Wednesday, September 10, 2008
And the new baby is…a MINI?
Okay, so I know I said we were getting the Bimmer. For the past month we were set on that choice. But the dealer couldn’t give us a delivery time or a firm price because the company hasn’t released the new price list for 2009 yet. We were going to have to order it anyway and find out the price at the end, which seemed really backward to us. So we ordered a Mini Cooper (also owned by BMW) instead. It will end up being just over half the cost of the BMW, which will allow us a little more freedom to travel in the near future. We will likely get our BMW when the Mitsubishi dies (which could be any day now since it is 14 years old already). I think the Mini will be cute, and much easier to park than either the BMW or the Galant. It will be an off-white Mini Cooper Clubman Sport with black racing stripes. So in mid-October, I will get to see Dave in a mini after all.
LONDON!
One happy by-product of living in a Marriott for nearly two months, and of Dave’s frequent business travel, is earning the occasional free hotel stay with Marriott points. This time we scored big. We stayed at the five-star Renaissance Chancery Court in downtown London for an entire week. Free. Yes, FREE. And what’s more, since Dave is a member of the executive club, we had access to the club lounge, a free full English breakfast each morning, and free hors d’oeuvre and desserts in the evenings. We saved thousands of dollars. Breakfast alone would have cost us about $150 a day had we paid for it ourselves. Sheesh, I sound like a commercial.
It’s a good thing we didn’t have to pay for a hotel because everything else in London was super expensive. We paid 7 pounds (nearly 14 dollars) for three scoops of ice cream in a dish. It cost 70 pounds (roughly 140 dollars) for the family to see Buckingham Palace. It was outrageous.
But we had a blast. Here is a brief sketch of our itinerary, which overall worked pretty well:
Day 1: Awake 4:30 a.m. (3:30 in London) and take car to the Park and Ride for one euro a day parking; ride train to airport. Fly to London. Check into hotel. Walk along the Thames by the London Eye and watch buskers. Thai food for lunch. Double decker bus and boat tour. Early to bed.
Day 2: The British Museum, fish and chips, and The Lion King matinee, Notting Hill carnival, King’s Cross Station for Harry Potter photo.
Day 3: Buckingham Palace State Rooms, changing of the guard, the Royal Mews, Queen’s Gallery; picnic; Hyde Park.
Day 4: Tower of London, pub food.
Day 5: National Portrait Gallery, Leicester Square, Westminster Abbey, Spamalot.
Day 6: London Eye, Imperial War Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, pub food.
Day 7: St. Martin in the Fields Church, brass rubbings, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, walking and shopping, Spanish food.
Day 8: Fly home.
The Details:
Double Decker Bus and River Tour
This is pretty much a rip-off. It was recommended by Rick Steves, who has been our trusted travel guru for years. But I thought it was too expensive for what it offered. The guides were obviously bored and provided very little real information (“This is Buckingham Palace, home of the Queen.” Duh). We saw just as much on the regular city double deckers.
The British Museum
History, history, history. This museum is very cool with things like a piece of the Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island statue, and lots of real mummies. Dave loved it so much he went back on his own one night that it was open late.
The Lion King at Lyceum Theatre
My mom's brother jokingly refers to his relatives as "the Blubber Family". No, not like whale blubber (really) but the crying kind--because we all cry at the teensiest prompting. I illustrated that during the live stage production of The Lion King.
I never stopped bawling from the opening song ("Circle of Life") until the intermission. I mean it. I had tears puddling under my chin and running down into my blouse. Why? Well, I don’t know exactly. I think it must be amazement at the power of human artistic expression. I was awed by the beauty in the costuming and sets. I could not have been more impressed if actual giraffes and elephants had crossed the stage. I was mesmerized by the powerful dancing. And I was blown away by the orchestra and singers. Even though Tim Rice and Elton John (whom our bus tour guide called "London's second queen") wrote the music, it still sounded harmoniously African and it carried me back.
And really, that's probably the main reason for my tears: The play is about Africa. My Africa. The Africa of my blissfully safe and ignorant childhood. The Africa in the bushveld, far from cities, violence, political strife, AIDS, and warfare. It’s the glorified Africa that I experienced on safari. The Africa of the animals. The Africa where I changed my world view forever. It’s the Africa that I could never return to again, even if I tried. I always cry when I really think about Africa.
The Lion King. I loved it. We all did. It was, undoubtedly, the highlight of my trip.
Notting Hill Carnival
The lightbulb went off just as we exited the Tube at Notting Hill. Oh yeah…I read somewhere not to come to the Notting Hill Carnival because it is the most crowded festival in all of Europe. But, I reasoned, the brochure had said it was Children’s Day. Surely it wouldn’t be too rough? Oh, but I was wrong. My innocent little angels saw the first drunk people they’d ever seen. And tons of them. They also saw two fights start (from which we steered them away quickly). The trash was piled taller than we could see over. And I have never heard music so dangerously loud in my life. I hated everything about it. We tried to head straight back to the hotel, but it took two hours to get back due to the carnival traffic. The next day there was a riot at the carnival and people were killed. Now tell me, if it is such a terrible experience, why the heck would so many people want to go there?
King’s Cross Station Platform 9 ¾
Harry Potter fans of the world know what this is. We had to get a picture next to the magical wall that leads to Diagon Alley. We're a silly bunch of Muggles.
Buckingham Palace, the Royal Mews and the Queen’s Gallery
For eight weeks of every year the Queen goes to Scotland and allows guests to tour her palace at Buckingham. This year for the first time she also opened up the royal banquet hall with all of the tables set in the royal china and crystal as if for a state dinner. Very fancy. The fanciest. I don't think I could even enjoy a meal served on such precious material. I'd be scared to death I'd scratch it and have to sell my house to replace it.
The Royal Mews holds the collection of royal coaches, cars and horses, but they are impressive. It only took a few minutes to tour them.
The Queen’s Gallery holds one of the finest private art collections in the world. All three sites had coloring sheets for kids, but this one also had a cool eye-spy kind of game that kept the children excited throughout the tour.
These activities were all purchased with one ticket for the day. We also (sort of) saw the changing of the guard, which is free but very crowded. I didn’t mind not being able to see much since I had seen it twice before on previous trips, but I had hoped that the kids and Dave could see more.
The Tower of London
I could spend a week in this place and just listen to all of the great stories told by the Beefeaters. They are a bunch of cards, and the history of the place is as rich and enticing as its Crown Jewels. The diva and I especially enjoyed the supreme bling. Dave got to see lots of armor and weapons (yawn) so he was happy. And they had a wonderful interactive kids’ exhibit where kids could learn how to use a sword (medieval whack-a-mole), pull an electronic crossbow, measure gold coins, touch armor to hear what each part was used for, and lots more. We toured every tower, read as much medieval graffiti as we could, and had a thorougly fun day.
The National Portrait Gallery
This one was nice, but not one I’d repeat. But we did enjoy a children’s tour and activity where the kids got to make their own masks.
Leicester Square
This is the famous place to buy cheaper theater tickets. It would have been nice to have a guide of who had which tickets for sale and for how much because we had to do a lot of line hopping and shopping. We ended up getting crappy seats to Spamalot, and we didn’t save as much money as we had hoped. I’d recommend instead to go online beforehand like we did for The Lion King.
Westminster Abbey
This was free when I was there in the 80s, but now they charge a fortune to go in and see where so many famous people are buried. It is really neat to see where so royals were crowned, married, and mourned. I, the admitted word nerd, especially love Poet’s Corner, where I could see graves and memorials to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wilde, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and more. Lots of history in that place. Wow.
Spamalot at the Palace Theatre
This one did not inspire tears of awe, but a few squeezed out from laughter. And I’m still humming tunes like “I’m Not Yet Dead” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". After some research we decided to take the kids. They liked the music and the occasional fart joke. Any truly adult humor went right over their heads. The only negative was that our seats were not the greatest. Even though they were down in the stalls, the balcony obstructed part of our view of the upper stage where some funny things were, no doubt, happening. I really enjoyed the show, but I would only really recommend it to those who truly appreciate Monty Python humor. It was tacky, tasteless, and riotously funny.
The London Eye
Basically a huge ferris wheel, this expensive ride (or “flight” as it is billed) gives a great view of the city. If London ever had a sunny, clear day, I’ll bet one could see miles and miles.
The Imperial War Museum
You can guess who put this on the itinerary. It wasn’t me. I might have steered us toward some literary sites like the Charles Dickens Museum or the Benjamin Franklin House. No, it was the beloved war history nerd that I married. But you know, it actually ended up being kind of neat. There was an exhibit on war from a child’s perspective that the kids liked. There was an interactive inside of a submarine that the kids could explore (which made me miss my daddy). They had a life-like WWI trench that the kids begged to go into and then cried to get out of because it was a little too realistic for them. And the best part was a James Bond exhibit where the kids got to draw their own villains and take photos posing as evil bad guys. They loved it.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
This place had a little something for everyone. They had fine art, jewelry, clothing and artifacts from around the world. Dave rolled his eyes at the history of fashion exhibit, which the diva and I loved, but I reminded him that I went to a war museum for him. The least he could do was sashay through some vintage couture with me. And he did. Guilt works.
Then there was a live music and soccer demonstration out on the lawn that the kids loved. A man gave them some noisemakers with FCUK on them. I started to get all offended and take them away, thinking they were some kind of dirty, inappropriate things, but it turns out that FCUK actually stands for French Connection United Kingdom. Dang, I’m square.
St. Martin in the Fields Church
We saw a free piano concert here and went to the crypt below for a mediocre lunch. There we also did some neat brass rubbings of dragons, griffins and Celtic spirals.
Pubs and Grub
I used to love Guiness, but I really missed German beer on this trip, especially hefeweizen. I’ve gotten spoiled. We never really had a great meal the entire week in London except for some very expensive tapas our last night there.
One sort of sad trend in London is the purchase of so many little old pubs by one major mega-corporation so that they all have the same Bennigans-style menu. It’s handy in a way because the menu is kid-friendly and cheaper, but it replaces the appealing homemade London fare that pubs are famous for, like bubble and squeak, ploughman and Ruben sandwiches, and shepherd’s pie. But I guess this corporation supposedly buys organic and tries to keep the ambiance true to history. So it’s not all bad.
We did have some Cornish pasties and fish and chips on the streets. We also ate Thai and Spanish, but we never got Indian food, which I had expected to find easily.
General Observations
I had not been back to London since my trips there in the 1980s. Since some 80s fashions have come back in vogue, it felt a lot the same as it did then. I saw lots of skinny jeans, ballet flats, off-the shoulder baggy tops, and even a few punk rockers with Mohawks. But there were new fashion trends too, like wearing a keffiyeh (Muslim headdress) as a scarf (the look that got Rachel Ray in so much trouble) and women wearing tiny little shortie shorts with their butt cheeks hanging out, like in the old Nair commercials (“We wear short shorts…”) WITH big furry winter Eskimo boots. Interesting.
Overall we had a fantastic trip. And speaking our own language all week offered a good mental break. Dave really liked the Homer Simpson tee shirt that he saw that said, “English? Who needs that? I’m never going to England.” Indeed.
It was a little challenging keeping two kids from walking too close to curbs with double decker buses rushing by, from walking too far ahead or behind on crowded city streets, or from forgetting to “mind the gap” (watch for the huge crack between the train and station platform) on the tube. One night Luke even fell off the hotel bed and bumped his head so hard we thought he had a concussion. Again. So it wasn’t as relaxing as hanging out on the beach. But it was a trip of a lifetime, and I hope they remember it. I certainly will.
It’s a good thing we didn’t have to pay for a hotel because everything else in London was super expensive. We paid 7 pounds (nearly 14 dollars) for three scoops of ice cream in a dish. It cost 70 pounds (roughly 140 dollars) for the family to see Buckingham Palace. It was outrageous.
But we had a blast. Here is a brief sketch of our itinerary, which overall worked pretty well:
Day 1: Awake 4:30 a.m. (3:30 in London) and take car to the Park and Ride for one euro a day parking; ride train to airport. Fly to London. Check into hotel. Walk along the Thames by the London Eye and watch buskers. Thai food for lunch. Double decker bus and boat tour. Early to bed.
Day 2: The British Museum, fish and chips, and The Lion King matinee, Notting Hill carnival, King’s Cross Station for Harry Potter photo.
Day 3: Buckingham Palace State Rooms, changing of the guard, the Royal Mews, Queen’s Gallery; picnic; Hyde Park.
Day 4: Tower of London, pub food.
Day 5: National Portrait Gallery, Leicester Square, Westminster Abbey, Spamalot.
Day 6: London Eye, Imperial War Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, pub food.
Day 7: St. Martin in the Fields Church, brass rubbings, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, walking and shopping, Spanish food.
Day 8: Fly home.
The Details:
Double Decker Bus and River Tour
This is pretty much a rip-off. It was recommended by Rick Steves, who has been our trusted travel guru for years. But I thought it was too expensive for what it offered. The guides were obviously bored and provided very little real information (“This is Buckingham Palace, home of the Queen.” Duh). We saw just as much on the regular city double deckers.
The British Museum
History, history, history. This museum is very cool with things like a piece of the Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island statue, and lots of real mummies. Dave loved it so much he went back on his own one night that it was open late.
The Lion King at Lyceum Theatre
My mom's brother jokingly refers to his relatives as "the Blubber Family". No, not like whale blubber (really) but the crying kind--because we all cry at the teensiest prompting. I illustrated that during the live stage production of The Lion King.
I never stopped bawling from the opening song ("Circle of Life") until the intermission. I mean it. I had tears puddling under my chin and running down into my blouse. Why? Well, I don’t know exactly. I think it must be amazement at the power of human artistic expression. I was awed by the beauty in the costuming and sets. I could not have been more impressed if actual giraffes and elephants had crossed the stage. I was mesmerized by the powerful dancing. And I was blown away by the orchestra and singers. Even though Tim Rice and Elton John (whom our bus tour guide called "London's second queen") wrote the music, it still sounded harmoniously African and it carried me back.
And really, that's probably the main reason for my tears: The play is about Africa. My Africa. The Africa of my blissfully safe and ignorant childhood. The Africa in the bushveld, far from cities, violence, political strife, AIDS, and warfare. It’s the glorified Africa that I experienced on safari. The Africa of the animals. The Africa where I changed my world view forever. It’s the Africa that I could never return to again, even if I tried. I always cry when I really think about Africa.
The Lion King. I loved it. We all did. It was, undoubtedly, the highlight of my trip.
Notting Hill Carnival
The lightbulb went off just as we exited the Tube at Notting Hill. Oh yeah…I read somewhere not to come to the Notting Hill Carnival because it is the most crowded festival in all of Europe. But, I reasoned, the brochure had said it was Children’s Day. Surely it wouldn’t be too rough? Oh, but I was wrong. My innocent little angels saw the first drunk people they’d ever seen. And tons of them. They also saw two fights start (from which we steered them away quickly). The trash was piled taller than we could see over. And I have never heard music so dangerously loud in my life. I hated everything about it. We tried to head straight back to the hotel, but it took two hours to get back due to the carnival traffic. The next day there was a riot at the carnival and people were killed. Now tell me, if it is such a terrible experience, why the heck would so many people want to go there?
King’s Cross Station Platform 9 ¾
Harry Potter fans of the world know what this is. We had to get a picture next to the magical wall that leads to Diagon Alley. We're a silly bunch of Muggles.
Buckingham Palace, the Royal Mews and the Queen’s Gallery
For eight weeks of every year the Queen goes to Scotland and allows guests to tour her palace at Buckingham. This year for the first time she also opened up the royal banquet hall with all of the tables set in the royal china and crystal as if for a state dinner. Very fancy. The fanciest. I don't think I could even enjoy a meal served on such precious material. I'd be scared to death I'd scratch it and have to sell my house to replace it.
The Royal Mews holds the collection of royal coaches, cars and horses, but they are impressive. It only took a few minutes to tour them.
The Queen’s Gallery holds one of the finest private art collections in the world. All three sites had coloring sheets for kids, but this one also had a cool eye-spy kind of game that kept the children excited throughout the tour.
These activities were all purchased with one ticket for the day. We also (sort of) saw the changing of the guard, which is free but very crowded. I didn’t mind not being able to see much since I had seen it twice before on previous trips, but I had hoped that the kids and Dave could see more.
The Tower of London
I could spend a week in this place and just listen to all of the great stories told by the Beefeaters. They are a bunch of cards, and the history of the place is as rich and enticing as its Crown Jewels. The diva and I especially enjoyed the supreme bling. Dave got to see lots of armor and weapons (yawn) so he was happy. And they had a wonderful interactive kids’ exhibit where kids could learn how to use a sword (medieval whack-a-mole), pull an electronic crossbow, measure gold coins, touch armor to hear what each part was used for, and lots more. We toured every tower, read as much medieval graffiti as we could, and had a thorougly fun day.
The National Portrait Gallery
This one was nice, but not one I’d repeat. But we did enjoy a children’s tour and activity where the kids got to make their own masks.
Leicester Square
This is the famous place to buy cheaper theater tickets. It would have been nice to have a guide of who had which tickets for sale and for how much because we had to do a lot of line hopping and shopping. We ended up getting crappy seats to Spamalot, and we didn’t save as much money as we had hoped. I’d recommend instead to go online beforehand like we did for The Lion King.
Westminster Abbey
This was free when I was there in the 80s, but now they charge a fortune to go in and see where so many famous people are buried. It is really neat to see where so royals were crowned, married, and mourned. I, the admitted word nerd, especially love Poet’s Corner, where I could see graves and memorials to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wilde, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and more. Lots of history in that place. Wow.
Spamalot at the Palace Theatre
This one did not inspire tears of awe, but a few squeezed out from laughter. And I’m still humming tunes like “I’m Not Yet Dead” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". After some research we decided to take the kids. They liked the music and the occasional fart joke. Any truly adult humor went right over their heads. The only negative was that our seats were not the greatest. Even though they were down in the stalls, the balcony obstructed part of our view of the upper stage where some funny things were, no doubt, happening. I really enjoyed the show, but I would only really recommend it to those who truly appreciate Monty Python humor. It was tacky, tasteless, and riotously funny.
The London Eye
Basically a huge ferris wheel, this expensive ride (or “flight” as it is billed) gives a great view of the city. If London ever had a sunny, clear day, I’ll bet one could see miles and miles.
The Imperial War Museum
You can guess who put this on the itinerary. It wasn’t me. I might have steered us toward some literary sites like the Charles Dickens Museum or the Benjamin Franklin House. No, it was the beloved war history nerd that I married. But you know, it actually ended up being kind of neat. There was an exhibit on war from a child’s perspective that the kids liked. There was an interactive inside of a submarine that the kids could explore (which made me miss my daddy). They had a life-like WWI trench that the kids begged to go into and then cried to get out of because it was a little too realistic for them. And the best part was a James Bond exhibit where the kids got to draw their own villains and take photos posing as evil bad guys. They loved it.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
This place had a little something for everyone. They had fine art, jewelry, clothing and artifacts from around the world. Dave rolled his eyes at the history of fashion exhibit, which the diva and I loved, but I reminded him that I went to a war museum for him. The least he could do was sashay through some vintage couture with me. And he did. Guilt works.
Then there was a live music and soccer demonstration out on the lawn that the kids loved. A man gave them some noisemakers with FCUK on them. I started to get all offended and take them away, thinking they were some kind of dirty, inappropriate things, but it turns out that FCUK actually stands for French Connection United Kingdom. Dang, I’m square.
St. Martin in the Fields Church
We saw a free piano concert here and went to the crypt below for a mediocre lunch. There we also did some neat brass rubbings of dragons, griffins and Celtic spirals.
Pubs and Grub
I used to love Guiness, but I really missed German beer on this trip, especially hefeweizen. I’ve gotten spoiled. We never really had a great meal the entire week in London except for some very expensive tapas our last night there.
One sort of sad trend in London is the purchase of so many little old pubs by one major mega-corporation so that they all have the same Bennigans-style menu. It’s handy in a way because the menu is kid-friendly and cheaper, but it replaces the appealing homemade London fare that pubs are famous for, like bubble and squeak, ploughman and Ruben sandwiches, and shepherd’s pie. But I guess this corporation supposedly buys organic and tries to keep the ambiance true to history. So it’s not all bad.
We did have some Cornish pasties and fish and chips on the streets. We also ate Thai and Spanish, but we never got Indian food, which I had expected to find easily.
General Observations
I had not been back to London since my trips there in the 1980s. Since some 80s fashions have come back in vogue, it felt a lot the same as it did then. I saw lots of skinny jeans, ballet flats, off-the shoulder baggy tops, and even a few punk rockers with Mohawks. But there were new fashion trends too, like wearing a keffiyeh (Muslim headdress) as a scarf (the look that got Rachel Ray in so much trouble) and women wearing tiny little shortie shorts with their butt cheeks hanging out, like in the old Nair commercials (“We wear short shorts…”) WITH big furry winter Eskimo boots. Interesting.
Overall we had a fantastic trip. And speaking our own language all week offered a good mental break. Dave really liked the Homer Simpson tee shirt that he saw that said, “English? Who needs that? I’m never going to England.” Indeed.
It was a little challenging keeping two kids from walking too close to curbs with double decker buses rushing by, from walking too far ahead or behind on crowded city streets, or from forgetting to “mind the gap” (watch for the huge crack between the train and station platform) on the tube. One night Luke even fell off the hotel bed and bumped his head so hard we thought he had a concussion. Again. So it wasn’t as relaxing as hanging out on the beach. But it was a trip of a lifetime, and I hope they remember it. I certainly will.
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
A few Sundays ago at our church, St. Catherine’s Anglican Church in Stuttgart, an English lady I’d never seen before stood up and invited all single people to her house for dinner that evening. Later, as we were having coffee and cake after church, she approached us and invited our family to come too since not many singles had accepted her offer. I declined, explaining that we had two young children (who, I was thinking, would destroy her fancy dinner). But she was insistent, and something about her seemed so likable and sincere. I let her talk me into it with the caveat that I be allowed to bring food too.
So we drove into the hills that evening to have dinner with people we had never met before that day. We took wine, homemade tortellini salad, and a bag of toys to entertain the kids. We were all excited to make new friends when I suddenly panicked. Who are these people? Why did they invite us if they don't know us? Oh Lord, what if they are going to try to sell us Amway or get us to join a cult?
But I need not have worried. We ended up having a lovely evening. Twelve adults sat around a long table and the four children sat outside at the patio table. We enjoyed four delicious courses, including squash soup, salads, stuffed pork chops, and three German desserts. But the most wonderful part was the diversity of our group. There were two Nigerians, one New Zealander, two Germans, two English, four Indians, and five Americans. We all laughed and drank wine and talked about Monty Python, soccer, travel, food, theater, and family. Nobody brought up politics or religion. Claire and Luke ran and played tag with two beautiful little Indian girls. It was lovely. We started out as strangers, and after an evening of conversation we became friends. What a gift. And not once did anyone try to sell anything. How many people would open their home and spend all day cooking wonderful food for strangers for no reason other than to be kind? It’s sad that we expected an ulterior motive. This was a genuine act of generosity that was truly inspiring.
So we drove into the hills that evening to have dinner with people we had never met before that day. We took wine, homemade tortellini salad, and a bag of toys to entertain the kids. We were all excited to make new friends when I suddenly panicked. Who are these people? Why did they invite us if they don't know us? Oh Lord, what if they are going to try to sell us Amway or get us to join a cult?
But I need not have worried. We ended up having a lovely evening. Twelve adults sat around a long table and the four children sat outside at the patio table. We enjoyed four delicious courses, including squash soup, salads, stuffed pork chops, and three German desserts. But the most wonderful part was the diversity of our group. There were two Nigerians, one New Zealander, two Germans, two English, four Indians, and five Americans. We all laughed and drank wine and talked about Monty Python, soccer, travel, food, theater, and family. Nobody brought up politics or religion. Claire and Luke ran and played tag with two beautiful little Indian girls. It was lovely. We started out as strangers, and after an evening of conversation we became friends. What a gift. And not once did anyone try to sell anything. How many people would open their home and spend all day cooking wonderful food for strangers for no reason other than to be kind? It’s sad that we expected an ulterior motive. This was a genuine act of generosity that was truly inspiring.
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