It's hot and it's Ramadan, which puts me into a bit of a lazy stupor. When I finally decided that a month was plenty of time to recover from even the very worst case of jet lag and that I had really better get this blog working or risk losing touch with reality altogether, I realized that I had enough raw material for two posts. Or at the least, one very jam-packed exciting one. So let's get started, shall we?
When I last left you, we were nervously anticipating our departure on our painfully delayed vacation to London and the States. I am happy to report we made it safely to London. There was a lot of patting down of pockets and endless checking and rechecking that we hadn't forgotten anything. Fortunately, all our papers seemed to be in order and all proceeded according to plan until we arrived at our hotel in London and were informed that not only was our room not ready for us (no less than I expected as it was only 9:00am) but the current occupant was not obligated to vacate it until 4:00pm. Whew. When you've been wedged into a seat in economy all night that is not the most welcome news.
Of course we were determined to make the best of it as we only had a few days in London, so we went for breakfast and then headed out to see what London was like these days. The day was sunny and temperate so we walked up towards Picadilly Circus, bought some guidebooks at the bookstore and then headed over to Trafalgar Square and then Westminster. We were just doing a ground tour, so no museums or visits. As we approached the river we saw the London Eye, the giant ferris wheel built for the Millenium celebrations. It was stunning. We decided to come back to it later in the day.
Instead, we took a ferry from Embankment, and had a nice long boat ride up the Thames to Greenwich. I've always wanted to do this and thought the guys would enjoy a visit to the Royal Observatory. Once we got to Greenwich it was still a bit of a hike through the town, across the park and up the hill. The observatory itself is fascinating with a collection of old telescopes and a camera obscura among other interesting things. But my main objective was to see the dateline. When you live overseas you spend so much time calculating hours +GMT before you can call anyone, well I wanted to see the damn thing. You can stand with your feet on either side of the line and be in both the eastern and western hemispheres at once. It being such a beautiful summer day, I should have known there would be a line to see the line. People were politely queuing up, even though there was no fee, to have their pictures taken, standing on the line. And that's when I realized what I had forgotten - no menehune! How could I have left him behind? I only have about six of them! The menehune astride the international dateline, his feet in both worlds; it would have been perfect! Ah, me. (There is actually a Trader Vic's in London as you may recall from Warren Zevon's famous song, "Werewolves of London", but I wasn't about to go there. Though, tempted!)
I, on the other hand, in my exhausted condition and condescending frame of mind (tourist - moi?) would not wait on line even a nanosecond to have my own, no doubt hideous, picture taken straddling the dateline; so I did what I consider to be the next best, or even better, thing: I took photos of other people doing it.
People waiting...
to do this,
and this.After that little adventure we made our way back to the river and had lunch in a nice pub. We took the light rail back into town and found our way again to the gigantic London Eye, only to find a line, just to wait in line, for tickets. This was pretty late in the afternoon and I had a mini meltdown. Quickly though, I discovered a solution to my problem. I basically paid double to jump the queue and go immediately on the Eye. To be quite honest, I was exhausted and hot but judging from the photos it was a memorable experience. Afterwards, we flopped around in the park like a bunch of hippies, people watching and drinking soda, gathering our strength for our journey back to the hotel.
It's like the Eiffel Tower of London!When at last we turned up tired and expectant around 6:00pm, long after the room was supposed to be ready and awaiting us, we were very discouraged to find that the occupant had only just checked-out and had left it in very bad shape. We had to wait another hour in the bar during which I was rapidly losing the will to live. We did finally get our room and a very nice one it was. We had room service and passed out.
Which turned out to be our routine. Early to rise, breakfast, sightseeing, a nice lunch somewhere, making our way back to the hotel late in the afternoon, a drink in the bar, room service and lights out. We had great plans of shows and concerts but we were always too tired to do more than order up dinner and try not to fall asleep before it got to us.
We went to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. Robert and I went to Harrod's where he spent almost all his allowance on candy. We spent a very memorable morning at the Nottinghill Market on Portabello Road where I bought some prints which only just fit into our suitcases. But mostly we just walked around, looking at London and the people who live and visit there.
Filming a movie of "Gulliver's Travels".
Notting Hill Market. Not for the agoraphobic. On to Houston. But first we had to spend an excruciatingly long layover in Miami International Airport. There are a lot of terrible airports out there and suprisingly, Miami has one of the worst. We had grand plans of a day in Miami but honestly, after a nine hour flight and another hour waiting for baggage we were just too shattered and paranoid to leave the airport. Then our flight was delayed an hour. But we made it to Houston at last and spent a few days relaxing, and socializing with old friends who we haven't seen in awhile. Then it was off to Connie's hometown of Covington, Tennessee.
I really wanted this sign but the price was exorbitant.So I guess I'd better tell the "Klutek Fi Derklan" story. (Hope I spelled it right). When we let Connie's friends know we were coming to town, his friend Tim started sending out e-mails that were, to our eyes, complete gibberish. What we didn't realize was that far from gibberish, this was a new language. A language without meaning , but still, a language. Anyway, on our first day in Covington, Tim and his lovely wife, Linda, and their embarrassed daughter Lana, stopped by with a gift: Matching yellow t-shirts for Connie and I. On the back, printed in big capital letters was the logo "Klutek Fi Derklin"; on the front, Summer Tour 2009 with line drawings of the senior pictures of Tim, Connie, Andy and David. You must see to believe. This is the gang that went to see Twilight in December and apparently we were all going to wear matching shirts on our next group outing...
Andy and Denise in day-glo orange.Which turned out to be a visit to a local winery the very next day. We sat on the lawn, drinking the local harvest, listening to a band play classic rock (You gotta appreciate a group that plays "Sweet Home Alabama" followed immediately by "Southern Man".) There were kids and dogs, motorcyles and barbeque-on-a-stick. It was great. However, it was a little warm for our beefy-T's and I had to change out of mine. At the end of the day, one cute little bartender finally mustered up the courage to ask Connie what the shirts meant. "Everybody is dying to know", she told him, "It's a band, right?"
That was our vacation: three holidays in one, and none of them quite long enough. We don't like to wear out our welcome. So maybe we can come back next year. KLUTEK FI DERKLIN!
Connie enjoying the day and his shirt.
