London

You would not believe all the old posts I have in here...that just were not quite done.  Well - I am going to post as is - and one day I might get to fill in and fix what was not done.

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Well, what do you do to celebrate your 40th birthday?  It is widely known that I am a huge fan of birthday's and I had been thinking about how I wanted to make my 40th really special.  Cruise with my sisters and cousins?  Big party with all the friends and family?  A trip to some place fantastic!?  Well, I decided that I wanted to go on the big trip.  Mom agreed to come with me, and we were off and running.  I got a great deal on the package and I loved every minute of the adventure.  My 40th birthday coin-sided with the 20th anniversary of my study abroad to the BYU London center, so London was the obvious destination of choice.

Below are the picture collages that made along with my notes from our travel journal.  You will notice that basically you get to see Mom and me in our coats.  Occationally we switch between coats to spice things up.  We knew it would be cold and wet, but does anyone ever go to London for the good weather?  We actually had a few nice sunny days, a few with rain, a bit of wind, and a few with wind.  But none the less, we were in LONDON.

A few quotes from the trip:

If we gave up eating, we could do more.
It is hard to pass up all this good stuff.
How many bites are you going to get out of that last square of chocolate?
I spent quite a bit of time in elevators (when we got separated in the British Museum).
Overheard at the National Gallery - Only hold your hand up if there is a thought in your head.  (Spoken to a young boy on a school field trip).

Tuesday
Arrive
Tube
Walk to Hotel
"Closed for Referbishment"
Girl from Berma - wanted to know if Mom died her hair all white
Pay phone - post office help, hotel help, boots help,
Bang on the door
Call "Daniel"
New Hotel
Back to the tube

Stairs stairs stairs
Tiny little room
Very funny toilet
Dinneer at Garfiedls
Salad bar - stacked it up HUGE
Soup and Bread
Home to hotel
SLEEP!

Wednesday - My birthday!
Cards
Scarf from Mom
Slept thru breakfast - so sad
Hard roll, banana, yogurt
Off to the National Gallery




Very crowded
Strike so many rooms were closed
Rooms opened
loved the colors on the walls - red, green
Tons of school groups
Very well behaved.  Quiet
Yellow vests
Marble and moldings
Dosents were telling stories to the school children who all say very quiet.
The stories were fascinating!  told the story of the golden calf and the children of Isreal - way better than I had ever heard in Sunday School.

Went to lunch int he National Dinning room over looking Trafalger Square.  Delicious hot English food.  Shepards pie (mutton - found out what the mystery meat was). Yummy "salads"
Off to see the impressionists and the rest of the Gallery.  We spent all day in the National Gallery!  Wonderful.

Took pictures out on the square with the teenagers from France on a school trip.  What a field trip!
Loved the gift shop shopping.  confessed that I have a great affinity for museaum gift shops.  Mom picked out a few prints that she really loved.

We went to evenshong at St. Martin in the Fields

We went back home and ate some chocolate and apples for dinner.  then we RUSHED to the Royal Albert Hall to see our first performance.  we were late.  So we realized that we could not go home before the plays anymore.
The woman at the ticket desk was so nice.  She gave us better seats and let us into the performance.  We missed about 30 minuets, but it was still fantastic.

It was a performance of Cinderella on ice.  We could not decide if it was going to be like the ballet, or more like the ice capades.  It was amazing!

Also, the entire thing was so reminisant of my experience at the last night of the Proms when I was on study abroad.  That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  Being inside the Royal Albert Hall, shoulder to shoulder standing on the floor in that audience full of energy, is something I think I will never forget.  And honestly, when I remember standing up and singing Rule Britania I still get a little misty eyed.

So, Cinderella on ice was like nothing I have ever seen before.  They were skating the entire time, but they make it look like dancing.  Not just ice dancing or imitating ballet, at one point they were doing irish clogging while using ice skates.  They also used some amazing ariels with the skates in harnesses - spinning and flipping and then right back to skating on the ice.  Absolutely fantastic!
When we got home we were so tired, but we spent a lot of time trying to plan out the rest of the week.  someone was pretty darn worried about not being able to fit everything in.  I was sure we would not fit everything in, since I had lived in London for 6 months and not seen it all so I was very sure that we could not see everything in a week.  Nevertheless, we tried.

Thursday

We woke up in time for breakfast, and boy did we love it.  We picked our original hotel because it had a full English breakfast, so we were glad to find that our new hotel also had a great full English breakfast.  You had your choice of English or Corn Flakes.  Who would choose corn flakes when you could have eggs, beans, sausage, toast, ham and hot chocolate.  (well we added the hot chocholate, but we could have had tea and or coffee too).

We had to make a few calls and use the internet to get our evenings planned out.  Figuring out how to use the phone was interesting, but we were not to be defeated.  I did look into taking our cell phone, but the process of changing the plan for international calling seemed silly.  Probably made the wrong choice there.  We also used an internet cafe to get directions to our theater that night.  That was a much easier process.  Why do computers and the internet work the same, but telephones are totally different?

We left the hotel and took a walk through Hyde Park.  I was attempting to show Mom how we could relax and slowly see lots of stuff with out seeing everything. :)


We saw the Peter Pan statute, the Italian Fountains, and walked down the Serpentine path to the other side of the park.  We jumped on the Tube from there and were off to the Tower of London.

Here is where I would like to brag about my great bargain skills.  I found out that if you bought your tube pass through the National Rail Way, then you could get London 2-1 tickets.  We must have save $150 by using the 2-1 deals.  Proud of me proud of me!  So the Tower of London was our first 2-1.  And if you are going to London, all you have to do is buy your week tube pass from the National Rail way, then before you go visit the 2-1 website and print out the vouchers.  Then show your tube pass and the voucher and you get the 2-1!

OK, so I was not excited to go to the Tower, but Mom really wanted to go so I said ok.  I remembered not enjoying the Tower at all when I was a student.  I think I must have just been a brat, because it was totally fascinating and I loved the beefeater that gave us our tour.  He gave us a great orientation and history of the tower.  The beefeaters are retired military with 22 years of experience and a special award.  Only after acheiving all of that can they apply to work and live at the Tower.  They are guards of the Queen.  

It was not crowded at all, in fact we were able to go back to see the crown jewells three times with no waiting.  We saw lots more school groups, which were equally well behaved.

We left the tower and got lunch at Subway.  Then we took the tube to St. Pauls.

I have never been to the top of St. Pauls - since it was under construction when I was a student. 

 

 

Thanks for coming with me Mom, it was exactly what I wanted for my 40th birthday!

My crazy man

So we are going through wedding photos the other day and here is the conversation.

Cyndi - oh here is an small bridal picture, I will give it to you for your wallet.

Renato - I don't want a picture of you in my wallet.

Remembering that he is a boy and might not see how that was not nice I say,

Cyndi - but you don't have a picture of me. I can give you one to keep in the car.

Renato - no I don't need one of you. I know what you look like.

Cyndi - I have several pictures of you in my office, and sometimes look at them a think .... what am I going to do with you?

So here are some pictures of my crazy man who does not want a picture of me. I am going to paste one up in the car where is will least expect it. Is it illegal to cover the rear view mirror with pictures? Maybe I will put on on his hardhat too. :)  And just to share his side of the story. He says his wallet gets too hot and yucky at work and the picture will be ruined. Ok - if that is the story you want to stick with.