“Screw you guys, I’m going home” Cartman

Roughly 30 hours after we left Athens, we were safely home to a hysterical dachshund who may need separation anxiety therapy and a gloriously clean home (we love our housesitters!!!!). Goobers missed his buddies Ginger and Bailey so much that Jessica had to bring them over for a play date the next weekend. It took us two weeks to get over the jet lag, as Andy and I kept falling asleep at 7 pm and waking up at 4: 30 am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Weird. And annoying.

The suitcases are finally aired out, the laundry has been washed and rewashed, and we have settled back into home life. Thanks for sharing our adventure with us!

Last Day in London

Today was tourist day. We headed over to Madame Tussauds to see wax figures of famous people and pretend we had our picture taken with the real deal. We we’re sure how fun or silly it would be, but all three of us really got a kick out of it. To be honest, it was a bit of a relief to do something so tacky in the midst of all the culture we were seeing! Because the British are so celebrity obsessed, it was also fun to watch them get so excited over the wax figures. I was, however, sad that Pierce Brosnan and George Clooney weren’t out.

We were right near 221b Baker Street, so we went to the Sherlock Holmes museum and poked around in the giftshop. Marie enjoyed some tea while Andy and I checked out the rooms of Sherlock and Watson, and when we met up with her, we found her in a shop that Andy’s dad recommended! They apparently share good taste!

We were all ready for some good fish and chips, so we headed over to the Marlyebone area to have genuine, local fish and chips. It was good to see that we were the only tourists and everyone else there was a local. A sign of an authentic restaurant! It was SO good! It puts all other fish to shame! We gorged ourselves and then wandered around feeling full and overheated. It was worth it!

Once we recovered, we peeked at Trafalger Square, which I found to be rather underwhelming. Marie then decided to walk for a bit (remember the fish and chips?) and Andy and I hit up the Tower of London. We enjoyed the tour offered by the famous beefeaters, and we also saw the crown jewels. Andy is worried– he saw me eyeing some of the jewelry and is worried that I will want something similar!

We saw the Tower Bridge and London Bridge, and while Andy headed off to figure out our Eurostar Tickets to Paris, Marie and I went to Harrod’s. I knew it was THE place for shopping and luxury, but we were wholly unprepared for how large, cavernous, and opulent it was. Wow. It was overwhelming, intimidating, and a complete ball. There were marble walkways, fountains, security and assistants everywhere, etc. You can get anything you want there: Resort in Dubai? Done. Luxury sports care shipped to your home? No problem. A stuffed animal the size of your bed? Sure. Exotic fruits and speciality meats for your lunch? We’ll wrap that up for you.

All it takes is the international language: $$$$$$$$$$$$$

The owner of Harrod’s is Muhammed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed, who was killed with Princess Diana 10 years ago August 31st. There were permanent memorials everywhere and many flowers left at the fountains, statues, etc. He stands by his claim that they were murdered by the Royal family, and you can tell that he truly mourns the loss of both of them still. It was very touching.

Marie and I had tea and scones at Harrod’s in one of the many cafes they have. Did I mention Harrod’s also has a doctor, optometrist, post office, theater ticket office, bank, gym, spa, barber shop, and multiple luxury restaurants? You could easily LIVE inside this place (which is also roughly 7 floors AND is bigger than a city block). This place is definitely still about class distinction and there was some serious cash being dropped. Best of all, when you leave, there is a Starbucks and a Krispy Kreme outside. Nothing like spending bazillions of dollars and then following it up with a buzz and some sugary fats!

Be impressed: Marie and I bought nothing except our tea and scones. Talk about willpower. And serious intimidation.

We finished our day at Covent Garden, which is a fantastic outdoor market area that reminded me of Boston (the Faneuil market)  with a European flair. We ate Italian food outside under strings of lights, and then wandered around some of the stalls of food and flowers (most of them were closing by then). Definitely an area we will have to check out again.

We are safe and sound in Paris, but more about that later. I have to help Andy straighten up our room and put away our laundry, and then we are off to Versailles.

Some loose ends

Andy forgot to mention that we had dinner that night in a great Indian restaurant. Our guide recommended it, and it was SO good! The guide failed to mention how expensive it was, but in the end it was SO good that we SO didn’t care. Being that I have the Givan stomach, I wasn’t sure how I would feel later, so I pulled out the antacids and waited for the heartburn and indigestion to start. It never did, so I think I learned that while some Indian food back home upsets my stomach, apparently I am not sensitive to GOOD Indian food!

We had a lovely time in London with Marie. It was fun to have someone new to spend time with, and lovely to see a familiar face in a foreign country. Marie lost all of the pictures on her digital camera, which was sad.

I hope once we are home we can upload our pictures to Flickr (thanks Ally!) so you can view them easier. Yes, Jeanne, I am planning on scrapbooking our trip! And no, Jessica and Ivy, I did not trek over to the good ol’ Domesday Book.

We miss Goobers but hear he doing great! I bet he will be very tired when we see him— five weeks of playing with two other doggies!

View all our pictures of London

Dear Viewers,

I have uploaded all of our current pictures from London to a web server for your viewing.  Please note that these images have not been labeled, described, categorized, edited (other than shrinking them), or sorted through…meaning that you will probably see pictures that should be deleted.  But, right now time is more important than website preparation. =)

 You may view our additional London pictures here.

Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath

 

Stonehenge………what can I say?  That place rocks (huh huh….get it?  Rocks?  Stonehenge?….yeah, you can probably tell that Andy is taking his turn at blogging today…)!

 We had a really pleasant day yesterday with our friend, Marie (she and Treasure were friends at the UW graduate school, and she just happened to be on a trip here to the UK.  We met up with her a day or two ago, and we’re spending the rest of our time in London with her).  We hopped a GrayLine bus tour to take a tour of Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath.  It was a good break from the city and allowed us to see some English countryside.

Salisbury is a beautiful little town with an absolutely gorgeous cathedral (contrary to one’s initial expectation, this is not the originating site of the steak dish with which we are all familiar).  There’s lots of history regarding this church – including how it has the tallest church spire around, it took several years and multiple stages, was ransacked by the king’s men when it was a Catholic church so that he could promote the Church of England, and so on – which I am sure you can read more about online.  We ran into a local grocery to grab a quick lunch and felt very much like college students as we dined on some steps along the street.  Then it was back on the bus and off to Stonehenge.

 Stonehenge is in the middle of fields.  We heard sheep as we looked at the ancient stones.  No one’s really sure of the purpose of the structure, but one circle of the stones was dragged to the location from Wales…nearly 100 miles away.  The structure is old – estimated at around 5000 years old.  Again, there’s probably a better history located on the internet, but we enjoyed being able to see this historic site.

Finally, we ended our day in Bath.  This is probably our favorite part of the trip to date.  Bath is a wonderfully pleasant little town in the countryside, complete with street musicians, a local chocolate company, cute little flower bunches hanging out of windows, and of course the Roman Baths, which date back to the times of the Roman Empire.  These baths come from a natural spring, and the Romans built a temple over these springs as a tribute to Athena, their goddess of wisdom.  Many people would come to this location to alleviate all kinds of ailments – arthritis, rhumetism, and so forth.  At any rate, the town was absolutely gorgeous, and we want to go back – particularly because they have the largest spa facility in these parts (which opened last September).

 Today, we will spend our final day in London, and will see Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, the Tower of London, and a couple other things.  More on that adventure this evening!

Smarter having been to Oxford

I told Andy to just leave me in the Blackwell bookshop in Oxford. Hey, there’s coffee and food at the cafe, a bathroom on the top floor, and enough books to last me several lifetimes. Especially since many of the books were in Latin, which would take me awhile to learn. Can I please be reincarnated as an Oxford student?

Needless to say, Oxford was lovely. It FELT and LOOKED like Oxford, which was very satisfying. I hate going somewhere with high expectations, only to find that the destination is better in my head then in reality (like Buckingham Palace, which was underwhelming). The buildings were old and medieval, with narrow alleyways leading to pubs where the likes of C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein, Lewis Carroll, and the guy who wrote Wind in the Willows would drink.

Andy and I took the train to Oxford this morning, which takes about an hour and a half. Paddington Station was fun, and I enjoyed seeing some English countryside and listening to my iPod (The Beatles sound better in England, by the way).  Andy actually read a book, which is unusual for him. I’d like to think I’m rubbing off on him. We hiked from the train station up to the city center and headed straight to the Eagle and Child for lunch. This is the pub where the Inklings met on Tuesdays, and we sat where they used to sit and discuss things like… Lord of the Rings and Narnia. We had cream tea, yummy lemonaide, and a cheese plate that included Stilton, which made me feel close to Winston Churchill (it was his favorite).

From there we followed the signs (very well marked) to Christ Church, where we saw the dining hall where the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed, and where several nods to Alice in Wonderland are hidden. Lewis Carroll taught here, and we saw where he got his inspiration for the rabbit hole, the cheshire cat, and other such things. There is a shop across the street where the real little Alice used to buy candy, and the shop is mentioned in the books and an original book illustration is based on the shop. 

We checked out the Bodleian Library, Ashmolean Museum, the Bridge of Sighs, and finally Blackwell’s bookshop. The bookshop looked rather small and disappointing when we first entered, but once we walked in a bit, we realized that it was about 5 floors of every book you can imagine. We made sure to stop in the reference book section and pay our respects to the Oxford English Dictionary.

We returned to find Marie safe and sound in our room, so we headed out to St. Paul’s to eat at a wine bar with a view of the cathedral. We stopped on our way home for gelato and now we are gearing up for a very early morning (bus leaves at 7:30 am). 

Full day in London

Treasure at Parliament. 

Alright, we did a lot today, so here is a quick rundown:

Parliament Building, Big Ben, and the Thames River 

Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard (they played the Bond theme music!)

Westminster Abbey (heard the choir singing, saw famous dead people, including Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, John Wesley, Isaac Newton, and a ton of famous writers and poets)

Winston Churchill Museum and Underground War Rooms (Super!)

Fish and Chips for dinner

Portabello Road (yes, the street where the richs of ages are sold)

Abbey Road and Abbey Studios

 

Off to Oxford

We had a VERY full first day, so we are feeling it this morning! We are about to head to Paddington Station (which is about 2 blocks away and I keep thinking about Paddington Bear, from Darkest Peru) to hop a train to Oxford!

I hope to write about yesterday, and our forthcoming day in Oxford this evening. In case any of you are worried, we hear that Goobers is doing well. Jessica, coolest housesitter and most accomodating friend ever, is watching over both our home and Goobers the wunderhund. Hopefully he will wear himself out playing with her dogs! He gets five weeks of doggie playgroup!

Marie arrives from Scotland today. Marie is a good friend from UW (so is Jessica), but rather than a classmate like Jessica, Marie is the academic advisor for the iSchool program. She was on a cool scholarship in Scotland and decided to tack on a few days to hang out with us! It will be good to see someone familiar. Not that Andy and I don’t adore each other, but having someone else to hang out with will be nice as well! Andy is worried because Marie and I are planning a shopping trip to Harrod’s without him. Heh heh heh. And I have a brand new American Express card!!!!!!

First Evening in London

This is all we brought with us! 

We are about to head out for our first full day, but I wanted to post a few pictures from last night. We got familiar with the Underground (the Tube) and road it to several more stops than we had planned on , but there is no better way to learn a mass transit system than to get lost! So far we are really liking the Tube and wishing Seattle was cool enough to have one. The one in London reminds us of the T in Boston.

We had dinner in Picadilly Circus at a place Andy’s dad had recommended– I had Bangers and Mash and Andy had traditional Sunday roast. We walked through Hyde Park a little bit, as it is right near our hotel. It is absolutley gorgeous there– I honestly think it is more beautiful than Central Park in NYC! We still had a little bit of light left, so we hopped the Tube (saw a lot of transit police as it was getting late– they look all cool and modern and intimidating except for their bobby hats!) and went to see St Paul’s Cathedral.

I wanted to see St. Paul’s because, as many of you know, Mary Poppins is my favorite movie of all time, and I wanted to see the place where she sang about feeding the birds. To be honest, I sat on the steps where the bird woman sits in the movie and I almost cried! I am such a dork. The Cathedral was so beautiful and as the sun was setting, the lighting was stunning. There were only a few people there, and after being on airplanes, buses, and the Tube, it was nice to have some breathing room.

We took pictures inside a red telephone booth, and glimpsed the Tate Modern Museum through an alleyway. We are off today to see the changing of the guard, Westminster, etc. We like our room– tiny but comfortable. The bathroom is hilariously small, but it is good practice for when we are on the cruise ship!