England Diaries - Part IV

On Thursday we slept in as Westminster Abbey didn't open until 9:30.  Worth noting is that this was our 5th day in England and our first day of waking up to full sun.

Westminster Abbey was one of my favorite sites of the entire trip although it's much more like a tomb than a church. I stood entranced in front of the tomb of Elizabeth I ("Right there!" I kept thinking. "She's buried right there.") and also of her half-sister Mary.

I learned Westminster Abbey has no bathroom open to the public, got directions to a public toilet a block away, ran in dire need to the toilet only to discover public toilets in England require you pay 50p to enter. Back I raced to Blair, hopping up and down on one leg as I scrambled for money, then raced back. Live and learn.

We went to Covenant Garden for lunch and then to the British Museum but we were all tired by then and really just not into it.  

Mom was ready for a nap so we dropped her off and then in 2 hours, Blair and I managed to see Picadilly Circus, Leister Square, Trafalgar Square, and Hyde Park. We moved.

Hyde Park is this big, green beautiful park with wide paths for running. They also have paddleboats. There were only 2 boats out on the water which should have clued us in, but we're not that bright. We took a boat out and were immediately hit by winds. Plus, we had Rudder trouble and could only go backwards. I have no idea why. There was a skinny guy alone in his paddleboat, kicking our ass. It was embarrassing.

We meandered around for about 20 minutes and finally managed to go forward and put some distance between us and the return area. When we headed for shore I was exhausted.  Throbbing thigh muscles, thirsty, bedraggled. I'm slogging along on the peddles, begging Blair for a rest. But he's aiming the boat at the shore and shouting "Ramming speed!" as he peddles furiously for the dock. He does make me laugh. 

Tomorrow: How we almost missed our train to Scotland. 

England Diaries - Part III

Day 4, Wed. May 17th - Sights Seen: Parliment, Big Ben, London Eye, Churchill Museum, Tower of London, London Bridge, Harrods.

This is the day it dawned on me that decaf was not going to be available to me on this trip. I even stopped in a McDonalds in London and they didn't offer decaf. I was screwed.

We got an early start and headed to the Underground. I love the Underground and the ever present message to "Mind the Gap." I love the English way of saying things. Instead of "Caution" or "Danger!" it's "Mind the step." Just as if we're having a lovely conversation.

I also like that the UK, unlike lawsuit happy America, assumes people have a brain. In all the towers we climbed, all the crumbly, ledge-filled hilltops we summited, all the hotel windows that opened wide on the 4th floor with no screens, there were none of the "Danger! Death Possible! We're not liable," signs that are standard in American life. You're on the 4th floor with a window with no screen--do we really have to tell you leaning out is dangerous? In America, yes. Britain, no. I found it refreshing.

While we're at it, a few more things I like about England: No billboards, spotless streets (I mean NO litter in either city or country) and how they say "Lovely" or "Brilliant" instead of "Great" and "Okay."  

Back to our day. We exit the Underground to a stunning gold-filled view of Parliment and Big Ben. Just blew us away and made it hit home that, "Hey, we're in England!" Unfortunately, Parliment was in session and Westminster Abbey was closed, so our tour day was not off to a good start.

We found our way to the Churchill Museum which is vast and overwhelming. We were there over 2 hours and still didn't see everything. I found most interesting an original document signed by Hitler and Chamberlain that their two countries would not go to war. Seeing Hitler's signature and knowing that he touched that piece of paper right in front of me behind the glass was a bit eerie.

We rode the London Eye, a giant Ferris wheel with enclosed cabins. It takes about 30 minutes to make a full rotation and during that time you can see all of London. It took longer standing in line to get the tickets than it did to actually get on the Eye. I cracked up when, at the end, you were to line up inside the Eye and a photo snapped your picture--exactly like those pictures available after you exit a roller coaster ride at Disney. (No, we did not buy the picture).

We ate at a cute little upstairs pub where Blair and Mom indulged in their first meal of fish and chips.

We moved on to the Tower of London, home of the Crown Jewels and the oldest palace, fortress, and prison in Europe. We stood in front of the scaffold spot where Anne Boelyn--wife of Henry VIII (one of many) and mother of Elizabeth I--was beheaded 400 years ago almost to the day that we stood there. We walked in the chambers that she walked in. It was amazing.

I'm not a big fan of looking at spears and items of warfare, but the collection of spears from Henry III's time blew me away in their size and how heavy and ferocious they looked even just perched along a wall for display. There was also on display a chopping block and beheading ax that saw quite a bit of action in its day.

The rain was picking up so we went back to the hotel for a nap before we headed off to Harrods. Mom is a shopper and she came alive here while Blair and I sagged behind. To me, a department store is a department store. We saw the Diana and Dodi memorial with the ring Dodi gave Diana on display. Wow.  Big does not begin to describe such a rock. Mondo-huge diamond here, people.

We ate that night at one of my favorite restaurants on the trip - an organic vegetarian restaurant called Leon's which had opened just that day. I had a Moorish Vegetable Tangine with a shredded carrot salad with whole almonds that was to die for. Blair ate rice.  

We left the restaurant, which was near Harrods, about 9:30 PM and headed to the Underground entrance we'd come up through. It was pouring rain and I think our jaws literally dropped when we saw the entrance had been gated shut. 

"Does the Underground close?" I asked.  We were quite a way from our hotel.

A kind passerby, seeing our dismay, told us the Underground was still open, it was just this particular entrance was closed. So we walked a couple blocks and got on. We still got a drenching though. Blair just had his hooded raincoat with him and no umbrella so he got the worst of it.  Straight to bed when we got home, which is how we had come to think of the flat in the day and a half we'd been there.  Tomorrow was Mom's last day of touring with us, as she left on Friday. We all needed a good nights sleep.

England Diaries - Part II

DAY 2 SIGHTS SEEN: Roman Baths, Assembly Rooms, Costume Museum, The Bath Abbey, the Circus, Pultney Bridge.

Day 3: Warwick Castle 

We spent the morning touring the Roman Baths and then Bath itself. I have to say, Bath and so many other towns in England look almost too perfect to be real. Have you ever been to an amusement park and they'll have a "Village" where all the buildings have fronts to make them look historical or age appropriate? That's how all of England looked to me--like fronts had been put up to fool the tourists. The towns were just too charming to appear real--very "Pride & Prejudice" like.

Late in the afternoon we returned Mom to her room and Blair and I went off exploring on our own. We walked to the Windmere area in Bath and while searching for a certain church, accidentally ended up in a residential area.  This was a great treat as it had people, not tourists. We saw kids in green blazers and school ties hopping out of their parents cars with backpacks loaded with schoolwork.  People were gathering their mail. It was like getting a glimpse behind the village.

We thought we were near a path famous because Jane Austen had frequented it and got very excited when we saw a sign. We looked at the sign and pointed a camera at the sign. Blair jogged over to it and jogged back.

"Well?" I asked.

He shook his head. "It's a neighborhood watch sign."

I'm sure people were laughing at us behind their blinds.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove 2 1/2 hours (got lost again!) to Stratford-Upon-Avon, home of the Bard. We visited Anne Hathaways Cottage which has one of if not the oldest thatched roof in existence. For those not in the know, Annie dear was Shakespeare's wife. She was 26 and he was 18 when they married and she was pregnant to boot. (Those authors are a wild bunch).

We then went to Shakespeare home which has the oldest floor in England. I admit to a shiver of delight knowing I was walking across the exact floor Shakespeare himself had crossed.

The excitement at lunch that day was that Blair and I bought some Turkish Delight. If you've read The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, you know Edmund asks the White Witch for Turkish Delight. As a child, I never knew what this was and imagined it to be some sort of meat pie. In fact, it's a gummy like candy coated in a sugary powder. I learned this when the movie came out. So when we saw some pieces of Turkish Delight for sale, both Blair and I were excited to try some.

We bought "Rose" and "Vanilla" flavor. I popped a bit of Rose into my mouth and instantly tried to suppress my gag reflex. Here's a tip: If you ever have the chance to try Turkish Delight, don't. Yuck! Blair liked it more than me, but this is a man who likes gummy worms and the marshmallow peeps at Easter, so whose judgement are you going to trust?

From  there we went to Warwick Castle, one of if not the most well-preserved castle in England. And hey, what's a visit to a castle without the traditional cheesy "I'm in the stockade!" picture op.  We also had great fun insisting Mom climb the narrow, circular steps of the Tower. I stayed on the ground while she and Blair climbed just so I could take pictures (you had to climb many outside stairs before entering the tower and climbing even more stairs). There was a dungeon to tour with truly frightening instruments of torture. It's almost impossible for me to imagine people suffering through what they did.

We ended the day by driving, in the rain (there's a shock) back to the airport so we could drop off the rental and take an express train to London. We arrived at Victoria Station, loaded for bear with our bags. Blair went off to find directions and a cop ambled over to Mom and me and gave our bags the once over. He raised an eyebrow. "Traveling light, eh?" I love the dry English wit.

We made it to our hotel which did not look anything like the glamour shot on the web site. It was a fourth floor flat which was lovely as we had our own living room, kitchen, and separate bedroom for Mom, but it was sparse and HOT.  I was ready to throw the Rick Steve's book out the window as that's how we found the place.

But it grew on us. We slept with the windows open and a lovely breeze quickly cooled the apartment. It was our first of many nights sleeping with open windows and I grew quite fond of it. Air-conditioning is somewhat of a rarity in England but what struck me is how often I use my AC when I don't really need it. In most of the hotels we stayed in, I was quite comfortable with the windows open but I know for a fact that if they'd had AC, it never would have occurred to me to open the windows and find a breeze.

Join us tomorrow for more exciting and astounding "Adventures in England!"

England Diaries - Part I

Bear with me for the next few days as I take you through the journey that was our trip to England/Scotland. I promise to keep words such as "wonderful," "exciting" and "very scenic" to the bare minimum.

DAY 1 - The Flight Out

The plan was to fly from Greensboro to Newark where we would rendezvous with my Mom. We boarded on time, pushed out to the runway and then sat for 2 1/2 hours. After 2 hours I stopped sweating about whether we would make our England connecting flight and started worrying whether we would make it out as all, as they were talking about cancelling the flight. I had visions of Mom stranded overnight in Newark. She would never speak to me again. But we finally took off, met up with mom, and boarded the flight that would take us to Gatwick airport.

Continental Sucks

And a somewhat miserable flight it was. Blair says I'm imagining it but I'm certain there is MUCH less leg space on a Continental Flight vs. Delta, our usual carrier. The people in front of us inclined their seats the entire trip and our legs were smashed. Excellent food, though.

Windsor Castle

We arrive, pass through customs and go through the more difficult task of locating a rental car. Let me say here that between the 3 of us we had 2 HUGE luggage bags, 2 carry-on roller luggage bags, one fold-up toiletry kit, a large purse, a soft briefcase packed to capacity, a backpack and a few smaller bags. We were loaded. Not Blair's fault. That packing guru got all his clothes AND shoes for 13 days into one of the small luggage bags. I got all my clothes and shoes in a large bag, but did have 2 carry-on bags as well. I was quite proud of our packing job until we arrived and had to actually lug all this s--- everywhere. Next time, I do better.

So we get our rental car, have only 1 heart-stopping moment where we forget about that other side of the road thing, and are own our way to Windsor Castle, the official residence of the Queen. The thrill for me there was seeing the side riding saddle and lace handkerchief of Elizabeth I.

After touring the castle it was 11:30 and we were hungry. Earlier, we had noted a McDonald's and mocked the "losers" who traveled to another country just to eat at Mickey-D's. But NOTHING opened until noon and we wanted to get on the road, so guess what? Our first meal in England was, indeed, McDonald's. (Sorry, Mom).

Stonehenge

We got lost going to Stonehenge. Took a wrong turn on a roundabout and had NOWHERE to turn around for 10 miles. Lovely idea, roundabouts. Americans would kill each other using them, but they worked well over there.

Anyway, we were sick of the car, I'd read Stonehenge was a bit of bust in person anyway and I was close to wanting to just find the hotel when we came to it. I don't care what the guide books say--it was still mystical and impressive and I'm very glad we saw it.

Villa Magdala

It was hard to get back in the car, but we did and drove onto Bath. We stayed in very English looking hotel (click HERE to see a picture of our room. Continue clicking through the photo gallery and the "Standard Double Room" done up in purple was Mom's room) and our room was stunning, with a canopy bed, huge windows that looked onto the park across the street and a chandelier made of angels. I'm also a big fan of the electric tea pot and butter biscuits available in every room. We slept two hours, had a late dinner and were in bed by 10. Our first day in England was over.