Here is London... Part Tre!

Back again. Whoa! These just take me so long to write that I kind of lost my mojo for a few weeks. I am very excited to continue. How I loved this trip! On a side note, I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a wonderful time around here. Magical. Okay, on with the trip...

We're really IN London now ;). As I said before, our hotel was not the finest and we'd had the mother-puking-into-the-bucket incident the night before so when we tried to eat breakfast on our first morning, we had to go right back outside. The smell was too much. It was off to McDonalds again! I know!

This is MY station. Okay, I claim Bayswater and occasionally Queensway (but only on rare occasions because it is so stinky).

Our first stop was the National Gallery. When you're in London, you really must tackle the National Gallery. It is marvelous. Whenever I'm there I'm gobsmacked at the sheer amount of fabbity fab art it houses. It's crazy! You can see Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Caravaggio, Cezanne, Hogarth, Turner, Van Eyck... GASP! It kills me! I love it so much. It's very well organized and mapped out so you can actually do it relatively quickly. A few hours is all you need to view some of the most amazing pieces of art IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE (that's an exaggeration as I doubt there is art in space).

Well, the nuttiest thing happened during our visit. We ran into Kara and Auntie Di! Oh yes we did! Kara and Auntie Di are friends from days of yore whom we love with all our hearts and who we intended to meet up with at some point during this trip. However, bumping into them at the National Gallery was coo coo cachoo! London is massive and the NG is massive! HOW this happened was sheer serendipity. It was so lovely to see them there. We decided to finish our high brow perusing and continue on, as a foursome, to the Orangery at Kensington Gardens for afternoon tea. WHAT?! I've wanted to have tea there for 11 years. It's true. Since I studied in London (and couldn't afford to have tea there) I have pined for the Orangery! It was great (the cucumber sandwiches were the teensiest bit soggy) and I can now check the Orangery off my dream list. Yessss!

That night we went to "The Mousetrap", which I had seen before but Steve had not. I really love that play. I actually forgot who the murderer was until about halfway through :). That made it a bit more exciting, I'm sure. After the play we ate at Wagamama. This, my friends, is a good chain restaurant. Yes, I'm admitting this. It's a noodle place and they have some superb dishes. They're all over London and they're open late! Woot woot!

Below are some pictures of day one in London. I shall continue with day two after said pictures ;).

Steve and I in Picadilly Circus. Too happy for my own good.

THE sign.

Steve's "London" pose. It had been a LONG time since we'd been back :(.

Me in Trafalgar Square. Again, way too excited. I'm sure people thought I was a right nutter.

Kara and Auntie Di on our walk through Kensington Gardens to the Orangery. Kara tended to drag Auntie Di by the fingertips...

Just a shot of Steve going up the escalator in the tubes. I was trying to show the crazy, crazy depths underground you go when you're on these trains. I try not to think about it too much because I'm massively claustrophobic. It's fascinating. Notice the Gerard Butler lookalike with the mocking smile on the opposite escalator. Yes, I'm a tourist.

The next day we were set to meet Kara and Auntie Di at the Notting Hill Gate tube station and head over to Portobello Road as it was a Saturday and the Portobello market is one of my favorite things. Ever. We got lost. It is amazingly easy to get from the station to Portobello Road and we got lost. We all felt like morons. We did eventually find the precious Road and the lovely shopping began.

I shopped this street almost every Saturday when I studied in London. I bought Lychees from that really loud fruit vendor you see on the movie Notting Hill (and not because he was famous, the movie wasn't out then. It was because he was soooo loud. And had good prices). It's so much fun to browse the antiques and hold little pieces of history in your hands. I like to imagine the previous owners of objects I'm considering. It makes them so much more interesting to me. That may be why I always spend a lot of money on Portobello Road ;).

I found some lovely Wedgewood, and some knit hats with the Union Jack on them for gifts. The Wedgewood man was hilarious. We spoke with him for about a half hour. He had been to Utah and was very interested in where we lived and HOW we lived as it's so different from the day to day in London. We ate some really great food but I was very sad to see that my fruit vendor was not there that day. I don't know if he's no longer selling fruit or if he just wasn't there on that particular Saturday. Anyway, it broke my heart. I longed to hear his deafening cries of, "lycheeeeees, ninety nine p a pound weight!" I loved that man.

Steve and I at the entrance to Portobello Road.

What I thought *might* have been my vendor's stall (it was where he usually set up), tended by a substitute. What a sad day. I'm sure they didn't sell half as much fruit that day ;). Doesn't it look delicious?

A very strange man who was letting his dog lick his head. Oh London.

After our shopping excursion, we said our goodbyes to Kara and Auntie Di who were catching a flight back to Utah. Steve and I then grabbed lunch at Cafe Diana on Bayswater. AH! My favorite! They have the most amazing chicken tikka wraps with hummus and pickled veg! I only discovered it late in my Study Abroad adventure and I strongly regret that I didn't find it sooner. I was mildly concerned that I'd built it up too much in my memory. I HAD NOT. It remains one of the best pita wrap thingies on planet earth. If you're in London, I insist that you try it. It's not off the beaten path. Really, just on Bayswater. It's got a yellow awning and black writing.

We were then on our way to Greenwich. To our extreme misfortune, we discovered that there were major line closures in the tubes due to construction (the Olympics are coming in 2012)! Well, just you try getting around London, especially outside zone 2 without those precious trains running. Heaven help that city should anything catastrophic happen to the tubes! We had to take a bus to Greenwich! What a nightmare! Well, we took the tubes part of the way, transferred to a bus and took a boat back into London. The horror! I was sicker than a dog by the time we got there. One pitiful, hateful thing about London (and likely the rest of the world) is that NO ONE will give up their seat. Young guys just watch you as you suffer (of course they don't know some of us have broken backs, but can't they SEE the pain on a person's face?) and don't do a stinking thing. It's horrifying. Pregnant women and women holding children wouldn't even be offered seats.

Here's a street sign we came across on our journey to Greenwich. We though Will would enjoy it.

Again, I'm demanding something. If you're ever in London, you must go to Greenwich. It's a delightful little town and the observatory and maritime museum are fascinating. Steve had just read "Longitude" about John Harrison who solved the problem of longitude by developing the most accurate clocks of the time, and was therefore out of his wits with excitement. It's also pretty great to stand in two hemispheres at the same time :).

Here, my friends, is the Prime Meridian of the World.

Here we are, being original and clever ;).

I fear you are underestimating the cleverness.

This is H4, the final clock John Harrison made. It's is so vastly different from the first 3 (whose pictures did not turn out).

Just a little shot overlooking Greenwich. Isn't it adorable?

After our visit to Greenwich, as I said, we decided to return to London by boat. I love a nice boat trip on the Thames. It gives you a view of London you can't get any other way. The unfortunate thing was that it was very dark by the time we got on the boat, it was quite dark. Still, it was exciting to see the Tower, Tower Bridge and London Bridge. As our luck concerning travel this day would have it, the engine on our boat caught fire and they had to kick us all off in SOUTH LONDON to make our way in the world. Unless you are used to the ways of South London, it is not the kind of place you want to be at night. Without a gun ;). Or a knife. However, we were planning on going on the London Eye anyway, so we just figured we'd walk on over and hop on. More like run. I was very uncomfortable in this part of town. It's sketchy. People get stabbed. 'Nuff said.

The London Eye was pretty cool. We got an amazing view of London at night and the pod they put you in is not too claustrophobic, which was grand. However, it is freakishly expensive. Insanely. There are certain tacky tourist things they could do without; naff pictures with fake backdrops, romance pods etc. Overall, it was fine.

Tower Bridge from the boat.

Steve and I on the London Eye. We got a fantastic view of London.

After the Eye, we went to a play called "The 39 Steps" which is an Alfred Hitchcock movie that they've turned into a comedy. It was hilarious and I highly recommend it. After the show, we headed to a Mexican restaurant (a rarity in England) and had an amazing dinner. We then headed back to the hotel and did laundry in the bathtub using detergent purchased at Tesco ;). It smelled really good. I'm not being facetious. All in all, it was a great day, and very productive, especially considering the travel fiascos we encountered. Huzzah! Success!

Here's a picture of my cute Steve walking through the tubes.

Peace out,

Heidi

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI!!!!!!

(No. This is not Heidi being narcissistic. This is her husband finding an alternative to the greeting card. I hijacked her blog for a moment.)

Heidi - this has been one of the best years of my life. We have had so much fun and have done so many cool things. All of them have to do with your awesomeness! Thank you for being the best wife anyone could hope for. Our kids feel the same way about you as their mom as well. I must say I agree.

Thanks for all of the cool activities we did as a family (e.g. Disneyworld, Park City, Idaho Falls, parties, dinners, sporting events, family bowling, sleepovers, movies, parties . . . ). Thanks also for the incredible things we did as a couple (e.g. Las Vegas, San Francisco, Orange County, Bath and London). You are without a doubt the person with whom i would rather spend my time above all others. I love hanging out with you no matter what we are doing.

I love reading your blog - especially when you are telling about things we have done together. Your cleverness and wit are enthralling for all to read - and especially for me. They also keep me in stitches half the time we are talking to each other.

Mostly, you are my favorite person in the world. I love you for everything that you are and everything that you stand for. I love knowing that, no matter what, you are by my side and in my corner - even with my lobster claw. :)

I love you and Happy Birthday. Can't wait for 70 more.

Steve

Here is London, Part Twegen! (that's anglo saxon for two)

Day 3 started out lovely and sunny and bright. Which was welcoming since our jet lag had done us in the night before and we'd gotten about 3 hours sleep. Ugh! We had such high hopes for the weather as we had planned to take a 3 hour walking tour of Bath. During breakfast it began raining. HARD. It didn't let up the entire day. This, my friends, was the kind of weather that soaks your skin and dampens your poor, aching bones.

Somehow we still managed to have fun. Give me a day like that at home and I'm a pip ;). In England, I just took it in stride. Sort of. We powered through that walking tour and it was wonderful. Our guide was very knowledgeable and it always makes a place more enjoyable to me when I know little tidbits about it. I love knowing the history of a city. I was, however, mocked for loving Jane Austen. No one else in the group would admit to it (WHY?!) and then they all snickered when I raised my hand, and our guide said he preferred other authors. Morons ;).

I must add one funny item here. During our walking tour, we heard a kid talking on his cell phone and say "what up dog?" in his English accent. It was ridiculous. I think we all understand plainly how much I adore England, but this was absurd. That phrase does not translate.

Here we are looking at the Royal Crescent. And our guide's bald head.

This is nearing the end of our walking tour. Thank Heaven for knitting. This hat saved my life (as did my mittens. Thanks Bea!)

A little lesson on child rearing in Bath. This poor little bugger had to hoist his pant legs up in order to keep them from getting soaked! He looked so cold! I suppose it's better to be cold for a few minutes than for the rest of the day because of wet pants.

Here I am in front of the Abbey. I had to add this because I thought it showcased how cold and wet it was that day. So cold.

After our tour we were tired and hungry. And in pain. My back doesn't do so well standing still for long periods of time and there was a lot of standing still during the tour. We decided to go to a mediocre Thai restaurant (of course we didn't know it was going to be mediocre until we tasted our food) and warm our cockles for a bit. After some food and some pain meds (nothing hard core, you understand), we were ready to rock the Roman Baths!

These baths are unreal. They are a work in progress and seem to have changed quite a bit since I last saw them. Those Romans were a smart bunch. They discovered a hot spring and put it to use. Why in the world weren't the Britains doing it in the first place? They were an intelligent lot. Did they like being cold? Did they not want to take a lovely dip? Well anyway, ingenious construction with the drains, the hot baths, cool baths... I would have been a regular during Roman times. The employees of the baths would have known me by name.

Also, I tasted the "healing" waters this time (I was too chicken to do it before). Barf. It tasted like blood. It has a lot of iron in it so there you go. Also, it's hot. Hot blood. If you want some, just put a rusty nail in your tea kettle and you'll get the basic idea. Or cut your finger.

Here's Steve imitating the guy on the wall. I'm not sure who he is (the guy)

Here I am unintentionally imitating this lovely lady. My hat had the same texture as her wonky hair! Huh, fancy that.

This is me in heaven. Standing upon oldness listening to historical facts with Steve hanging about somewhere... What could be better? No really, what?

The big'n (the main bath). That little dot in the gray coat at the far end is Steve.

Steve's mad hot photography skillz again. Pretty cool reflection, huh?

After the baths we decided to do some shopping. Oh the shopping. We found so many wonderful shops! If I'd had another suitcase, I could have done some serious damage. As it stands, I think I restrained myself fairly well. In fact, there are several things I still think about that I didn't purchase. That's how you know you really need something. If you're thinking about it weeks after you get home.

One store I found particularly adorable. Notice that it is NOT called "Sally's Big 'N Tall". Oh the cleverness.

We had no idea where we wanted to eat dinner. We'd gotten several recommendations but had to do a good deal of walking to get to them. We sort of happened upon an Italian restaurant and bar called Real Italian and were about to walk past because it wasn't open. There was a couple standing at the door who said it opened at 6:00 (about 10 minutes) and that this was the opening night. Oooh! I love an opening night! We decided to wait and it ended up being a fab decision. The couple who we waited with were Wendy and Mike and they owned three shops just around the corner from the restaurant. They were hilarious and we had a great time getting to know them. Mike was a native "Bathonian" (Wendy called him her little Roman and made him show us his profile to prove that he had a "Roman" nose), and Wendy was originally from Australia. We also met another couple, Mike and Chelsea, who were very kind as well and were shocked to find out we were Mormons (always a topic of conversation when someone finds out we're from Utah). I think they expected us to have either horns or pioneer attire ;).

What a fab night. Really. I love meeting new people and getting a glimpse into the way others live. It makes me happy. Not in a weird, voyeuristic way. I'm just interested. I would recommend this restaurant highly. So, if you're planning a trip to Bath, head over to Real Italian!

Fran (restaurant owner), Wendy and Mike (the little Roman).

Steve and Heidi (the larger sized Scott and Dane).

Mike (of Wendy and Mike) had recently been to a clinic whose Dr.'s had names so ridiculous that he had to show us. You'll note his doctor was Dr. Pain. There is also a Dr. Wharton and a Dr. Grabham. What the heck?! What kind of clinic is this? I had to have a picture.

In my notes on my phone I have written for day 4, "Where to begin? This day was a bit of a disaster". Of course looking back (until tonight), I didn't think it was such a disaster but reading how things went down, I kind of agree with my original statement.

We drove to Blenheim first thing and took the tour which is wonderful, and informative and lovely. Blenheim is Winston Churchill's family home and has a good deal of information about his childhood including letters written by him and many photographs. Let it be said that I believe his parents were horrid, neglectful people. Okay, let's move on. We made the mistake of eating lunch in the cafeteria. Good heavens it was awful food. The woman serving us, bless her, looked like "Cookie" from Matilda and she kept piling soggy veg onto our plates. It smelled like a bog. The Coke was good.

Our biggest mistake of the entire trip was the decision we made next. The owners of Blenheim, in a sorry attempt to keep up with the astronomical cost of running such a place, have introduced "Blenheim, the Untold Story". It needed to remain untold. They have the upper floor set up in a nightmarish Disneylandesque animatronic disaster tour. You have to walk through what may have been one of the most frightening displays EVER, and learn about the history of Blenheim. It was horrible. There was no charm (like I believe they expected there to be) and I could not have cared less about the information because I was too scared of the animatronics and too dumfounded by how badly done the whole thing was. We lost an hour of daylight to this horror show and I was angry by the time we got to the car. Stupid Untold Story! I would NOT recommend this ;). In case you were wondering.

Here's Steve outside our B&B. It was so choice.

Steve in front of Blenheim.

Me. See that white door just next to my head? That's the entrance to the cafeteria, and our ill luck. We decided, over our bog veg, to go to "The Untold Story" after eating :(.

On we go. Enough moping, we ARE still in England, after all. Our next stop was a little town called Lacock. What a beauty! They've filmed parts of many of my favorite movies here; Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Harry Potter... It was amazing. Oldness. So old! It's the perfect place for a period film because honestly all you'd have to do to the town to make it believable is chuck some dirt on the ground. The rest is done. I'm so happy that buildings like this are still standing and that people live in them! How fun! We couldn't spend much time here (remember that nonexistent sun I told you about...) but I would love to go back. Talk about charm!

Entering Lacock. See, just remove the cars, chuck down some dirt, and I'm suddenly very oddly dressed in the 18th century!

And again...

Oldness behind us... Do not ask me what happened to my hair.

This little beauty is supposed to be in Sense and Sensibility. Since I no longer have a fully functioning brain, is it THE cottage? "A little cottage is always very snug".

And THIS?! What?! How amazingly old and beautiful is this? This is someone's house. I'm not sure what happened to this picture, it's all fuzzy wuzzy, but you get the idea.

The rest of the day I have no pictures for. It was basically a disaster. We decided to head to Oxford but the dang sun was already going down and by the time we got there, very little light was left. We parked and were about to walk around but found that we didn't have enough coins for the meter. Feeling defeated after suffering "The Untold Story", we cut our losses and didn't even bother asking a shop for change. We just got back in the car and headed for London.

On the road we saw signs that said "MAJOR DELAYS" due to road work. Perfect. We thought this was a grand time to go to Costco. Why, you ask? Because we love Costco and it's the perfect place to find gifts for people and is also fascinating to find what Costco carries in other cities (like Honolulu, Hawaii or Reading, England). Come to find out, there were major delays to Reading as well. We just didn't see the signs until it was too late!

Have you ever been in a situation wherein you need to tinkle so badly that you are in a panic because you have no way of going and you may, at any second, go in your pants? I thought so. This disaster drive to Costco ended up being one of those times for me. Steve had no compassion. He thought it would be a grand idea to pull over and have me go on the side of the road. I tried explaining to him that it's not that easy for girls and that likely a badger or a fox would bite me on the bum. Also, there was no real way of hiding me from the other 7.5 million cars on the road. After 2 hours (on a 2 mile stretch of road) I saw the blessed golden arches and prayed that this was not a McDonalds that made you have a key to use the toilet. It wasn't and I made it in the very nick of time. Really, we almost returned that car with wet seats. What a fiasco.

Our Costco trip ended up being a good one. I bought two coats, one to replace my ineffective coat I brought for the trip, and another just because I loved it. We bought lots of candy and Steve bought an Armani jacket (that's right, that is why you go to Costco in Reading).

We finally returned the car and proceeded to take the longest tube ride in history into London. Out we came onto Queensway (which I was under the impression was Bayswater and was therefore out of my wits for a great deal of time), which has turned into not such a nice street. I was so sad to see the state of it. But never mind, it's still London! We trudged to our hotel and found a drunk mother (child in the father's arms, along with a beer) puking her guts up on the floor, checked in and decided we liked our B&B in Bath quite a bit more ;).

We were starving and didn't think anything would be open at 11:00 p.m. (we later realized that there is a LOT open at 11:00 p.m.) so we headed to the old standby, McDonalds. The McFlurry machine was broken. Ah well, what can you do? The day was comical!

I really hope this post doesn't sound too pouty and sad. We were still having fun. It's just that some days don't go so well when you're traveling. We understood that and took it in stride. Mostly it's hilarious now! Bless England and all the bad days spent in it!

Peace out,

Heidi