A Parliamentary Recess
During February the Parliament has a week-long recess, since I won't be in the states for the normal spring break this was my chance to travel beyond Scotland's beautiful cold winter, which is very tempting considering how much closer I suddenly am to so many amazing place that are on The List.
Since I was little my mother and I have always talked about a girls trip to London and Paris. We both share a love for history, accents, and shopping so it seemed perfect! Now, finally the pound wasn't double the value of the dollar and I had a week of vacation not during the busiest time of the year for the insurance industry, and so the stars aligned.
Plans were made, my godmother Liz signed up and soon after the always enjoyable Eve was coming as well! A trip with my 3 mothers! Sounds a little silly, often it was but after being away so long they were just who I needed to see!
Additionally, my friend Jeanette who spent last year in Oregon lives in Bristol, not too far from London (relatively) so I took off from Parly a day early and we reunited in Piccadilly Circus! After a festive dinner with the mothers we caught up over a drink, then another drink, then a few more, and maybe a bottle of wine ;-) it was SO GOOD to see her again! Hopefully she finds her way back to Oregon soon or hey, I might just have to visit the UK again!
LONDON
Friday we headed to the British Museum and for the giant nerd within, this was a dream come true. Ever since planning my first trip to London I have been dying to see the Rosetta Stone and I didn't get to 3 years ago but I finally did and it was just as cool as I hoped. I could spend hours, days even in there. Another very interesting item they have is a part of the Sphinx's beard which still has some original red paint on it!!! So cool. Its a very strange thing, mentally, to try and imagine all these stone artifacts and wall decorations as having been painted, it completely changes things.
We had lunch at this terrific place called Wagamama, I'd love one at home. Its a chain found throughout the UK but all began with delicious stirfrys and ramen bowls here, right near the British Museum.
That evening Eve had arranged for us to have drinks at the Royal Thames Yacht Club. Little did we know that this yacht club is no where near water, one of the oldest yacht clubs in Great Britain and therefore the world, has the Duke of Edinburgh as their admiral (or commodore?), and is the yacht club partner of TEAMORIGIN the British America's Cup Team. An impressive resume to be sure. We got a grand tour of the facilities, checked out the model room and the many many historical objects throughout the two story building and finished the adventure off with a bottle of champagne in the bar. A very interesting nautical experience right in the middle of London!
After finishing drinks we headed over to the famous Harrods a very impressive department store. The highlights were easy to spot and outshone most of the merchandise:
- The dramatic statue of Diana and Dodi Fayed, son of store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed who were both killed in a car accident in Paris, that Mr. Al-Fayed contended for many years was part of a government conspiracy.
- The Egyptian escalators, with elaborate Egyptian-style decor for 4 levels, and dangerous posts at the tops of the escalators that are meant to prevent strollers from going on but also almost took out my mother.
- The food hall, with meats, cheeses, Asian foods, cakes, pastries, chocolates, tea, and so much more! Just lovely.
We finished up our first full day in London with a French meal, of all things, and a relatively early bedtime.
Saturday February 13, 2010
Saturday morning we headed of to the Portobello Road Market, one of things I was most excited for in London. Dakota and I had been several years ago but it was during a week day and just a fraction of the excitement and diversity Saturday, the main market day, held.
Portobello Road is lined with booths, stores, make shift stands, musicians, eateries, and yet the very determined car can still drive through. We had a marvelous time in an old print shop and even found a print for my dad from a weekly newspaper from the 1860s I believe that showed a sailboat racing with the Royal Thames burgee, very appropriate after our evening before.
Sunday February 14, 2010
Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day! Normally New Years is suppose to make you think about how much has happened in a year but I couldn't help but think back on Feb da 14th. A year ago I was having a bomb Thai dinner with the sailors in Seattle, very appropriate and now I was in London with my 3 Moms, equally appropriate. My how times flies when you're having fun, or even just staying ridiculously busy ;-)
We started off festivities right with cupcakes (from the Hummingbird Bakery, very popular, still unclear why) on our River Cruise of the Thames. We saw many highlights as we headed downstream including some places I visited on my last trip to London. The London Eye towered over us, with Westminster on the opposite bank. Farther along the Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern (a very cool use of an old industrial building), the Globe Theater, the very ugly London Bridge, the Tower, and the much cooler Tower Bridge.
My mom and Liz disembarked at the Tower while Eve and I continued on to Greenwich and the Maritime Museum. Our initials wanderings in Greenwich brought us to the Old Royal Naval College with its beautiful chapel that is very light and calming. I liked it far better than many of the medieval cathedrals that I've visited.
We spent about an hour in the Maritime Museum, had a very cool exhibit on Arcitic explorations, I'm intrigued. Then we headed up the hill to the Royal Observatory to stand on the Prime Meridian! Despite being a completely arbitrary line that only exists because some folk in the 19th century agreed on it, standing at 0 degrees longitude was pretty cool.
Then ensued a mad dash through the Underground and its related tram services to reach Kensington Palace. Despite our best efforts, insightful navigation, and almost entirely positive attitude Eve and I did not make it before last admittance primarily because we underestimated the necessary travel time and had the time for last admittance wrong! Oh well! We met Mom and Liz outside the gift shop (very hard to find them...) then went back to our hotel room through Kensington Park for a short respite before our Valentine's Evening officially began.
A few pink drinks, sparkly tiaras, and exquisite luggage tags into the evening we donned our finest red and black attire and headed to the early seating at Veeraswamy, the oldest Indian restaurant in London. Despite our unconventional ordering method, discrete drink pranks, and menu thievery it was a very "proper" Valentine's Day dinner. There were even rose petals on the table! The food was delicious and I felt fuller than full.
A quick drink in a very pubby pub concluded our London Valentine's day as was only appropriate...or at least until we all started devouring chocolate liquors and chips at 1 in the morning, no one was allowed to sleep haha.
Monday February 15, 2010
Following 3 marvelous days in London there was only really some time in the morning on Monday before we had to catch the train to Paris. I decided I'd like to see the Changing of the Horse Guard as it happens later than the Changing of the Guard (more sleepy time) and was just a walk from our hotel.
We saw the whole shindig, after nearly 20 minutes of waiting while whatever goes on inside goes on and the horses stamp and relieve themselves, the change finally occurs. The red dudes rode in and are staying and the blue dudes ride out. All the horses are matching, or as close as possible and don't seem to really dig this gig. The uniforms were quite a surprise since they look more Austrian or something of that nature than British. Who comes up with these tradition? I guess it's not so much a question of who as HOW.
We had a spot of lunch at The Wolseley, apparently a favorite celebrity haunt, but also the name of a famous cardinal! Who knew? Afterwards we grabbed our bags, fought our way through the Underground just in time to make the train which was actually scheduled a bit earlier than we thought! Once we were on board everything was fine and we were speeding to Paris, France, the city more movies, books, poems, artists, historians mention passionately than anywhere else. Few people can speak about bleak London with the magnetism that Paris seems to inspire, now I was about to learn why.
To be continued...
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