Backtracking for a second: We walked around Dublin to just see the lay of the land the day before finding The Rest of The Group. We walked over the River Liffey and saw the Temple Bar area. We found an Indian restaurant and each ordered something different so that we could all share. It was fabulous.
After finding everyone, in Dublin, some went walking around more and others napped. It was a kickin'-back day.
The following day was the full one. We bought the "hop-on-hoop-off" bus ticket and rode the circuit around dublin to get an idea of where the thing went and to listen to the tour guide tell us about all the touristy sites in Dublin. Interesting but a bit long. Probably an hour or more.
We then walked around the Temple Bar area near the River Liffey, walked all over town seeing all the major areas.
The next day we planned to hop on that bus again and see the Guinness Brewery, the Jameson Distillery, Kilmainham Gaol and the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Time ticked away faster than we expected, so we never got to Trinity College at all. :( Nine people really does slow things down a LOT. Also, the tour at Jameson was kind of lame, but was a time-consumer. Guinness, while more interesting, was still just lots of museum-style displays and stuff, but no actual brewery touring happening. The day was exhausting. Some went to bed early. Tonight we found a great brew-pub that served great burgers. Fantastic. We want to go back tomorrow for breakfast. We tried to, that is, but they were closed as early as we wanted breakfast. I guess Dubliners eat breakfast late.
The next morning it was taxi cab off to the car rental place where we all spend a bunch of time waiting around for very slow service. Finally in cars, we move on down the road following the taxi driver's instructions for how to get out of town. Driving on the left is a very interesting and exciting challenge. Very challenging. Very. After my one full day in London, I have it (kind of) down. Tony is the 'new guy' now.
A few minutes out of town and we have our first near-fatal accident. Well, I guess you can't say it was near fatal. It was just scary. Scary for me to watch happen in the rear-view mirror, and scarier for the people in the car I'm sure. :)
That lesson learned, we were On Down The Road toward Doolin.
The GPS gave us a bunch of shit on the way. It didn't realize that some roads were in the process of being replaced by larger freeways. This made it difficult to find the correct road. "Recalculating" was the GPS word-of-the-day. Many ridiculously tiny roads. So ridiculous that you would not believe me if I described them to you. See our pictures to find out more. A long while later, we emerged from those tiny little roads and what seemed like endless winding about into the town of Doolin.
Dara the B&B owner at Seaview House was the best. Super nice and helpful and a beautiful house with great rooms and a great view RIGHT near the pub. The house where Tony, Casey and Jimmy stayed was just as beautiful, but didn't quite have the view. The owner there was Josephone, Dara's mother. She was the first B&B owner in Doolin over 40 years ago. She's a B&B nazi. She tried to be helpful, but in her controlling way, was kind of a bitch.
We settled in and walked down to the pub to get some great pub food and listen to/watch live music. Fantastic.
Next day came our trip to the Aran Islands. Therese, Nick, Kriss, John, Jake and Kyle were to meet the others (Tony, Casey and Jimmy) at the dock at 9:30am. Boat leaves at 9:35. We arrive at 9:30 promptly (after a bit of a rushed breakfast), but no Tony, Casey or Jimmy. The boat driver assures us that we MUST get on NOW and that the others will have to make the next boat. Turns out that they didn't realize they should DRIVE to the dock (Josephine the B&B nazi was not specific about that with them, she just said it was "2 minutes down the road". A half-hour-walk later, they arrived at the dock. Not knowing where we went, they went to a different island than we did. We spent a few hours on Inisheer while they went to Inishmoor.
About 40-minutes into the 55-minute trip over turbulent swells (10feet?) on the open Atlantic, Jake turned to me and meekly said "I can't do it any more". I thought he was making some king of joke which I didn't understand, but as soon as the vomit began spewing over his hand, I understood what was happening. That sight, of course, sent Kyle a-vomiting as well. Oh, the humanity. I had to stabilize myself by hanging on to the benches in the cabin (80 people-sized boat) to get to the Barf-bag department and retrieve a couple of them. Now Kriss is asking me to find tissues or something. I don't know where to look or what to do to find them. Then THE MIRACLE happened. The woman directly in front of me, a witness to the whole ordeal and fellow parent, unzipped her backpack and produced a brand-new roll of fresh paper towels (cue choirs singing and rays of sunlight coming through the clouds). A true miracle. Some wiping followed and some unhappy kids, but when land arrived all was well again...
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Belfast to Dublin and the Dynamic Nonopod
The train to Belfast was uneventful really. We played some rummy, ate some junk food (bad cookies which we later threw away the rest of) and had some 'nescafe' from the 'dining car'.
We thought we'd have to hunt around in the Belfast train station for the connecting train which we had only 13 minutes to find and board. We were wrong. I asked a train employee right as we stepped off the train which platform had the 'on to dublin' train on it. The man said "right there". It was immediately on the opposite track on the same platform. No problem.
A few more hours and we arrived in Dublin. A question of the locals about which way was North and we walked to our hotel. Arrived at the Charles Stewart Guesthouse promptly to find a note from Jimmy Kennedy there to meet us. He'd come 20 minutes earlier (about 5pm) and wrote us that he'd come back at 6pm. We settled in, got some internet and uploaded some pix. Jimmy saw me through the window and hollered my name. Success! We met our first fellow-traveler-person in Ireland!
Jimmy and the four of us walked around town after trying to secure a trip to Newgrange for tomorrow. We failed. :( We will stay in Dublin instead of leaving town for the day.
After spending the night, we decided to go and check into the new hotel (Jury's Inn) and see what it was like. On the way there, Nick spotted us walking on the street on the opposite side of himself and Therese, Tony and Casey. We've found our next 'fellow travelers'! (they found us).
Now we are NINE people. The dynamic is now different. Far different.
We thought we'd have to hunt around in the Belfast train station for the connecting train which we had only 13 minutes to find and board. We were wrong. I asked a train employee right as we stepped off the train which platform had the 'on to dublin' train on it. The man said "right there". It was immediately on the opposite track on the same platform. No problem.
A few more hours and we arrived in Dublin. A question of the locals about which way was North and we walked to our hotel. Arrived at the Charles Stewart Guesthouse promptly to find a note from Jimmy Kennedy there to meet us. He'd come 20 minutes earlier (about 5pm) and wrote us that he'd come back at 6pm. We settled in, got some internet and uploaded some pix. Jimmy saw me through the window and hollered my name. Success! We met our first fellow-traveler-person in Ireland!
Jimmy and the four of us walked around town after trying to secure a trip to Newgrange for tomorrow. We failed. :( We will stay in Dublin instead of leaving town for the day.
After spending the night, we decided to go and check into the new hotel (Jury's Inn) and see what it was like. On the way there, Nick spotted us walking on the street on the opposite side of himself and Therese, Tony and Casey. We've found our next 'fellow travelers'! (they found us).
Now we are NINE people. The dynamic is now different. Far different.
Friday, July 23, 2010
I'm late posting this (way) but I'll back-date it to the date that it happened....
OK, our short flight was uneventful. Arrived at the tiny Derry (Londonderry) airport and immediately grabbed a cab to town. The cabby was very fun and told us a lot of interesting stuff about Derry. He also cruised us around town the 'long way' with no extra charge in order to show us the murals that they are so proud of here depicting the rebellion against british rule over Northern Ireland.
Cabby was obviously, before he even stated it, a Republican. We talked about the Orange Marches and July 12 and the fact that this little city is roughly divided between Catholic and Protestant people. He let us know in no uncrertain terms that although peace is becoming, it is not entirely there yet and will likely be generations before it is.
Got to the hostel (Paddy's Palace: Bing It) and were greeted at the door with a "You must be John?". We were the only people that hadn't shown up yet. Must've been about 20 beds in the place.
Entered to find a couple teenagers playing pool and others playing Wii. Paid our cash for the room and went upstairs.
This place was quite a dive. Great people, fun and laid-back atmosphere, really a 'make yourself at home' place. Two thumbs up. However, of course, we had some interesting observations as well. Holes in the walls and ceilings which looked to have exposed a plumbing problem that needed fixing (ok now); Carpet was stained and nasty (seriously. nasty.), cabinets were kind of falling apart, the one small table was humorously wobbly. The beds were CLEAN, however, and very comfortable (for Ikea-style steel bunk-beds). We all slept well.
You really have to see pictures in order to understand this place. They had a little detached garage area open-air (no door) which seemed to serve as a smoking room. Candles in bottles everywhere, kitsch and memorabilia all over the place. It looked like an antique stall in one of those little malls where people rent 8'x8' rooms to put their stuff for others to purchase.
In the morning, we walked to the train station first thing for a train out of town to see the Antrim Coast (Google it). We were headed to the Giant's Causeway (see Led Zepppelin's cover art for the album 'Houses of the Holy') and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.
The Giant's Causeway was fantastic. We took a bunch of pictures including a whole bunch that we can photo-shop later to try and use the 'multiple-pix-of-one-person' effect that Zep used. Cool fun. :)
The Rope Bridge was cool, but not as fun as the Giant's Causeway. A suspension bridge way up high over a coastal passage of water below designed originally to give fishermen access to the island it reaches. (bing it).
After our last Antrim Coast stop, we hiked up to the local village (1/2 mile) to catch the bus. We apparently missed it, so we had to wait another like 2 hours hanging around on the street (in the sun, thankfully)
Our time there included getting ice cream for the boys at a tiny shop where we met the vociferous Harry the Ice Cream Vendor who told us all about 'The Glens' of Antrim and how we MUST go there! (we didn't have time to :( ). He also let us know he was a staunch Republican. He had many opinions (oh, and he looked a whole lot like my friend Nels (Hi, Nels!). Oh, and he served GREAT ice cream.
Back at the bus stop, we met a couple from the Burgundy area of France. The man spoke great english (with a very French accent) and we talked politics and discussed the EU membership status of France, Bill Clinton, The British Pound, International markets, Nicolas Sarkozi, George W Bush, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and a few other items. He was definitely not without opinion! Very fun conversation.
Got on the bus and drove ridiculously (scary) fast driving on tiny Northern Ireland roads all the way back to the train station at Coloraine. Saw Dunluce Castle on the coast as we sped by. Wanted to stop there for a few pictures, but after missing the first bus, we were now on the LAST bus out of the area so if we got off we'd not get home!
Arrived back in Derry at Paddy's Palace hostel that evening. This is when we got our Chinese Food and ate it in the smoking den. A few random people joined us. A couple from Denver (youngsters; one w/dread locks); a young biology teacher from Queens, NY and the woman who worked there at the hostel. Others came and went. All were smoking as we ate our Chinese and Kriss and I drank a bottle of wine. The boys were a bit uncomfortable with the scene as they hadn't warmed up to the idea of 'shared space' with total strangers yet. They were really all fabulously cool people, however, and it worked out.
They asked us if we wanted to go to the pub with them to see some live music. Jake and Kyle stayed behind and reluctantly tried to hang out with the Irish Soccer team of teenagers that were watching a movie in the common room. They did it but were bored shortly and went to bed. We went and had our first Irish Guinness in the pub and got to experience trad music. It was truly fantastic. (seeking music would become a passionate theme for most every upcoming night on the trip).
Early the next morning we got up and walked the town of Derry. Saw the murals depicting The Troubles and then walked the walled city. Very cool and fun. Walked to the train station to catch the train to Belfast/ Dublin. On the way we stopped at a corner store for some train snacks. (would love to discribe the smell of the meat for you but the thought makes me throw-up in your mouth a bit.) well as we stood on the corner waiting for John to come out of the store we must have looked like tourist. A man passing by asked where we were from. We were in a new part of town so we double checked with him on where the staion was. He said I'll take you there get in. In our short conversatino with him we found that he had a daughter living in the US in Denver who was getting married. He really meant that he'd give us a ride. Very cool. We had so much time until the train we declined his offer, but you have never met such friendly people. More later about the friendliness. Off to breakfast now!
OK, our short flight was uneventful. Arrived at the tiny Derry (Londonderry) airport and immediately grabbed a cab to town. The cabby was very fun and told us a lot of interesting stuff about Derry. He also cruised us around town the 'long way' with no extra charge in order to show us the murals that they are so proud of here depicting the rebellion against british rule over Northern Ireland.
Cabby was obviously, before he even stated it, a Republican. We talked about the Orange Marches and July 12 and the fact that this little city is roughly divided between Catholic and Protestant people. He let us know in no uncrertain terms that although peace is becoming, it is not entirely there yet and will likely be generations before it is.
Got to the hostel (Paddy's Palace: Bing It) and were greeted at the door with a "You must be John?". We were the only people that hadn't shown up yet. Must've been about 20 beds in the place.
Entered to find a couple teenagers playing pool and others playing Wii. Paid our cash for the room and went upstairs.
This place was quite a dive. Great people, fun and laid-back atmosphere, really a 'make yourself at home' place. Two thumbs up. However, of course, we had some interesting observations as well. Holes in the walls and ceilings which looked to have exposed a plumbing problem that needed fixing (ok now); Carpet was stained and nasty (seriously. nasty.), cabinets were kind of falling apart, the one small table was humorously wobbly. The beds were CLEAN, however, and very comfortable (for Ikea-style steel bunk-beds). We all slept well.
You really have to see pictures in order to understand this place. They had a little detached garage area open-air (no door) which seemed to serve as a smoking room. Candles in bottles everywhere, kitsch and memorabilia all over the place. It looked like an antique stall in one of those little malls where people rent 8'x8' rooms to put their stuff for others to purchase.
In the morning, we walked to the train station first thing for a train out of town to see the Antrim Coast (Google it). We were headed to the Giant's Causeway (see Led Zepppelin's cover art for the album 'Houses of the Holy') and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.
The Giant's Causeway was fantastic. We took a bunch of pictures including a whole bunch that we can photo-shop later to try and use the 'multiple-pix-of-one-person' effect that Zep used. Cool fun. :)
The Rope Bridge was cool, but not as fun as the Giant's Causeway. A suspension bridge way up high over a coastal passage of water below designed originally to give fishermen access to the island it reaches. (bing it).
After our last Antrim Coast stop, we hiked up to the local village (1/2 mile) to catch the bus. We apparently missed it, so we had to wait another like 2 hours hanging around on the street (in the sun, thankfully)
Our time there included getting ice cream for the boys at a tiny shop where we met the vociferous Harry the Ice Cream Vendor who told us all about 'The Glens' of Antrim and how we MUST go there! (we didn't have time to :( ). He also let us know he was a staunch Republican. He had many opinions (oh, and he looked a whole lot like my friend Nels (Hi, Nels!). Oh, and he served GREAT ice cream.
Back at the bus stop, we met a couple from the Burgundy area of France. The man spoke great english (with a very French accent) and we talked politics and discussed the EU membership status of France, Bill Clinton, The British Pound, International markets, Nicolas Sarkozi, George W Bush, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and a few other items. He was definitely not without opinion! Very fun conversation.
Got on the bus and drove ridiculously (scary) fast driving on tiny Northern Ireland roads all the way back to the train station at Coloraine. Saw Dunluce Castle on the coast as we sped by. Wanted to stop there for a few pictures, but after missing the first bus, we were now on the LAST bus out of the area so if we got off we'd not get home!
Arrived back in Derry at Paddy's Palace hostel that evening. This is when we got our Chinese Food and ate it in the smoking den. A few random people joined us. A couple from Denver (youngsters; one w/dread locks); a young biology teacher from Queens, NY and the woman who worked there at the hostel. Others came and went. All were smoking as we ate our Chinese and Kriss and I drank a bottle of wine. The boys were a bit uncomfortable with the scene as they hadn't warmed up to the idea of 'shared space' with total strangers yet. They were really all fabulously cool people, however, and it worked out.
They asked us if we wanted to go to the pub with them to see some live music. Jake and Kyle stayed behind and reluctantly tried to hang out with the Irish Soccer team of teenagers that were watching a movie in the common room. They did it but were bored shortly and went to bed. We went and had our first Irish Guinness in the pub and got to experience trad music. It was truly fantastic. (seeking music would become a passionate theme for most every upcoming night on the trip).
Early the next morning we got up and walked the town of Derry. Saw the murals depicting The Troubles and then walked the walled city. Very cool and fun. Walked to the train station to catch the train to Belfast/ Dublin. On the way we stopped at a corner store for some train snacks. (would love to discribe the smell of the meat for you but the thought makes me throw-up in your mouth a bit.) well as we stood on the corner waiting for John to come out of the store we must have looked like tourist. A man passing by asked where we were from. We were in a new part of town so we double checked with him on where the staion was. He said I'll take you there get in. In our short conversatino with him we found that he had a daughter living in the US in Denver who was getting married. He really meant that he'd give us a ride. Very cool. We had so much time until the train we declined his offer, but you have never met such friendly people. More later about the friendliness. Off to breakfast now!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Travel within travel. Northern Ireland awaits
...
We walked to Victoria Station and hunted around and found that the coach station was a couple blocks further. We were all VERY hungry and starting to get pissy. We were looking for a place to eat and settled on getting the boys some steam-table chinese. Kriss and I each got a spring roll (a really BAD spring roll). Then it's wait for the bus.
Waiting in bus stations is an interesting thing. It's just like the airport only generally smaller, dirtier, hotter and devoid entirely of the romance of air travel. Other than that it's fine. We entertained ourselves by watching a couple pigeons come in the door and fly up and perch themselves on a little kiosk store awaithing peoples' dropped crumbs. We threw them pieces of peanuts.
We even had the luck of being able to watch one pigion squirt some liquid out its butt on the floor. Kriss, of course, had to go and clean up the poo. To her credit, she saved some hapless soul from putting his/her bag down onto that spot and soaking the pigiony nectar into their luggage. she was thanked for her valiance by a neighboring waiting bus-rider.
I asked the driver about 20 minutes early if this bus was ours. He said no, that ours came next but said we should get on anyway and take this one a bit early instead of waiting. Good thing!
The road to the airport was almost 2-1/2 hours of traffic. I was starting to worry we wouldn't make it to the airport on time. As it was, we got there just in time and if it weren't for my idiot self forgetting to remove the GPS from my pocket as I entered the metal detector, which triggered an all out pat-down and metal search and the further scrutiny of all of my stuff, we would have had a few minutes to spare. But, since I did do that, we got to the gate just in time to get on the plane and find some seats together. RyanAir doesn't pre-assign seats. Or provide barf bags (no need thankfully).
Ryan air also spends most of their time with you in the air attempting to sell you something. Whatever. A cheeseburger or a soda. Maybe some peanuts or even some liquor. How about something from the catalog? A meal? How about a lottery ticket? All available from the lowly Ryanair hawkers...ahem...flight attendents.
It was a safe and short flight. Arrived in Derry before the stated arrival time. This caused us to be able to hear what a little boy alluded to earlier ("Are we going on Ryanair? Oh, goody, we'll get to hear the MUSIC!): A trumpeting fanfare followed by a self-congratulatory explanation that Ryanair is the most on-time airline in Europe. Over 90%! (gag). Interesting business model is all I'm saying. :)
We walked to Victoria Station and hunted around and found that the coach station was a couple blocks further. We were all VERY hungry and starting to get pissy. We were looking for a place to eat and settled on getting the boys some steam-table chinese. Kriss and I each got a spring roll (a really BAD spring roll). Then it's wait for the bus.
Waiting in bus stations is an interesting thing. It's just like the airport only generally smaller, dirtier, hotter and devoid entirely of the romance of air travel. Other than that it's fine. We entertained ourselves by watching a couple pigeons come in the door and fly up and perch themselves on a little kiosk store awaithing peoples' dropped crumbs. We threw them pieces of peanuts.
We even had the luck of being able to watch one pigion squirt some liquid out its butt on the floor. Kriss, of course, had to go and clean up the poo. To her credit, she saved some hapless soul from putting his/her bag down onto that spot and soaking the pigiony nectar into their luggage. she was thanked for her valiance by a neighboring waiting bus-rider.
I asked the driver about 20 minutes early if this bus was ours. He said no, that ours came next but said we should get on anyway and take this one a bit early instead of waiting. Good thing!
The road to the airport was almost 2-1/2 hours of traffic. I was starting to worry we wouldn't make it to the airport on time. As it was, we got there just in time and if it weren't for my idiot self forgetting to remove the GPS from my pocket as I entered the metal detector, which triggered an all out pat-down and metal search and the further scrutiny of all of my stuff, we would have had a few minutes to spare. But, since I did do that, we got to the gate just in time to get on the plane and find some seats together. RyanAir doesn't pre-assign seats. Or provide barf bags (no need thankfully).
Ryan air also spends most of their time with you in the air attempting to sell you something. Whatever. A cheeseburger or a soda. Maybe some peanuts or even some liquor. How about something from the catalog? A meal? How about a lottery ticket? All available from the lowly Ryanair hawkers...ahem...flight attendents.
It was a safe and short flight. Arrived in Derry before the stated arrival time. This caused us to be able to hear what a little boy alluded to earlier ("Are we going on Ryanair? Oh, goody, we'll get to hear the MUSIC!): A trumpeting fanfare followed by a self-congratulatory explanation that Ryanair is the most on-time airline in Europe. Over 90%! (gag). Interesting business model is all I'm saying. :)
John, Paul, George, Ringo and Victoria (station)
Got up early and dismantled the clothes-drying line erected in our tiny little hostel room. Clothes were dry and that's all that mattered. A quick hand-wash in the sink was all we needed. We will call it 'semi-fresh' underwear. :)
Headed out this morning (7/22) to find the location of Abbey Road Studios in St. John's Wood neighborhood of London. Stopped by the "Pret A Manger" store (of which there seem to be more here than there are Starbucks in Seattle) and picked up "ready-to-eat" sandwiches for Jake and Kyle to eat on the tube. Got the tube to St. John's Wood (just a stop away from our Hostel) and emerged into the sunshine. Oriented ourself using the sun as our guide and headed out West to find the holy grail of beatles cover-art history. Only West was different than we thought it was, so we were forced to (thank you Kriss) talk to a couple random locals and ask where Abbey Road was. Confirmed with the GPS, we found it a few minutes and a few blocks later.
Each of us signed a piece of the masonry wall in front of the studios as thousands of pilgrims have done before. (see pix). We then queued up to cross the road and photograph ourselves in the style of the record. Us and many others. We witness countless scary moments as cars nearly hit people including one that I missed but Jake, Kyle and Kriss saw which very nearly killed a child of 4 or so whose parents had just had their pictures taken and was just going to run out and catch up to them (in front of moving cars). The intersection is a quite-busy one and the non-stop slew of people trying to walk it and have their pictures taken is a scary combination. We eventually succeeded in getting pix of all of us which we'll stitch together later for the 4-in-a-row necessesary shot we were looking for.
Back to the subway (a much shorter route than on the way here because now we actually KNOW where we're going). Just as we were wrapping up the photo shoot at Abbey Road, it started to rain a bit. By the coffee shop at the tube station where we bought beverages, it was raining pretty hard. That's OK, we were going UNDERGROUND!
We emerged at Westminster Abbey. No more rain there. Got in and looked around for an hour or two at the incredible amount of interned bodies there and memorials to dukes, duchesses, queens, kings, politicians and poets. Amazing. Also Jake and Kyle's very first giant church. And a very old and grandiose one it is. (1066!) It may ruin them for grandiosity in cathedrals. Its like going to Disneyland and following it up later with other theme parks. I don't think they'll ever be able to top it (we'll see how Sacre Coeuer and Notre Dame fare).
Headed out this morning (7/22) to find the location of Abbey Road Studios in St. John's Wood neighborhood of London. Stopped by the "Pret A Manger" store (of which there seem to be more here than there are Starbucks in Seattle) and picked up "ready-to-eat" sandwiches for Jake and Kyle to eat on the tube. Got the tube to St. John's Wood (just a stop away from our Hostel) and emerged into the sunshine. Oriented ourself using the sun as our guide and headed out West to find the holy grail of beatles cover-art history. Only West was different than we thought it was, so we were forced to (thank you Kriss) talk to a couple random locals and ask where Abbey Road was. Confirmed with the GPS, we found it a few minutes and a few blocks later.
Each of us signed a piece of the masonry wall in front of the studios as thousands of pilgrims have done before. (see pix). We then queued up to cross the road and photograph ourselves in the style of the record. Us and many others. We witness countless scary moments as cars nearly hit people including one that I missed but Jake, Kyle and Kriss saw which very nearly killed a child of 4 or so whose parents had just had their pictures taken and was just going to run out and catch up to them (in front of moving cars). The intersection is a quite-busy one and the non-stop slew of people trying to walk it and have their pictures taken is a scary combination. We eventually succeeded in getting pix of all of us which we'll stitch together later for the 4-in-a-row necessesary shot we were looking for.
Back to the subway (a much shorter route than on the way here because now we actually KNOW where we're going). Just as we were wrapping up the photo shoot at Abbey Road, it started to rain a bit. By the coffee shop at the tube station where we bought beverages, it was raining pretty hard. That's OK, we were going UNDERGROUND!
We emerged at Westminster Abbey. No more rain there. Got in and looked around for an hour or two at the incredible amount of interned bodies there and memorials to dukes, duchesses, queens, kings, politicians and poets. Amazing. Also Jake and Kyle's very first giant church. And a very old and grandiose one it is. (1066!) It may ruin them for grandiosity in cathedrals. Its like going to Disneyland and following it up later with other theme parks. I don't think they'll ever be able to top it (we'll see how Sacre Coeuer and Notre Dame fare).
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Shoes, Feet and their overuse.
Woke up this AM and began the day with a session of "wash-the-clothes-in-the-sink / rinse-the-clothes-in-the-shower". This is the life! Woke the boys up within that first hour without trying (you try letting your 'flat-mate' sleep while doing laundry in a 4-bunk room no larger than 8' x 8'!). Erected a drying line stretched across the entire room, opened the window, trained the fan on it and hoped for dry clothes when we returned from our day's aventure.
Off to breakfast we go. To Kiko's Cafe ~ A quaint little place on the corner about 1/2 a block from our hostel. The waitress, a french woman, helped us out by giving us introduction to using the bus system instead of the tube. This gave us access to and viewing of asection of town that we never would have seen otherwise! Nice! She didn't know anything as she exclusively used the tube, but her co-worker did. Nice. Great food (Kyle: Omelette; jake: Baguette Sandwich w/egg/ ham/ cheese/ etc; Kriss: English Muffin w/ Ham & cheese & Egg; John: sort of a 'grand slam' w/ Back Bacon, Sausage, egg, toast, mushrooms & tomatoes. Nice food to start the day. And a FABULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL DAY IT WAS!
Weather break: Approx 75-80 all day. Some sparse clouds and a lot of sun. Fantastic.
Yesterday was super-humid and about 85. Not so pleasant. Glad to have today be a LOT better.
We even attempted to buy sunscreen but were unsuccessful when we found only 6-oz bottles instead of the TSA-required 4-oz bottles! Oh well...SOON!
First stop: The British Museum...
On the way, however, we walked by a shoe store, and since we were already aware that the boys could use some new shoes, we stopped in to see what they had. About 45 min's later they each had themselves some cool new DC skate shoes. On to the museum!
Kyle had it in his head that he wanted to see the Elgin Marbles as he did a report on them in school. We found them (marble relief statues from the Greek Parthenon in Athens that the British have absconded with and put in their museum), and we had completed the important part of our trip to the museum. We then wandered about seeing stuff like Egyptian mummies (including animals) and other cool stuff. Nice museum. We raced through and got out of there. By the way: Museums (mostlye) are FREE in London. Cool. Means you don't have to spend tons of time there to try to get 'your money's worth'.
After the British Museum, we went to go to the Tower of London. We thought the trip there was going to be easy...hope on the red line and transfer to the circle line. NOT... it was like a mile walk between the two! we spend a LOT of time going around underground in tunnels searching for the right train to get to where we wanted to be. We had visited already with the Ceremony of the Keys the night before and the castle looked really cool so we wanted to be sure to go back. We got there at about 2pm and decided we'd tour around and see it and THEN go to get food later. We spend 3 solid hours there, including a 1-hour tour and then a we wandered the rest on our own...on the way out we asked a "Beef Eater" for a family photo...it came with a price...as he grabed both my left breast as well as John's...those Beef Eaters are sly!
After the tower, the object was FOOD and REST. We decided to walk in the general direction of our hostel and see if we could find food on the way. We walked. We walked. We walked. We gave up. So we decided to get on the Tube to find our hostel and then get food after that. Our walking included seeing thousands of business-dressed people walking away from their apparrent work places to get home. We passed many a pub on the way through that area. They were all packed. We're talking HUNDREDS of people standing out in the streets in front of pubs with beers in their hands, talking and winding down their work dayws. Amazing.
We also came accidentally across the Leadenhall Market. A cobblestoned street area of markets and pubs and the like. Fabulous midieval looking area of obviously-historical import. Fabulous. Boys were bored of it, however, due to lack of food and monstrous overuse of feet walking. Eventually, we got on the tube and found that, after walking from one station to the next for ANOTHER mile of walking, we got on the train that took us past the station where we just were, in order to make it back to the Hostel. A little time of 'regrouping' at the hostel and I ( John) went walking about 1-2 blocks down the street to check out the local restaurants to see if there was something that we could all agree on in the haste and pissiness of serious food-deprivation and tired feet. Luck! I found a group of about six reasonable restaurants about 1-1/2 blocks from our hostel. I returned to tell K&K&J about the find. We walked the 1-1/2 blocks and ate at a seafood place called "back to basics". good stuff.
ah...sedated...too much wine at dinner...well that is not without a few whiffs of cigarette smoke every few minutes...you know how i love the smokers....ok if you don't know that is my only really defining separation of the Darwinian Theory...now we can walk back to the hostel without any "hostile" words...we all went to the room...where the boys stayed! John and I went down to the common room where we downloaded photos and wrote to you all.
The common rooom: Right this second I can see four kids (10? 11? 9?) writing in their travel journals. I don't know where they are from but they sound Italian?. Six people are using Hostel computers to surf the net. We and a few others are using their own laptops to do the same. four are playing on the big-screen Wii syste. 8 are waiting at the desk to either check in or out or ask some pertinenet questions. The ages of these "Youth Hostel Association" members.
we are loving this trip! more to come in the AM...
Check out pictures at the FLICKR site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16592717@n00/
Don't work for ya? Write to me!
Off to breakfast we go. To Kiko's Cafe ~ A quaint little place on the corner about 1/2 a block from our hostel. The waitress, a french woman, helped us out by giving us introduction to using the bus system instead of the tube. This gave us access to and viewing of asection of town that we never would have seen otherwise! Nice! She didn't know anything as she exclusively used the tube, but her co-worker did. Nice. Great food (Kyle: Omelette; jake: Baguette Sandwich w/egg/ ham/ cheese/ etc; Kriss: English Muffin w/ Ham & cheese & Egg; John: sort of a 'grand slam' w/ Back Bacon, Sausage, egg, toast, mushrooms & tomatoes. Nice food to start the day. And a FABULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL DAY IT WAS!
Weather break: Approx 75-80 all day. Some sparse clouds and a lot of sun. Fantastic.
Yesterday was super-humid and about 85. Not so pleasant. Glad to have today be a LOT better.
We even attempted to buy sunscreen but were unsuccessful when we found only 6-oz bottles instead of the TSA-required 4-oz bottles! Oh well...SOON!
First stop: The British Museum...
On the way, however, we walked by a shoe store, and since we were already aware that the boys could use some new shoes, we stopped in to see what they had. About 45 min's later they each had themselves some cool new DC skate shoes. On to the museum!
Kyle had it in his head that he wanted to see the Elgin Marbles as he did a report on them in school. We found them (marble relief statues from the Greek Parthenon in Athens that the British have absconded with and put in their museum), and we had completed the important part of our trip to the museum. We then wandered about seeing stuff like Egyptian mummies (including animals) and other cool stuff. Nice museum. We raced through and got out of there. By the way: Museums (mostlye) are FREE in London. Cool. Means you don't have to spend tons of time there to try to get 'your money's worth'.
After the British Museum, we went to go to the Tower of London. We thought the trip there was going to be easy...hope on the red line and transfer to the circle line. NOT... it was like a mile walk between the two! we spend a LOT of time going around underground in tunnels searching for the right train to get to where we wanted to be. We had visited already with the Ceremony of the Keys the night before and the castle looked really cool so we wanted to be sure to go back. We got there at about 2pm and decided we'd tour around and see it and THEN go to get food later. We spend 3 solid hours there, including a 1-hour tour and then a we wandered the rest on our own...on the way out we asked a "Beef Eater" for a family photo...it came with a price...as he grabed both my left breast as well as John's...those Beef Eaters are sly!
After the tower, the object was FOOD and REST. We decided to walk in the general direction of our hostel and see if we could find food on the way. We walked. We walked. We walked. We gave up. So we decided to get on the Tube to find our hostel and then get food after that. Our walking included seeing thousands of business-dressed people walking away from their apparrent work places to get home. We passed many a pub on the way through that area. They were all packed. We're talking HUNDREDS of people standing out in the streets in front of pubs with beers in their hands, talking and winding down their work dayws. Amazing.
We also came accidentally across the Leadenhall Market. A cobblestoned street area of markets and pubs and the like. Fabulous midieval looking area of obviously-historical import. Fabulous. Boys were bored of it, however, due to lack of food and monstrous overuse of feet walking. Eventually, we got on the tube and found that, after walking from one station to the next for ANOTHER mile of walking, we got on the train that took us past the station where we just were, in order to make it back to the Hostel. A little time of 'regrouping' at the hostel and I ( John) went walking about 1-2 blocks down the street to check out the local restaurants to see if there was something that we could all agree on in the haste and pissiness of serious food-deprivation and tired feet. Luck! I found a group of about six reasonable restaurants about 1-1/2 blocks from our hostel. I returned to tell K&K&J about the find. We walked the 1-1/2 blocks and ate at a seafood place called "back to basics". good stuff.
ah...sedated...too much wine at dinner...well that is not without a few whiffs of cigarette smoke every few minutes...you know how i love the smokers....ok if you don't know that is my only really defining separation of the Darwinian Theory...now we can walk back to the hostel without any "hostile" words...we all went to the room...where the boys stayed! John and I went down to the common room where we downloaded photos and wrote to you all.
The common rooom: Right this second I can see four kids (10? 11? 9?) writing in their travel journals. I don't know where they are from but they sound Italian?. Six people are using Hostel computers to surf the net. We and a few others are using their own laptops to do the same. four are playing on the big-screen Wii syste. 8 are waiting at the desk to either check in or out or ask some pertinenet questions. The ages of these "Youth Hostel Association" members.
we are loving this trip! more to come in the AM...
Check out pictures at the FLICKR site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16592717@n00/
Don't work for ya? Write to me!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The trickly shower and the Tower
Woke up nice and rested this morning. As hot as our room was, the little fan and the open window helped a bit. Tried out our shower to find the weakest pee-stream of a shower in the world. Water was hot though and clean too. No complains for the price. (YHA Hostel/ Central London: Google it). Four thumbs up so far.
Got the boys up a bit after we were up...We told them we'd let them sleep in and dammit, it was 8am! That's sleepin' in for us! Time to get outta bed!
Off to find breakfast and upload pictures. Hostel has continental breakfast. Fruit, croissant, coffee, juice. Still thumbs up but not on the breakfast. Kriss and I had coffee. Jake and Kyle sipped a juice drink and we decided to get food elsewhere.
Got busy sightseeing and tube-taking so we didn't eat until around 1pm, right before we got on the London Eye. A fast-food place with entirely mediocre "Chinese" food.
London Eye (google it): Next on our list was the eye. We tubed on over and found the place, got in a 15-minute line for tix. (right before our "chinese") then came back to queue up (see, using British vernacular!). Half-hour in line and we were up and riding to the top. Very cool. Very tall. Fun and views that you can't get elsewhere (except maybe for the helicopters we saw over the Thames).
After 'The Eye' it was on to Westminster Abbey. Closed for the afternoon. We saw it from outside and will return later. On the way out to Buckingham Palace, we found ourselves a public WC. Very nice. More fun than I've had in a public WC. Boys and I got to use automated sinks. Stick your hands in and auto-soap, auto-water and auto-dry. Awesome! Krissy in the women's room: Just regular sinks. Too bad. She missed a great London activity!:
Also on the way to Buckingham Palace: St. James' Park. We strolled through the park and the boys got Ice Cream they described as the best ice cream in the world. One small lick and I was convinced. Butterscotch!
We saw many people lounging in cool folding wooden lounge chairs and decided to pull up a few of them and kick it under a tree for a few minutes and for a picture. About 10-minutes into our relaxing moment a figure appeared towering over me and blocking out some of my light. He said, in a slightly difficult to understand accent: "That'll be Six Pounds-Fifty". Wha??? Say again?
"Six pounds-fifty". The chairs. One pound-fifty per person per hour. I asked his reflective-vest-wearing self to show me ID that he was an official chair-renter and HE DID! OK, so we missed the little sign describing the chair usage policy and fees, but we ponied up the cash and hung out a little longer to get our pence-worth. Strange.
Buckingham Palace was a swarm of tourists in the hazy sunshine taking pictures and watching "Important People" dressed in the best emerge from the palace. Weird.
Walked from BP (not the oil co) down The Mall to Admiralty Arch then St. James' Square and Picadilly Circus. After that it was tube back to the hostel for pizzas and some uploading of pix.
After that we headed tubing down to The Tower of London to see the Ceremony of the Keys. A lot of pomp and circumstance about locking down the castle every evening. Pretty cool. Fun to see the tower at night and see Tower Bridge at night too. Pix forthcoming.
Exhausted, we found our way back to the hostel where we sit now typing this for you to see in hopes that YOU enjoyed OUR day in London. We did. Our feet hurt, Our eyelids are drooping and we want to do this again tomorrow. Boys are already 1-1/2 hours ahead of us sleeping so we're going to go and try to catch up. Read again later!! ~J&K&K&J
Got the boys up a bit after we were up...We told them we'd let them sleep in and dammit, it was 8am! That's sleepin' in for us! Time to get outta bed!
Off to find breakfast and upload pictures. Hostel has continental breakfast. Fruit, croissant, coffee, juice. Still thumbs up but not on the breakfast. Kriss and I had coffee. Jake and Kyle sipped a juice drink and we decided to get food elsewhere.
Got busy sightseeing and tube-taking so we didn't eat until around 1pm, right before we got on the London Eye. A fast-food place with entirely mediocre "Chinese" food.
London Eye (google it): Next on our list was the eye. We tubed on over and found the place, got in a 15-minute line for tix. (right before our "chinese") then came back to queue up (see, using British vernacular!). Half-hour in line and we were up and riding to the top. Very cool. Very tall. Fun and views that you can't get elsewhere (except maybe for the helicopters we saw over the Thames).
After 'The Eye' it was on to Westminster Abbey. Closed for the afternoon. We saw it from outside and will return later. On the way out to Buckingham Palace, we found ourselves a public WC. Very nice. More fun than I've had in a public WC. Boys and I got to use automated sinks. Stick your hands in and auto-soap, auto-water and auto-dry. Awesome! Krissy in the women's room: Just regular sinks. Too bad. She missed a great London activity!:
Also on the way to Buckingham Palace: St. James' Park. We strolled through the park and the boys got Ice Cream they described as the best ice cream in the world. One small lick and I was convinced. Butterscotch!
We saw many people lounging in cool folding wooden lounge chairs and decided to pull up a few of them and kick it under a tree for a few minutes and for a picture. About 10-minutes into our relaxing moment a figure appeared towering over me and blocking out some of my light. He said, in a slightly difficult to understand accent: "That'll be Six Pounds-Fifty". Wha??? Say again?
"Six pounds-fifty". The chairs. One pound-fifty per person per hour. I asked his reflective-vest-wearing self to show me ID that he was an official chair-renter and HE DID! OK, so we missed the little sign describing the chair usage policy and fees, but we ponied up the cash and hung out a little longer to get our pence-worth. Strange.
Buckingham Palace was a swarm of tourists in the hazy sunshine taking pictures and watching "Important People" dressed in the best emerge from the palace. Weird.
Walked from BP (not the oil co) down The Mall to Admiralty Arch then St. James' Square and Picadilly Circus. After that it was tube back to the hostel for pizzas and some uploading of pix.
After that we headed tubing down to The Tower of London to see the Ceremony of the Keys. A lot of pomp and circumstance about locking down the castle every evening. Pretty cool. Fun to see the tower at night and see Tower Bridge at night too. Pix forthcoming.
Exhausted, we found our way back to the hostel where we sit now typing this for you to see in hopes that YOU enjoyed OUR day in London. We did. Our feet hurt, Our eyelids are drooping and we want to do this again tomorrow. Boys are already 1-1/2 hours ahead of us sleeping so we're going to go and try to catch up. Read again later!! ~J&K&K&J
"RECALCULATING"
After six (or so) "Recalculating" messages from the GPS bitch, we finally get the idea of what a real roundabout is. AND how to use one. Holy fucking shit, Americans don't have a CLUE how to use a roundabout.
Arrived at Stonehenge on time for our pre-opening private viewing of the stones. We got to wander amongst them unlike the 'public' who, during open hours, must stay 'behind the fence'.
It was fantastic. There were some serious freaks there, including Judith (from New Mexico) the ringleader of the freaks. She and her freaky new-age freakiness friends were there to chant and sing and cry and put little plastic skulls out in some weird effigic ceremony of spiritual energy driven by the stones (especially, it turns out, the WHALE stone which Judith let everyone know was especially powerful at THIS MOMENT). Wow. Crying. No shit. Even security guy "WILL" referred to them as "Weirdos". Oh, yes. that sums it up. (after the ceremony, she plied her flock with the idea of "returning to the B&B to have the 'pipe ceremony'. WTF?
Stonehenge was great.
After leaving Stonehenge, we went on to the very picturesque town of LACOCK (google it) and then on to Wales and TINTERN ABBEY. (google that too).
Tintern was magical. Fantastic. Except for the tea-room's "banana shakes" which were indescribably undrinkable and made their way quickly to the nearest trash bins.
Back to return the car, on to Heathrow and back on the train (a gruelingly-long ride) to downtown central london to find the YHA HOSTEL CENTRAL LONDON (google that too). Checked in.
At this time we are all so tired... we rest for a bit and then we are off to The Globe to see A Comedy of Errors...we saw it the way it was intended (for the poor): standing! it was so funny and well done we forgot how tired we were!
After the we went back through the seeminly abandoned old 'left bank' area at 10:30pm.
What a long day (1:40am - 10:30 pm). Worth every moment. Tired (freaky) feet and all.
Slept it off 'til the late-morning and back out to do some more.
Trafalgar, Picadilly, Buckingham, Westminster, The Eye and more coming in the next post.
J&K&K&J
MORE LATER....
Arrived at Stonehenge on time for our pre-opening private viewing of the stones. We got to wander amongst them unlike the 'public' who, during open hours, must stay 'behind the fence'.
It was fantastic. There were some serious freaks there, including Judith (from New Mexico) the ringleader of the freaks. She and her freaky new-age freakiness friends were there to chant and sing and cry and put little plastic skulls out in some weird effigic ceremony of spiritual energy driven by the stones (especially, it turns out, the WHALE stone which Judith let everyone know was especially powerful at THIS MOMENT). Wow. Crying. No shit. Even security guy "WILL" referred to them as "Weirdos". Oh, yes. that sums it up. (after the ceremony, she plied her flock with the idea of "returning to the B&B to have the 'pipe ceremony'. WTF?
Stonehenge was great.
After leaving Stonehenge, we went on to the very picturesque town of LACOCK (google it) and then on to Wales and TINTERN ABBEY. (google that too).
Tintern was magical. Fantastic. Except for the tea-room's "banana shakes" which were indescribably undrinkable and made their way quickly to the nearest trash bins.
Back to return the car, on to Heathrow and back on the train (a gruelingly-long ride) to downtown central london to find the YHA HOSTEL CENTRAL LONDON (google that too). Checked in.
At this time we are all so tired... we rest for a bit and then we are off to The Globe to see A Comedy of Errors...we saw it the way it was intended (for the poor): standing! it was so funny and well done we forgot how tired we were!
After the we went back through the seeminly abandoned old 'left bank' area at 10:30pm.
What a long day (1:40am - 10:30 pm). Worth every moment. Tired (freaky) feet and all.
Slept it off 'til the late-morning and back out to do some more.
Trafalgar, Picadilly, Buckingham, Westminster, The Eye and more coming in the next post.
J&K&K&J
MORE LATER....
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Pizza!
Il Basilico!
Walked about 1 mile to the local pizzaria. Pix to follow on Flickr. GREAT Pizza! Yahoo! Three 12" pizzas and some yummy wine. Back to the hotel to sleep a few hours before heading out on the road in the rented car on the 'wrong' side. Wish us luck.
Walked about 1 mile to the local pizzaria. Pix to follow on Flickr. GREAT Pizza! Yahoo! Three 12" pizzas and some yummy wine. Back to the hotel to sleep a few hours before heading out on the road in the rented car on the 'wrong' side. Wish us luck.
Europe 2010
OK, we finally arrived in London. LOTS of airplane time. Bad cheap Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches in the Philly airport.
We were all deleriously tired by the time we arrived in London.
Jake and I cruised around Heathrow for a long time looking for information about buses to our hotel. Different information people gave us different information. We finally got the right information but it ended up becoming moot when I realized that the short tax ride was cheaper than the bus would have been for four people. Got a taxi. Found hotel (very nice).
Checked in and got rooms really early at like 11am. After Kriss and I spend a silly amount of time trying to figure out why the lights didn't work in EITHER room, she figured out that the little slot next to the front door was a place to put your key card. Card in place, all the lights turned on! Technology, baby! Oh, that goes along with the cool heated towel racks and free speedy wi-fi and super-comfy beds. We will likely find that this is the fanciest accommodation of the trip and it's only for one day.
Napped to 2pm. Boys napped to 6pm while Kriss and I walked to the car rental place (more asking directions and getting mislead for about a 3 mile walk. Eventually found it and rented a car.
The whole car rental thing was really easy. Too easy. Those guys had no idea that I was going to go down the wrong way on a street within the first few blocks! Very small problem but fixed quickly. Turns out Kriss is very patient in the face of death.
Little diesel Renault 4-door 6-speed car. Pretty cool really. Fun but VERY nerve-wracking! Can't wait for tomorrow's 3am trip to Stonehenge in the dark! Yikes!
Right now we're watching GREASE on TV and relaxing in our hotel room as the boys shake off the sleep so that we can go get some food. Almost 7pm London time.
Check this address later for more postings. ~John
We were all deleriously tired by the time we arrived in London.
Jake and I cruised around Heathrow for a long time looking for information about buses to our hotel. Different information people gave us different information. We finally got the right information but it ended up becoming moot when I realized that the short tax ride was cheaper than the bus would have been for four people. Got a taxi. Found hotel (very nice).
Checked in and got rooms really early at like 11am. After Kriss and I spend a silly amount of time trying to figure out why the lights didn't work in EITHER room, she figured out that the little slot next to the front door was a place to put your key card. Card in place, all the lights turned on! Technology, baby! Oh, that goes along with the cool heated towel racks and free speedy wi-fi and super-comfy beds. We will likely find that this is the fanciest accommodation of the trip and it's only for one day.
Napped to 2pm. Boys napped to 6pm while Kriss and I walked to the car rental place (more asking directions and getting mislead for about a 3 mile walk. Eventually found it and rented a car.
The whole car rental thing was really easy. Too easy. Those guys had no idea that I was going to go down the wrong way on a street within the first few blocks! Very small problem but fixed quickly. Turns out Kriss is very patient in the face of death.
Little diesel Renault 4-door 6-speed car. Pretty cool really. Fun but VERY nerve-wracking! Can't wait for tomorrow's 3am trip to Stonehenge in the dark! Yikes!
Right now we're watching GREASE on TV and relaxing in our hotel room as the boys shake off the sleep so that we can go get some food. Almost 7pm London time.
Check this address later for more postings. ~John
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