Steve Haas Travel

Tag: Wimbledon

  • Final Days: Home via NYC

    Final Days: Home via NYC

    We left London early Saturday morning on May 24. And I mean early: out of the flat by 5:30am. We took a bus then the subway to Heathrow for an 8:30am flight to NYC. This was our 3rd time in Heathrow on this trip and I still didn’t take any pictures of the lounge! We had breakfast there and boarded shortly after we got there, although there was enough time for Dan to take a shower.

    You can tell how early it is by the completely empty subway!

    The New York City stop was part of a strategy to manage jet lag. We would have had a layover anyway, we just decided while we were here we’d make it a really long layover, play some in the Big Apple, and ease our way back into our regular time zone. We landed in NYC about 11am Eastern at JFK. Getting from the airport to the hotel took awhile. The airport trains took us to Jamaica Station, and from there we took the E subway. We quickly learned once we departed that this wasn’t going to drop us as close to the hotel as we thought, but we were committed at that point so just rode it out.

    It dropped us at 42nd Street and 8th Ave. We were staying at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central, which was at 42nd Street and Lexington. Technically this was only 6 blocks, but in this direction they were the long NYC blocks, not the short ones. (If you’ve walked Manhattan before you know what I’m talking about!) And, we’d completely forgotten that it was a holiday weekend, but were reminded of that as we navigated the ridiculous crowds on a Saturday afternoon around Times Square. We had contemplated the thought of seeing a show that evening, but were wondering if we’d be able to stay awake through it. The throngs of people made our decision for us. We just glanced up Times Square as we crossed Broadway and were like “no way.”

    By the time we got to our room we decided we were hungry so turned around and went out again; it was about 2pm by this time. (Yes, despite the 11am arrival, everything took a long time! I wasn’t even off the plane yet by 11:20, and the subway ride took over an hour…)

    Yelp found us a place called Udon West not too far from the hotel. We took a left up Lexington right into an open market with the street blocked off. I didn’t realize they did this in NYC. It was probably 6 blocks long. Not a ton of variety – mostly food vendors and crafts stuff. Lots of gyros and grilled corn. The restaurant was on 46th and we found it easily. Nice hole in the wall Japanese, it was nice to have good old Asian food again! (Europe has lots of Asian food, it’s just incredibly expensive there for some reason, plus we try to find things we can’t get at home.)

    While playing around with Yelp, Dan realized NYC had a Koreatown down in the low 30’s, something else we didn’t know, and we decided we would go there for dinner later. We wanted to walk in Central Park, which starts at 58th. Even though those are the short blocks in that direction that’s a heckuva lot of back and forth, and we’d left the Metro cards we bought at the airport in the room. So we went back to the room to get those and use the free coffee coupons the hotel gave us. We’d walk to Central Park and hang out there for awhile, then take the subway down to 32nd, then walk back to the hotel. That was the plan anyway. Didn’t quite turn out like that!

    On our way, we stopped in Grand Central Terminal (when did they change it from Station?), which neither of us had been in before. And you know how we love train stations :) This was definitely grand!, and mall-like like some of the bigger ones we’ve seen in Europe.

     

    This was in the lobby of the hotel. He’s easily 15 feet high. Dan was like “how did I miss that when we walked in?” I had no idea. There was another one over by the reception desk!

    We got our cards and coffees and walked up 5th Ave. I do enjoy the window shopping even though I would never buy anything. We stopped at The Plaza for a quick photo opp. Dan has a $10 print of this from the last time he was here – over 20 years ago – hanging in our bathroom; it looks pretty good.

    There were crowds of people coming out of Central Park. I don’t know if we had just missed something that was letting out but it was a flood of people crossing 58th in our direction. But, by the time we actually got into the park it wasn’t that bad. I’ve only been there once 3 years ago and had forgotten how beautiful it is. I love all the natural rocks and cliffs amongst the trees. And Dan kept saying “hey look, that’s where they filmed (fill in the blank).” It’s got to be the most famous park in the world.  We were happy to be there and just enjoying watching the people and the various performers.

     

    I don’t think that tall building in the back was there the last time I was here. Anyone know what it is? It would be around 7th Ave and 58th.
    I’ve always loved the high-rises that line the park.

    And then, out of nowhere, rain. Lots of it. We’d stopped to watch a street magician putting on a pretty good show with a pretty good crowd around him, and just as he was finishing the big drops starting hitting. We should’ve picked up the umbrellas when we got the metro cards! But we’d checked the forecast and thought we were OK. As we were running for cover Dan’s like “hey, this would be a good shot – and there’s no people.” So here’s me looking like a drowned rat but sure enough, it’s an empty Central Park behind me.

    And where were all the people? Well about 70 of them were standing under the same bridge we found. We hung out there a good 20 minutes while Dan was checking Doppler on his phone. Most of the people had decided to brave it by then, it had slowed some but wasn’t going to stop completely. But, somewhere along 5th Ave, a nasty cold set in for me out of nowhere; I’d even lost my voice (which, over 48 hours later when I’m writing this, I still haven’t gotten back). So we were trying to keep me out of the damp cold. But there was no way out and we were at that point more than 20 blocks from the hotel.

    Long story short: after spending some time in an Apple store with lots of other people trying to get out of the rain, we hopped on a bus and went back to the hotel. It was about 5:30 at that point and we decided we were just done for the night. Whatever hit me hit me hard and I was not going to be fit to do anything else. Later in the evening we went to the food court in the train station and got me some soup for dinner; Dan wasn’t hungry. I was in bed before 9pm.

    And that was how we ended our amazing vacation :)

    Sunday morning we flew back home, landing in SFO; rented a car and were home by 3:30. And no matter how glorious a trip like that might be – and it was – there really is nothing like being home. We unpacked, started laundry, and went and got pNut from Art & Mike’s.

    Some final musings from this trip:

    1. Once again, we never encountered any real language barriers. We are so lucky that English is such a major language, at least in Europe. Most people we encountered could speak a little, or had someone on their team who could and they would get them for us. That happened twice – once in a German restaurant, once in a French restaurant. Still, knowing some of the language would be even better. I was supposed to learn some French before this trip but with work and school I couldn’t really dedicate the time to it. But I’m almost done with school so I should be able to fix that for next year.

    2. We expanded our perspective on what WWII was like in Europe, and always appreciate that. It makes me realize how much I’ve taken for granted living in this country. And we definitely got a sense of how much France and England in particular love Americans – we are the heroes who brought victory to WWI and WWII which they couldn’t do on their own. They suffered unbelievable losses, especially in WWII. There’s a picture of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower that gives me chills every time I think about it. It was all just so wrong. And Americans had our losses as well, as we saw in the American Cemetery in Normandy as an example. Timely stuff to muse on since it’s Memorial Day today.

    3. Our travels give us a different sense of the world then we had before, for sure. There are many differences to take in and we seek them out. But we also seek out “normal”, what would it be like to actually live there? And in doing that, there’s something I noticed both last trip and this trip that’s hard to put into words, but it goes something like this: despite the differences in culture, habits, food, language, etc., if you just sit back and watch, what you see is that they’re all just people. You see lots of the same stuff you see at home: some are incredibly generous, some are incredibly self-centered. People go to work, stop at the favorite coffee shops, walk their dogs, jog, go out to lunch and dinner with friends and family. Most people are friendly when you engage them nicely. All areas have homelessness to some degree. And toddler tantrums are a universal thing. (For Dan: “But it was supposed to be MY day…”) I guess my point is there’s this place where none of it feels foreign to me at all from the perspective that in the day-to-day we really are all a lot alike, and for some reason that always surprises me. I’m sure that perspective will shift again if I were to go to the Middle East or Africa; one day we’ll find out maybe.

    But for now, we’re dedicated to Europe while we can take advantage of attaching a vacation to a business trip of Dan’s. Next year will be Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Better start brushing up on my Spanish…

    PS: This year we used AirBnB for all of our lodging. In Paris and London in particular, these apartments really gave us a local feel, way much more than we’d ever get from a hotel experience. All of our hosts were gracious and helpful. And the AirBnB system is very easy to use, and takes steps to verify and protect the identities of all parties. We will definitely use it again. Check it out if you haven’t and have an upcoming trip. We highly recommend it.

  • Day 16: London, Part 4: Wimbledon; Kensington Palace

    Day 16: London, Part 4: Wimbledon; Kensington Palace

    The last couple of mornings I used my morning time over coffee before Dan gets up to finish the blog. And that was true this morning as well. I got up about 6, he was up after 7 sometime. We fixed breakfast focused on finishing the groceries we’d bought the other day and accomplished that. We left about 9am to get lunch items to pack from the grocery store, then headed in the direction of Wimbledon.

    Anyone that knows me knows this is not an idea I would have come up with. But when we were planning this trip 6-8 weeks ago, Dan was looking over the options available on the London Pass and was very excited to learn that a tour of Wimbledon was included. He played quite a bit of tennis in junior high and high school, and watched lots of tennis on TV until about 2009 when he gave up cable. This was the one thing on the trip that was totally his and I was happy to join him.

    We took a bus again to Clapham Junction, and transferred to another bus to Wimbledon. While crossing the street I noticed this sign on the side street next to me. Here’s one for the other Harry Potter fans out there:

     

    That first bus ride was just about 10 minutes, and it was only about 15 more to Wimbledon. Wimbledon is actually a town, used to be a suburb of London but now the metro area has grown all around it. Wimbledon as you know it – tennis championships – rose up through the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, a private club that’s been around since 1868. As tennis became more and more popular, venues were needed for championships and the AELTC provided its facilities for the first time in 1877. Those facilities were located a couple of miles away from the present location, which has been in place since 1922. The AELTC still exists, only 375 members, all invitation only. It’s essentially a country club; fees are relatively low (although the tour guide wouldn’t say what they were) – membership is about being able to play tennis and connections. Openings typically only occur upon death and there’s a long waiting list. You have to be referred by 4 different current members to even get on the list.

    We only spent about 20 minutes in the museum itself, the time we had between when we got there and when the tour started at 10:30, which was scheduled to be 90 minutes long. And it was!
    Standings from the last championship still up.

    We are standing at the top of what’s been referred to as Henman Hill for awhile, referring to the most successful Brit to win at Wimbledon, three years a row in the 30’s. For the first time since, a Brit named Andy Murray from Scotland won last year and some are starting to call it Murray Mound. During the games, a huge screen in the space against the stadium behind Dan’s head projects games live for those who were lucky enough to get in that day but can’t watch from Center Court. There’s a whole thing about getting in and it’s very complicated so I’m not going to try here. Suffice it to say, it ain’t easy. Luck and willingness to get there early and literally camp out in the golf course across the street has more to do with it than money or connections.

    This is Court 1. Since I’ve never watched the games, the significance of this was lost on me but apparently it’s a big deal :) It seats about 11,000 and is constructed so that there isn’t a bad seat in the house. By 2019 I think the guy said, there will be a retractable roof on it as there is in Center Court. Wimbledon is known for its lawn courts (I didn’t know that!) and apparently rain is a huge problem during the games.

    The Press Interview room.
    Everyone got their star moment :)

     

    This is Center Court. The only time this and Court 1 are used is during the Championships. There are I think 18 other playing courts, 22 practice courts and others total ling 50 courts on the 42 acre complex. The area framed in wood is the Royal Box. Center Court seats about 15,000.

    The white is the retractable roof.
    Dan was very glad he came. Although most of the tennis stories the guide told Dan knew, because he’d watched them while they were happening.

     

    Guys up there preparing for the games which start in 2 weeks.

    I doubt I’ll ever be a tennis fan, but I really enjoyed the visit. I appreciate history and tradition and respect for both and this place has tons of all of that. It was fun to see Dan be excited about it, too.

    We headed back to the city and made our way to Kensington Palace where we ate the lunch we packed. That’s sort of been our thing in London: lunch in or in front of a castle or palace, 3 out of 4 days.

    Kensington Palace is on the western edge of Hyde Park, technically in Kensington Gardens but they all run together. It is the current home of William and Kate, and where Princess Diana lived from 1983 – 1997. With Alnwick Castle in northern England, they are the only two we’ve visited that are still used as a residence. In both cases, we didn’t get to see the spaces we are most interested in – actual living quarters – but I guess that’s understandable. We were told at Alnwick that they wouldn’t be interesting because they’re completely modern. I think that would make them more interesting, but I understand the need for private space.

    All that said, the parts of Kensington that are open to the public is completely meh. We’ve decided that apparently we’ve become palace snobs! This was built by King William of Orange, same guy who did one of the wings at Hampton Court, and it was completely obvious in style, especially his state rooms which was actually the best part of the tour. There was a section on Queen Victoria that should have been interesting but wasn’t really. And this odd focus on fashion, which I guess you have to be a fashion person to appreciate. We were completely underwhelmed by the whole thing, but Dan did snap a few pictures.

    Me being underwhelmed.
    They had an odd fascination with mobiles which we thought were tacky as hell. Clearly not a palace original!
    Again with the tacky mobile. We asked what this was supposed to represent and the story itself made sense – the Glorious Revolution of William and Mary – but certainly they could have found a more compelling wait to do it.
    One of the current queen’s gowns. Rooms of this stuff.
    This pictures doesn’t capture what this was, which was a series of overhead cut-outs you walked through to create the image you were in a building.

    By the time we got out of the palace, it was cold and drizzly, despite the 2 forecasts we’d looked at that predicted zero rain and highs of 65. I had gone out without my jacket and we left the umbrellas behind, too. Oh well. We were either going to do a canal boat ride or a movie next so this shifted us to the movie. But it was still a good walk through Hyde Park to get there. But it never did more than drizzle so we were OK.

    This was a tribute to Prince Albert, Victoria’s husband, across from Royal Albert Hall.
    Royal Albert Hall

    Today’s’ movie, still on the London Pass, was Two Faces of January with Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst. We saw it at the Curzon Mayfair just on the opposite end of Hyde Park. We liked it; and anything would have been better than that one the other day! It was over about 6:30; we stopped  for Indian “take away” in our neighborhood and had dinner at the flat. We are packed, alarms are set for 5am. We leave tomorrow morning for NYC and have one night there before we head home.

    We are ready to come home.

  • Day 15: London, Part 3: Classic London 2.0

    Day 15: London, Part 3: Classic London 2.0

    I was telling Dan this morning that this past Tuesday might be my favorite day of the trip: classic London sites like Westminster Abbey, Parliament/Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, with the Churchill War Rooms and a show with Dame Angela in the West End as the big events. Kindofa perfect tourist day for my particular tastes.

    Today was a continuation of that.

    We took the bus into town; what would normally take about 20 minutes took an hour in rush hour traffic. We are staying in Zone 2, for those of you familiar with London. We picked this apartment because it was one of the few actual apartments we found for the price we were willing to pay. Most others, while may have been closer to the center, were much smaller and studios. When we’re looking for places – especially for longer stays of 3 days or more (this one is 5 nights), we focus on spaces with separate living space from sleeping space, because we’re on different sleeping schedules. We knew we were a 20 minute bus ride from most places we would want to be when we booked it. This morning that strategy just backfired on us!

    We got to the Tower of London around 9:45. All I knew about this Tower was that people had been imprisoned here, and that the crowned jewels were kept here. I literally thought it was a single building with a turret maybe. I was completely blown away by the history and the size. It dates back to William the Conqueror, 1070-ish. Some of that is still standing, much has been rebuilt, refortified and/or added on to over the centuries.  It was originally built as a fortress. While earlier kings did spend time here and there were living quarters, they wandered around a lot in those days – lots of peoples to conquer I guess! – so they were never here very long, and the living spaces were not elaborate. Definitely more fortress than residence.

    New across the Thames from Old. The tall building on the right is The Shard, just opened in 2012. It is 87 stories and the tallest building in the European Union.
    Tower Bridge from the Tower of London. Picture taken by random blue-haired girl. Blue hair is somewhat popular here. And bright fluorescent tennis shoes are hugely popular everywhere we’re been. Nothing to do with this picture just throwing it in.
    This is inside the complex and gives you a better understanding of size. The white-ish building towards the left is the White Tower, a big building in the middle of the complex. This space encircles it.
    More new/old juxtaposition. That’s the HMS Belfast in the background.
    Luckily it wasn’t loaded!
    It looked like people were living here! We meant to find out more about it but forgot to ask.

    We did get to see the crown jewels. It was all really beautiful and words won’t really work here. Too bad they won’t let you take pictures. It included video of the current Elizabeth’s coronation. All very majestic.

    This was in the White Tower, which we jokingly called Ikea. Once you were in, you couldn’t get out. It was big, multi-floored, and they herded tourists through all moving in the same direction. Each building in the complex was that way, and for the most part we appreciated it because traffic flowed much nicer. But in this building it was annoying because there were So Many Children.
    Henry VIII’s suit of armor.
    Can you imagine being a child that small and going into battle?
    A torture device we hadn’t heard of: Scavenger’s Daughter. The drawing gives you and idea of how the person was in it, then it clamped down and crushed them. It was invented by a guy named Skeffington, and was considered the perfect complement to the rack, which was known as Duke of Exeter’s Daughter. The name morphed.
    The rack.

    We stayed at the Tower of London about two hours. Next we were going to something called the London Bridge Experience. (You can start singing the song now if you like.) We had to cross Tower Bridge to get there so, while we hadn’t planned it, spent about 45 minutes there on the way. How could we pass up “the most famous bridge in the world”?

    East view from the upper walkway.

    East side of the upper walkway. Both walkways had lots of things to look at – bridge history, lots of info on other impressive bridges around the world, more London history or what you were seeing on the skyline before you. The west walkway had an interesting “London in the Sixties” walk which I really liked.

    View from the west walkway.
    The nicknames for the building on the left is the Walkie Talkie; the building on the right The Gherkin.

     

    This interesting thing is City Hall.
    Really nice complex of buildings next to city hall.

    We found a little market and picked up some sandwiches and ate on a park bench on the river promenade. Next was the London Bridge Experience. This was the most expensive item (if we were paying full price) in the London Pass, so we felt compelled to check it out to make sure we were getting our money’s worth. This definitely goes to the top of the list as one of the more unusual things we’ve experienced. It was part museum/ part house of horror / part amusement park ride / part theater. One thing I learned that I found interesting was that London Bridge used to have businesses and residences on it. I found this rendering showing what it might have looked like in the 1200s.

     

    The whole “experience” was definitely not worth what they were charging!, but it was entertaining enough. We were out of there about 2:30pm. Weather and bad timing kept rearranging what we did the rest of the afternoon, so I’ll condense it to this: we did see some of Hyde Park from the bus (was too wet to get out in it at that moment), but the rain quit quickly and we took a really nice walk through portions of “The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea”. How’s that for a fancy name? This included a stop into Harrod’s. Neither of us are very impressed by high-end retail stuff – and OMG the perfume smell everywhere was overpowering, especially to poor Dan who is very sensitive to smells and got a really bad headache from it. We were there mostly to check out the “food halls” we had heard about and it was worth seeing. Areas for fresh “take away” of just about anything you could want in lots of different ethnic flavors, chocolates, coffee and tea, meat/fish/poultry, a caviar bar, etc. The store also had a nice memorial for Diana and Dodi.

    Eventually, we ended up back in the West End and had a nice sidewalk dinner at a French place that was offering “pre-theater” 3 course dinners for pretty reasonable prices. It was packed but we were able to snag the last table on the sidewalk.

    After dinner was our 2nd show of the trip, the Lion King at the Lyceum. This 2100 seat theater was built in 1834. The Lion King has been running here since September 24, 1999. Although it is my favorite Disney movie, for some reason I never had any interest in seeing it on stage. But the reviews I’ve read have always been very good, especially around staging and costumes. Just how do you do a stampede of wildebeest on stage?

     

    We were first balcony, 3rd row. I was worried that Dan wasn’t going to be able to enjoy it because of his headache and had offered to go back to the flat, but he pressed on. It had mostly gone away by this point and it was fun to watch him react to the opening number. I learned at dinner that he’d never seen the film before – I had just assumed, and a very bad assumption! – so he had no idea what the story was. I’ve always thought the opening of the cartoon is some of the best animation ever put on film, and it always chokes me up a little. So did this. It was fun watching Dan literally move to the edge of his seat – especially when the elephant came into view walking up the center aisle – and watch his expression be complete amazement. The opening number hooked him and he really enjoyed the rest of the show. So did I, but I was really thrilled that he did. Made up for me dragging him to see Angela :)

  • Day 14: London, Part 2: Hampton Court Palace & Gardens

    Day 14: London, Part 2: Hampton Court Palace & Gardens

    Same morning routine: simple breakfast in, get ready to go. This morning we also stopped by Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery chain which we used in Edinburgh as well, to pick up some picnic items for lunch. They had a “meal deal” for 3 pounds – fresh sandwiches, chips (as we know them, not fries) and soda, so we got that and stuffed it all in the backpack.

    We took a bus to Clapham Junction station and took a train to Hampton Court Palace. It was about a 30 minute ride but you never really left the London metro area. We had never heard of this place before but it was highly suggested by the London Pass and had great reviews on TripAdvisor as well. Since we’d just done Versailles (exactly a week before) we figured it would be a fun comparison. We got there about 10:45.

    Hampton Court was built by Henry VIII, another historical figure I’ve always been fascinated with. It was built in the early 1500’s, and added onto by other monarchs as the years went on, especially in the 1700’s. Architecturally it is not as grand as Versailles, but still interesting and beautiful. What made it very different from Versailles was atmosphere and presentation:

    • Not nearly the crowds
    • They really want you to get a feel for life at court
    • Depending on what area of the palace you’re in, there are actors in full period costume hanging about the palace in full character, interacting with visitors with never going out of character, and they’re playing real people – including Henry VIII and George I.

     

    The main entrance.
    The first of 3 courtyards, this one referred to as Base Court.

    These 2 started talking – yelling really – at each other as if there were not about 100 other people in the courtyard, so we got to eavesdrop on their conversation. He is playing Thomas Culpeper, a favorite of Henry’s until the alleged affair with the girl became known. She is playing Catherine Howard, currently lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves, wife #4, and soon to be Henry’s 5th wife. About a year after her marriage she is executed for adultery, the only other wife executed after Anne Boleyn.

    I never did catch this characters name but her and Catherine above were seen gossiping about the palace all day.
    This was the entrance to the section added by King William and Queen Mary, who ruled jointly in the latter part of the 1600’s.
    You can see how crowded it is!

    In a different wing, the guy on the right is supposed to be King George I who was King from 1714-1727. He was a distant relative of Queen Anne, but the 50 other or so possible successors were all Catholic and that was against the law! He was actually from Hanover, in current Germany, and spoke little English. The monarchy’s power diminished during his reign, shifting to the model we know today, where the government is lead by a Prime Minister. I didn’t catch the character’s name on the left, but we chatted with him for a bit. When he asked us where we were from, without missing a beat he leans over to the King and says “they’re from the Colonies.”

    George Prince of Wales on the right, who will become George II in 1727, killing time playing cards in the drawing room. I learned here the term is short for “withdrawing room”, supposed to be a place of refuge in the palace.

     

     

    An entrance to another wing but I don’t remember which one!
    Weapons room in this same wing.

     

     

    You get one guess.
    The kitchens from the Henry VIII wing, which served the whole palace.

     

    Wine cellar.
    Clock in the Clock Courtyard. There was also a Fountain Courtyard but we didn’t get a photo of that.
    The dining hall of Henry VIII. There were all kinds of cute saying and rules of the King on the table cloths.

     

    A cute bird who joined us for our picnic lunch in the gardens. We think he’s been conditioned to being fed!

     

    These gardens were not as extensive as Versailles, but in some ways were prettier.
    This was the private garden of King William.

     

    The original plan was to go to Wimbledon next, which was a stop on the same train on the way back, but we didn’t leave the Palace in time to make it for the 3:30 tour we scheduled. We’ve re-booked that for Friday morning.

    Instead we went to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. Pictures were not allowed inside; yesterday’s entry has a picture of the outside. An impressive collection of art, we focused on 17th-19th century. The 17th century rooms were filled with Flemish and Dutch painters and we recognized quite a bit – in style and subject – from our Netherlands trip last year. A full room of Rembrandt plus others spread out. Lots of other big names spread throughout. This visit I think really confirmed that 19th century art is my favorite. They had some of Monet and Van Gogh that I had never seen that I really liked. And one from our new favorite from Paris, Paul Signac.

    From there we headed into the West End/Soho area, got a quick bite to eat at a little Chinese joint, and went to the Curzon, a movie theater we would call an art house, focusing on independent films. The London Pass give us entry for free so we decided to check it out. We picked a film that looked interesting in description – Japanese animation, a story about an aviation engineer designing airplanes to be used in Germany and Japan in the build-up to WWII. Just our subject, right? And an 8.0 on IMDb. What could go wrong?

    It was bad, bad, bad. It was actually more of a love story than anything, sweet in it’s own way, but painfully slow and just soooo not what we were expecting. Thankfully we didn’t spend any additional money on it! Afterwards we walked about the neighborhood a bit more, including London’s version of Chinatown – just a block or so really and almost but not quite as touristy as the one in SF. It was mostly restaurants with workers standing on the sidewalk trying to get you to come in. At least there wasn’t the schlock for sale everywhere you see in SF.

    We do like that much of this West End area is closed to vehicles.

    And that was pretty much the day. In a way it didn’t feel like we did much but it sure went by fast! I just noticed we didn’t take any pictures of the West End. I think we’re getting tired :) Last year we did 18 days, I swore I wouldn’t do that again for awhile. And technically we didn’t – this year it’s only 17 days! But something in the 12-14 range is probably more reasonable. It takes so long to get here and get back you want to make it worthwhile. The pace we keep wears on us but we like the pace so I doubt that will change much. Especially when I look at what we have planned for Thursday! We’ll see if we can fit it all in.

  • Day 12: Edinburgh to London

    I woke up and saw how bright it was outside and was sure I had overslept, but didn’t remember the alarm going off. But no, official sunrise time in Edinburgh was 4:53 this morning; I’d woke up about 4:30 and it was already really light. I tried to go back to sleep but never really did. Finally got up when Dan’s alarm went off at 6:15. We had to be out of the flat by 7:30 to catch an 8am train.

    So today was another travel day, not much to write about. Here are some pictures of the flat in Edinburgh which I took right before we left.

    The shower was in  a separate room – practically a closet really, with the smallest sink we’d ever seen. Good water pressure though.
    Teeny tiny kitchen but pretty functional. The clothes washer is in the corner lower cabinet on the right. When the spin cycle was on the whole apartment would shake it seemed like. And it would get very loud because the cabinet door would rattle. Eventually I figured out to take the trashcan out of the other side and let it hold the cabinet door open and that made it much more quiet!

    The train ride was long – almost 5 hours – but very relaxing. Dan had booked early and got very good rates on first class, so we had breakfast on the train, and as much coffee, tea, juice or water as we wanted. He did some work and I read my Churchill book.

    We got off at Kings Cross then took “the tube” and a bus to the flat we’re staying at.

    Me on the bus.

    The flat we’re in is OK. The host actually lives here, it’s a full unit downstairs and a smaller unit upstairs; she stays in whatever one is not being rented. Since we wanted the full apartment, she’s upstairs. There are several things about it we don’t like – least of which is the tremendous amount of furniture she has in such a small space. To each his own I guess. We won’t be spending too much time here.

    We are not in the center of everything, but the rate was good and we are close to public transportation. We bought the London Pass with the travel option, which will get us into museums and other attractions and includes most trains, buses and subways.

    We got to the flat about 2pm and headed out about 3pm. The closest neighborhood worth seeing as a tourist it seemed was the South Bank, as in of the Thames River, so we moved in that direction. It was a few blocks to a train station, then we got off at Waterloo.

    Hungerford pedestrian bridge just off of Waterloo.
    Still the Hungerford.

    The Tate Modern museum happens to be in the South Bank area, it was on the London Pass, so we thought – why not? Maybe this will be the one that changes our minds about modern art!

    It wasn’t.

    We stayed only about 20 minutes. The museum was free to all anyway; our pass gave us the audio tour for free which was otherwise 4 pounds. Dan took a few pictures, I just included the one below because it was the most “really?” one.

     

    There was a balcony in the theater that gave us a decent view of St. Paul’s Cathedral across the Thames.
    After the Tate, we went to the next thing our pass provided in the neighborhood, a tour of the National Theater. We had no idea what it was but I really enjoyed it (and Dan only a little). The National Theater was started under the guidance of Laurence Olivier over 50 years ago. They have been in their current location since 1976, which has 3 different auditoriums, seating around 1100, 800 and 250 respectively, each designed very differently to be suitable for different kinds of productions. The tour is about the different auditoriums, their features, what kinds of productions are best suited for them, and how the repertoire theater works. The unique design of the stages allow for sets that are easy to move and each theater can stage more than one productions in a single week, different from most theaters in the West End and Broadway which can only do one show at a time.
    At any rate, since we’re seeing two shows this week – both in the West End – it was appropriate that we randomly ended up here this afternoon. We got coffee and split a sandwich after – we’d had some fruit, cheese and crackers when we got to the apartment and so that was kind of lunch  – then walked into South Bank away from the touristy areas.
    This was the Imperial War Museum. It’s closed through July but it had a nice park around it and that was open.

    We took a bus back to our neighborhood, which is very close to another called Lavender Hill, and explored that a bit. Lots of different ethnic restaurants we made mental notes about for future use. Like Amsterdam, London doesn’t seem to have its own cuisine – beyond fish and chips – so they import it from everywhere else. In just a few blocks we saw Tapas (Spanish), Italian, French, Lebanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian of course, Greek and Persian. We decided we weren’t really all that hungry after the sandwich at the theater so just went to the grocery store to pick up breakfast items for our stay. And ice cream.

    And that was pretty much our day. Having some ice cream and going to bed early!

     

     

     

  • Day 11: UK Countryside, Alnwick Castle

    Day 11: UK Countryside, Alnwick Castle

    I was up by 6am this morning and did the writing part of the blog from yesterday. I was unusually tired last night so just didn’t fight it. It was much easier to do it fresh over coffee. I am definitely a morning person. We were back from our day today earlier than ever, about 7:30pm, on purpose. We have to leave by 8am tomorrow to catch our train to London and just wanted an easy evening. We picked up some breaded fried fish and mushrooms at a “take away” place on our block and brought that back for dinner. As I type Dan is watching TV, flipping back and forth between X-Men and Star Wars as commercials come on!

    We needed to pack again, too. Although we were only here 3 nights, the laundry process sort of required that we unpack everything. Glad that’s done though, we should be good with clean clothes until we get home.

    Dan was up by 8am or so. For breakfast we had scrambled eggs and his steak pie from last night that he had barely touched. We packed what food was left in the flat – yogurt, the granola cookies, and a bag of chips – and headed to the meeting place for our last minute adventure.

    When we were walking the Royal Mile Friday evening we came across several tour companies offering day trips into the countryside. We picked up one of the brochures and discussed some options at length over dinner. Do we or don’t we first of all? There was plenty to do in Edinburgh, we had 2 pretty full days planned, but the idea of a country drive was appealing and the pricing extremely reasonable. (Especially considering what we paid for Normandy – and we had gone with one of the less expensive options in that case…) When we got back from dinner Dan did some further research and found one on TripAdvisor that had rave reviews and that only did “small group” tours – no more than 16 people. For the same pricing as the larger tours. So we looked at the options and booked one. And redid our plans for Saturday to carefully pick what we were going to do since we suddenly had only 1 day to do it in.

    The tour met at a coffee shop in New Town, about a 15 minute walk from us. We were there at the required time, 9:15, and boarded as scheduled right at 9:30. There were only 9 people on the tour – another American, Carissa the vet from Maine, 2 men from Germany, 2 girls originally from China and Taiwan but living in London as students, a guy from Spain, and 2 employees of the touring company – Rabbie’s – in training. The guide’s name was Barney (and the county across the firth is the county of Fife – go figure), he grew up in the south area of Scotland but went to school at U of E, majored in history. He was funny, articulate, full of knowledge, well traveled, and well read. It made all the difference in the world. He shared all kinds of things – both historical and current events – throughout the day and only once did someone ask a question he couldn’t answer. (It was Dan of course!)

    It was about an hour’s drive to our first stop and he told in elaborate detail the real story of Braveheart, which actually had little to do with William Wallace. The historical perspective in the movie was “rubbish” although they did get a few things right. But not much according to Barney. Here’s what I remember but don’t quote me:

    • William Wallace would likely never have worn a kilt, because that was the dress of the highlanders and he was a lowlander.
    • The big battle he won depicted in the film was the battle of Stirling Bridge; the use of the bridge was a critical part of the strategy that lead to the Scots victory, but the movie never even mentioned it.
    • I can’t repeat all of the details of the history, but the Scots believe that the legend of Robin Hood is actually based on the story of William Wallace, who was hiding in the woods from the English, his wife’s name was actually Marion, not Mirren as in the movie, and who was turned in by a local sheriff.
    • Robert the Bruce got to be King of Scotland by agreeing to meet with the other contender to the throne in a church, which was supposed to be a sanctuary for all and understood that no violence could occur there. An argument ensued and Robert killed the other guy in the church, and then became King. The pope in Rome was appalled that such a thing happened and excommunicated not only Robert, but the entire country he now led as King. The pope finally reversed that and recognized Scotland as an independent country some 10-15 years later. Shortly before his death Robert decided he would go on a crusade against the Moors – this was some 25 years into his reign, close to 30 years after the death of William Wallace. He died before the crusades could begin, but he’d asked if that happened that his heart go anyway. So his heart was removed and put in small silver casket, and the Scottish crusaders carried it as far as Spain, where they fought Moors. His heart was brought back to Scotland and buried in Melrose Abbey, our first stop this morning. Robert the Bruce is considered one of the greatest and courageous of Scottish Kings – and his is the real “brave heart”.
    Melrose Abbey. We didn’t go in, took a walk through the town and countryside instead.
    The Abbeys were founded during the Middle Ages, prior to 1200; they were destroyed during the Reformation because Protestants believed they were corrupt communities.
    Cute little town of Melrose.
    All day long we traded descriptions like pastoral and bucolic. This was one.
    This was called Chain Bridge, suspension type. Build in 1826, no more than 8 people allowed on it at one time. The bright yellow in the background? Canola. We saw it everywhere today.
    The body of water is the River Tweed, which we encountered much of the day.
    Canola field on the other side of the bridge.
    Pretty countryside from the bus.
    More pretty countryside from the bus.
    Crossing into England. Carissa the vet took the picture (and others you’ll see later…)

    On the way home, Barney finally clarified what has always been so confusing to me, come to find out because their nomenclature is the reverse of ours. Great Britain, AKA United Kingdom, they refer to as a state which includes the countries of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. England and Scotland have been a unified country – United Kingdom of Great Britain – since 1707. When Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603 without an heir, she had named a distant cousin as her successor – James VI, King of Scots, became James I of England. This is the same James of King James Bible fame. For the next hundred years, the monarchy ruled both countries, until Queen Anne got both Parliaments to unite them formally in 1707. They’ve been together ever since.

    Flodden Field, sight of a big battle between England and Scotland in the early 1500’s. This was not part of the original tour but an extra stop at Carissa’s request.
    That’s Alnwick Castle in the background.

    Alnwick Castle is one of only two castles in England that are both occupied and at times open the public. The other one is Windsor Castle outside of London, home of the monarchy. Alnwick Castle is the ancestral home of the Perry family of Northumberland County where they have lived without a break in heritage for over 700 years. The first heads of the estate were Earls. In 1766, the Earl at that time had great political influence and was made the 1st Duke of Northumberland. The current residents are the 12th Duke of Northumberland, Ralph Percy, and his wife Jane. I guess that makes her Duchess. They raised 4 children here, currently aged 24-30. Their two daughters were both married in the castle.  They own several other castles in northern England and Southern Scotland. They live here for 6 months a year, and open it to the public while away as revenue for its hefty upkeep.

    Before we went in, we ate the picnic items we’d packed on a picnic table on the lawn in front of the castle.

    This was inside the castle wall. Or more to the point, ON the castle wall.
    “Backyard” view over the castle wall.
    Cannons still in place from its use as a fortress. Prior to becoming a castle, is was a primary northern defense station against the Scots.
    A huge lawn inside the castle walls. This is where the “learn how to fly a broomstick” scene was filmed in the first Harry Potter movie. The expanse in the background was used as the Quidditch field, with the arena added later via CGI.
    The courtyard from the gate leading to the State Rooms. No pictures were allowed.

    The inside was at times just as elaborate as Versailles, although perhaps more tastefully done. There were two large chests in one room that had actually been in Versailles and were purchased by the Duke at the time. That Duchess – I believe it was the first one – had actually attended the wedding of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI. The first Duke was actually a Smithson – he married the daughter of the prior Earl who was a Percy and he took the Percy name to preserve the heritage. He had an illegitimate son who achieved success without any help from his wealthy father as a chemist and mineralogist. The soon took the name James Smithson. When he died, his will stipulated that his estate be donated to the founding of an educational institution in Washington DC, even though he had never been to the US. This became the Smithsonian Institution.

    The docents in the castle – there was one in each room – were extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and loved talking about the castle, its furnishings and the family history.

    There was also something about the interior that was more intimate, despite the lavish art and furnishings: an HDTV in the library; family photographs, some very recent, throughout. It was clear someone lived there.

    The state carriage. Used by the daughters for their wedding of course. Also used by the 4th Duke as a representative of the King at the coronation of King Charles X of France in the ealry 1800’s.

    We had time for a quick walk through the town of Alnwick after we left the castle and picked up a snack to eat on the bus. We made a stop on the way home in the little town Barney grew up in, Berwick-upon-Tweed. It is the northernmost town in England. The water in the background is the River Tweed as it flows into the North Sea.

     

    It was a really lovely day, we both enjoyed it a lot.

  • Day 10: Old Town Edinburgh

    Day 10: Old Town Edinburgh

    I got up about 7am, got the 2nd load of laundry in the wash and figured out what we would do today. Dan was up by about 8:30 or 9. We had a simple breakfast of eggs, yogurt, and granola cookies from the grocery store the night before and headed out about 10am.

    On the same block on our flat towards the center is the Museum of Edinburgh. It wasn’t on the official “to do” list but it was free, so we stopped in. We do like getting historical backdrops to whatever town we’re visiting and this provided it. Old Town, where we are staying, had medieval roots, most of dating back from 1100’s to 1500’s. New Town, across the bridge from this neighborhood, was built in the 1700’s to address the crowding here and at the time was considered a model of “modern” urban planning. Both areas are protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Meaning their look won’t change. They are modernized today – Edinburgh, like every European town we’ve visited, can’t live without Starbucks or Subway either, apparently – but the buildings themselves look like they did then. Our flat has been completely refurbished – in fact from the inside looks brand new – but the building we’re in is definitely old. The museum had a more original look to it – with lots of creaky wooden floors.

    A few pictures from this museum.

    Really pretty grandfather clocks made in Edinburgh, here in and in the next museum we went to.
    I just liked the look of this room.
    Douglas Haig from Edinburgh was Commander of the British Army during WWI. He was made an Earl after the War for his accomplishments and got to wear these.

    We were there about an hour and continued up the hill.

    As opposed to “just a little Scottish”?
    Adam Smith, of Wealth of Nations/Invisible Hand fame. He taught at Glasgow University (about an hour from here) and gave public lectures in Edinburgh on logic and philosophy.
    Dan thought this looked like something Jack the Ripper might have liked! It’s called a “close” – and along with “wynds” they are all over this town – little nooks and crannies between buildings that may or may not lead somewhere else. There are often cute little restaurants in them though.
    Nothing in particular we just liked the look of this side street.
    Same as above.
    A cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. Her sister lived in Edinburgh and she came to stay with her after her divorce in the early 90’s.

    The one museum that was on our list was the National Museum of Scotland. It was also free, and huge. Five floors and a wide range of exhibits:

    • Natural World
    • World Cultures
    • Art & Design
    • Science & Technology
    • Scotland

    We only focused on the Scotland sections, from about 500 AD to 1800 AD and still spent about 2 hours there! We’re both interested in Middle Ages and Renaissance periods of any culture, and the backdrop of the Stewart dynasty here was pretty interesting. Most of those Kings – plus Mary – were children when they got the job – babies in some cases – where regents ruled for them until they were of age. Then died young either in battle or killed by some kind of court or family intrigue. As I recall, most were dead by 30! Crazy times.

    Dan liked these torture implements. Think I should be worried?
    Guillotine
    It was a pretty impressive modern building.

    Across the street from the museum was Greyfriars Kirk, or church. I hadn’t seen that reference used – kirk – for a church since we were in the Netherlands last year. But it’s definitely Scottish. In 1638, “The Covenant” was signed there, a couple of hundred Scottish folk now under English rule refusing to give up the Catholic Church. There’s also a cemetery where, among other people of course, a dog referred to as Greyfriars Bobby is buried. This town is full of lore about this little dog, who sat at his masters grave in this cemetery for 14 years after his death. There was a pub next door and the owner trained the dog to come to lunch at a 1pm bell, so that dog got to be well known in town. Apparently there was a Disney movie about it that we missed! Anyway, that pub is now called Greyfriars Bobby, and there’s a statue of the dog in front of it. We didn’t get a picture of it because there were too many people standing around it getting their pictures taken with it.

    “Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.” It’s a sweet story.
    You can’t tell in this photos, but those people to the far left are each gathered with their Scottish Terriers – most of them black like Bobby. There were about 6 of them.
    More cemetery.
    Lunchtime. It was called Doctors I think, and was off the tourist path closer to the University of Edinburgh, which has a good medical school.
    The top one was mine: ox cheek pie. It was delicious and in the most puffed up pastry I’d ever seen. Dan had fish & chips below and it was also a huge piece of cod. With curry sauce!

     

    Looking back down the Royal Mile from Castle Hill. The building on the left with the white cap is the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. More on that to come.
    The outside of the castle – Edinburgh Castle, that is. It’s a massive complex, more like a small village behind walls really. We didn’t go in. It was a pricey ticket, the reviews on TripAdvisor were mixed and we had other things on our list. Cool looking from the outside though.

    Next we went to the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. Camera Obscura has roots dating back to Aristotle. In today’s language we’d call it a skycam. With a pinhole and arrangement of lens and mirrors, it projects what’s going on outside inside. They were big during the Renaissance, artists used them to draw from. There are only 10 left in the world. One of them is in San Francisco, by Cliff House, and I’ve been to it many times. Dan had not. The one there is simple – just the obscura and a few holograms. This one here had 5 floors of “illusion” stuff leading up to the camera. It was very hands on and lots of fun. Great for kids, or the kid in all of us. We were there for 2 hours!

    One of the first things we encountered was a maze of mirrors. For the most part you could find your way around – just look for the space with no fingerprints! – but it was still trippy to look at.
    This was a walkway with mirrors and one set of lights in constant reflection.
    My turn to be goofy. You walked under this table from behind. There are mirrors aligned with it that create the illusion there’s nothing beneath them.
    This was a strange little station where two people sat on either side of like a two-way mirror, and with a knob you could blend the images of both parties.
    The face in the cylinder in the middle is being reflected from the landscape drawing.
    If I were a monkey. This contraption took your photo and asked for basic stats – race, age. Then you could select different versions of yourself to transform into. Monkey was one. Another was baby; I don’t remember the others.
    This was my favorite. That cylinder of lights is spinning around you. It looks tame enough standing outside, but as soon as you walk in you COMPLETELY lose your balance and it becomes an E ticket ride. It was mind boggling.
    There were several Escher references here that reminded us of “Escher and the Palace” which we did in The Hague last year. They had this, too – only there you had to pay to have your photo taken. Here you could get another tourist to do it for free, so we took turns with the two women who were in front of us.
    More goofy time. But I loved Dan’s instinct to drop down, and his expression!
    Views from the outside platform on the 6th floor.
    Looking back down The Royal Mile.

    Next we took the long way around to Holyrood Park, which is at the very bottom of the Royal Mile and very close to our flat. We crossed over and walked along the edge of New Town to get there to see different things. Really pretty parks and buildings, and the terrain of this town creates a lot of beauty. We really like Edinburgh!

    The national Church of Scotland.
    They make great use of the valleys.
    The trains tracks and station run in the valley between Old Town and New Town.
    I loved this relief map, which gives you a better idea of the terrain. That’s the castle top right, Old Town and the Royal Mile is that hill leading up to it. Everything on the left is New Town. The hill in the distance on the left is Holyrood Park, our next stop.

     

    Monument to Sir Walter Scott. Looks a lot like Cologne Cathedral! 287 steps up to the top. We passed.
    A random cemetery along the way. This tombstone honored Scottish-Americans who died in our Civil War. Yes, that’s Abraham Lincoln.

     

    This was a path leading down to the train tracks.

     

    Holyrood Palace, home of Mary Queen of Scots before she was shipped off to the Tower of London. The current Q of E stays here several weeks a year. We hadn’t planned on going in, and it was closed when we got there, so this was as close as we could get. If you look Really Carefully you can see Scottish guards standing on either side of the door. One of the things we loved about Edinburgh is there’s always some guy in Scottish uniform playing bagpipes really well. It creates a great ambiance to the visit.
    Across from the Palace with Holyrood Park in the background. The summit of that hill is called Arthur’s Seat, at 824 feet. We chose one of the lesser peaks due to time (and energy!) but were very satisfied with the views.
    That body of water in the background is the Firth of Forth. A firth is an estuary, and Forth is a river; water flows through from the river to the North Sea.
    That look down was such a straight edged drop. Instant vertigo!
    Holyrood Palace left of center.
    The white thing middle left is the train station between Old Town and New Town.

    We had dinner at a place called Canon’s Gait just up the block from our flat. The specific area we’re in is called Canongate, which was its own little burgh before it was annexed. Dan had a steak and ale pie, which was good but he wasn’t very hungry for some reason so we’ll have those leftovers for breakfast this morning! (Yes, I’m writing this the next morning because I was horribly tired for some reason by the time we got in and settled. All I did was prep and upload the photos to the blog, then did all the writing over coffee this morning. Feeling much better!) I had chicken breast stuffed with haggis, so I could say I tried it but if I didn’t like it I didn’t have to deal with a whole meal of it. It was OK. I did eat all of it! The mash of turnips and potatoes was actually quite good.

    We were back pretty early in comparison to some days – about 8:30 – but having started out about 10am it was definitely a full day. I was in bed by 11pm; Dan stayed up watching X-men First Class, a show called Grand Designs – British remodels! – and who knows what else. He’s still asleep. It’s about 7:30am here. Today is a day trip by bus to the countryside.

    One final comment about pronunciation. “Edinburgh” is more like “bread-n-butter” without the first B or final R. Our belief is that New York’s use of “borough” is a more phonetic spelling of how it’s pronounced, but comes from the same source. Just a guess.

  • Day 9: Paris to Edinburgh

    We woke up before 6am naturally; the alarm was set for 7 just in case. We were ready to go. We get like that. When we’re done we’re done and we want to move on. And we were done with Paris sometime yesterday. As amazing as it is, 5 days was definitely enough at one time. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do, but are still ready to move on. We will be back! Some final musings:

    • We both agreed our favorite thing was The Louvre. People had prepared us to not like it I think. Many, many times we heard that d’Orsay was better, that Louvre was overrated. Not for us. Some day we will go back and do the other 3.5 hours (at least) that we had to nix out of our Louvre plans on this trip. The building itself was worth studying, and the vast collection is impressive even if Egyptian Antiquities is not your thing!
    • Scarves: we decided this is the easiest tell to determine if the passer-by is local or a tourist. If they’re wearing a scarf – man or woman – they’re likely local. The French love their scarves.
    • We still want to know what all those people who live in the center of Paris do for a living. Holy cow is it expensive. We stopped at every real estate office we passed to look at houses – or in this case flats – for sale (we do this everywhere we go, domestic or foreign), and rarely saw anything for less than the American equivalent of $1000 per square foot.
    • We thought the metro/train system was impressive. With the exception of to/from Versailles, we never waited more than 3-4 minutes for the next train, and never “had” to walk more than 3 blocks or so to get to a station. We often chose to walk more than we had to – either because we just prefer it, or to avoid a transfer, but you rarely have to walk very far if you don’t want to. It very much reminded me of NYC subways, although possibly with even more connections. I wish more cities in the US would do this.

    I remembered to take pictures of the flat before we walked out.

    Where we had breakfast every morning; where I wrote the blog every night.
    This had a closet out of view on the right; we ended up moving the bedding to the other room and used this whole room as a closet / staging area.
    Sink and shower, the toilet was across the hall in a small enclosure (can’t call it a room!) by itself.
    Living space, which we ended up using as the bedroom (see next photo), although Dan used the desk for work.

     

    The hallway from the entry; the room we used as bedroom is to your right out of view. Based on the MANY we looked at on AirBnB, this was a decent sized if not large apartment by Paris standards. We’re pretty sure the host lives here. He’s been in Spain on business this entire time – comes home late next week he said – but has been extremely responsive and accommodating. We will write a nice review for him and the flat on the website.

    It took us about an hour to get to Charles de Gaulle airport by train, just one transfer. We made it through customs and security pretty easily. BTW, a few comments on the practicality of packing light:

    • Like last year’s trip, we are both getting by on 1 roller carry-on and 1 backpack each. Since my arrival at the train station in Cologne last year and having to haul them through turnstiles to use a pay toilet and I thanked Dan for requiring that I go light, I will never travel internationally any other way.
    • I thought about it several times again today – going down 6 flights of stairs in the flat, or up and down stairs in train stations, or the many narrow passages in airports where there are bars of various kinds to get through, I’m thankful I don’t have, for example, the big suitcase I take on my Columbus trips. It’s somewhat necessary there because of the kinds of clothes I’m packing – combination of work and play for typically 5 days/nights. But we made conscious choices to just not pack that way on these trips. There were restaurants in Paris we couldn’t get into because we didn’t have the right clothes. Oh well. We don’t feel like we missed much.
    • Like the apartment in Amsterdam last year, we made sure each stay this year had a washing machine available. We didn’t use it in Paris (that’s the small unit to the right of the shower), but we definitely will in Edinburgh. So for an 18 day trip, we each just packed 5-6 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, etc.. We wear each at least 2 days before washing, it totally works. As long as you don’t sweat too much – and I don’t sweat anything like I used to before I dropped 50 pounds – it works great.

    I’m writing all of this from the Cathay Pacific lounge at CDG airport. Dan’s British Airways status gets him into lounges of any airline that are part of the OneWorld alliance and he wanted to check this one out.

    We sat in these little cubicles, each with its own electrical outlet for recharging devices. That’s my laptop there where I wrote up to this point this morning. Dan is missing because he was taking a shower.
    The view from where I was sitting.
    The chow line, all included. We didn’t eat much when we left the flat because we knew we could eat here.

    We boarded shortly after I took those pictures. London Heathrow was a blur of customs and security – again – and we made it to the British Airways lounge there just in time to eat lunch quickly and get to the gate. Theoretically it was a 2 hour layover but it sure didn’t feel like it.

    We landed in Edinburgh about 2:30pm and took a bus from the airport to the historic center where we are staying. Here it is pronounced in 4 syllables, not 3 (ed-in-bur-uh), it’s the capital of Scotland and someplace I would likely never have thought of visiting if Dan hadn’t brought it up. He had heard about it when he was at Penn because of some exchange students and it sounded interesting to him. We have a flat tucked away on the Royal Mile, the main drag that runs through Old Town, which is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. (BTW, we hit several UNESCO sites in Paris, including Notre Dame, I just didn’t bother to list them like I did last year. If you don’t know about UNESCO – and I didn’t until last year’s trip, thanks Greg & Robert!, follow the link to check it out.

    Here are a couple of shots Dan took from the bus. We had front seats on the second level so a great view.

    Notice the cars are driving on the left.

    We found the flat without any problems. It is very cute, nicely laid out, pictures to come later. We’re doing laundry now so it’s a little trashed :) We identified a small problem when we first arrived: we do not have the right electrical adapter. The Europe adapters we’d been using (Germany, Belguim, Netherlands, France, last 2 trips) also worked at Heathrow so we assumed we didn’t need anything different for UK. Apparently not. I got in touch with our host and he directed us to an interesting store up the road that we were able to get one from. That in and of itself is a whole other story I won’t get into here :) Let’s just say that the way the store was set up, “browsing” wasn’t possible, and every time they brought out something to see if it’s what we needed, it was UK to US; we needed US to UK. But we ‘re all plugged in now. We got one (as opposed to 3 of the others we have!) and will just charge one device at at time. I believe that’s called a first world problem.

    We also now have 3 currencies on us: dollars, euros, pounds. It’s odd.

    We went walking around for a bit to see some of the town and figure out what we wanted to eat. We figured while we’re here we’d do fish and chips at some point, something meat pie like, and something Indian. Knowing we get more of all that in London! That’s so far was Scottish folk seem to like. And something call haggis. I can’t believe Dan actually told me what was in it; he had it in San Fransisco once. He usually doesn’t do that. I’m thinking I’ll pass.

    Here are some other things Edinburghers seem to be into just based on the shops we saw many multiples of:

    • Cashmere
    • Whiskey
    • Fudge
    • Kilts (duh)

    Here are some of the pics we took as we meandered. We weren’t always sure what we were looking at; we’ll get to know the town better tomorrow.

    This was taken from New Bridge. In the foreground is the train station; we don’t know what that is in the back, just looked cool on a hill!
    War memorial (all pre-WWI) on New Bridge.
    We were very surprised how hilly this place is. This is a pathway through town.
    Granted, not like San Francisco hills, we just weren’t expecting it.
    St. Giles Cathedral, circa 1500’s; St. Giles is patron saint of Edinburgh.

     

     

    We found a great little Indian place off of tourist row as we were looking for a grocery store. It was excellent. After dinner, we picked up a few things at the store for breakfast for the next few mornings and came back to plan the rest of the weekend.

    Tomorrow we will do what there is to do here!

  • Day 8: Paris, Part 5: Notre Dame, Musee Rodin, Strike!

    Day 8: Paris, Part 5: Notre Dame, Musee Rodin, Strike!

    It’s hard to believe this was our 5th day in Paris. It went by Really Fast. Dan and I were saying earlier that Normandy seems like FOREVER ago. That was just Sunday; this is Thursday; hard to believe!

    Same routine this morning with breakfast. Dan’s feeling mostly better, we got a reasonable start out, leaving about 9:30am. We had a pretty loose day planned, there was nothing we “had” to do on any particular schedule. We still had some things we wanted to use the museum pass for. As of yesterday we’d gotten our money’s worth – an even score on entrance fees plus quicker entry where available – so anything today would be gravy. But we didn’t want to overdo it with museums because we still had neighborhoods to check out.

    We took the metro over to the Bastille neighborhood, only about a 3 mile trip but farther east than we’d gone before. We wandered around that neighborhood and the one just west of it closer to the center, Le Marais. They were both much more livable than what we’d seen so far; like this is where the “normal” people in Paris lived. We took an early side street and came across a Boulangerie & Patisserie – like we’ve seen on almost every block in any part of Paris so far – but this one was cheaper than any we’d seen. When we’d planned this trip we’d said we were going to eat lunch like a local every day and get something fresh and eat in a park. That hasn’t worked out because we haven’t really eaten lunch – late breakfasts in, early dinners out, and that’s it. Today was the day. We picked up some pasta salad, couscous salad, a fruit flan and apple tart. The lady threw in some bread unrequested! It was less than 9 Euros. (say $12)

    A block or two away we came across another open market. Few things more dangerous than Dan in an open market. He wants to get everything! He got 4 nectarines for 1 Euro; the guy threw in 2 more peaches. Then 2 .5 liters of fresh squeezed juice. He got a Nutella crepe with coconut. Street vendor crepes are everywhere, it is fascinating to watch them make. Apparently the French love Nutella because that seems to be what all the street vendors use as the base on their crepes. Hazelnut is not really my thing so I just had a bite or two and he had the rest. Seems like we bought something else but mostly I just remember saying “no”! We were already going to have trouble finishing everything before we leave tomorrow.

    The open market with the Bastille monument in the background. That’s where the prison was before the people stormed it during the Revolution.
    We meandered over to The Marais and came across this in front of a seafood restaurant that serves as a fish market as well.
    Probably still in the Marais but heading towards the center; this was a building Dan liked across from a cute park; see below.
    King Louis XIII Square. The parks here, even the small ones like this, are spectacular.
    Google maps had us walking into the corner of this curved street where there didn’t seem to be an opening. There was – the doorway of a hotel that lead to its courtyard that lead to the next street. It was, again, adorable. And Google was right! Dan had been saying “it says go through but I don’t see how.”

    Shortly after this we took another random side street that looked cute and came across – surprise! – another bakery. This one had palmiers in the window, and I had just said to Dan earlier in the morning that I wanted to have one before we leave. So I did while I was thinking about it. He took a bite first and said “all I taste is butter” to which I replied: “Exactly.”

    Our destination was Notre Dame. We’d walked by it on Saturday but didn’t have the museum pass yet so didn’t stop for the tour. Well, today, there were no tours because of a strike. This didn’t really surprise us; the Versailles website had indicated it might be closed today because of a strike, which was why we went yesterday once we started re-arranging things. Oh well. You could still get in and walk around for free; there was quite a line but it was moving fast. This is the #1 tourist attraction in the #1 tourist destination on the planet, and it was free, so might as well.

    It was about 11am at this point; there was a mass going on. It was so interesting watching the small number of parishioners attending mass up front, the priest was giving the sermon at the time we walked in, with literally Hundreds of tourists wandering all around outside the ropes. I guess if this is your parish you’re just used to it.

    For what it’s worth – we think the cathedral in Cologne is much grander, in size and complexity, both both architecturally and artistically. For that matter, so is St. Bavo’s in Ghent. Dan has been to one in Strasbourg that he says matches or surpasses Cologne. But if this is the only cathedral from the Middle Ages you’ll ever see, it ain’t half bad.  That said, it is the oldest – dates back to 1160 – so perhaps the others learned from it.

     

     

    We had planned to eat our picnic lunch in Luxembourg Gardens in the Latin Quarter, but it was too early for that. Now what? Google to the rescue – we found a museum on the pass that was open and happened to be on the way. Musee Cluny focused on art from the middles ages, most of it religious.

     

     

     

     

    These were huge – each took up and entire wall. There were 6 total; one represented each of the 5 senses, the other open to interpretation. They are not all shown here. Top Right is the one that’s interpretive. The Latin over her head translates to “my own desire”. One theory is that heart/soul/inspiration is the 6th sense.
    I loved these lion lookin’ creatures!

    We were there over an hour. We made it over to Luxembourg park by about 2pm. It was beautiful. We’d tried to come on Saturday but the entries were blocked off by police, we never did figure out what was going on; it was Armistice Day here that day (WWII over in Europe) and there were all kinds of activities here and there. But today it was open and lovely. We unpacked our lunch from the backpack and ate under a shady lane. It was actually very cool in the shade. After we ate, we walked through the park some and discovered how big it was.

     

    We found two empty chairs in the sun and sat for a bit and warmed up while people watching.

    16.5 lux Dan

     

     

    Next stop was Musee Rodin. About the time we got to this major intersection, we noticed the traffic getting worse and worse, louder and louder, lots of horns blaring. Just a few blocks before this we passed a long line of what we would call SWAT vehicles, full of Paris police looking like they were resting, waiting, eating lunch or something. Dan took this picture because he really liked the building!, but you can sort of see the traffic at the bottom.

    The traffic got worse and louder along Rue Babylone as we headed to Boulevard Invalides. A few blocks away I was like “oh, it’s a parade”. Scratch that. Strike March!

    There were a lot of people, they didn’t all seem to be workers marching. Seems like everyone joins in. When we got to the street that had the entrance to the Rodin, we were stopped by a wall a police. We said we just wanted to get into the museum. They said you can’t go through, it’s closed anyway. We knew it wasn’t because we’d already seen people in the gardens. (Funny – a guy at Notre Dame said there was no tour because it was a French Holiday; we’d already seen the signs posted on the gate that it was closed due to a strike. Maybe in France they’re one and the same?!)

    So we walked around a very large block to finally get to the museum entrance – open – not 30 feet behind the wall of police who wouldn’t let us through.

    Musee Rodin has beautiful gardens, which was the primary reason I wanted to go. It used to be a hotel, and he lived and worked here. Many of the sculptures here he made here.
    Bet you know what this is.

     

     

    The weirdness of this one did not quite translate in the photo.

    We left the museum – this time through the wall of police – and the marchers were still going. They were headed to the park area in front of Invalides – the Military Museum where we were on Monday. It was an all out party – lots of music, people dancing, all kinds of street vendors selling food. Maybe a strike IS a French holiday.

    There was more than one union on strike we figured out, but one of them was national public works employees, which is why museums were impacted.

     

    We got back to the room about 5:15, theoretically to rest before going out again. Dan was on a work call from 6-7pm. We went back out one more time for our last museum in Paris, one just a few blocks away from the flat that focused on architectural design, from the middle ages to the present.

     

     

     

    It was also right by the Eiffel Tower so Dan couldn’t resist some more shots.
    And we finally got one of us together. This was about 8:15pm; the sun was lowering just in front of us so it cast that golden hue onto the Tower. Pretty cool!
    We’d made plans to have dinner at a creperie across the street from our flat. Dan had been craving them for days so we decided yesterday this would be our last meal since it was so close to where we were staying. And the food was excellent – might be my favorite meal in Paris.
    To take this photo, I’m standing in the same spot I was when I took the one above, just turned around. The black door off center is the entrance to our building.

    And that’s a wrap for Paris. Tomorrow we leave for Edinburgh, Scotland.

  • Day 7: Paris, Part 4 – Versailles and The Louvre

    Day 7: Paris, Part 4 – Versailles and The Louvre

    We both got good sleep last night –  7 hours for me, 10.5 for Dan. He’s still not quite 100% but getting decent sleep helped a lot. I was up for 2.5 hours before him so did my thing with coffee, Churchill, and a stroll through the neighborhood. I took this opportunity to grab some photos before I forgot.

    The outside entrance to our building, and the inside entry way.
    Pretty little courtyard; our flat is to the immediate right and faces the outside, not the courtyard.
    6 flights up! Yes, we knew that when we rented it. Figured it was all part of the Paris experience.
    Top: the bakery on the corner for our daily bread; Bottom left: the block we’re on; right: across the intersection from the bakery. The green awning is a little grocery we’ve stopped in several times, mostly for bottled water.

    Dan was up after 9:30 sometime. We had breakfast in again and headed out about 10:45. Here are some random musings we’ve had since we’ve been here:

    • OMG – the smokers. We thought Germany was bad; people smoke a LOT here. Thankfully, you can’t in buildings, but everyone outside seems to have a cigarette in their hands. All those adorable sidewalk cafes are ruined by it (for those of us with no tolerance anyway!).
    • The most popular cars seem to be Smart cars – we counted 12 of them parked on one block in our neighborhood – and Mini-Coopers, which of course Dan loves since that’s what he drives. They totally make sense in this very crowded city with narrow streets. Motorcycles are also very popular. And it took us a couple of days to figure out that just about all parking other than street parking is underground. You don’t see parking lots or garages, because all of these buildings at least in this part of the city were here long before cars were invented.
    • We thought Amsterdam had a very international feel to it, but Paris does as well, perhaps more so. We noticed it as soon as we got off the train from Cologne. We’ve heard so many different languages here just walking around. There are lots of American tourists, too, we’ve been surprised how frequently we hear American English.
    • Parisians have been Very Friendly to us, starting at the train station. Some angel realized we weren’t sure where we were going, starting speaking to us in French, then immediately switched to English and asked where we were headed. She led us to the right path, and was very gracious. We’ve had great service everywhere we’ve been, even in places where no one speaks English – which honestly has been rare – we’ve managed to get buy with pointing, gestures, and our limited French vocabulary of maybe 30 words.

    Just a couple of things we passed on the way to the metro stop.

    Random pretty building on President Wilson Ave. They’re everywhere.
    Dan really likes the Eiffel Tower!
    We took the metro to Versailles, about a 20 minute ride. The line was kinda long but it moved fast. I went in and stood in it while Dan made sure there wasn’t a quicker line for our passes. There wasn’t.
    A bit of history: Louis XIII started this Chateau as his hunting lodge. It was Louis XIV who added on to it significantly, wanting it to the be most beautiful palace in Europe. He made it the royal palace in 1682, and it remained so until XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed in 1789. Napoleon used parts of the estate but it was not the official royal residence under him. In 1833, it became a historical monument and museum dedicated to “all the glories of France.”
    I read a lot of biographies and history as a kid and had a big fascination with Marie Antoinette, so had read a lot about this estate, albeit not in a long time. After Normandy, this was the #2 thing on the trip I was looking forward to. Not disappointed. The palace, honestly, was almost exactly what I had imagined. The Hall of Mirrors was still pretty spectacular. The gardens, on the other hand, were way beyond what I had imagined.
    The front courtyard. The guy in the back would not stop posing – his friend must’ve taken 20 pictures of him, so we quit waiting for him to get out of the shot!

     

    The bottom pictures are the kings bedroom. They had separate wings!
    Hall of mirrors.
    More Hall of Mirrors
    This was our favorite room, one of the few that had windows on two walls.
    Queen’s chambers.
    Dining room
    So: the gardens. You’ve probably seen pictures of them, usually aerial shots. What those angles don’t prepare you for is how tall everything is. I always thought it was well manicured shrubbery, but it’s mostly very high shrubbery and lots of trees. We were really blown away by the gardens. It’s hard to describe how big this area is, but this first picture gives it a good shot. Look how far back that goes. We walked the whole thing! Remember that pool in the background, you’re going to see it again.
    It was practically a maze, although eventually you would get out pretty easily. But there were moments you just weren’t sure.
    We were supposed to do this trip yesterday, but put it off today because the weather was better. Good call!
    This was such a beautiful walk.
    Remember the pool from earlier? Same one. The gardens are managed as a park, open to the public for free.
    In the far right corner of the estate was Grand Trianon. It was a much smaller chateau used to host small parties and intimate guests. There was also a Petit Trianon, preferred by Marie Antoinette, but we ran out of time and didn’t get to see it.
    This is what we might call a porch or breezeway linking the two wings with the gardens to my right.

     

    This room was so yellow!
    This room had several bowls, vases, etc., made of this – malachite, a mineral and considered a semi-precious stone. Extremely valuable.
    We sat on the steps of the back porch and rested before moving on.
    We left the gardens around 3:15pm walked around the little town of Versailles, current population around 90k, which grew up around the palace. It is currently considered a wealthy suburb of Paris – about 10 miles away – but also has a strong tourist economy because of the palace.
    Adorable French hole-in-the-wall where we had a very late lunch/early dinner. The menu called their specialty “salty pies” – turns out it was quiche!

    Around 5:00pm we went back to the metro station and got our tickets to head back. Because of rush hour, it look much longer to get back than it did to get here – 45 minutes instead of 20, although granted we went 2 stops past where we got on. We headed to The Louvre.

    I did a little reading this morning and discovered something I didn’t know. The original building was constructed in 1190 and was the royal residence for several centuries until Louis XIV moved it to Versailles in 1682. So it was kinda cool to see them both in the same day. But it’s definitely a two-fer visit, because the palace itself is spectacular.

    This is the largest museum in the world, with 35k pieces spread over 73k square meters – or roughly 220k square feet. We had originally planned to spend 6 hours here in two shifts but that just hasn’t worked out. Oh well! We moved through it pretty quickly and saw what we could in 2.5 hours. Dan really loved the design of the place.

    And I was pondering this pyramid monstrosity (see yesterday’s post for a better picture) on the train this morning. Yesterday I referred to it as a juxtaposition; maybe it’s more than that: a symbol of antiquity done in a modern design set against a medieval backdrop. Three periods collide. Or something like that. It’s starting to grow on me. The photo below is taken from inside the pyramid – you go down into it as the main entrance, so that’s looking up at ground level from below.

    We really didn’t intend to spend time in Egyptian Antiquities, but somehow got sucked in, and then we couldn’t get out! That really was a maze.
    Luckily, windows to the outside helped you orient yourself to the map so you could get your bearings.
    Greek and Roman Antiquities which I really did want to see. Top left is Hercules; Top right is Venus de Milo
    This Italian Painting section begins in the gallery bottom left. Guess where we’re headed?
    The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese, 1563. This is massive, in a side gallery off of the very long one above. It is across the room from the one that gets all the attention below, but is seriously more spectacular.
    This is way bigger than I was lead to believe by people who have seen it.
    Top: the lack of attention at the Wedding painting. Bottom: the chaos at the Mona Lisa not 50 feet away. And this was late in the evening, around 8:15pm.
    We were really tired after a long day so cheated and took the metro home.
    A late dessert: Dan finished the strawberry tart we bought on Saturday at the open market; I started on some macaroons we bought at an adorable patisserie in Versailles. The French are crazy for macaroons and they are pricey in our opinion. Typically we seem them around 1.50 to 2.00 in Euros; these were a mere 1.10. That’s like $1.50 for 2 bites if you want to make it last. I had the chocolate and the lemon tonight. Worth every penny.