Installment One
Wednesday
Well, it’s time for the first installment of my travelblog. We start in the airport at O’Hare where Carol’s parents kindly dropped us off. Things went remarkably smoothly considering we were loading six large suitcases and six carry on pieces with four sleepy children and two slightly stressed parents. The one near disaster happened just as we boarded the plane. We were so happy that we didn’t have to wait a long time at the gate. We were able to board right as we arrived at the gate, in fact, we just about the last ones to board. However, Elisabeth suddenly realized that her Build-a-Bear had been forgotten in the ladies room near the beginning of the terminal. Carol had to race back to the bathroom to get it while the kids fretted that the plane would leave without her.
My favorite experience on the plane was the built in TV’s on the headrest of each chair. There wasn’t really anything worth watching and I didn’t even watch one whole movie during the entire 8 hour flight but on one “channel” there rotated the distance to travel, our elevation, the outside temperature, our location on a map and the local time.
When we finally arrived in London, a jolly Irish agent got us quickly through customs and on our way. Unfortunately, by this time is was quite late and the trains in the tube would quit running before we could get all the way to Docklands on the far side of the city. We had to squeeze into a cab. The Indian driver assured us we’d all fit into his “seven passenger” van. This was a generous description of the vehicle. It was a seven passenger but the van part…. Well, the back was only about 10 inches deep and we could hardly fit our carry on’s in there, let alone our suitcases. Nevertheless, we squeezed in sitting on laps, with bags piled on top of us and me making Andrew duck every time a police car went by as he wasn’t supposed to be in front on my lap! The driver was super nice. He had lived in Malawi and he told a lot about the different sights we passed.
Next morning we got up and decided to take a train into London. We had a real hike but it was worth it. A French girl approached us for directions but I couldn’t understand her English. I called Carol over to help her and she thought Carol was French! That was a confidence booster for Carol. We finally made it downtown to the Tower of London and it began to rain! Oh well, of course we had forgotten our umbrella so we just pressed on. It wasn’t too cold and thankfully it stopped quite quickly. After a few photo ops at the Tower, we hopped on a bus to the Tate, London’s modern art museum. We had hoped to see the Salvador Dali exhibit but it was pretty expensive. There were some fun interactive games and we toured the free part of the museum which ranged from the sublime, (one of four copies of Rodin’s, the Kiss) to the truly bizarre! After the Tate we were hungry so we stopped into a pizzeria. They were kind of odd European pizzas, very little cheese but fire baked and quite tasty. The waitress was a very nice Polish girl.
After lunch we walked to the Globe Theatre, the reproduction of the theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed. We had hoped to see a play but they were all sold out. After wandering around in their shop and trying to resist buying lots of stuff, we went out and crossed the Millennium Bridge, otherwise known as the “wobbly bridge”. We were on our way to St. Paul’s cathedral but had a neat surprise waiting. As we came off the bridge, we ran into Julien Beever, the famous street artist doing a live production! What a treat. We had enjoyed his stuff online but it was really cool to see it live. After a few photos of St. Paul’s we took a super crowded double decker to Trafalgar square. There we enjoyed some shots of the National Gallery and the huge lions near guarding the square. It was a long day so we picked up some groceries and headed back to the hotel.
Thursday
Wow, I better make these shorter or no one is ever going to read all this! Thursday morning we ate the rest of what we bought the night before at the grocery store. Then we headed off to Buckingham Palace. We had really hoped to be there in time for the changing of the guard but we were a little late. We were in for a treat as the Jamaican marching band was there and we were privileged to see them march by. As the crowd dispersed we decided to wander over to the horse guard to see if we could get a photo with one of the guards. A little ways along we realized Alex had forgotten his black messenger bag! He and I raced back. Would it be stolen or the center of a bomb squad lock down?? We arrived to find it gone. My heart sank. It was a brand new bag and had four library books in it from home. We began to walk back when Alex saw a policeman and asked if I would ask him about it. With great doubts I approached the officer! Miraculously, he was the one who found the bag. He said that normal procedure called for closing off the area and calling the bomb squad but he had decided to peek inside first. Finding it innocent, he had put it in his van. Were we ever thankful!!
With the bag safely restored we wandered through the park, stopping to enjoy a lovely play area with children from every tongue and tribe and people and nation playing together. It was lovely; a little precursor of heaven. We ended our day out at the wonderful British Museum; sSuch a marvelous collection of artifacts from Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt, Rome and Greece.
Friday
This was our day to travel to Paris. We left our hotel at two a.m. and I’ll spare all the stories which were many and share just two food stories. The first story occurs in the Café St Rene. This charming café was as picturesque as anything you could imagine. We were all pretty hungry and I decided I was going to be brave and try something I had never tried before. I order something called Andouillette. It was a sausage, complete with delicious potatoes on the side. The sausage was pork intestine stuffed with chopped pork stomach lining. I do not recommend this dish. With lots of bread and potatoes I was able to choke down about two thirds but I just couldn’t finish. Our second dining experience in Paris was at the apartment of Ally, our former exchange student. She and her boyfriend kindly fixed supper for us. I was sleeping when they started and when I awoke the house was full of the smell of a delicious meal cooking. I was shocked to enter the kitchen and find they had not started the roast. Everything else was nearly done! However, I soon discovered that this was intentional. In France they like their beef barely warmed through. I actually enjoyed it but the kids struggled a bit.
Well, that’s enough for now. I will keep trying to catch up, but for now that’s sufficient.
