Hotel and London Observations

1. Our hotel room door opens with a skeleton key which we have to turn in every time we leave the building
2. The hallway smells like the hallway of our Gotham City apartment in Denver
3. The water stream coming out of the faucet is split- right half cold, left half hot
4. Included breakfast consists of hamburger and hot dog buns served with a variety of jams, hence the Starbucks necessity
5. Three words about the BBC: cheese or snow?
6. The BBC news programs consist of horrible banter while holding up the front page of local newspapers and reading the headlines
7. The production value of TV shows is that of PBS circa 1970s

Second Day in London, Parks and Art

Monday, September 7, 2009

7:30 - Ate breakfast at hotel
7:45 - Ate breakfast at Starbucks
This morning we walked through Kensington Park (Hyde Park) which is just steps from our hotel. During our walk, we saw Kensington Palace and Gardens (Princess Diana’s house and the house of William III and Mary II). Amazing little palace in a secluded section of beautiful gardens in the middle of the city! Next we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum and saw works by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and medieval casts of famous works of art and architecture. It was overwhelmingly impressive. One single room of this museum puts Phoenix Art Museum to shame. So sad. Lunch was at the original Hard Rock Café London. On to a tour of Buckingham Palace, totally elaborate interiors with gold trimming in every room and an exquisite collection of art (the Queen has the finest private collection of art in the world). We walked through Green Park on our way to the Royal Academy of Arts where there was an exhibit of modern Pre-Raphaelite artist J.M. Waterhouse, one of Troy's favorite artists. A nice surprise. We ended the day by trying a local pub for bangers and mash, but they had stopped serving food because the cook got too busy. So Italian again for the second night.

First Day in London, Tube Train Doors

Sunday, September 6, 2009

We now know what the term jetlag means! The flight was good but very long. We hardly slept though because of how cramped the seats were. When we landed it took us about three hours to get to our hotel. We had to go through Customs (there were 100 people ahead of us), then wait to gather all the bags, then go down to the Tube station to buy an Oyster card (travel pass). Then the Tube ride to our hotel was one hour.

I hopped out of the train with some of the bags, only to hear Troy cry out my name. I looked back and found the doors almost fully closed with her and a bag in the middle of them with a nice young chap trying to pry the doors open. I began to help pry the door and got her out just as the train took off. Five minutes later Troy got stuck in the tube turnstyle leaving the station and had to drag bag underneath the turnstyle. It was a hilarious start to London but we got to our hotel without incident.

Amsterdam Cancelled

Well, we're one hour into the trip, and we've already cancelled Amsterdam. We decided that for the amount of money and the limited time we were going to have there it would better to spend two extra days in Paris instead. This decision was made at Sky Harbor Airport over Burger King coffee and crossanwiches. Now we will be able to visit Versailles.

Judging by this photo we're missing a beautiful city. We'll see it next year when we visit Germany.

Early Hungarian Cabinet Making

"The Griswalds have just won a fabulous European vacation! We'll fly the whole family to London, England to start a two-week vacation extravaganza you'll never forget. On to Paris and Amsterdam, where you'll enjoy a fine meal at Dieter's and dance to the gay music of Esther and the Black Forest Girls."