We started the day at the Tower of London, getting into the medieval scene. I'm not sure what I thought the tower would be beforehand, but I was surprised how much I really enjoyed it. We were entertained by the beefeaters, marveled at some of the buildings that reminded me of Princeton, and were dazzled by the Crown Jewels. After the tower, we grabbed lunch to go and made our way to Kensington Gardens on a hunt for Peter Pan. When we came up from the tube station we were met with rain. Boo. At least there was a covered place for a picnic. It was wet and cold, but still very beautiful. The rain set a misty romantic backdrop for our walk through the park. The museum of Natural History was conveniently close to the park and a tube station, so we stopped in for sweets and a hot drink. What a beautiful building! And I love that so many of the museums are free. The end cap to the night was a magnificent performance of Les Miserables in the intimate setting of Queen's Theatre. Wow. We all were teary-eyed and the sentiment and songs have continued to follow us...it is such a powerful musical! I would also like to point out that my parents went to Thai food with us before the show and actually enjoyed it. Huge win for the expanding the family's culinary horizons.
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What a lovely countryside! We drove from London about two hours north to the Cottswolds - quaint little old towns with thatched roof homes and pastures of sheep. The first town we visited was Chipping Campden (love these names!) and after walking the Main Street we found a gate that led to this beautiful pastureland with lots of sheep and newborn baby lambs bleating. It was breathtaking. Next on the list was another Cottswald town "Stow-on-the-wold" with more quaint shops, a church with a tree-trunk door frame and some old stocks in the square that mom thoroughly enjoyed making dad take a picture in. We also visited a town called Lacock (we continue to argue about the pronounciation), it is known for being a set for various shows/movies. We learned that the man who invented the photographic negative lived here - go figure! I loved the craftsmanship of this cute little town...so much handmade goodness in the stores and on the street corners - like this setup for selling preserves. We tried to stop at Stourhead, of Pride and Prejudice fame, but it was raining buckets and closed by the time we arrived. We had a long drive back to London, fortunately past this little gem (taken from the freeway - can you believe it?! It was closed, too, or we would have stopped). The English countryside did not disappoint. It's definitely a place I hope to come back to explore more someday, hopefully next time with my sweetie.
Today's themes were consumption and culture....we started off with about four hours of eating our way around the East End on a food tour. My top four stops involved bread pudding, a bacon and fresh buttered bread sandwich, a bagel with salted beef, and curry (the lamb!). The East End was a delight to walk with a hipster vibe, street art, spitalfields market, and lots of interesting immigration history. We went west from there and did some good old-fashioned serendipitous wandering in Soho and Covent Garden. Jessica was drawn to the garden benches and spring blooms, we all enjoyed seven sundials and Neal's Yard. After a quick visit to the Palace we sat for a beauiful (and ritzy) tea. The tea worked wonders warming and relaxing us from the long day, and we did our best to gossip and be waited upon with all the best manners. Another lovely day! We turned in earlier than usual with an early wake-up call ordered for a day in the country tomorrow.
Walking walking walking!
...down cherry blossom pathways ...past statues and museums and law houses and little themed pubs. We started in Trafalgar Square and walked down The Strand to St. Paul's. I logged my first fish and chips at the Punch Tavern and the others had their first pints and half-pints. We hiked up to the top lookouts of St. Paul's dome (feel the burn!) and I said a little prayer of thanks for the aggreable weather all day. In fact, the sunset even made some golden lighting for us. From the top we saw the new footbridge leading right to the re-make of Shakespeare's Globe, our next stop. I enjoyed imagining old London and the sketchy theatre experience in Shakespeare's day. I'm amazed at Shakespeare's renown and influence to this day. Our tired feet and sleepy heads got us part way down bank-side before we took a stop along the Thames for dinner. Mom and Dad dined Italian and Jess and I dug into some noodles and curry. We continued walking along the river to the Eye, admiring the street performers along the way. It was a lovely evening. The walk reminded me a little of San Francisco's Embarcadero. Again, we decided to part ways and the parents turned back for the hotel while Jess and I wandered back the way we came looking for a little gated area of colorful shops we had seen on our way. We never found it - instead getting sidetracked by fresh donuts (brilliant!) and steps down to the beachy banks of the Thames. Before we knew it we found ourselves back at the Globe, where we aimed for the London Bridge tube station and along the way found cute quiet neighborhood houses, the plaque at the original globe's location, and a very intriguing Boroughs Market that was closed but still had quite the buzz around it from all the people gathered at the surrounding shops. I love serendipity! Wander-travel! It was a nice balance to our day. We got to see things we planned and also discover on our own. Thank you London for a fine Day 1. We made it! After a long travel day and time changes and waiting through customs, all four of us are finally together on the Island. We took an express train to Paddington (my kids told me to look for the bear) and then rode with a chatty cabby to our hotel and set up home base for the next week.
Traveling with dad has it's perks, including executive lounge access...which has come in quite handy for snacks and breakfast. I've always been a fan of the European bread/meat/cheese at breakfast...and good coffee! While crazy tired from barely any sleep we still decided to venture out and take a bus around to see the city lit up at night. It was beautiful! And cold! And trafficky! We all were dozing off a little here and there but for the most part we took in the city's night charms, and then happily went back to the hotel for a good night's rest. It's time for another adventure! If you're wondering if I have the best, most generous and loving husband in the world, doubt not. I'm so grateful, I'm on my way to London to meet up with my parents and my sister. Mr. Wonderful is holding down the fort with the three sweet peas. Luckily his parents will be visiting and taking advantage of some grandchildren time. So far I'm trying not to get weirded out by the solitude (definitely far from my norm!) and awkwardly negotiating arm rests with strangers. Let the adventure begin!
It's hard to believe our time in Italy is over. Months of thought and planning and excitement and there's nothing left but to land and hug and kiss our loves that we've been missing. We've had plenty enough public transportation and airports and airplanes to last us quite a while. I'm writing this with 2 hours to go on our last leg into SFO. I've already watched 6 movies, eaten countless "meals", have no sense of real time, just that I'm tired, cramped, and am so close to holding my family I can almost taste it. Ciao to the Italian adventure, time to live the excitement of "normal" again for a while. (Wednesday) We woke up and did some shopping, and walking. On recommendation we took the vaporretto (water metro) from San Marco square all the way up the grand canal. The views were nice...when we were able to see them in between people's shoulders, the boat was packed. We didn't even sit. We did think it was funny to see our host drive by on his little boat. Our train left in the afternoon and a few hours later we arrived in Milan Central. We checked our bags at a luggage storage and popped on the metro for the quick trip to see the most famous site - the massive Duomo. As soon as we entered the metro station we saw a few individuals walking around up to people using the machines, presumably to distract, although posing to help. It was very uncomfortable. Two people came up on either side of us touching our machine, telling us we needed to use a different denomination, grabbing our tickets to hand them to us. We clutched our bags tight and had to fend them off. It was a terrible feeling. If we hadn't invested in storing our luggage already we probably would have just left. The Duomo and surrounding square was impressive and beautiful. But sad to say, we were over Milan. When we stopped to eat, a waiter showed us his menu outside as we approached and when we said okay he started leading us down the street to the next restaurant. A waiter from the close restaurant called after us to look at his menu and stay. How cutthroat! Milan is not for us. I guess this helps us be ready for the comforts of our home. Maybe another sign that we're ready is that we stopped to get a milkshake at the McDonald's in the train station. ;). After much navigation and with lots of relief we found the bus to the airport, where we'll take a shuttle to our hotel and rest up for our long journey home, tomorrow morning. We've got a few euros left and they're tagged for our last wine and gelato. We left for Venice in the morning...driving the autostrade (fast/toll freeway). I never once saw a post for the normal speed limit, I'm pretty sure I was driving very slowly since cars kept zipping past me. It took us about 4 hours. We're relieved to have turned in the car safely, having no accidents, tickets, nor running out of gas (though we got uncomfortably close). We had a little difficulty connecting at first with our airbnb host here in Venice, but once we met up and he walked us to the place and directed us around town we were excited to explore this charming city! We walked the Main Street full of shops and tourists all the way to San Marco's square. All the while we were crossing little bridges with gondolas coasting by. There is so much character in the architecture here, fancy facades as well as water-worn surfaces. I couldn't stop taking pictures. We love our apartment, it's just far enough away from the main thoroughfare and our back windows open over the water. From our room we hear seagulls, water trickling, and people unlocking their doors. What we can hear from our room: silence. Especially because we were too afraid to open our window for fear of bug and cat intrusion. It was so quiet it was hard to fall asleep last night. Today we rested. We went into the closest little village for lunch and to pick up some groceries. Back at our place we wandered the property and close hillsides and found goats and bunnies and endless vineyard and olive groves mixed with golden wheat and wildflowers. It is so peaceful here. The town of Greve is charming. Every time we have driven in it smells like flowers and somehow reminds me of Jamma's perfume. The food has been fantastic. Everywhere we go, but some places noticeably more amazing. Today's dishes were top notch. We basically get primmi patti (pasta), 1/4L house wine (basically the same price as water) and on occasion an appetizer to share. In the evening we opened the bottle of wine (Chianti of course) that our host, Emanuele, left us. Late in the evening he came home and we enjoyed talking to him about music and culture. It's been raining in the latter part of the day. We drive to Venice tomorrow and are hoping for favorable weather again. |