vertigo which is the bar on top of tower42 in the center of London (thanks Brigi for the tip – it was really an amazing view up there and we also enjoyed the wine)
As the weather was nice the next day we were walking along through London and along the Thames and had a very enjoyable day. At night I met some colleagues (Armanda, Ramesh, Jonathan, Norbert, Walter, Rudi, Christian, Stefan, ….) of the London office and we had some nice spicy Indian food and went to a club at Brick Lane were we had a couple of beers.
The next morning I had to get up early as we wanted to get tickets for the “first emperor” exhibition at the British Museum and as it is very popular and there are only 500 tickets per day available you have to stand in line at 8am already which we did. We were standing in line (see below) for 1.5 hrs – the first hour outside in the rain and the last half an our inside – but it was worth it. For me it was the first time that I’ve heard the story of Qin Sin Huang – the first Chinese emperor – and the terracotta army he build for his afterlife. I’ve seen the movie Hero but this doesn’t tell the real story. It was really impressive how detailed they’ve built this terracotta soldiers 210 BC. After having some nice Thai food we went shopping in the afternoon and then to Hyde Park just to recognize that it is too windy to walk around in the park which led us to go to the pub – again 
The last day for me in London started with a nice brunch at Borough Market (Falafel sandwich mmhhmmm) from where we went straight to the first pub and since it started raining in the afternoon I just went from pub to pub until I got back home at around midnight. First I stayed around Borough Market with Ji, Monika, Walter and Norbert and then I joined Brigi, Rudi, Sabine and her sister at Hammersmith at late afternoon where the original plan was to watch a boat race at the Thames but the weather was just too bad so we watched it on TV in the pub.
I have to say again that flying with Ryanair is more than just ok. It is quite cheap and they are always on time. I was so glad that I hadn’t to fly out of Heathrow this weekend as the new Terminal 5 they’ve just opened is more than a mess. 15,000 suitcases got stuck in the new automatic baggage system and more than 250 flights canceled. And the really sad thing about it is that Heathrow and especially British Airways were already known for their baggage delivery problems and they planned to get rid of it by opening this new Terminal. What a disgrace!
Thanks again Walter for letting me stay at your place!!!
