London Day 3 - Westminster Walk

Busy day today…beginning at (of course) our neighborhood Starbucks for some coffee and free wi-fi so we could update the blog. Say what you want about the Starbucks monopoly, but it sure is nice to know that when you find a Starbucks you know exactly what you’re getting (especially the free wi-fi).  And they seem particularly fond to market the “Pike Place Blend” coffee… “roasted in Kent, Washington!”

Big Ben

Then we set off to take the “Westminster walking tour” laid out in our Rick Steves’ London book.  Got off the tube at the Westminster station, walked out the door, and it was one of those “ah-hah” moments: there was Big Ben and the parliament building literally across the street.  It was like walking out into history.  The street was packed with people doing the same thing we were, too.

Outside of Parliament

As directed by Rick, we walked out to the middle of the Westminster Bridge so we could get a sweeping view of the parliament building and Grande Ben.  Made for some nice pics, to be sure.

Mandela Statue

We kept walking the route that took us to Westminster Abbey, via Parliament Square…a small parked ringed in statues of famous Brits and a few famous other people. Thank heavens they put “Nelson Mandela” on the foot of his statue, or we might have thought it was Morgan Freeman. Legend has it that the Winston Churchill statue has a small electric current running through it because he didn’t want the birds pooping on his head.  Looks like Mandela wasn’t as lucky.  Biggest loser of the bunch was Abe Lincoln, whose statue was placed across the street from the park.

Not nice, birds!

After more walking, we went underground to tour the Churchill War Rooms and Museum.  This is where Winnie ran the WW2 war effort, and you saw the rooms looking just as they had during the war. When we bought our tickets, we encountered a true English gentleman, who said things like "Thank you, good sir."  Typical.  

The War Rooms were pretty insightful, but about half way through the tour, we started getting hungry and hurried through the last of the rooms (which were all bedrooms and such so who cares).  It was sure nice to get back out into the fresh air.

Her "My Name is Earl" pose

After a stop for a rather late lunch, we continued our trek to Trafalgar Square, where they had even more statues, and even more people looking at the statues.  On one side of the square was the National Gallery museum, which of course attracted Ally and Jorge.  I didn’t mind, since it was just 40 minutes to closing so I knew the agony wouldn’t last long. All museums not run by the Queen are free, so it’s no big deal to pop in for short while.

We got to see a bunch of priceless artwork from the likes of Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Rembrant, Reubens...and others.  At 6:00pm on the dot we were herded out of the museum by the attendants.  Thankfully on the way out we walked through the Renaissance rooms, which meant we got to see a bunch more exquisite pieces. (BTW, Ally wrote this paragraph. Gail would not be this much into the art.) 

Messi

Next stop was Leicester Square, known as London’s theater (excuse me, theatre) district. Ally said this is where the movies hold their big London premieres. The area was ringed by just about any kind of restaurant you could want. Couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the Messi caricature drawn by a street artist. (See you soon, Messi!)

From Leicester it was onward to Piccadilly Circus, even more stores, more restaurants  and more people wandering around. You’re probably getting the idea that we did a lot of walking today…and you would be right.  But we weren’t done yet.

"Hellooooo" Chilling outside Buck House

Our final stop of the day was Buckingham Palace, affectionately known here as Buck House. We walked around to the familiar front of the palace, and you could almost hear the “clip clop, clip clop” of the horse hooves as some royal would meander by in a carriage. 

Buck House gardens

We saw the famous balcony where the royals come out and yell “Helloooooo” to the masses below.  It was now dusk, but we had to get a photo of the royal flower beds for Gramme.

We ended our day of touring with a walk through St. James Park to catch the tube back to Earl’s Court for a dinner of yogurt and leftovers.  It’s not quite 10pm, and Ally is falling asleep on the couch.  Think we’ll call it a day and start over again tomorrow.

Oh yes…the new season of Downton Abbey debuted tonight over here, but the cable in our apartment doesn’t get that channel.  So we’ll have to wait until next January, llke everyone else, so catch the new season.  We’d hoped to visit Highclere Castle, where the series is flimed, but it closed the day we arrived for five months to film the next season’s episodes. As they would say here, “bollocks!”

And last but not least…Happy 17^th Birthday Emily!!!

London Day 2 - Trip Back to South Kens

Tube station

After an afternoon nap (that felt oh so good), we traveled two tube stops east to South Kensington, the tony neighborhood where Ally lived when she studied in London.   

South Kens pedestrian mall

The first big surprise was when we left the tube station…what had been a busy street had been converted into a lovely pedestrian mall surrounded by small restaurants offering just about every type of food you could imagine. The center of the area had tables and chairs for outdoor dining.  It was quite nice.

Tourist photo!

London house

We walked from the tube station up past the Victoria & Albert Museum to 56 Princes Gate – the Pepperdine house.  It was still looking stately, and Ally said the light was on in her room.  The students would just be starting fall semester…ah, the memories!  We continued our walk into Hyde Park, looking at even more memorials erected by Queen Victoria to her dead hubby Albert.   

Outside Royal Albert Hall

At the edge of the park was Royal Albert Hall, another tribute to – you guessed it – the dead Prince Albert. Ally’s like “Geez, Victoria…he’s dead. Get over it already.”

We ended up dining at one of Ally’s favorite London restaurants – the Beirut Express. It was Lebanese food, and it was delicious. I had chicken skewers with a paste-like garlic sauce that was to die for. Ally had okra stew, and Jorge had lentil soup with a salad.  Of course we started out with hummus!  A very nice meal and it definitely lived up to Ally's "we HAVE to eat there" pleas.

On our way home, we stopped outside of the now-closed Starbucks to see if the wireless internet was still working and if it spilled outside of the store.  It did!  So we downloaded Twitter and other stuff before heading back to the apartment. This would become a nightly ritual on our way home from our daily travels.

London Day 2 - Portobello Market Moosef*ck

Tube station

Hit our first snag on the way to Notting Hill this morning. Got to the tube station and discovered that most of the north-south tube lines are closed this weekend for maintenance. They were offering busses instead, but when we got to the bus stop it was packed with people…and the busses that came were already full with people.  So what should have been a quick ride on the tube became a longer journey, as we opted to go back to the tube and take a round-about way to get to Notting Hill. 

Entering the market

Notting Hill, of course, is the little town made famous by that movie where Hugh Grant’s character lets Julia Roberts’ character kick him in the nuts over and over. It is also the home to a very popular outdoor Portobello market where the streets are lined with vendor booths selling everything from clothes and souvenirs to antiques and all kinds of food.   

Our gnome surfing the market crowd

And oh yeah…it was a mass of humanity.  We made it through maybe half of the market…and that was still quite a lot. It was tough to move with all of the people, particularly the stupid tourists who’d just stop in the middle of the road.  Ally found a cute union jack scarf, but as far as souvenirs go we decided we’d wait and shop for those where it’s less crowded.

Huge cauldrons of paella

Crepes seemed to be really popular with lots of vendors making them, and there was one place with three huge bubbling cauldrons of paella brewing.  Figured since we were heading to Spain we'd wait and do paella there. We opted for grapes to munch on as we strolled.

From Notting Hill, we decided to go back to our home base at Earl’s Court and watch the Chelsea game at a local pub. We were surprised to find the game wasn’t being shown on TV…nor were any other games of the top league.  Turns out we see more EPL games in the states than they do in England.  Very odd.

Ally wants to point out that our neighborhood of Earl’s Court reminds her a lot of Ballard. Lots of shops and restaurants, annoying motorcycles, and sirens. Lots of sirens.

 

We’re going to be a bit screwed tonight trying to keep tabs on the Sounders game.  It would be starting at 9pm here, and our Starbucks hotspot will be closed by then. However, our good friends and soccer buddies the Cooks will be tweeting us updates!

London Day 2 - Early Morning Risers

It's officially Day 2 in London, but we sure didn't get much done. Our goal was to try and stay up as late as possible so we could get on a London schedule. I think I made it to 7:30 last night, Jorge and Ally not much later. Jorge and I both work up at 4am today, Ally says she was up since 2:30am. We did discover the kebab place across the street stays open until 5am; could see the place from our window...didn't look like they had much business.

Not having internet in the apartment is turning out to be more annoying than we'd thought.  We're now sitting at Starbucks, having a coffee and using their wireless.  Have a feeling this is going to be a habit while in London. This place doesn't seem to have heard of "whole wheat", so while Jorge got the coffee Ally and I walked the area checking all of the bakeries and other coffee shops looking for anything healthy.  Not a lot of luck, but did settle on a small baguette that looked more wheaty than white and had seeds on it.

Since we're up early, we're heading out to the Portobello Road market in Notting Hill first, then we'll wander over to South Kensington to where Ally used to live, and then we'll head to Stamford Bridge where we can mock the giant John Terry photo at the stadium. Since Chelsea has an away game at 2:30, we're going to try and find a pub in the area to get the experience of watching a soccer game with the local hooligans. 

Tabs report on Kate's topless photos

The big news over here is the topless photos of Kate Middleton. We aren't seeing the photos, mind you, but hearing the debate over this "dreadful invasion of royal priv-acy." The BBC hosts did say you could find the pics on the internet if you were so inclined. Loved one tabloid's headline of "Kates's Gone Titters!"

We did have a small issue with the water heater at the apartment. It was supposed to be set for 24-hour continuous hot water, but Ally found her shower to be of the cold water variety.  Felt a bit for her as we heard her squeals coming from the bathroom.

Signing off for now...heading out to explore.  

London Day 1 - We Arrived!

Travel day was long, but fine.  For those who don't know, we had enough frequent flyer miles to make the trip on business class, which was nice. We had three seats together in the center of the Boeing 777.  The seats went into all kinds of positions, and went nearly flat for sleeping.  Best part were the larger restrooms in biz class...twice the size of the usual airplane bathroom...and it always smelled so nice. 

Service was good...loved the little cup of hot nuts and of course the hot towels to wash up.  Meals were decent. Had some fresh fruit with my meals that included a mystery fruit that couldn't be cut with a knife. Probably not a commentary on the fruit as much as the dull little knives, which didn't cut salad either. Ally took a bite of the mystery fruit, and declared it had no taste whatsoever.

Welcome to London!

You know how the giant photo of smiling Kobe always greeted you at LAX?  At London Heathrow you have the giant photo of the smiling (and I think much younger and royally Photoshopped) Queen. Ally is channeling her "not impressed" face.

Customs line at Heathrow

We made it through customs fine, were wished a pleasant holiday, and caught the tube out to Eart's Court, where the apartment we're staying at is located. Paul, the landlord, let us in and showed us around.  It's a nice enough place, though the couch is really low to the ground.  But it'll work. The location is great - we're a block from Starbucks, there's a pub next door, and the tube stop is less than two blocks away.

Ally says Paul looks like a British Seth McFarlane (Gramme, google him) and said things like "bruvah" and "favah" when referring to his brother and father.

We were dead tired, but it was only 2pm and we wanted to stay up as late as we could to try and get on London time.  First order of business was a shower...and boy did that feel good!  We didn't go beyond our neighborhood today...wandered a long time to find a place with food I could eat.  Came to the realization that will not be easy in London.  Turkey, sandwiches or otherwise, simply doesn't exist here.  As Jorge pointed out "it's an American bird." We finally settled on a burger place called Byron, where they serve "proper burgers." I got them to take the chicken from a caesar salad and put it on a Nicoise salad for me, and that worked.

Then it was back to the apartment, where we could find nothing but bizarre British game shows on the telly.

It's Finally Here - We Leave Today!

It wouldn't be a family trip if it weren't the morning of our departure with Jorge yet to start packing. Ally and I are both packed in the large suitcases; he thinks he's going to get all he needs in one of the smaller suitcases. We'll see how this works out. Ally showed up last night with her suitcase bulging at the seams; we went through it together and eliminated about a third of the clothes she'd packed (trust me...that still leaves plenty of clothes).

Biggest "must haves" of course are the electronic gear and all of the various chargers - laptop, iPad, iPods, iPhones, cameras. Though we don't have internet in our London apartment, Ally did a Google Earth search last night and found the place is about a block from a Starbucks, so we'll have at least one internet hotspot nearby.

Meals will be a bit of a challenge today with our flight times and the time zone changes. For example, we leave Chicago at 9:30pm, which means it's unlikely dinner will be offered on the flight...but it will just be 6:30pm body time for us, which is too early to have eaten before we board the flight. I'm taking a thermal tote with some fruit and other stuff.

I'm once again traveling with that horrifying passport photo. Wondering if I should make that same "runaway bride" face when I go through customs?

10 Days to Go!

(Gail) Due to a brain fart on my part when we booked our reservations months and months ago, Jorge did not get on the same flight over to London as Ally and I. He would be leaving 5 hours earlier and connecting in New York, while Ally and I would be connecting through Chicago. He has called many times over the months to see if he could get switched to our flight, but there were no frequent flyer  seats available. We hoped that as it got closer to our departure, American might relent and give him a seat if they weren't all sold.

He called American again today, and great news!  He is now on our flight! We don't know if a seat opened up, or they just decided to accommodate him, but we don't care.  He had the AA operator on speaker phone, and when the guy said there would be an additional charge, we braced ourselves for the total. It was $3.82! Turns out all he had to pay was the difference in flight tax between Chicago and NY.  Thank you, American!

With that taken care of time, it's time to get serious about packing. Jorge, of course, is thinking that all three of us can go in one suitcase.  Wrong!  I'm already on record saying that I want to take one empty suitcase solely for souvenirs...should I find things to buy. The biggest regret of our other trip to Europe was not having room for souvenirs other than postcards and refrigerator magnets. I still kick myself for not buying that butt-ass ugly Frank Ribery scarf at the Bayern Munich superstore. It was so seriously wrong that it would be a collector's item.  Not making that mistake again...especially since this trip is only to two cities, so we don't need to be traveling nimble. Plus, we need to take our Sounders jerseys and scarfs for those photos at the Barcelona game.

Nice thing about this trip is we won't need to pack the heavy coats and sweaters like last time.  Jorge's planning to get the suitcases out of the attic later today, and Ally will be stopping by Friday after work to pick hers up.  Getting excited!