LONDON to MINNESOTA Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Back Over the Pond to Minnesota We Go

Well, here it is . . . the very last morning in England—only time for breakfast,

the tube, and Heathrow to board NW #103 for the 2:25 flight home. And what a trip it has been! There certainly is plenty more to see, but what we did see, we felt we spent the time we wanted.

After breakfast, we blogged the last couple of days,












checked out,
and set off—suitcases pretty filled with souvenirs and memories—for Heathrow.

We had been told that it was about an hour tube ride and that we had to be there 3 hours early because of construction, but it all went pretty slick. We were there within 35 minutes--enough time to consider entering the lotter for 20 pounds for a car like the one Paula checked out!

There were no lines at check in, the plane was on time,

and here we are up thousands of feet above the clouds at 7:56 p.m. British time—making it 1:56 Minneapolis time. Lauren should be at her State soccer banquet—Yeah Holy Angels bound for state in 2008!—and Carina should be in the air flying home from Boise now.

Reflections on our trip . . .
















Linda’s highlights:
• Hamlet • The Mad Max Cotwolds Tour • Paula and my long conversations about our personal journeys • Exploring at Portabello Market • Walking across Tower Bridge over the river Thames • Asking for directions and ending up having interesting conversations which could have lasted for hours with random people • Serendipitous surprises—thinking we would be doing or finding something and that leading to something else quite unexpected but wonderful (like seeing Never Forget) • Hearing the British accent everywhere sometimes surrounded with languages from all other cultures • the Victoria & Albert museum—especially the jewelry • dinner at the Dirty Duck in Stratford • stories, stories, stories of British history from the meaning of the word Cotswold to where the expression “to put a lady on a pedestal” came from • hearing Vivaldi even if it was only a rehearsal in St. Martin’s in the Fields

Paula’s highlights:
• Visiting the church in Stratford and meeting Nigel, a Brit with a sense of humor • Dinner at the Dirty Duck Pub the night before Hamlet • Meeting the actor, Polonius, after seeing Hamlet • Riding the bus with 80 University of Bath Freshman who were dressed as cops and robbers on their initiation night • Walking around Bath on the Bizarre Bath tour and laughing the whole way • Staying at the Youth Hostel Italian mansion on the hill and trying to find it • Touring the Cotswold with Charles our guide and being introduced to Castle Combe village where the Dr. Doolittle movie was filmed • Discovering the Antiques Kitchen Table’s store in Tetbury • Walking through the meadow from Upper Slaughter to Lower Slaughter • Jewelry exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum • Seeing the musical-Never Forget-and enjoying the songs and the excitement of the audience • Exploring Portabello Rd. Flea market and antique shops

Parting is such sweet sorrow . . . until next time!

LONDON day 2 Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008

Saturday, October 18, 2008

To Market, to Market to buy a . . . Portabello!

So much we want to do . . . so little time. We started out with our lists of all the things each of us would love to do and a map. Paula wanted to visit a Laura Ashley store. Linda wanted to visit Westminister Abbey. Paula thought about visiting a few more exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Linda wanted to see Kenneth Branagh in Ivanov. We went online to find that it was the “Day of the Pilgrimmage—something to do with Edward the Confessor,” and Westminster was closed for the day to tourists. However, there was an evensong at 3:00, so that was a possibility. We went to the Ivanov website to find that tickets were all sold out for Ivanov, and our only chance was to stand in line and hope that some returns were possible—quite a hike for that remote chance and to find it was Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Chekhov’s play, which usually meant betrayal, death, and suicide, and we weren’t quite up for that after Never Forget last night. While we were trying to sort all of this out, we were talking about Covent Gardens and how fun markets are. So, we googled “London markets,” and came up with one Paula had heard of called the Portabello Market. We read about how cool it was—over 2000 stalls from food to retro fashion to antiques, and we were sold on it.

We figured out the Tube route—Gloucester to Ladgrove—and it didn’t take long once we were there to figure out we had made the perfect decision.

The sun was brilliant, the crowds thick with colorful personalities and dialects and the stalls went on and on.

The food was to die for! Fruit and veggies stands,

fresh fish, pots brimming with soups and paella!

We treated ourselves to stuffed grape leaves and a feta veggie salad.

We went into what looked like the most delicious cheese shop only to find it was actually a soap shop with all the soaps shaped and decorated like cheese and desserts.

We kept thinking of how great a time our girls would have had here in the boutiques and shoe shops. Everywhere we were reminded of the latest fashions and wished we would have thought ahead to buy our girls some British fashion magazines to see since it was a bit odd to take pictures of random people to show the fashions— everywhere high, high heels or boots always with leggings/tights and leg warmers peeking out the top, scarves, short mini skirts, and long tops tried on teenage fashions in hopes that something might be right for the girls, but when we checked out our choices with some teenage Londoners who weren’t impressed, we moved on to other things.

We found shirts for the boys—an official #7 Beckham soccer jersey for Chris and a Beatles t-shirt for Robby. We got pretty good at bargaining and found that one of the best parts of the market.

Paula spotted what looked like a collection of army surplus clothing and found Tom an RAF officer’s hat for his military hat collection!

We spent quite a long time at this shop chatting with one of the sellers bedecked in full military clothing. He told us that this area, called Notting Hill just like the recent movie Notting Hill , was where they filmed a lot of the movie, and that the bookstore in the movie was right down the street.

The sun started coming down way too quickly, and the shops started closing up just as we were in the middle of the antique shops. We walked and walked and eventually ended up at the gates to the beautiful Kensington Gardens. We entered at a broad street called Palace Gardens Parkway, which was lined with enormous houses that served as embassies. My favorite was the Norwegian one!
Here is the beautiful gate that leads into Kensington Palace:

By the time we reached the pond and the swans, it was quite chilly but still lovely with all the autumnal colors. This truly is the best time to be a tourist! We have had beautiful weather, no lines anywhere, and had the opportunity to make decisions not based on crowds or anything else other than our own whim at the time . . . truly in the spirit of Carpe Diem!

We took a rather adventurous route out of Kensington Gardens—down side streets showing a most prestigious part of town obvious from all the Porsches, Jaguars, BMW’s, and SAAB’s we saw everywhere. We ended up on a small cobblestone street called Mews which was right in back of a small church. These were originally where they kept the horses and supplies for a fine manor or castle or large church now converted into condos. We loved them! If I were to live in London, this was the place to be!

Eventually we found the hotel, and it felt great to just spend the evening in dining on what we bought at the market and watching British TV, something we hadn’t done before. In fact, this is only time all week we did anything remotely like this—downtime! A few times we considered going out in search of Indian food, but staying in was much too cozy. We worked on the blog while watching Simply Come Dancing—the British equivalent to Dancing With the Stars—as well as the British Idol show, the news, and Failure to Launch. It was nearly 2:00 a.m. when we finally went to sleep, but it still felt like about 10:00. Paula says she never did get adjusted to the British time here.

LONDON Friday, Oct. 17th, 2008

Our first day in London started out with almost being refused breakfast because we woke up late and got down to the dining area a minute late. It was a continental breakfast, so we simply said, "We've got to eat" and proceeded to join the buffet line. There were croissants and musli and yogurt--plenty to pack away for a snack in the middle of the day, too. We decided to start down Cromwell Road and step in the Victoria and Albert Museum, begun, of course, by Queen Victoria. The main collections are free, and there was so much we could have enjoyed. We asked one of the security guards what he would recommend if we only had an hour or so. He had a quick reply--the cast room and the jewelry. Neither disappointed.

The medieval cast room displayed amazing casts of original sarcophaguses, pillars, scuptures. We were amazed at not only the intricacies but at how much time it would have taken to do such a thing as well as transport it. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The jewelry was incredible. The display didn't allow photographs as everything was under glass and lighted just so to show the brilliance of gems, rings, chantelains, necklaces, swords--everything imaginable worn from cradle to grave. I particularly liked the display which started with jewelry worn by women--rings and necklaces to promote fertility and a safe birth to children's jewelry to religious jewelry to jewelry associated with marriage to jewelry to ward off evil spirits to jewelry worn for mourning.

We continued down Cromwell Road looking in the little shops as well as in search of the all-famous Harrod's where we spent over an hour just in the sock department looking for leggings and legwarmers for the girls, the chocolate room with enough chocolate samples to need to buy anything much less think about eating for hours, the delicatessen where we saw small tins of Beluga whale caviar selling for 5800 pounds or over $10,000!

We ended up in the official Harrad's gift shops looking for souvenirs, and we won't elaborate now on what we found lest surprises won't be surprises when we get home.

Next we found the Knightsbridge tube station so we could take off to Leicester Square--home of the theatre district and half-price ticket sellers. Paula really wanted to see The Lion King, and I was willing to see anything really, but the tickets were not discounted and virtually sold out anyway. We asked one of the ticket sellers what the best deal was, and it was a show called Never Forget--about 5 men who try out for a so-called band which is inspired by the British hit band of the 1980's called Take That. She said it was a musical and lots of fun but not known as well as most of those we knew. We opted for this show and just decided we'd go for it.

We had until 8:30 when the show started, so we decided to go see the church known for its incredible music--St. Martin in the Field's. We were treated to Vivaldi's Four Seasons when we walked in. Tonight was to be a concert, and this was the rehearsal. No wonder this church is so famous for its music. The acoustics were fantastic. We thought a lot about returning Saturday night to hear Mozart's Requiem. Mom and Henry would have loved this! In fact, I think it was Henry who recommended a visit.

We stopped at Trafalgar Square to see the pigeons and people watch . . .

and then headed to the Thames to the closest tube station for Tower Bridge where we had hoped to walk over. The Tower of London was magnificent in the moonlight, and it was, indeed, a great experience to actually walk over the bridge.

Once on the South bank of the river, we walked bankside toward the Globe but ran into an old replica of Sir Francis Drake's galleon where a tour was taking place. We heard a little bit of history but didn't have time to hear as much as we would have liked.

We made it to the Globe and took only one picture. They are re-doing the thatch roof so there was scaffolding everywhere, and the season had just ended, so there were no plays being performed right now.

A walk over Millenium Bridge

gave a great look at the Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral, and a tube ride brought us to the Strand--close to the Savoy Theatre where Take That was playing.

The show was so much fun. We wondered why the audience was primarily female and soon found out. It was the British version of Mamma Mia! We were in the third row, and as we looked back at the house, most were standing and singing every song along with the actors. Apparently, the band Take That's songs were pretty much known by everyone in the 1980's, and their lead singer, Robbie Williams, even made it big in the U.S., too.

After the show, we saw a crowd of audience members screaming across the street, and it was because Craig Els, one of the leads, had appeared. Paula and I went over, and I stopped Craig, introduced myself, and got a picture of him and Paula. We overheard a girl say, "and we're from Minnesota." I asked her, "Where in Minnesota?" She said, "We're from Holy Angels in Richfield." Paula couldn't believe it! There were 90 students from Lauren's high school right there in London for MEA break! Wow! That was synchronicity.

The night ended back at the hotel with lots to talk about and a wish that we had more days in London!