Goodbye London

Well, this is it! Our last day in London; our last blog for this trip. It's a bitter sweet day. I think the girls are ready for "Family Home Month" to end and to see their friends again. Kent is ready to have a day that doesn't involve sight-seeing or traveling, and I'm ready to not be in charge of our itinerary every day. However, it's very hard to leave. When I think about going back to shopping at Broulims, I want to cry! I love the UK; I feel a sense of belonging here. Even though I'm grateful for my home in the US, I really hope I will be back here to visit before too long.

Most of today was spent organizing and packing. Guessing the weight of our cases without a scale is going to be a trick--especially as they're so heavy!

We took one outing to the London Eye. Kent, Anna, and Elizabeth rode it together and we all had our last 99 ice-cream cones and rode the tube for the last time. We had dinner at Pizza Express, where they have great gluten free choices.

Shopping

On Thursday, Anna, Elizabeth, and I hit Oxford Street. The shops there are so huge that you could spend all day in one of them. As it was, we visited half a dozen shops and didn't make it very far down the road before our money was spent! The girls took great interest in the fashions that are on their way--to hit Rexburg in about a year. :) They include: shoes with white plastic platform soles that look like lego bricks, ankle socks with lace ruffles (these made Elizabeth shudder), jump suits, crop shirts and high waisted jeans, skinny jeans that stop above the ankle. Every other person in London is wearing white Converse shoes with a red and blue stripe on the sole. This includes Elizabeth, who bought a pair yesterday. :)

In the evening we went to Les Mis. Wow! What a powerful production. It was long (it started at 7:30pm and didn't finish until about 10:30pm) but the time went fast and everyone enjoyed it.

The Big Bus Tour

This morning we boarded an open-top double decker bus to tour London. The traffic was heavy and movement along the roads was very slow. Anna and Elizabeth both took short naps as we sat in traffic jams and we even ate our sack lunches as we waited. Luckily, the weather held up and went from being overcast to sun shiny.

We finally got off the bus near Embankment and walked up to Trafalgar Square, where we spent a short time going through some of the rooms at the National Gallery. The number of paintings there is mind boggling. I'm not sure how long you'd need to do them all justice, but I know it's a lot longer than the hour we spent there!

Afterwards, we walked across the road to the cafe in the Crypt under St. Martins in the Fields church and met my high school friend, Elizabeth Hannah, there. Kent and the girls sat patiently while Liz and I talked. It was really nice to see her again.

Another walk took us back to the London Eye. We were hoping to ride it today but the line was three hours long--so we'll go back another time. We then went to the toy shop, Hamley's. Wow! That toy store is unlike any other. By this time, we were all flagging, so we braved the rush-hour crowds and took the tube back to our flat, had dinner, and are looking forward to a quiet evening tonight.

Harry Potter Studios

Today we missed Matt. First thing this morning we traveled by tube, train, and bus to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios. Anna’s excitement was probably close to what Matt’s would have been, but we may have never gotten Matt out of the building once he was inside!

The tour began with a short film that talked about the studio and the making of the movies. Then we walked into the set of the great hall at Hogwarts. After that came three huge areas full of sets and props, indoors and out. In one area, the girls and I donned gowns and rode broomsticks against a green screen. The attention to detail over every aspect of the filmmaking was unbelievable. I don’t think anyone could leave the studio tour without recognizing the amazing talent of all the people involved in making those the Harry Potter movies.

We made it back to our flat early enough to have a couple of hours downtime before heading to the Savoy Theatre to see “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” The production was a song and dance extravaganza, and parts of it were very good. Unfortunately, there was just too much innuendo scattered throughout the production to give it two thumbs up.

A few extra photos today...for Matt.

London

Our original plan today was to take a bus tour of London. Then we discovered that the Tour de France bicycle race was coming through from Cambridge and several of the major roads in inner-city London were to be closed all day. So, we postponed the bus tour and set off on foot for the museums instead.

The weather was perfect: 70 degrees and sunshine. On the way, we passed Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Hyde Park LDS Chapel. We started at the Science Museum and decided that you really could spend a couple of days there. We visited some of the exhibits, and spent most of our time in the hands-on areas. Kent wants to go back before we leave!

Then it was on to the Natural History Museum. The building itself is magnificent enough for a visit. Again, we barely scratched the surface in seeing all the exhibits.

Everyone's legs were tired, so we opted to head back to our flat via Earl's Court tube station. This particular station is of great importance to Anna and Elizabeth because immediately outside the entrance is a Dr. Who tardis!

We made a stop at Marks and Spencer to pick up some food for dinner. After our time in Chester, everyone had specific things they wanted: Kent--GF carrot cake, Sian--Bramley apple tart, Anna--GF crumpets, and Elizabeth--Extremely chocolate swiss roll!



The road and entrance to our Flat at Cheniston Gardens

Returning to the UK

Sunday, 6 July 2014

Today, we returned to the UK. We had breakfast on the ship before disembarking by 8:45am. A taxi took us directly from the port to Treviso airport. Things went so smoothly that we were at the airport by 9:30 but unfortunately, our flight didn't leave until 3:30--which made for a LONG wait. We were grateful to finally be on our way and arrived in Stansted a little early. We arrived about half an hour before the taxi driver who was scheduled to meet us so we ate at Burger King at the airport (That was a pretty awful contrast to the European food we've been eating, but there were no choices!)

The drive into Kensington took us almost 1 1/2 hours, the last half an hour consisting of whipping through narrow down-town roads that made Anna and Elizabeth feel nauseous. We picked up the flat key from a hidden box on a wall beneath some ivy (it was like a treasure hunt) and then walked up three flights of stairs to the flat.

The flat is in a nice area of Kensington. It's an old building, with quirky unexpected steps, squeaking floorboards, old-fashioned taps, etc., but it has all that we need. I started up the washer and drier as soon as we arrived! We're excited to be back in a familiar environment with an English speaking population.

Dubrovnik

Saturday, 5 July 2014

We arrived at port in Dubrovnik by 8am and left the ship soon afterwards. The city bus was the cheapest transportation into the old town, but we had to wait for four buses to come and go before there was enough room for us to board. Some people (especially hot-headed Italians) need to go back to kindergarten to learn the “no butting in line” rule!

Dubrovnik is a beautiful city. The first thing we did was to walk the old fortress walls around the town. The views were magnificent—both of the sea and the town itself. The ocean is a clear turquoise color, little boats, kayaks, and ships were out and tiny islands were close enough for the kayakers to reach easily. The town’s ancient buildings, narrow alleys and cobblestone, pedestrian-only roads, made me feel like I’d been dropped into Medieval Europe.

Unfortunately, the sun was our enemy again. It was incredibly hot and we were less than half way through the walk around the walls when the girls decided we were putting them through a new type of torture. Everyone around us was glistening with perspiration and stopping to take water breaks.

We stopped to buy cold drinks at a little café and asked the waitress about somewhere that sold clothes. She suggested a shop outside the old town but on route to the port. So, despite the heat, we took our trusty map and set off on foot. Halfway there, Elizabeth announced that we should all be wearing “stupid” stickers! But we made it to the store and to compensate for the “torture” we’d put them through, Kent bought them each an item of clothing.

We were back on board by 2pm and after a late lunch, we spent the afternoon getting cleaned up and packing our bags. It will be an early departure tomorrow.

Corfu

Friday, 4 July 2014

This will be the year that we can claim we spent the 4th of July on a beach in Corfu! There was an early morning announcement on board, wishing all American passengers a Happy 4th of July, and the cooks had made huge sheet cakes decorated like the American flag.

The ship didn’t arrive in port at Corfu until 12:30pm, so we were able to have a much-needed lazy morning. When we disembarked, we picked up four MSC beach towels and headed to the taxi line. We had to wait a few minutes, and when a taxi arrived, several people converged on the driver. I had written down the name of the beach we wanted to go to (Paleokastritsa) because I couldn’t pronounce the Greek word. While the Russians were getting all worked up about where they wanted to go, I just showed the driver the paper and he said, “Ah, yes, get in the car. I can take you there!” The driver, Nicholas, had lived in Greece for 33 years, but grew up in Leeds, England. (A strong Yorkshire accent with an equally strong Greek inflection is just about the weirdest accent I’ve ever heard!). It was great to have a fluent English speaker though.

We spent about an hour and a half at Paleokastritsa Bay. The water was crystal clear but very cold. The girls loved soaking up the sun and relaxing on the beach; none of us ventured very far into the water. Nicholas met us again and drove us to old Corfu Town. We wandered the streets there for an hour or so. It was very quaint, with narrow, cobbled-stone, pedestrian-only roads, lined with shops, and an old fortress towering overhead.

By the time we arrived back at the ship, the girls and I knew that we were sunburned. I bought some burn ointment at the pharmacy on board. Hopefully that will help. We’ll have to stay covered up tomorrow.