London - Day 5 - Friday

Today was our early day. We had to be at the hotel down the street before 8 am to get picked up for our day tour of Stonehenge, Windsor and Oxford. No doubt the tour company told us to be ready early because we arrived a bit ahead of time and had to wait a little while before the bus came to take us to Victoria Coach Station. There we changed buses to get on the proper one for our tour.

The morning was overcast and misty but not really raining, though it was enough to keep me wiping my glasses clean. Our first stop was Windsor Castle, which the queen considers "home" (vs. the "office", Buckingham Palace). We had a very interesting audio tour but frustratingly, no photos were allowed inside the castle though we did get some of the grounds. Still, it was interesting to be in the rooms where royalty received fellow heads of state and to learn about the history of the place.


On our guide's advice we grabbed some lunch-to-go and got back on the bus bound for Stonehenge. As the drive took quite some time we had plenty of time to finish the food and the weather changed such that the sun came out again.

Stonehenge was fascinating, though smaller than I'd thought, even though I'd been warned about that in the guide books. The parking area is on one side of the motorway and the circle on the other. It was odd how cool it was on the car park side, yet warm nearer the stones. An hour or so was plenty of time here, even with the obligatory stop at the gift shop.


Then we were on our way to Oxford. At least, we tried to be on our way. Due to a pretty decent traffic jam, it took us an extra long time to get to Oxford. Once we arrived, we only had about an hour before we had to leave. Our guide gave us the whirlwind tour and then a bit of free time to examine what we liked and shop. I do wish we'd had time to take some of the University's tours as I'm told it's quite interesting. Oh well, something to do when I come back!

We had the driver drop us off at a tube stop so we could ride it over to the Marble Arch. It's just across from the east end of Hyde Park but is still considered West London. We'd not been to this section of town before and saw a lot more Middle Eastern folks here than we'd seen previously.


From there we hopped back on the tube and continued east for Covent Garden. Due to my faulty memory we ended up taking the long way around to get there but had a stroll through a lovely garden area down near the river. We'd planned to eat in the Garden but the restaurant prices there were quite steep. We ended up in the West End again, passing our theatre from the night before and finally stopped in at an upstairs restaurant near Picadilly Circus. We got to sit next to the windows and keep an eye on what was happening below. Always interesting to do that kind of thing in a foreign town - you just never know what you're going to see!

After being up early, we're back at the room early, ready for another good night's sleep.

London - Day 4 - Thursday

We realized that it was time to get serious about our sightseeing, so we found a place near Trafalgar Square where we could pick up the hop-on/hop-off tour bus and at least get a good idea of places we wanted to come back to visit.

Our first place to hop off was at St. Paul's cathedral which is situated on the highest point in London. It's where Charles and Diana were married. From there we walked towards the river and past the Tower of London. On the riverwalk between the tower and the river we had some great views of the Tower Bridge as well. Since A had seen the Tower on her 1-day whirlwind trip 3 months ago, the rest of us decided to save our visit for another day. Instead we caught the Thames River tour which took us on a leisurely ride down the river and dropped us off at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. After seeing the big bell tower up close we walked a few blocks more and were right outside Westminster Abbey. Again, A had recently visited and D had seen it a few years ago, so C and I took the audio tour while the others scouted the area for lunch places. In a way it's too bad the Abbey doesn't allow photos because there was so much to see and I surely don't remember it all. But we'd have taken 2-3 times longer to tour if I'd gotten photos of everything I wanted!

Next stop, lunch for 4 hungry women. A & D had scoped out a place we had to visit, The Old Monk Exchange. Since we had no old monks to exchange for lunch, they accepted our cash. We looked for Harry, the Abbott of St. Costello but did not see him. At least we did not have to play charades with the waitstaff!

Feeling refreshed we walked by New Scotland Yard and C flirted with 2 leather-clad cops from afar. A few more blocks away was Buckingham Palace where we got some pretty good photos of the front of the palace as well as of the gate to Green Park, which is right beside it. Walking around the palace walls (the back & sides are really quite ordinary) we came upon the Wellington Arch and got a few good photos of that.

It was late afternoon by this point so after walking around for HOURS (well not hours, but it seems like hours when your feet are very tired!) we finally found another stop for the hop-on/hop-off bus. It took us back to Trafalgar where we caught the tube back to the hotel. Rain began to fall about this time and continued through the evening. However, we considered ourselves fortunate as this was the only rain we encountered all week.

We finished the night with 4th row seats to Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Because it was a Thursday night, we had several understudies but everyone was fantastic. Naturally we brought our feather boas along and had them on display for the final few numbers.

One difference we noticed about London vs. NYC is that the city actually DOES sleep. There were not a lot of eating establishments open after the show and we barely made it to the hotel dining room before it closed. With lots of walking, we are plenty tired and none of us will have trouble falling asleep!

London - Day 3 - Wednesday

So after staying up VERY late last night - hey, D only turns 40 once! - we ended up with another late start. Fortunately C ran down to the grocery store and grabbed some bananas for all of us so we wouldn't faint with hunger. :)

One of the reasons we picked London for D's 40th is that she's a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. Since today was her birthday, it was also Sherlock Holmes day. So first stop, naturally, the Baker Street tube station and 221b, home of the Sherlock Holmes Museum. After D bought out the gift shop she led us on a Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour of the area. We stopped for lunch at Pret a Manger, one of those places that has refrigerators full of sandwiches and side items. Last time we visit one of those! We got the grand tour of the area and she got lots of photos of buildings mentioned in the various stories and was a happy camper.

By late afternoon we were all tired (amazing how quickly our feet got tired with so much walking!) and we tromped back to the room for a brief respite. We also wanted to get cleaned up a little bit for dinner which was reserved for us at (naturally) The Sherlock Holmes Restaurant, just above the Sherlock Holmes Pub! It's not a large place but the food was very good. There's one room glassed off with many items of interest to Holmes fans.

After dinner we decided to walk around and see what else was in the area. (It also served to help us walk off the dessert we all enjoyed!) It turned out that we were right near a number of interesting attractions. Trafalgar Square is popular even at twilight, with people just sitting out and enjoying the evening. Lots of people were climbing on the lions that "guard" Lord Nelson's Column. From the column's podium we could see Big Ben all lit up in the distance.

We walked down towards the river and were pleasantly surprised to find we were right at the Millennium Bridge. It gave us some great views of famous attractions along the riverfront: The London Eye, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament.

After staying up very late two nights in a row we realized we better turn in at a decent hour or we'll continue to lose nearly the whole morning. We took the tube back to Kensington and popped into the Stanhope Arms, our other local pub, for a nightcap.

London - Day 2 - Tuesday

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early, ready to head out and take on London! OK, maybe not. We slept 'til about 9:30 or so and it took us awhile to get moving. After our irregular eating schedule the day before we were all very hungry so we popped round to "our local" (well, one of our locals), the Stanhope Arms for lunch. Food was pretty good and actually pretty reasonably priced.

Since it was just a couple of blocks away, we decided to start our tour with the Victoria & Albert Museum. Like a lot of the museums in London, this one was free - though naturally they were more than happy to take any donations we were willing to offer. Lots of the rooms allowed us to take photos, which was great because as the week wore on we found that there are a lot of places in the museums, especially in rooms where paintings and tapestries are, that photos are not allowed. When we saw these scepters all lined up on the wall, A knew she'd come to the right place to find the perfect accoutrement for one of her costumes. The trick was to figure out a way to get it out of the country!

We continued walking several blocks and soon found ourselves approaching Harrod's so we HAD to go in, right? A found a number of things to buy for her hubby and in the grocery section she found some stuff her English-born dad wanted, so she had her hands full by the time we left the store. We didn't care to lug all that stuff around for the rest of the day, so we hopped on the tube back to the hotel and then hopped right back on the tube to Knightsbridge.

We then strolled through Hyde Park, enjoying the greenery in the midst of the city. It was nice not to have to dodge cars for awhile - especially when they come from the opposite direction from which we're accustomed! It was nice to see all kinds of folks out enjoying the park: tourists, locals running, biking, kids playing (real) football. We found the fountain that was a tribute to Princess Diana. It's not a fountain in the "spurting up water" sense, but it's more of a "water feature" as it's a giant circular flume of sorts where water pours out of the top and follows the flume either left or right and the waters meet at the bottom.

As we kept walking we couldn't help but see the Albert Memorial, just across from the Royal Albert Hall, home of the famed Prince's Trust concerts (and many others).

Next stop: Hamley's. The famous toy store on Regent Street is 5 stories high. Here's D with a Lego Indiana Jones!

By this time we realized it was twilight and that we were starving so we went on a great food hunt. We ended up in the Carnaby Street area which had a lot of little restaurants. We found a small Italian place and sat ourselves down to rest and enjoy a relaxing meal.

Back at the hotel and we'll stay up 'til after midnight so we can help D welcome her 40th birthday head on! She says that because she was born in the US (5 hours behind London time), she's still got a few hours to go. (As if THAT would stop us! LOL)

Across the pond again

It's been a very long day but we made it!

My friend D is turning 40 this week so to help her celebrate, A, C and I have flown across the pond to London to help D indulge her love of Sherlock Holmes. And, ok, maybe there's a bit of selfish indulgence too! A was here for a day back in May with her husband. D was last here about 5 years ago and for C it's been longer than that. It's my first trip so I'm very excited.

Our travel day started VERY early...as in, technically the night before. D, C and I had already made our air arrangements via Chicago. Without spending Sunday night in Chicago, there was no way A could get there in time to fly with us, so she left Sunday night from Florida and arrived in London early Monday morning. With her internal clock discombobulated, she took a nap, had some breakfast and scouted out the neighborhood while waiting for the rest of us to arrive.

Meanwhile D was supposed to leave SoCal shortly before midnight and be in Chicago well in advance of our 9:15 am flight. Once the shuttle had already picked her up, THEN AA decides to notify her that her flight would be delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Meanwhile I'm getting up at 3 am, expecting to see her flight's halfway across the country, only to realize she hasn't even taken off yet! Yikes! Fortunately, she did get off the ground before I left for the airport. (Many thanks to my wonderful neighbor M who left a bit over an hour early for work to give me a ride!)

I got to the airport in plenty of time for my 0600 flight and had no issues with the trip to Chicago - even arriving about 10 minutes before D. C was waiting for me in the terminal and we went over to D's gate to collect her. A quick bite to eat in the food court and we were boarding our plane for London!

This was a very cool flight option: fly all day, arrive in the late evening, and since you're tired from flying all day, go straight to bed! The flight was not crowded and the three of us had a 5-person row to ourselves so we could spread out. The flight was uneventful (yay!) though we arrived 10-15 minutes late, which really isn't a big deal.

After collecting our luggage and exchanging currency we managed, with a bit of help, to get one-way tube tickets towards Kensington. The escalator took us right down to the platform where we'd apparently just missed the train because it took a good 10-15 minutes for another one to come along.

We rode along for a number of stops and then the garbled announcement indicated we all had to get off the train as it was now out of service for the night. What?! So we stood on the above-ground platform (it was a little cool) and waited another 15 minutes or so for another train to come along. Finally it did and it carried us into London. We got off at our stop, South Kensington.

At least, we thought it was our stop. A had told us "you get off the tube and the hotel is *right there*". Um, maybe but we didn't see it. We wandered around, toting our luggage for probably half an hour before we got on the right track. It was then we realized we'd gone into town one stop too far and were backtracking. From then on, Gloucester Road station was imprinted on our brains!

Though A was already checked in, we still had to go through the check in process and get our room keys. We got inside the room and then we noticed there was virtually no drawer space. The top drawer of the desk had the hair dryer in it and the bottom drawer was only 2-3 inches deep! There were some shelves in the unit under the TV but it seemed weird storing clothes in there with the ice bucket & glasses. But without anywhere else to put my non-hanging clothes, I used it. They did give us one luggage stand that C used as her drawer.

We'd had folks tell us "oh, you won't need air conditioning in London!". DON'T BELIEVE IT! It's very humid there and while our thermostat didn't show actual temperatures (just a midpoint and +1, +2, +3, and -1, -2, -3) we kept ours at -3 all the time. It was cool but it sure helped us sleep well!

Our long day of travel finally through, we collapsed into bed and slept......

Down Under Memories

Back in late July and early August of 2006 the Crescent Ski Council (of which the Nashville Ski Club is a part) ran a trip to New Zealand and Australia. There were 90-100 of us from all over the Southeast and we had a terrific time. We were there for spring skiing in NZ and yet we got to go snorkeling up on the Great Barrier Reef (though it was COLD water). I put together a little scrapblog of our time there. I can't wait to go back!



If you want to see the scrapblog full size, follow this LINK to their page where you can enlarge it.

Return to the south

A mechanical delay in Boise caused me to miss the last flight to Memphis, so I ended up spending the night in Denver. Nice enough hotel, but a lot further from the airport than I would have liked (and the shuttle only ran about once an hour). It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as, had my plane been on time, I would have arrived in the middle of the worst snowstorm the area had seen in 40 years! Some parts of the area got 11", though it was only about half that at my house. By the time I landed on Sunday afternoon the roads were clear and I barely even had any snow on my car. It was still quite chilly though, but it's in the 60s today and is supposed to hit 70 by tomorrow! Crazy, crazy weather around here.

Here's the scrapblog for the Sun Valley trip. As usual, I suggest using the arrow keys to turn the pages instead of using the play button.