June 18th, 2007
I believe they are speaking English. It is really hard to establish for sure if indeed they are. I thought to myself when we decided to come to London; well at least they speak English. There have been many times when we have all looked at each other to see if any of us understood what was just spoke to us. In my opinion, they speak way too fast. They speak as if they are talking with a mouthful of cotton baton. But mostly they mumble. Besides this, I am told they do speak “English”.
The colloquialisms are absolutely “brilliant”, actually “bloody brilliant”. I have been called “Madame”, “lovey”, and “my dear”. I am sure this was to take me away from my stroppy mood.
I have seen bashers, bangers and mash on breakfast menus. We have been offered orange squash and enjoyed it. I had to suss out the difference between chips and crisps. I love jacket potatoes. Goodness knows what baps are. I have enjoyed my sweets and biscuits with a cuppa. Pub grub is not bad especially with a pint of ale or cider. However, I could easily gain a stone if I was to continue to enjoy the starters, elevens and afters.
I’ve queued up for the loo more often than not and paid twenty pence for the public convenience. Paid or unpaid, it can be a dicey affair.
I have learned that their subway is called the tube. Also subway and underground are not interchangeable. Speaking of not interchangeable; if you ask the waiter for a napkin instead of a serviette, he would probably smile and send you off to the chemist.
I know bonnet and boot have little to do with fashion and more to do with a car. Petrol is dear at almost two quid per liter.
I have not needed Wellingtons or a Mac, although I have used my brolly, and like in Calgary if you don’t like the weather just wait a tick.
I get a little confused at the fact that I come into a store at street level and have to go up to find the first level. The confusion only comes when you are trying to find the way out on this level. Way out is the most important words you need to leave the tube.
Our bus operator was jolly enough to point out the store where the queen buys her knickers. I bet it wasn’t a cheap and nasty place.
I was thinking of knocking up (visit) Betty and John, but they are knackered after a day of seeing the full Monty. And no they did not see people completely starker’s, but from trying to see the whole shebang in one day.
Well since it is half nine, I should put a sock in it and maybe watch a little telly.
One more word for you: MIND THE GAP
WKH
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
London 3 off line blogs.
Dear one and all. We have finally connected to our hotel internet. However it will be only until our Sunday at noon. I hope to convince Bill that the 8 pounds for 24 hours is worth it for our evening and early morning times in the hotel. All is going well and here are a few blogs that I wrote off line during our week.
June 12, 2007
Here we are in London. History, culture, politics, and entertainment are just a few of the things one can expect from this city.
I stepped off the plane and felt the ages of the last two millennia all around me. Maybe it was just the jet lag.
In my opinion, there is nothing better than a castle, an abbey, or a tower that has architecture from a thousand or more years ago. I try to imagine building these magnificent things. I try to imagine how. How did they get there supplies? How did they get the blocks up one on top of the other? How could one imagine such a structure? How did they rally the people together to help? How long did it take to build it and did they see the fruits of their labor? Did they imagine that their building would still be standing this far into the future?
Then I wonder why I did not pay attention to my history classes? You know all that stuff about The Battle of Hastings, or the whole monarchy succession thing? I barely remember hearing about the Magna Carta. I still think that history is wasted on the youth. Our children are way too busy making there own history to be learning about the history of “dead people” in “faraway places”; and for that matter to understand its impact on them.
These are the things that I am thinking about in my first few days in London. The sights are treats for the eyes. I crane my neck to look up at things that were done so many years ago that the locals have long since forgotten about them. They probably see them, but really don’t see them if you know what I mean?
It is a pleasure to be able to read and make sense of all that is written around the buildings, statues and monuments.
WKH
June 14, 2007
Did someone say we were on vacation? I have said this before, and I will say it again, sightseeing is hard work. Today we planned to see Westminster Abbey and we did.
The pamphlet says, “Experience a thousand years of history.” Maybe it was a warning that I did not heed.
One thousand years! That is twenty times my life on this earth. Perhaps almost 20 generations of kings and important people. Actually that is a lot of dead people. And along with those dead people came their history and their life contribution to the history of London and perhaps in the bigger sense, the history of the world.
I understand there are 3000 tombs in this architectural wonder. Of those there are 29 kings and queens entombed here. There is a poet’s corner with some of the more famous names I vaguely recall from University English class. The tombs and memorials are endless. This meant I could not walk anywhere without stepping on someone’s tomb or memorial.
We rented one of those audio guide things. We paid our 4 or so pounds each and then set forth on our own personal tour. It is actually quite a good way to go through Westminster. You can go at your own pace and you don’t have to worry about not hearing the guide. You know meek old Wendy actually shushed several adult women. We were on the Thames cruise and these “tourists” were talking louder than the guide with a microphone. They were also using their cell phones. Oi! Halfway through the trip, I finally had enough and turned around with finger to lips and let a big shush out. That worked for about 5 minutes. What are you going to do?
Meanwhile back at Westminster it was quite quiet as you would expect from a tomb like building holding 3000 dead bodies. It is a beautiful church. I don’t know why we never seen it before.
Later that day we went to the National Gallery Museum. I cannot truly appreciate the dimensions to an art piece. I was over hearing a guide from a nearby guided tour group. He was speaking of its irony; it’s subtleties of light to allude to sarcasm. He found it a bit too sarcastic. After he went on to another painting with his group I looked at the picture. It was a picture of the virgin mother and Jesus. What part of my eyes and brain are not connected to it’s allusion of sarcasm?
I go to see the portraits made by famous painters. I people watch. I see the children with their pens and papers seeking their answers to their day trip questionnaire. That was probably me. I see the elderly group of women or men who gather tightly around the picture whispering to one another about the painting I suppose. Of course in my world of people watching, I imagine them sharing their favorite recipe for desert. I also watched a young man stand and stare at a Van Gogh sunflower for a very long time. I wanted to know what he was seeing. What was holding his attention? What was the detail that fired up his passion? I suppose I will never know. However I do know that there are many people who are smitten with this art form.
Our day was cultured. It was okay. Later that evening Bill and I went out to our local pub for a beer. I must say that I got a bigger kick out of the pub pictures hanging at our local pub.
We have so much more to do and see.
P.S.
I am the one feeling the lack of Internet. At 7pounds (15 dollars) per day we are choosy about going on line. The hotel has it on from noon to noon and we are gone most of the day and out after breakfast in the morning. That makes it kind of costly.
Talk again soon.
WKH
June 16Th
That is a guess.
We are slowing down. Betty is tiring easily from all the walking. Bill and I are not far behind. Bill is struggling with a cold or allergies. The heat beats us down and the humidity finishes us off. As you would expect the heat is the worst in the tube system. I really don’t understand how they travel in such “sultry” conditions.
The tube system is still the best way for any person in London to get anywhere. On our first two days in London we took a “hop on hop off” tour bus. It is one of those double Decker open to the sky chariots. I have to commend the drivers of our buses. Since we were last here in 2001, we have noticed the biggest difference in the traffic. This is in the city center even though there is a very prohibitive congestion tax just to enter the centre. It was 1030 am and the cars, buses, tour buses, taxis and yes the cars were bumper to bumper. Horn honking is the norm. Sirens are going constantly and goodness knows how they get through. At times I was more concerned if our bus was going to make it to the next stop at all.
The last time I was here, I think I wrote about the difference between the local Londoners and tourists is that the tourists wait for the walk light and the rest just go at will. They seem to make it across the road without incidence. I am still trying to figure out where to look for the traffic. It came to me how it is that little children always seem never where to look when crossing the street. We tell them to look both ways before crossing and usually they look the wrong way. I could never understand why they didn’t look automatically to the left and then to the right. Well now that I have to retrain the brain to look right then left, I understand it is not automatic when learning. I have no concept of driving on the left hand side of the road thus through learned processes, I look automatically left. This does not do much in London except maybe get you killed.
Betty and I went to see a Florence Nightingale museum. We both enjoyed it. I learned more about her and was impressed with her as a woman who was born 100 years too early. The changes she proposed were phenomenal given the time and that women were not emancipated yet. She was a brilliant women coming from an influentially wealthy family. Her father taught her Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German, and English, math, all sciences and statistics. Ms Nightingale was a poet, painter, and kept exceptional records of her life and achievements. She became a nurse against her parents’ wishes as it was a job for the lowest of classes of women and not her. She went to Germany to learn medicine. Her biggest contributions were those she achieved in the Crimea War. She brought many improvements to the sick camps. She brought bandages, medicine, proper nutrition, cleanliness and many other things.
I have never read her story and plan to when I get home.
While we were in the museum the men went to check out a shopping mall at Canary Wharf. They tell us it would be just what we would love to shop through. We probably would but we have so many other things to see that this might just be really low on our list. Yes you heard that from Betty and me.
Today was Trooping of The Guard, the celebration of the Queen’s birthday. We decided to stay away from the masses. We walked in Hyde Park during a thunderstorm with torrential rain. It kind of dampened our spirit, but gave us a good rest for the second week in London.
WKH
June 12, 2007
Here we are in London. History, culture, politics, and entertainment are just a few of the things one can expect from this city.
I stepped off the plane and felt the ages of the last two millennia all around me. Maybe it was just the jet lag.
In my opinion, there is nothing better than a castle, an abbey, or a tower that has architecture from a thousand or more years ago. I try to imagine building these magnificent things. I try to imagine how. How did they get there supplies? How did they get the blocks up one on top of the other? How could one imagine such a structure? How did they rally the people together to help? How long did it take to build it and did they see the fruits of their labor? Did they imagine that their building would still be standing this far into the future?
Then I wonder why I did not pay attention to my history classes? You know all that stuff about The Battle of Hastings, or the whole monarchy succession thing? I barely remember hearing about the Magna Carta. I still think that history is wasted on the youth. Our children are way too busy making there own history to be learning about the history of “dead people” in “faraway places”; and for that matter to understand its impact on them.
These are the things that I am thinking about in my first few days in London. The sights are treats for the eyes. I crane my neck to look up at things that were done so many years ago that the locals have long since forgotten about them. They probably see them, but really don’t see them if you know what I mean?
It is a pleasure to be able to read and make sense of all that is written around the buildings, statues and monuments.
WKH
June 14, 2007
Did someone say we were on vacation? I have said this before, and I will say it again, sightseeing is hard work. Today we planned to see Westminster Abbey and we did.
The pamphlet says, “Experience a thousand years of history.” Maybe it was a warning that I did not heed.
One thousand years! That is twenty times my life on this earth. Perhaps almost 20 generations of kings and important people. Actually that is a lot of dead people. And along with those dead people came their history and their life contribution to the history of London and perhaps in the bigger sense, the history of the world.
I understand there are 3000 tombs in this architectural wonder. Of those there are 29 kings and queens entombed here. There is a poet’s corner with some of the more famous names I vaguely recall from University English class. The tombs and memorials are endless. This meant I could not walk anywhere without stepping on someone’s tomb or memorial.
We rented one of those audio guide things. We paid our 4 or so pounds each and then set forth on our own personal tour. It is actually quite a good way to go through Westminster. You can go at your own pace and you don’t have to worry about not hearing the guide. You know meek old Wendy actually shushed several adult women. We were on the Thames cruise and these “tourists” were talking louder than the guide with a microphone. They were also using their cell phones. Oi! Halfway through the trip, I finally had enough and turned around with finger to lips and let a big shush out. That worked for about 5 minutes. What are you going to do?
Meanwhile back at Westminster it was quite quiet as you would expect from a tomb like building holding 3000 dead bodies. It is a beautiful church. I don’t know why we never seen it before.
Later that day we went to the National Gallery Museum. I cannot truly appreciate the dimensions to an art piece. I was over hearing a guide from a nearby guided tour group. He was speaking of its irony; it’s subtleties of light to allude to sarcasm. He found it a bit too sarcastic. After he went on to another painting with his group I looked at the picture. It was a picture of the virgin mother and Jesus. What part of my eyes and brain are not connected to it’s allusion of sarcasm?
I go to see the portraits made by famous painters. I people watch. I see the children with their pens and papers seeking their answers to their day trip questionnaire. That was probably me. I see the elderly group of women or men who gather tightly around the picture whispering to one another about the painting I suppose. Of course in my world of people watching, I imagine them sharing their favorite recipe for desert. I also watched a young man stand and stare at a Van Gogh sunflower for a very long time. I wanted to know what he was seeing. What was holding his attention? What was the detail that fired up his passion? I suppose I will never know. However I do know that there are many people who are smitten with this art form.
Our day was cultured. It was okay. Later that evening Bill and I went out to our local pub for a beer. I must say that I got a bigger kick out of the pub pictures hanging at our local pub.
We have so much more to do and see.
P.S.
I am the one feeling the lack of Internet. At 7pounds (15 dollars) per day we are choosy about going on line. The hotel has it on from noon to noon and we are gone most of the day and out after breakfast in the morning. That makes it kind of costly.
Talk again soon.
WKH
June 16Th
That is a guess.
We are slowing down. Betty is tiring easily from all the walking. Bill and I are not far behind. Bill is struggling with a cold or allergies. The heat beats us down and the humidity finishes us off. As you would expect the heat is the worst in the tube system. I really don’t understand how they travel in such “sultry” conditions.
The tube system is still the best way for any person in London to get anywhere. On our first two days in London we took a “hop on hop off” tour bus. It is one of those double Decker open to the sky chariots. I have to commend the drivers of our buses. Since we were last here in 2001, we have noticed the biggest difference in the traffic. This is in the city center even though there is a very prohibitive congestion tax just to enter the centre. It was 1030 am and the cars, buses, tour buses, taxis and yes the cars were bumper to bumper. Horn honking is the norm. Sirens are going constantly and goodness knows how they get through. At times I was more concerned if our bus was going to make it to the next stop at all.
The last time I was here, I think I wrote about the difference between the local Londoners and tourists is that the tourists wait for the walk light and the rest just go at will. They seem to make it across the road without incidence. I am still trying to figure out where to look for the traffic. It came to me how it is that little children always seem never where to look when crossing the street. We tell them to look both ways before crossing and usually they look the wrong way. I could never understand why they didn’t look automatically to the left and then to the right. Well now that I have to retrain the brain to look right then left, I understand it is not automatic when learning. I have no concept of driving on the left hand side of the road thus through learned processes, I look automatically left. This does not do much in London except maybe get you killed.
Betty and I went to see a Florence Nightingale museum. We both enjoyed it. I learned more about her and was impressed with her as a woman who was born 100 years too early. The changes she proposed were phenomenal given the time and that women were not emancipated yet. She was a brilliant women coming from an influentially wealthy family. Her father taught her Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German, and English, math, all sciences and statistics. Ms Nightingale was a poet, painter, and kept exceptional records of her life and achievements. She became a nurse against her parents’ wishes as it was a job for the lowest of classes of women and not her. She went to Germany to learn medicine. Her biggest contributions were those she achieved in the Crimea War. She brought many improvements to the sick camps. She brought bandages, medicine, proper nutrition, cleanliness and many other things.
I have never read her story and plan to when I get home.
While we were in the museum the men went to check out a shopping mall at Canary Wharf. They tell us it would be just what we would love to shop through. We probably would but we have so many other things to see that this might just be really low on our list. Yes you heard that from Betty and me.
Today was Trooping of The Guard, the celebration of the Queen’s birthday. We decided to stay away from the masses. We walked in Hyde Park during a thunderstorm with torrential rain. It kind of dampened our spirit, but gave us a good rest for the second week in London.
WKH
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Journey and Destination
“Travel is intensified living- maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. Its recess and we need it.”
From Rick Steves’ Europe Through The Back Door.
As many of you know, Bill and I are going to London for our holidays. That is London, England. It has only been 6 weeks since I have returned from Japan. There are so many parts of that holiday that I am still digesting and dreaming about.
Typically Bill and I take vacation every year. I believe strongly that one has to go away to recharge, to revitalize, to regroup and to play. Vacation has always been about recess to us. It is that time of year when life just shifts gears and our norms are challenged.
In the past few years, Bill and I have been planning less for these holidays. At the risk of being politically incorrect, we love to travel like gypsies. Let the road take us to our next destination wherever that is. It has rarely been about the destination. It has been about the journey.
A few years back we were invited to participate in one of those “presentations” given by a house boat vacation company. Being in a particularly playful mood we decided to attend and see what the fuss was all about. We listened to their high power presentation. We listened to the kudos by those who were already in the plan. After the presentation, the sales people were set loose on the group for a little one on one high pressure salesmanship. Bill and I listened again. We weren’t interested in house boating. The sales person then said it could be traded in for vacation homes around the world. We looked at each other and then simply asked; well what do you do when you get there? That salesperson left and got what we think was the head salesman or the “closer”. We asked him the same question. He smiled and said “oh you people are not destination people, but journey people.” He shook our hands and escorted us out quite quickly to collect our free gift. We had to leave before the other groups were infected by us. We loved it.
Thus a few weeks ago, we started to think about our holiday plans. We went to AMA and got travel books. We were thinking of traveling east to perhaps Chicago. As we looked at the miles between here and there, we began to feel overwhelmed by the car trip. Well I thought that maybe we could fly in and rent a car and that started the internet search for cheap flights. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were sitting in our travel agents office booking a flight and two week accommodation to London.
This will be Bill’s third time to London and my second. London is a city that one could live in all their life and really not know it or see it all.
We were so excited about it that we asked my sister and her husband to come along with us. Through the luck of “it was meant to be”, they are joining us and will be on the same flight and in the same hotel. We are anxious to show them London for their first time.
Next Saturday, we leave for a two week destination holiday. I realized that this is the first time that we have stayed our complete two weeks holidays in one hotel. We must be getting older, because we are both really looking forward to it.
I plan to blog from England. Stay tuned and enjoy.
And who knows where the next adventure may take me.
WKH
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
By Mark Twain.
From Rick Steves’ Europe Through The Back Door.
As many of you know, Bill and I are going to London for our holidays. That is London, England. It has only been 6 weeks since I have returned from Japan. There are so many parts of that holiday that I am still digesting and dreaming about.
Typically Bill and I take vacation every year. I believe strongly that one has to go away to recharge, to revitalize, to regroup and to play. Vacation has always been about recess to us. It is that time of year when life just shifts gears and our norms are challenged.
In the past few years, Bill and I have been planning less for these holidays. At the risk of being politically incorrect, we love to travel like gypsies. Let the road take us to our next destination wherever that is. It has rarely been about the destination. It has been about the journey.
A few years back we were invited to participate in one of those “presentations” given by a house boat vacation company. Being in a particularly playful mood we decided to attend and see what the fuss was all about. We listened to their high power presentation. We listened to the kudos by those who were already in the plan. After the presentation, the sales people were set loose on the group for a little one on one high pressure salesmanship. Bill and I listened again. We weren’t interested in house boating. The sales person then said it could be traded in for vacation homes around the world. We looked at each other and then simply asked; well what do you do when you get there? That salesperson left and got what we think was the head salesman or the “closer”. We asked him the same question. He smiled and said “oh you people are not destination people, but journey people.” He shook our hands and escorted us out quite quickly to collect our free gift. We had to leave before the other groups were infected by us. We loved it.
Thus a few weeks ago, we started to think about our holiday plans. We went to AMA and got travel books. We were thinking of traveling east to perhaps Chicago. As we looked at the miles between here and there, we began to feel overwhelmed by the car trip. Well I thought that maybe we could fly in and rent a car and that started the internet search for cheap flights. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were sitting in our travel agents office booking a flight and two week accommodation to London.
This will be Bill’s third time to London and my second. London is a city that one could live in all their life and really not know it or see it all.
We were so excited about it that we asked my sister and her husband to come along with us. Through the luck of “it was meant to be”, they are joining us and will be on the same flight and in the same hotel. We are anxious to show them London for their first time.
Next Saturday, we leave for a two week destination holiday. I realized that this is the first time that we have stayed our complete two weeks holidays in one hotel. We must be getting older, because we are both really looking forward to it.
I plan to blog from England. Stay tuned and enjoy.
And who knows where the next adventure may take me.
WKH
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
By Mark Twain.
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