Destinations Elsewhere

Last night in Paris

Jeff — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:28:21 GMT

The last night in Paris and then we head home. Angie already blogged about what we did today so I’ll skip recapping that. I think we’ve all had a good time but we are all a little tired and probably will all enjoy being at home in separate rooms for a little while this weekend.

It’s hard to know exactly how far we walked and how many stairs we went up and down but it was a lot. I think it will be a good kick off to training for my trip to Peru in a October. For the most part my legs never really hurt, my feet however did. I think that is more related to all the standing in museums and lines, but my feet have hurt less over the last week than the first, so hopefully I’m toughing up my feet some. After we get back it will be hardcore training mode so I don’t die on the mountain.

This will be the last time we use this blog for our trips. The software was nice 4 years ago or so when I set it up but there are much easier and quicker options out there now.,so eventually I’ll set this up to redirect to another site that I won’t have to keep running. Photo uploads have been particularly painful as you have to do them one at a time.

Looking forward to being home, just in time to turn around and head to work, hmmm, we’ll maybe not….

These German people cut in line...

Angie — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:31:00 GMT

So there was this wind-y line in front of the Musee d'Orsay, and I guess it was longer than they expected it to be. So there was no rope line set up to guide the line, and people were just kind of making it wind on their own.

So FOUR TIMES when we were in line this group of German tourists would cut the curve of the line and get in front of us. Five or six people each time. Fifteen to twenty people. At one point, after the second time they cut the line, a woman was openly encouraging the others to cut the line too. As if we wouldn't get the gist of their conversation because we didn't speak German. At first the dude behind us declined as decent people would, but he eventually ended up cutting the line too. And they were all proud of themselves, like they were better at Paris than we were.

I think I'm most mad, though, that one of them was wearing a muscle shirt even though he had curly hair on his shoulders and upper arms. Gross.

The nice Americans in front of us were all "I think they need some line control, ha ha" and I was all "I'm gonna kill the next person who cuts in line. I will literally rip off their heads." Luckily no one else cut in line.

The Musee d'Orsay was cool once we made it in. If you love impressionist paintings, this is the place to go. I was a bit of a gawker. I briefly turned in to that person who maneuvers their way to right in front of the painting and then just stood there in front of everyone.

It was also nice because no photography was allowed, so no one was standing with their camera right in front of your face while you stood there. I think there are thousands of tourists in Paris right now who haven't seen a piece of art without their camera lens focusing on it first.

We also went to the Paris Catacombs this morning. That was really weird, but sort of cool. First we had to wait in line for over an hour. Then when we got in we started out by climbing down a winding staircase that went down for 60 meters. We just kept going down under Paris for what seemed like forever. Then we got to an area that explained about the catacombs and how they started out as stone quarries, but then became ossuaries for the bones of many centuries worth of people as they expanded the city. Then we walked for 500 meters before we got to the part where the bones were. It was really surreal, like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland except all the skulls were from real people. At the end we had to climb stairs back up for 100 meters to street level.

It makes me wonder (between all the museums, monuments, metro stations, tube stations, apartment buildings, etc.) just how many flights of stairs we have climbed up and down this trip. I also wish I brought a pedometer to keep track of how many miles we walked. It was a lot!

So now we're done sightseeing, and all we have left to do is pack and wait for the driver to take us to the airport tomorrow. It's been a long, busy trip and it will be good to get home.

Au revoir!

Welcome to the Sexodrome!

Angie — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:24:00 GMT

So Jeff pretty much summed up today. At times it was pouring rain, at other times not so much. The view of Paris from Montmartre was pretty (although a little gray and cloudy). The kids and I rode the funicular both up and down the hill(since Ryan's bum knee is still bothering him) to Sacre Couer, and Jeff walked down.

Walking at the bottom of the hill from one metro stop to another (in order to to peak at the Moulin Rouge) was interesting. Lots of adult shops and many varieties of adult entertainment (hence the blog title.) There was a park-like walk way in the middle of the road that let us keep from walking right by, but there was plenty of gawking and giggling going on nevertheless. And the kids thought it was funny, too. ;)

I loved the Orangerie museum, for both the size and the content. It was just big enough that we could fill an hour and not bore the kids too much, and I love Impressionist paintings. Another good thing was we could buy a combo passport ticket for both the Orangerie and Orsay museums, so we don't have to wait in line for tickets tomorrow at the Musee d'Orsay (and we saved a few bucks to boot.)

The fondue was really fun, though I have to admit the pot of boiling oil right next to my plate made me a tad bit nervous. But everyone had a good time and no one got burned.

We come home on Wednesday. I'm torn - I'm looking forward to going home, but not to flying home. And I miss home cooked food, but not having to cook. I do miss my doggies and my own bed, though. And a plus is it looks like we should miss the worst of the Seattle heatwave (not an oxymoron; 95 with no air conditioning is hot, hot, hot!)

Tomorrow the Paris catacombs and the Musee d'Orsay for the last of our sightseeing, then packing up for home.

2nd to last day in Paris

Jeff — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:55:00 GMT

Today we were met with more rain, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday and we survived through it. We started off by going to Montmarte (the only real “hill” in Paris). Near there was a Fondue place that was recommended by the bike tour we took. So after taking in the views from the hill we headed over to the Fondue restaurant only to discover they are completely closed in July and August. We ended up finding an Italian place close by that was pretty good and not completely unreasonable in price.

After Mountmarte we hit some tourist shops and walked down the street to where Moulin Rogue the cabaret show is and passed by some mostly adult shops. After that we went to the Orangerie which is a museum showing mostly impressionist paintings (Monet, Matisse, Renior, etc.). The highlight is the 8 giant murals that Monet painted of the gardens and water lilies at Giverny. It wasn’t a large museum so we only spent about an hour there.

On a side note, a lot of Paris is closed on Mondays. Lots of restaurants as well as shops are closed including many other museums we wanted to go to.

For dinner we went to a Fondue place near our apartment and it was a lot of fun. The kids both had fondue with ham (we all thought the ham would be on the side to dip in the cheese but it was in the cheese already). I had something like fondue but it was meat instead of bread and oil instead of cheese. You cook the meat in the oil at the table a piece at a time and there were several sauces to dip the meat in. Angie just ordered from the set menu and had her own little 3 course meal.

Tomorrow we go to the catacombs and Musee d'Orsay and then pack up for the long flight home.

Also one thing that you might not have noticed: we’ve had a special friend traveling with us during our trip. If you go back through our photos you might notice him in several of the pictures. You might even be able to find him. I would suggest maybe starting with this picture and seeing what you can find. Our friend is kind of shy so you might have to look for him….

Go away rain!

Angie — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:03:00 GMT

It rained all day yesterday. And not like Seattle rain, where it rains lightly on and off - this was pouring rain. All day.

So we stayed close to home and visited the Natural History Museum at the Jardin des Plantes. Which was just meh. A lot was in English, but a lot wasn't too. There were a lot of animal specimens, including a hall of extinct or endangered animals. There was also a line-up (Noah's Ark style) of animal specimens, including elephants and giraffes. The additional dinosaur exhibit was just okay, too.

Beyond that, we just ventured out for food. Today's weather is supposed to be similar. We are trying to find something else to do that is both OPEN (as so many places are closed on Mondays here) and INSIDE.

And, I can't believe we fly home in two days!

Paris, day something

Jeff — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:05:21 GMT

All the days are blurring together a bit, but we're having fun. Paris is nice and while I assume its no more crowded than London was it feels more crowded. Part of that is likely due to our tourist fatigue. I know we are tourists ourselves but after a while you grow tired of people holding up lines to take pictures or walking in front of door ways with strollers, stopping and completely disrupting the flow of people moving around. Another factor is that at the biggest tourist places in Paris there is really no gating or throttling of the amount of people allowed anywhere at any given point. Versailles was a lot of fun but the actual museum was so crowded with people you could hardly move. Contrasting that with Buckingham palace and the experience is worlds different. Eifel tower was similar, it was really neat to be at the top and looking all across Paris but that was interrupted every 2 seconds by someone bumping into you.

Tonight we are going to try and have Fondue for dinner, it’s raining pretty hard today and everyone is a bit tired so we’re going to take it easy and recoup a bit.

Merci, Gustave Eiffel.

Angie — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 08:20:00 GMT

Saturday we went to Notre Dame cathedral in a downpour.

(A quick side note about weather: before we came to Paris I was worried about the weather being too hot because by all accounts August can be really warm here and there is no air conditioning in the apartment we rented. Turns out we didn't need to worry about heat, and it's over 90 degrees at home in Seattle. It will probably rain every day until we leave.)

Anyway, back to Notre Dame. The cathedral is impressive and there was another good audio guide. It was crowded, though, as it was free, historic and INDOORS (it was really raining hard.) The treasury was cool, too. A couple of weird bones (so gruesome) and a piece of the true cross. They were preparing for a special holy day (the assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary) so some things were not quite where the audio guide said they were, but that was understandable.

After Notre Dame we stepped out into an even worse downpour, which forced us into a cheap souvenir shop to buy a couple more umbrellas, and then we headed over to the Holocaust memorial. It was stark and sobering, as it should be.

After that we needed to just sit down somewhere dry for a while, so we found a cafe and ordered some warm drinks. While we sat, the downpour dried up and the sun came out! We almost had to scrap our original plan of getting food and picnicking at the Champ de Mars at the base of the Eiffel Tower for dinner. But the skies were suddenly blue, so we went off in search of food.

We found food and headed to the park. This is where things got temporarily dicey. There are a lot of vendors trying to sell you tacky Eiffel Tower trinkets for a few euros (okay, we bought a few.) But there were also these 3 youths who swaggered over with a lot of attitude. They each had a piece of paper with writing on it in a protective sleeve that they thrust in our faces; couldn't read what it said. When we told them no thanks, one of them went over to Ryan and started whacking him on the brim of his hat while the other ones laughed. Ryan got pretty agitated, and Jeff was yelling at him to stop. They stopped just short of the situation getting out of control and sauntered off, laughing again. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish; maybe start something physical and then steal our stuff? Don't know, but luckily cooler heads prevailed and we were able to go back to lounging in the park.

After about an hour or so of lounging we made our way over to the base of the tower. I am so glad we took advantage of the new online ticketing system. We were able to reserve a time and buy our tickets in advance, making the wait at the bottom lift only a few minutes. The lines for the folks without tickets were very long, and we would not have waited in them. There was a line at the second level for the lift to the top, but it too was not that bad.

At the summit we elbowed our way to the rail in order to get a view. It was also very crowded there (no surprise) but the view was worth it. Paris in miniature laid out in front of us. From up there all the weird little side streets seemed to make sense and the city was beautiful. We made our way around to get the view from all angles, then back around to the west where the sun was setting as we got in line for the lift back down to the second floor.

At the second floor we decided we'd walk down. That was a mistake. It was a loooong way down, and walking down stairs is harder than you think. It made Ryan's knee really sore and he limped the rest of the night. At the bottoms my legs felt like jelly for a few minutes, but after a quick sit on a bench I was fine.

We bought crepes at a stand across the street and waited for the twinkling lights that start on the hour, then after the lights we started the trek home. Poor Ryan had no fun negotiating all the stairs in the metro with his bum knee (and the 56 steps up to our apartment), but we finally made it home. Another long day, but it was fun.

Sunday we have no plans. The original plan was to go to Giverny and see the home of Monet and the gardens he painted, but it turns out no one really wanted to do that except me. Plus it's raining a lot. I suspect we'll find a market or museum (maybe Musee d'Orsay?) to fill our time. Au revoir!

Is it cheese or canteloupe?***

Angie — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:42:00 GMT

Friday the 13th (my birthday) we went on a bike tour of Versaille. We went through Fat Tire Bike Tours, an American owned bike tour company that has offices in Paris, Barcelona, London and Berlin. I would definitely recommend them to anyone travelling to any of these cities.

Our tour started at their offices at 9:00 am, where we chose bikes (mine was called Ooh la) and used the bathrooms before we headed out. The bathrooms were clean and free - bathrooms here are definitely less hit and more miss. The one at the Louvre was downright disgusting.

We headed out and promptly proceeded to ride our bikes, in traffic, to the RER station where we got on a commuter train with the bikes, four to a car. The train ride to Versaille was only about 20 minutes.

Once we were in Versailles we stopped outside the el Rancho Tex-Mex restaurant (seriously) and got oriented. Then we were directed to an indoor-outdoor market where we spent an hour loading up on food and wine for our picnic later on at Versaille. It can be a little daunting ordering in French when there's a crowd, but we survived and met up with our group with our bags full of meat, cheese, bread, fruit, wine and pastries.

At Versailles we rode through the grounds, far from the Chateau, where there were very few other people. It was really scenic, and no crowds were a HUGE plus. After 4 stops to see a few sights and hear a little history from our guide Matt, we stopped for lunch at the grand canal. It was an amazing place for a picnic, and would have been idyllic if not for the BEES. So many bees. They were all over our food; one time I went to take a drink of wine and one was in my glass. Another time, one was on my quiche.

After an hour or so of lunch we headed off for the Chateau. This is where the ride got a little more difficult. Ali and I did all but the last uphill; we walked our bikes up to the top where we were locking them up while we went in the chateau.

Now the chateau. The chateau was gorgeous, as expected. Such opulence and beauty. But the crowds - OMG. So many people. Which would be fine if they all behaved the same and walked politely into the next room, oohed and ahhed, and moved on. However that was not the case. Everyone has a camera, and everyone MUST have a photo of everything. That involves them standing in the middle of the room and holding their camera and hands at head height in front of everyone else for a minute while they get their photo.

Despite the crowds, I thought the chateau was amazing. The Hall of Mirrors and the king and queen's apartments were just incredible. The audio guide was good, too - just enough commentary without droaning on.

After the chateau we met up with our guide at the predetermined time and headed back to the train station (downhill!) where we boarded the train for the ride back to Paris. Lucky for us, we got to ride with Stinky Stinkerson. Then it was a quick 10 minute ride back to their shop and we were done.

The ride made for a long, full day, but it was a lot of fun. I would definitely do one of their rides again.

Today we are headed for Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. Au revoir!

***Take a look at this photo and tell me, is it cheese or canteloupe??? :)

More photos

Jeff — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:07:00 GMT

More photos are up, if you've seen all the other ones you can start here.

Tomorrow we are hanging out at the apartment to rest up. I think everyone will get caught up on blog posts then.

A bit behind on blogs/photos

Jeff — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:06:00 GMT

We're in Paris and having fun (also everyone's a bit tired and can become cranky at points). Tomorrow we do the bike tour at Versailles but will be home early and get caught up on photos and updates.

Two Buffoons Went to Tea

Angie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:44:00 GMT

Oops – haven’t blogged in a few days.

Here’s a recap of the past few days:

Monday: We traveled to Salisbury, where we took a bus tour of Stonehenge and Old Sarum. I thought Stonehenge was interesting – the audio guide definitely helped with that by giving history about the stones and what they think they were used for. It turns out it was probably not aliens.

Also in Salisbury we visited Salisbury Cathedral, which is an amazing 13^th century cathedral. We followed the self-guided tour there and took a ton of photos. Very pretty. They also had one of the remaining four copies of the Magna Carta. Threw in a little education for the kids while we were at it.

Oh yeah, and Tara and Matt went with us – that was really nice to spend the day with them. Too many years have gone by since we last saw them. And, especially with their little one on the way, (James T. Kerwin?) I hope it won’t be so long again.

So Tuesday: It rained almost the entire day. But being from Seattle, we didn’t let that hold us back. We visited Kensington Palace (another part of our official membership in Historic Royal Palaces) which was very strange. I went expecting a tour of the palace where Queen Victoria lived and where Princess Diana lived. But it’s undergoing a renovation, and in the meantime they have installed an “Enchanted palace” modern art theme. They’ve transformed some of the staterooms to fit this theme, and you’re given a guide and told you’re on a quest to find the names of the seven dancing princesses. It was an interesting break from the norm (“here’s another old, fancy drawing room”) but it was also kind of bizarre. We would have been annoyed if we had paid additional to get in there.

After that we separated, and the boys went to Churchill’s War rooms and Ali and I went to Harrod’s. Harrod’s was crazy (as expected) and immensely overpriced (also as expected.) They sold everything from Yorkshire Terrier puppies (actual live puppies for £1,500) to New Moon collectible Barbies (Ali really wanted Jacob, who came without a shirt). The toy department was my favorite. It was huge! It had a £5,000 wooden rocking horse and a £9,500 toy car that you could actually ride in. At one point Ali was tapping the face of a clock in the furniture department, and I had to ask her to please stop immediately when I saw the price for the set of clock plus vases was £15,000.

After Harrod’s we trudged back to Kensington Palace for high tea at the Orangery. Where it proceeded to be “two buffoons go to high tea.” Ali broke the lid of the butter dish (which I thought was clotted cream, so Ali ate some!) Then we both dropped our napkins, and Ali dropped jam into her tea cup and licked it off. She also licked her bread to see what the spread was. In the garden, Ali ate a leaf off the tree like a giraffe. And there was lots of laughing - we had a good time.

We capped Tuesday off with a tickets to see Wicked. It was awesome! Loved it.

So that brings us to Wednesday. We got up this morning and took the Eurostar train to Paris, where we are currently resting in the apt. we rented here.

First impressions: the apt. is a lot smaller (and not as nice or clean as the London apt.), the metro is dirtier (but more benches), and EVERYONE SPEAKS FRENCH HERE!!!

Also, we tried to get a taxi to our apt., only to be told that the street we wanted was like a block away! Doh!

Oh well, live and learn! Maybe we’ll walk over to the Arc de Triomphe tonight; otherwise it’s just a relaxing night for us (after we find food!) Au revoir!

bye bye london hello paris

ryan — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:15:00 GMT

So I’m a bit late on this but a few days ago we went and saw Kensington Palace which was kind of lame. After we split up and my dad and I went to Churchill’s war rooms and the museum to him and they were both AMAZING.

After me and my dad went on a journey for the oldest family owned shop in London (Twinings), after a long walk we finally found it. Then we went on a long journey to meet up with my mom and sister for dinner at the jugged hare where I got my first beer! Then we saw Wicked which was really cool and amazing

Yesterday we took the train to Paris France and made the journey to our apartment and for food.

Today it is off to the louvre to see the mona lisa!

Maybe I will get some wine tonight :)

Stonehenge, and Salisbury

Jeff — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:14:00 GMT

We went to Salisbury and Stonehenge today. Was a fun day trip. Saw all the sites including Stonehenge, Cerum (hiltop location of Castle and original location of cathedaral) as well as Salisbury Cathedral. All good stuff and lots of fun. Angie's friend Tara and her husband came with us so it was good to get to spend time talking with them on the train ride out there.

Lots of photos uploaded....

It’s official I’ve walked all over London

Jeff — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:11:14 GMT

We’ve done a lot of walking, standing, back tracking and looking for somewhere to sit over the last few days. Yesterday was a bit rainy in the afternoon so we chose to go to a movie to a) Avoid the Rain and b) Sit down for a while (but not necessarily in that order). It worked out well as we missed the heaviest part of the rain and got to rest our feet some.

We have been trying to find a Fuller’s Pub for dinner as they were recommended to us by a British friend of ours. They are everywhere but we never manage to find one until immediately after we have given up and just eat somewhere else. Today we bought a data plan for Angie’s phone so we can look things up on the go, only to then have it not work, that’s something I’ll have to figure out tonight. So we once again missed finding a Fuller’s. We did however see one as our cab driver zoomed us down the street to another alleged one, but by the time he stopped we were already pretty far past it (lots of major roads cars aren’t allowed to stop on) so we had to wait and by then he was already close to the place he was taking us.

Today we went to the British Museum which while impressive in the collection they have was a bit boring. Even Angie who is more into museums and the like didn’t enjoy it that much. We did get to the see the Rosetta Stone and a lot of other nice pieces of history but the audio tour was a bit verbose. I think we saw some Egyptian artifacts that were about 4000 years old though.

The highlight of the day was heading over to Hyde Park and Speaker’s Corner. On Sundays anyone who wishes can go and stand and talk about anything they like. Some people even offered free hugs. It was fun just to see all the people speaking and debating about various topics (lots of religious ones). We also ran into Angie’s friend Tara and her husband Matt, who just got in yesterday, we were planning on meeting up with them but we saw them walking into a store outside the British Museum so got to spend some time with them as they went to Speaker’s Corner with us.

Tomorrow we head to Salisbury and Stonehenge. I think we are all looking forward to a nice long train ride with a seat, we leave at 8:50 and I think the plan is for pasties for breakfast at the train station!

We are (not) amused...

Angie — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:00:00 GMT

I am tired. Really tired. And my feet hurt.

Having said that, I am still having fun. I didn’t post yesterday because we were home pretty late, so here’s what we did the past two days.

Saturday: we went to Buckingham Palace for a tour (preceded by a somewhat failed attempt to see the changing of the guard; despite our best efforts, we weren’t near enough to the gates to see anything but the band and guards march by). Our tour was of the staterooms. I liked it and the included audio guide for the most part. The bit about the Queen’s year was a little snoozy to me. But, really nice art and some truly great looking interiors. We topped that off with tea/snacks in the garden at the café there and then a quick walk in the rain to the gate.

Afterwards we were tired, but we didn’t want to go back to our apartment. It’s a decent location, but a little out of the way and we weren’t ready to be in for the night. But we needed to sit down for a while, so we went to a movie! We went and saw the A-team at a theater in Leicester Square. It was a decent diversion and a good place to stay off our feet.

After the movie we walked over to Covent Garden where the market had closed, but the shops were open. We browsed in a few shops, saw a few street performers and then found a pub for dinner. After dinner, another street performer (with the loooongest set-up for the smallest payoff) and we were off to home.

Sunday: Today we went to the British Museum. That’s pretty much all I have to say about that. Look, I get the value of so many antiquities in one place, but perhaps I was just in the wrong mood. For example, they have the Rosetta Stone. Like, the Rosetta Stone. It’s the stone that allowed scholars to finally translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. But there was this big, pushy crowd around it. And I just got really mad that they were jostling each other to look at a ROCK. Get a grip – it’s not going anywhere, and you can read about it online any time. Take a glance and move along! It was probably just me.

When we came out of the museum we were talking about how we should leave a message for my friend Tara and her husband Matt who are also in London right now, since there hotel was right by the museum. Not 10 seconds later who do I see across the street? Tara! Looking exactly the same to me as the last time I saw her. Great timing! Turns out they’d been in the museum too.

After catching up a little bit (haven’t seen her in 10 years) we all headed over to Hyde Park and Speaker’s Corner. That was pure craziness! There were quite a few guys holding forth about various religions, a few people with “Free Hugs” signs, a guy with an “Ask Me About Space” sign, another guy with a sign declaring that we need to become aware of mind manipulation disguised as sexual attraction, and a few other dudes talking about something I couldn’t even make out. The crazy people were generally surrounded by crowds consisting of curious onlookers and only slightly less crazy people arguing with them. It was pretty funny to see.

After Hyde Park we said bye to Tara and Matt, then headed over to see the London Eye and have dinner in a pub. Afterwards, we opted for an earlier night in as we have an 8:50 train to Salisbury and Stonehenge tomorrow.

So that’s that – tired, but still having fun!

More photos are up

Jeff — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:27:00 GMT

Posted some more photos. You can see the start of the new ones here.

Today

ryan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:03:00 GMT

got up. ate food. got a pasty. yum. rode the train. got off. walked a bit. saw Hampton court palace. huge. road the train. again. slept on it. got another pasty. yummer. rode the tube back. sat on my but. night night

There was beer! And it was great!

Angie — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:58:00 GMT

So today we took a train (national rail, not the tube) to Hampton Court Palace. Pretty cool – half-Tudor and half-Georgian (partially rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren until the money ran out, so an interesting blend of architectural styles; have to say, I’m more of a Tudor girl myself.) We toured the Tudor kitchens, Henry VIII’s apartments and various gardens. We also visited the maze where, I’m sad to admit, the kids beat us to the middle by 10 minutes! There was teasing involved.

Afterwards we took the train home, grabbed the kids some yummy looking pre-fab meals from Marks and Spencer*, and took a too quick rest before Jeff and I headed out to the Great British Beer Festival. It was both Great and British. And there was Beer there, along with thousands of our closest, drunkest, new British friends. We didn’t stay too long because we were just too tired. And the prospect of sitting for a while was irresistible.

I am having fun spending our days seeing some great sites. But I am really most enjoying spending the days with Jeff and the kids. It’s been really great so far! I am looking forward to the days to come.

Tomorrow we will head to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards and a tour. Then maybe St. Paul’s Cathedral? Or Trafalgar Square (National Gallery)?

*It took two grownups nearly half an hour to figure out how to use the combination microwave/oven to heat the kids’ takeaway meals. It was so ridiculously easy once we figured it out. Not our finest moment!

Palaces and Pasties

Jeff — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:57:00 GMT

We've been really busy the last 2 days doing as many tourist things as possible. Yesterday we hit Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and a double decker bus tour. Seeing the Crown Jewels was interesting but at some level it's really hard to comprehend that everything is real and not just a prop. Included with the Crown Jewels was also a lot of gold plates/platters etc. I have to say that in the 1600's or so gaudy was in, cause all that stuff looks super expensive but I think it also might be the choice of some of the real housewives of New Jersey too. Westminster Abbey was pretty good too. The celing in the "Ladies Chapel" was incredible.

The double decker bus tour was a nice end of day thing, we were pretty tired from walking and being on our feet most of the day so being able to sit back and just enjoy the ride. So far we've been pretty lucky with weather. It's been pretty cool and a bit overcast so no sunburns etc.

Today we went down to Hampton Court and saw the palace. But more importantly we bought some pasties for the train ride. It turns out there are 2 pasty shops in Waterloo station and our Cornish friend (who makes a pretty good pasty himself) just told us they were good there, so we bought some on the way back from the other place too. Ryan said the second place was better, I haven't had my second one as I'm saving it for breakfast, but the first place was a bit too salty.

Oh yeah, back to Hampton Court It was pretty nice and is reprsentative of Tudor style. One interesting piece was the chimneys for each of the private rooms, they all had an ornamental pattern built into them.

After Hampton Court we got the kids settled in at home and after a 45 minute diversion to get the microwave working we headed out to the Great British Beer Festival. There were thousands of people and hundreds of beers there. Angie and I managed to try a few different beers, I have no idea of the name of the one I liked best but I believe it was a dark mild style.I also tried some horrible cider too. Everything was okay though as I bought a pasty for dinner while we were there :-) That brings our pasty count up to 9 for the day for the family (although some have yet to be eaten).

Ali is still looking to have some "Bangers and Mash" we'll have to make sure we find some of those for her.

Tomorrow we're going to hit Buckingham Palace and see the changing of the guard. More photos are uploaded you can view them using the Photos link at the top of the page.

So glad I typed for half an hour....

Angie — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:35:00 GMT

So, I typed a long post about how we saw the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey and took a double-decker bus tour. But just before I posted it, I got a message saying my tab had been recovered (for whatever reason) and of course the entire post was gone.

So, here’s a recap since I’m not writing the whole thing again: Went to the Tower of London. Saw the crown jewels. Ate noodles at Wagamama. Went to Westminster Abbey. Listened to Jeremy Irons. Saw some tombs. Snapped photos of Big Ben/Parliament. Got on a double-decker bus. Took more photos. Saw cool stuff. Had dinner. Went Home. Long day, yada yada yada.

Photos from today

Jeff — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:35:00 GMT

We got back a little bit late and everyone vegged out a bit so no blog posts. I have uploaded some photos but instead of them showing up on the home page you need to click the photos link (either at the top of the page or on the right rail. They won't show up as posts anymore.

What is this sleep thing people keep speaking about

Jeff — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:50:00 GMT

We're finally in London and settled into our apartment. Now all of us are trying our best to keep each other awake until about 9:00 so we can get on a local time schedule. We've all gotten a bit punchy and had our moments, but 1 hour to go and then it's bed time!

Our apartment is pretty nice. It's big with plenty of room for everyone and we have a nice balcony that overlooks the Thames and Tower Bridge. Angie uploaded a picture of our view already.

We were finally settled into the apartment around 3:00 and headed out to try and get some grocerys and grab some dinner. We have been told that Tesco has everything we need and found one online not far from Tower of London and set out to find it. We have oyster cards which is pretty much unlimited transit on tube or bus, so we hoped a bus to get across Tower Bridge with plans of walking the rest of the way. Of course we ended up going a little too much east on a road and not enough North and ended up in completely the wrong spot. Curse you historic cities and your lack of tourist friendly grid system to your roads! After some wandering we eventually found our way back in the general direction we should go. We hit a pub for dinner and then figured out Tesco was actually just around the corner. This turned out to be a Tesco express but it had cereal and other stuff for breakfast which is all we needed. We decided to get a cab back as none of us was in any sort of mental condition to figure out how to use bus or walk back.

Tomorrow we'll be rested and tourists in full effect, watch out London!

the trip so far

ryan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:31:00 GMT

The trip so far has been long and cramped. First we start the journey waiting for the town car to come get us but to find out that it has a flat and a van is coming to get us. Then I leave my wallet at home. We make it to the airport with out me realizing I left it at home also. So we make our way to our gate and I get super excited when I see that it is a WiFi enabled fight, but only later to find out that you have to pay to use it :(.

We land in Dallas and eat, and while eating we see SANTA with a COWBOY HAT on. Best moment of the lay over in Dallas. Now we got on the plane to London and a few hours into the flight I get up to go to the bathroom waiting for half an hour only to notice the door was open but somebody locked it and left it open. Then we make it to London. Whew. We make our way to our apartment and get settled in and head out for pub food and to get some grocerys for the kitchen.

We're here!.....finally

Ali — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:25:00 GMT

hi! we are in london right now, due to the time changes i am exhausted. Bad luck today: 1: get off plane REALLY long line in immigration 2: the lift to our apartment on the SIXTH floor broke! so we had to lug the suitcases up! 3: finally the tube was PACKED full of peope and it was very loud. it was all fun in a way. but we are having verry seattle-like weather here in london, cloudy and rainy all day. heres what happened when we were at Dallas airport waiting for flight connection: we saw a couple crazy guys with beards that went all the way down to their chest! and it didnt help that they were also wearing cowboy hats!

Yeah, so, we're here. What's it to ya?

Angie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:19:00 GMT

This is our view of the Tower Bridge from our apartment. The apartment we rented is very roomy and comfortable. Couldn't ask for more.

Except for perhaps an elevator. We arrived to pick up our security card and door key from the concierge office round the corner and he informed us that the lift was out of order. It has been for a couple of days, but it should be fixed FRIDAY. Well, our apartment is on the 6th floor (which really means the 7th) so there'll be a lot of stairs for us.

The good news is it should be good practice for our Paris apartment, which is a 3rd floor walk-up.

Otherwise, the flights were both early and uneventful. Not a lot of sleeping happened, so we're all very tired. We are forcing the kids to stay up until 9 pm before they go to bed to hopefully get everyone used to the time difference quickly.

Nothing much else to report - Jeff will chime in about our (mis)adventures in finding the supermarket. All I can say is the taxi was well worth whatever it cost to get home and not have to walk anymore.

Tomorrow the sightseeing starts with the Tower of London in the morning and Westminster Abbey in the afternoon.