The Fall Trip

Just realized I hadn't updated here in over a year. I guess the biggest trip of the year was a few days at the Olympics in Vancouver in February. My friend C from Chicago came along and we had a great time not only at the Games, but meeting up with our friend P who lives there.

Ski trips this year took me to Utah, where I skied Alta, Solitude and Brighton. That was my first trip to these resorts. The other trip was to Aspen and my cousin L and her hubby J drove over from Denver to ski one day with me. As they're not real experienced, we stuck to Buttermilk, but that's my usual first-day place to ski out there anyway.

Over Memorial Day weekend D and I traveled to Chicago and spent the weekend with C. We took in a Cubs-Cardinals game (Cards won!) and also ventured up to Milwaukee to have a very enjoyable evening with our other friend C who lives there.

We've just returned from a long weekend in Las Vegas. D had been many times, but it was the first trip for C and me. C and I arrived Thursday afternoon (D had a class Thursday night) so on Friday morning we did the Hoover Dam tour. It was fascinating and our tour package included a flat-water float near the bottom of the dam which gave us a unique perspective. We also managed to be there for the second day of rain they'd had all year. Locals called it a downpour, we called it sprinkles. After the tour op dropped us off at the hotel, we popped over and picked up D from the airport. Reunited!

That evening we walked around and hit many of the free attractions: dancing fountains at the Bellagio, animated Caesar & friends at Caesar's Palace, pirate show at Treasure Island. While I'm glad to have seen these things, I feel like I can check Vegas off my list. It might be interesting to go back in 20 years to see how things have changed but it's not something I need to visit repeatedly.

On Saturday we set out for a day trip to the Grand Canyon. It's about a 4-4.5 hour drive from Vegas so it was lunch time before we arrived. In the rain. It not only rained, it poured and there was a thunderstorm with lightning. How do we manage to find rain in the desert?! And oh yeah, then it hailed! It was still lightly raining when we entered the park but after awhile it stopped and while the sun didn't shine on us, we could see it shining in other parts of the Canyon. We only got to spend about four hours here but it was fantastic and we decided we'd like to come back. We'd stay closer and maybe hike down one day & back up the next (there's a lodge on the canyon floor). Maybe we'd combine it with some spa time in Flagstaff or Sedona. It's something to look forward to anyway!

London - Day 7 - Sunday

Sunday, our last day! The week has just flown by. On our last big vacation together (the Mediterranean cruise), C, D and I learned to really appreciate the few "days at sea" we'd have between ports. We decided that on our next trip we'll be sure to build in some "days at sea" for rest and recovery, whether we're on a cruise or not!

Our first stop of the morning was up in Bloomsbury and the British Museum (free!) where we saw the famous Rosetta Stone, the key to decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics. I really enjoyed seeing the many Egyptian artifacts and, after having visited the Acropolis of Athens two years ago, it was gratifying to see many of the objects from there as well. Part of me thinks these objects should be back in their native countries but part of me is glad that they're available for lots of folks to see elsewhere. I may never make it to Egypt but I appreciate getting to see some of these amazing items.

We would have loved to stay longer and explored the place some more but by this point in the week we were really on brain overload. We'd read that the best way to visit the museum is in several shorter visits and that's great advice. It's just too bad it's not near a lot of other tourist sites - or even all that convenient to the tube!

We popped into a tourist shop just opposite the museum and D was overwhelmed by the amount of Holmes-related items they had. Naturally she had to have one of everything. Well, ok, not everything but she did threaten me if I found any more Holmes stores as she'd have no money left!

We stopped for lunch at Pizza Express which has a lot more than pizza. It had been recommended by a couple of my British co-workers and we were quite pleased with it.

Afterwards, we split up with C and I heading down south to the Imperial War Museum. Quite interesting and they had full sized tanks and planes in the museum. Meanwhile, A & D were shopping and following up on some Sherlock Holmes stops that we'd missed on our self-guided tour on Wednesday.

We all met back up at the hotel in the early evening and decided to visit our local, the Stanhope Arms, for dinner as they advertised "the best fish & chips" (something we noticed a LOT of places laid claim to!). They were actually quite good and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner before coming back to the room to pack.

I can't believe the week is over already! We're going to be sure we're up in plenty of time tomorrow to take the tube back to Heathrow. A's flight is a bit after ours - and from a different terminal - but she'll ride with us so we can help her with her luggage. Then it's back to Chicago where C will get to head home and D and I will catch our connecting flights.

Another wonderful trip with the girls....where are we gonna go next? Stay tuned!

London - Day 6 - Saturday

Today we were up at a decent hour but not too early. C and I had breakfast at one of the little restaurants near the hotel while A & D were still getting ready. Even though many of the tourist attractions aren't open early it seems that the first hour they're open is the best time to go as folks don't seem to mind standing in line.

Since A had just seen the Tower of London a few months ago, she visited the Natural History Museum. I would love to see that place too but will have to save it for another trip. C, D and I went to the tube station, intending to hop on the green or yellow line which leads straight to the Tower. Unfortunately, both lines were closed for the weekend for maintenance! We ended up taking the blue line and connecting with the red line and even then we had a considerable walk.

Fortunately it wasn't an issue as we were able to walk right in, thanks to having bought our tickets on Thursday along with our hop-on/hop-off bus tickets. We skipped the Beefeaters tour, though it looked interesting, and went straight to the Crown Jewels, following the advice we'd read in a few books. It proved to be a very good move. We were able to walk right into the building where the jewels are kept. As you might imagine, you have to wander through several rooms before you get to the actual jewels. They have a couple of movies set up so that as you thread through the queue it'll keep you entertained. A lot of people had stopped to watch the films but we just kept on moving and were able to walk right up to the jewels. I really liked how they had a moving walkway set up next to the jewels so that people couldn't congregate around them. It kept the traffic moving and they allowed you to go back and get on the sidewalk again if you like so you could see the jewels from either side. When we exited the building, the line was already getting very long so we were pleased our plan had worked!

We spent a couple of hours at the Tower, wandering through buildings and walking along the walls. There was a great exhibit on the armor of Henry VIII. Always a large man, it was amazing he could walk at all in his last suit of armor. The guy was really heavy by then and that armor had to weigh a ton! Once again, it was really too bad we couldn't take photos. They had some really cool stuff in there.

We'd arranged for Buckingham Palace tour tickets at 2:30 so we decided we'd get in the vicinity, try to meet up with A and have some lunch. Again we had to take a roundabout way, largely the way we'd arrived, to Green Park. We walked around looking for anywhere that served food. We finally found a little place but it was so expensive that D and C only ordered a giant cookie - which turned out not to be very good. I ordered a chicken sandwich (lettuce & tomato were 1 GBP extra) and a lemonade. Total cost: about $18!

We met up with A outside the Buckingham Palace ticket window and went right in for the tour. It was very interesting and I hadn't realized the tour is only available in the summer when the queen is not in residence. We were fortunate that it was a fairly cool day as many of the rooms did not appear to be air conditioned. I can't imagine what some of the ball rooms are like when they're hosting large parties. Must get very stuffy! Still, it was most impressive and afterwards we enjoyed some snacks at the little cafe in the back garden.

We walked through St. James Park and found ourselves approaching Trafalgar Square again. Since we had about an hour before it closed, we decided to take a quick spin through the National Gallery (it's free!). There was a LOT to see there and we didn't even come close to doing it justice.

At this point D wanted to stop in and get a drink at the Sherlock Holmes Pub, since we were right around the corner. As she was off buying the drinks and her souvenir mug, we were approached by a man we later named Seamus. Turned out this was one stop on his stag party/pub crawl. He was a bit drunk but not obnoxious. His brother, Sean, came over to check that he wasn't bothering us and ended up bonding quite well with D, though we all enjoyed talking to him. Alas, all the boys had to leave for the next stop on their "tour" leaving us alone.

We went back to the Covent Garden area which seemed like a fun place to be and had dinner at a restaurant over a little corner pub. It was quite good and I had an excellent fish & chips. C left her Palace guidebook behind but when we stopped by the next morning, they'd saved it for her!

Back at the room rather early, actually. Only one more day to see everything else. We'll never make it!

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)