Just the facts ma'am

You know, dear readers, that this blog is our journal of life in Europe these next few months. If you don’t mind I would like to include some of the interesting things that are happening to us that have absolutely nothing to do with the sights and sounds of London.

First of all you might be thinking that we are sitting in our cozy hotel room composing these blogs and sending them to you via the internet FROM our cozy hotel room. Wrong!! As the price of internet is so expensive in our hotel, we figured out how to beat them at their own game. First we compose our blog and other emails in our hotel room, and then we go downstairs and buy a high speed card which is good for 24 hours. We then log on, down in the lobby, attach pictures and send our blog out, pull up our emails (to be read and enjoyed in our room later), sign off and that usually leaves 30 minutes for the next day. The next day we repeat the process (making sure we do all of this before our 24 hour period ends). Then we got even smarter and took our trusty laptop outside the hotel looking for unsecured wirelesses in the area. Ah ha—we found some. For the past few days we now go outside into this little square and do all of this. Well the other evening as we were doing our looking a strange man approached the area where we were sitting. He kept looking at us and as darkness was setting in, I whispered ever so quietly to Jim, that he was making me nervous and we should probably leave. We were sitting on a wall with bushes in between us so we closed down our computer and got up to leave. We soon discovered why he was looking at us---he was urinating in the corner! Jim said no wonder he was staring at us. We were in his hotel room and probably in his bathroom to boot!!!!! (for those of you who didn’t catch on (Kimber), he was homeless!) We will definitely not make that mistake again at night.

Today our little plan to go outside came back to haunt us again. This morning (Friday) we went outside to pull up some emails and to send some out before we headed out for the day, and we were minding our own business, reading our emails and all of a sudden a BIG SPLAT hit both of us. We thought someone threw a water bomb or something at us. I am sure those of you who have been to London know what hit us but for those of you who don’t, a BIG pigeon from high above let loose on us. I mean Jim was hit big time on his new, clean shirt; it splattered all over my purse, the computer screen, keyboard, etc. I wish we could have laughed about it but neither Jim nor I found it too funny. Luckily we were close to the hotel so we gingerly made our way up to our room, washed and sterilized ourselves, and then went on for the rest of the day! Maybe the Hilton lobby isn’t such a bad idea after all.


We headed out to the Victoria & Albert Museum, one of the biggest and most eclectic collections of objects anywhere. This museum became a museum out of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert supported it so much that it was renamed after them in 1909. Well as I, Maridee, didn’t care for the Tate Modern, Jim didn’t care much for this museum. It does have a beautiful Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entry way. After it was hung he was disappointed that it wasn’t long enough and made them take it down so he could add more glass to it. This museum houses 150 rooms and more than 12 miles of corridor. We just highlighted some of the best and I think to Jim it was still 50% too much.

At the end of the tour I realized that I had not purchased one single item for me to take home to remember London by. I had discovered the St. Martin-in-the-field gift shop the other day and wanted to go back there and find something for me. So we
tubed it back to Trafalgar Square, had lunch at the St. Martin crypt (famous for its lunches and well deserved) and then I went shopping. I found a dish towel that I thought was lovely and then I saw a beautiful Christmas ornament. The tag on the ornament said something about the UK (I hate buying something in a country for a souvenir and then find out it was made in China). On checking out I mentioned to the sales clerk, after she rung up my order, that this is made in the UK isn’t it? “No actually it is made in India!!!” By then I had already paid for it and so now I have a beautiful Christmas star that will always remind me of my trip to London by way of India. (Note to self—take time to put on the glasses next time).

Tomorrow is our out of town sightseeing trip to Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor Castle. We must meet at a meeting place at the Holiday Inn at 7:20 am. In London one can type in the computer where you want to go and the computer will print out about 5 different routes to get you there (much like mapquest but using the public transport and tube). Funny thing about our route, #’s 1-4 take about 17 minutes to get to the Holiday Inn using buses or tubes BUT #5 gives us the route by foot-15 minutes!!! I guess we will be walking. There are times that it does seem so much easier and you never have to worry if you hopped on the right bus or not. You just have to worry if you turned down the wrong street!

We have known since we arrived that when we leave on Sunday for Paris we will be taking the Chunnel, which is the underground train from London to Paris. Where our hotel is and where the Waterloo station (where the Chunnel departs from) is NOT a straight shot on the same Tube line (of course a taxi would be too easy and why pay 25 pounds when you can do the Tube for 3). Big deal some of you might be saying. But you see, when you transfer Tube lines, you can either walk up or down a multitude of stairs zigzagging through tunnels and halls to get to the next line and carrying our luggage was getting me a little nervous (think of an LA interchange and that’s what the Underground is, stacks of train routes on top of each other at interchanges). So we thought that on one of our sightseeing trips we would do a dry run and figure out which Tube line is best for this situation. Well our first train will be fine-no stairs just a LONG escalator. OK I can handle that but as soon as we departed that train and headed to the next train we realized this would never work. There before us were stairs—about 100 of them, divided into 3 transfers of hallways, tunnels and more stairs. Jim and I looked at each other and were so dismayed (he because he knew he would probably be carrying my luggage too after the first 10)! Then he remembered seeing an elevator but it led to the Way Out. Since we weren’t Way Outing (because we were transferring underground) would it work if we took the elevator up as though we were exiting to the street, then turned around as though we were just coming in and find the line we needed? By Golly, it worked---no stairs before us, just those long escalators!!!! We felt so proud of ourselves as we figured that one out. We finished with our make believe transfer thing, got into the Waterloo station, looked around to see where we will pick up the train for Paris, then headed back down to go on with our sightseeing and VOILA!!!!!!- A rail strike on Sunday!!!! No Way. We frantically looked at the posted affected lines and thank goodness, our wonderful route isn’t affected. So cross your fingers for us that they don’t change their minds by then and all will be well!

We get a kick out of the television here. The commercials are quite hilarious. The morning commercials always have some product to rid yourself of head lice—what a lovely commercial to hear at breakfast. And then there are commercials for trying to get men to stop smoking because it causes impotence (just imagine that one, a burning down cigarette in a precarious place). Another commercial that made us chuckle is for a 3-scent air freshener: fresh mown grass was one of the scents! This week was the start of no junk food at school so we have been inundated with interviews of parents, teachers, children and members of Parliament and how this has helped the education of these wee ones. Actually, we find it quite interesting. A change of pace from American TV. Lots of stuff that would never get past the censors where we come from. They have the original reality TV shows with Simon Cowell, a show where you get the “dragons” to help support your inventions, realtors trying to buy homes for people in different countries depending on their budget.


Well that’s all for today. We don’t know if we will be able to get out a blog tomorrow after our day of sightseeing. The next time you might hear from us will probably be after we arrive in Paris on the Chunnel. I am sure that we will have some stories to share with you then. We have really enjoyed our time here and feel that we have learned more about this fascinating town full of history than our minds can hold. The people have been wonderful and we have learned so much about them by living with them, even if it has been only 10 days. They are definitely in a hurry, can’t quite figure out where they are hurrying to, but once you settle into their routine, it goes pretty smoothly. They are proud of their history, proud of their city, proud to be who they are. London has a great PR sign around town: WE ARE LONDONERS! Print this post