I forgot to mention that when we arrived very late Sunday evening back at our hotel on RAF Alconbury, we were locked out! Because it’s a very busy time for the hotel, we could only reserve our room a few days at a time. Luckily we were able to extend our stay for the duration we’d be in that neck of the woods. However, our room key card hadn’t been updated. After a quick trip to the hotel’s check in desk, we were good to go.

            And go we did, the next morning.

            Usually I read the fine print on things – especially travel tickets and reservations. I don’t know why I didn’t on the Eurostar (the train that goes from London to Paris) tickets. I realized that we were supposed to check in an hour ahead of time. I hadn’t budgeted that time into our morning. To make matters worse, we hit some serious traffic on the way to Ruislip.

            The funny thing was, the whole way from our hotel to the Ruislip station, then during the tube ride to Waterloo station, I had the feeling that everything would be alright. The minutes to the train’s departure ticked down. We got to the gate with our tickets in hand just in what I thought was the nick of time, only to be told the train was leaving and we’d missed it. Oddly, I still was hopeful. I felt bad though, because it was my fault for not budgeting more time for us to get there. Poor JoAnna was lugging around my heavy luggage, as well as her own, while I had Ryan and the stroller and our smaller odds and ends.

            We were directed to the ticket counter, where there was a bit of a line. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who missed that particular train. My main concern was how much we’d have to pay for new tickets. We had first class tickets as part of a promotion the travel agency was doing when I arranged our trip to Paris. I imagined ala carte they might be expensive.

            We got up to the counter and I told the man behind it that we’d missed the train. He didn’t say a word. He just typed away, then handed me fresh tickets and said, “1:15pm.” That was it!

            I thanked the Powers That Be and we wasted no time starting the check in process (it was about noon at the time).

            I had no idea getting on the Eurostar would be so involved and time consuming. It was almost exactly like everything you do before boarding an airplane. We had to go through security and passport control. We got stamps in our passports for France! That was neat. Instead of an airplane in the upper corner of the stamp, there’s a train.

            We made our way to the platform, and was met by a friendly Eurostar employee (I’m not sure if “porter” is the right word, since they didn’t take our luggage). We did get help with our luggage and Ryan, but stowing it was up to us.

            Let me just say that first class is the way to go! There’s lots of space and it’s very nice. I didn’t realize we got fed during our journey. I’d bought a bagel sandwich at the train station and was busy eating it. One of the train attendants (I can’t think of the right word for that job!) said, “Don’t eat too much! We’re serving lunch soon!” He and JoAnna and I laughed. I made sure to point out that I didn’t know we got food. I was a bit embarrassed!

            It was interesting having Ryan on the train with no car seat or real way to contain him. I held him mostly. He’d sit on the seat a little bit, but was restless like any near two year old would be. It was a three hour train ride, and Ryan finally fell asleep during the last hour (of course!).

            The staff on the train was very nice, and friendly. One of the male staff sang, “Roxy” to JoAnna (upon seeing her Roxy surf shirt)!

The food was interesting. (No, not in a bad way!) It was that sort of food that is mostly prettier to look at than to eat. Since Ryan’s seat was paid for, he got a tray of food as well, though he didn’t really eat much of it. (Lunch was, “chicken, mango and coriander salad with sweet chili lime dressing and a carpaccio of courgettes, glazed salmon steak on a potato rosti, leeks, sugar carrots and a golden beet cream sauce, apricot and peach trifle with crème anglaise.”) We were plied with all the tea, coffee, wine and champagne a person could want! I dare say we fair buzzed our way into Paris!

Unfortunately the buzz came to an end once we were off the train. It was hot and muggy and we had all our stuff and weren’t entirely sure where to go or how to get there. Usually Larry does all the navigating (and thinking) when we travel. The London Underground was a warm up for the Metro. I managed to get us on an extremely crowded, and unbelievably stifling RER train heading towards our hotel. (Someone even asked me if I had a bottle of water for Ryan.) Someone offered me their seat, but I would have had to climb over people and luggage to get there. While I appreciated the offer, I declined.

We got off the train (not sure what the difference between the RER and Metro is, except that they are two separate lines, and the RER seems grungier), only to find that the line we needed was closed at that station. We decided we’d had enough and got a cab. It was expensive, but sooooo worth it!

I have to say it was fun being in a, “foreign foreign” country again. I’d been to Paris before and had an infinitesimal amount of French, so I actually felt very comfortable.

Our hotel, the Residence Imperiale, turned out to be a Best Western. It wasn’t bad. Our room seemed tiny compared to the suite we’d had at Alconbury. However, the room was blissfully cool thanks to that rare commodity in Europe: air conditioning!

We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. We hit the plaza at sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked down to the Tower itself, then took our place in line to get to the top. The lines were much shorter so late in the evening, but it still took us a couple of hours to get our tickets. Unfortunately, by that time, they’d closed the very top. We could still get to the second level though, and the view was still impressive.

At night the Tower is lit up. On the hour, it glitters with sparkling white lights all over for about ten minutes. It’s really pretty and almost magical.

After a while we decided to leave. Getting down from the Tower was a pain. There was only one elevator that didn’t accommodate very many people, and everyone wanted to leave at the same time. It took a long time for us to finally get down.

I got a crepe from a nearby vendor, then we started the walk back to our hotel. We paused back at the plaza and admired the view of the Tower from there.

It was a long walk back and we didn’t get to bed until 1:30am!

Here are the photos:

Paris Day One

Click here for a link to my previous visit to Paris: https://hkvlayman.tripod.com/parisandnormandy/

            Sunday (the 23^rd) was our last full day in England. Oh, I can’t believe I forgot to mention this! I think it was Friday morning that the car was almost completely out of gas, so we drove to the gas station on Alconbury… and it was closed! (Again, this seemed in keeping with our trip.) There was some sort of malfunction with the control box for the pumps. A technician had been called and would arrive “sometime.” Apparently RAF Alconbury is the only US military installation around that will sell gas for POV’s (personally owned vehicles). We tried another base down the road, but no dice. We wound up getting a tank of gas on the economy, which wound up costing about $96. Yep. Almost 100 bucks for a tank of gas. For a Honda Accord! *sigh* That was definitely the most expensive tank of gas I’d ever bought. (JoAnna very graciously insisted on helping pay for gas during our trip.) Thank goodness we get decent gas mileage!

            The pumps were again closed on Sunday, but thankfully I had plenty of gas for our intended itinerary.

            You know that photo of JoAnna next to the Ipswich sign that I posted on July 31? That was actually taken on Sunday, not on the day we originally went to Ipswich. JoAnna really wanted a picture of that sign, and we’d been too fried to get one when we were there before. So yep, we drove all the way back to Ipswich just to get the picture! All told it was probably a couple hours out of our way, but worth it. I didn’t mind driving and I thought it would be just too sad if JoAnna went all the way there, but didn’t get a picture with that sign.

            From there we made our pilgrimage to the Ruislip tube stop, again parking in the lot across the street from the now-closed base. When we entered the station, there was a sign posted listing delays. There was also an announcement over the intercom by a smooth and efficient female voice stating the Queensway station was closed due to a person under the train. What?! It was announced the same way one might announce the day’s weather. JoAnna and I just looked at each other. We both thought it was completely awful that somehow, someone managed to get under a train. Apparently so did the man working at the Ruislip stop. As he gave instructions and updates, he sounded absolutely mournful, as if he perhaps knew the aforementioned person under the train.

            We never got any more details, and thankfully except for a ten or fifteen minute wait at Ruislip, the whole thing didn’t affect our trip into London. Coincidentally, there was also a big power outage affecting several stations in the King’s Cross area. (Ok, I admit it: the Harry Potter geek in me thought it would be fun to take my picture between platforms 9 and 10, but I didn’t mention it at the time. However, since we weren’t going anywhere near that area and the power was out anyway, it clearly didn’t matter.)

            The weather was a bit cooler that day, which was nice. It had been so unbelievably hot. JoAnna had come to England from the Southern California desert hoping to get away from the heat. No luck. In fact, I got e-mails from my mom and Larry stating that there was a heat wave in Europe and the UK that had made the news at home.

            At the beginning of our whole trip, I’d decided to let Ryan have his blankie as much as he liked. He would not be parted from it the entire trip. It did not matter how stiflingly hot it got, he held that wadded up blanket and would not let go. There were some times I couldn’t see how he could stand it, it must have been so hot. However, it was his choice, and he survived.

            JoAnna had really wanted to see Buckingham Palace, so that was the first place we went upon arrival in London that day. Apparently it opens to the public once or twice a year. We were going to miss that by just a couple of days! Also, we missed the changing of the guard by one day. I felt bad for JoAnna, missing out on those two things.

            That day Ryan got to get out of his stroller quite a bit. He got out to walk and/or run at least three different times throughout the day. It made him AND us much happier!

            We went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. Couldn’t go to London and not eat there at least once! Another thing JoAnna had wanted to do was visit Abbey Road. We asked our waitress (while a Beatle’s video happened to be playing) if she knew how to get there. She was very nice and gave us directions. (Guess a lot of people ask.)

            We were surprised to find that Abbey Road (and the recording studio on it) is in a residential area. Not at all touristy. In fact, the cross walk made famous by the Abbey Road album cover is simply a cross walk, just like any other, which just happens to be on a very busy road. I think JoAnna and I both thought it would somehow be cordoned off or something; somehow set aside for posterity and tourists. This was definitely not the case.

            What made us laugh is that we weren’t the only people there with the idea of getting a picture while walking across that cross walk. We had to wait our turn. While we were there, there was a steady trickle of somewhat giddy people dodging two way traffic trying to get that famous shot. It was hard! There was a lot of traffic, and let me tell you, if I had to drive down that street on a regular basis, the tourists would probably annoy the hell out of me. I can see how it would be tempting for a local to just run one over upon occasion, as an example for the rest!

            After a while, we did get that photograph. JoAnna offered to take one of me on the cross walk, but honestly, I didn’t feel the need (as cool as it would have been to have a picture like that). Also, it was difficult finding a gap in the traffic, so I decided to let it go.

            I admit that I wasn’t really affected by Abbey Road, at least not at first. I thought it was cool that we were there, but that was about it. Then I wandered over to the studio and saw the Wall. The entire wall in front of the studio was covered in people’s signatures and messages. It was like a huge, open guest book. (I imagine the wall is repainted on a fairly regular basis, since all the entries were pretty recent.) As I started to read what people had written, the import of the location and the impact the Beatles and their music still have on society to this day really hit me. The more I read, the more I was moved. I decided to add my own scribbling to the mix.

            As we watched other people taking their pictures and signing the wall, JoAnna said it was amazing, “one corner making so many people so happy.” It’s true.

            I walked away so glad that JoAnna had wanted to go there. It’s something I wouldn’t have thought to do that turned out to be quite an experience.

            Of course from there we were on a mission to buy Abbey Road to listen to on our drive back to Alconbury (from Ruislip). Turns out that even London goes to bed early on a Sunday. We couldn’t believe not one music store was open. We got trapped in a mini-mall from hell, but managed to escape after some maneuvering. We grabbed some Starbucks and began our journey back to Alconbury.

London Day Three

            Saturday morning, we found the naval base in Ruislip just fine. However, when we approached the gate, the security personnel there informed us the base had been closed for three weeks now. Well, of course it had!  That was completely in keeping with the way our trip had been going. I seriously was not at all surprised.

            We were informed that there was a lot across the street that, while not secure, was patrolled by the local police on a fairly regular basis. We were welcome to park there. I figured we paid to park somewhere that the car got thrown up on, so I was willing to park for free and take my chances. Also, I didn’t know where else to park!

            We realized when we found the right part of Ruislip that we’d previously been at the wrong tube station. I was surprised such a small area had multiple tube stops. We rode into London much the same as the day before. Have I mentioned that Ryan seriously hates the tube? He would cry every time we’d get on, then fuss every time the doors opened, wanting to get off. It took several days into our trip before Ryan stoically accepted riding on the tube. I suppose he figured out that we would get off eventually.

When we emerged from the tube, there was a big (war) protest going on. More than anything, it made me angry. I appreciate everyone’s right to free speech, but I can’t stand the right to be stupid. If you’re going to protest something, at least get your facts straight first. JoAnna and I also noticed throughout the day that everywhere the protesters had been, they left tons of trash behind. That’s nice. To me, that just shows the sort of people they are.

            JoAnna suggested we take a bus tour, so we set off to do that. The protest has thrown things into chaos a bit, so we were ping-ponged between two locations before finally catching the bus at a third.

            I bought Ryan a toy car – a mini – when we bought our tickets. I thought it would be nice for him to have a toy, since I forgot to bring one with us that day. Also, I figured it would make a nice souvenir. I noticed later that the toy car was left hand drive! (Probably made in China, too.) Ryan liked it and it seemed to entertain him.

            The weather the day before had been sunny and hot. This time, as we sat on the top level of an open double-decker bus, it was cold and we were getting soaked with rain! At least JoAnna had the sense to buy an umbrella. I held Ryan close to me hoping body heat would keep him warm and that my body was keeping most of the rain off of him.

            The live tour guide was entertaining. He kept accidentally swearing into his microphone in response to the weather, before giving up and going below deck.

            We got off of the bus where the guide said was the stop for Harrods. It was a filthy lie! Harrods was nowhere near the stop. It took us a very long walk to find it. When we finally got there, I was feeling really tired and Ryan was out of sorts. Since it was a weekend, Harrods was extremely crowded. I felt bad for JoAnna because she’d never been there before, and because of how Ryan and I were feeling, we didn’t stay very long. I was just worn out from all the driving we’d been doing, and of course traveling with Ryan. He’d been great, but it’s still a lot of work traveling with a toddler, no matter how well mannered.

            We went to Hyde Park. Ryan got to run around a bit. Throughout our trip, whenever we got the chance, we would try to let Ryan out of his stroller to run around. We realized it was tough on Ryan to be in his car seat, then in his stroller all day long, especially with the amount of energy he’s got!

            We decided to get back on the bus to finish the tour. Unfortunately, Ryan was being fussy at that point, and the toy car wound up going over the edge from the top of the bus. I admit, it was a good deal my fault. I was trying to get the car from him because I thought he was going to throw it. I accidentally knocked it from his hand and down it went. I didn’t expect to see it again, but people who were on the sidewalk brought the wreckage up to me. Over the next day or two, the car slowly disintegrated.

There was a dance show being recorded in Trafalgar Square (I think that’s where it was). That was fun to see a glimpse of. Unfortunately, the tour went on a lot longer than we intended. I did have to laugh to myself when the tour guide pointed out the school that Dan Radcliffe supposedly attends when not filming the Harry Potter movies.

 The rain from the first part of the day was gone, replaced by sun and heat. By the time we finally left the bus, we were tired and hungry.

We had dinner at TGIFriday’s. I think it was there that I took Ryan to be changed, and when he saw the extra cozy, padded changing area softly lit from above he said, “Night night!”

I am pleased to report that when we got back to the car in Ruislip, the car was just fine. There was a patrol car circling the lot, so that was reassuring.

When we got back to Alconbury, it was very late. I was just quickly setting all my stuff down, and in the short meantime Ryan crawled up onto a chair and was almost asleep!

Here are the photos for our day: London Day Two ps - I've had two people tell me the photo is over the text on the July 28th entry. I'm not sure what to tell you. It looks fine on my computer and I don't think there's anything I can do from my end. Sorry! (Thank you for letting me know, though.)

(A couple of odds and ends about our hotel: the plates on the side of the doors to the bathrooms had “Hollymade” stamped on them. Also, there was a piece of yellow paper on the dresser in my room that caught my eye. It was a form for reporting bomb threats.)

Friday, July 21, we set off for London. We were planning on parking at the naval base in Ruislip, then taking the tube to London city center. We got to the town of Ruislip fairly easily, but it was another odyssey of turning around and feeling lost while trying to find the naval base. After a long while and many circles around the town (including a stop to ask for directions that turned out to be utterly unhelpful), we gave up and parked at the tube station’s parking lot. It cost 2.20 pounds and was monitored by video.

I had borrowed an umbrella stroller from my next door neighbor, Denise. It turned out to be a lifesaver. While navigating the tube and the metro, most times there wasn’t an elevator, so having a stroller that could be fairly easily folded up and/or carried with Ryan in it was imperative. It was interesting getting all our luggage AND Ryan down and up stairs and escalators and on and off trains. JoAnna was so great and took my big, heavy suitcase with all of my and Ryan’s stuff in it, as well as her own luggage and purse. I took Ryan, the stroller, and diaper bag, etc. Thank goodness for two things: one, that generally people were very helpful and most times when we were loaded down the heaviest, someone helped one or both of us, and two, that there is handicap/stroller access through the turnstiles in the Underground and Metro. (Luckily we only had to lug ALL our stuff going to and from Paris. The rest of the days we just had our purses and the diaper bag. Even just that was challenging, though. After a while, JoAnna and I developed a sort of system where we would take lifts (elevators) when we could – which wasn’t very often, then failing that, escalators. I could handle Ryan in his stroller going up, then JoAnna would grab the bottom of the stroller and we’d both carry Ryan in the stroller for trips down. Ryan got to see a lot of the Underground and Metro’s ceilings! JoAnna would do the same for stairs, grabbing the stroller and helping me carry it. There’s definitely no way I could have negotiated the tube and metro stations with Ryan without help. I have to mention that my mom gave me this wonderful bag for Christmas that I could put everything in, then hang from the stroller’s handles. It was great since the umbrella stroller didn’t have any place to store stuff.)

To make our journey even more arduous, it was very hot and muggy. The tube ride from Ruislip to London was stifling. It was also about an hour long. We were dripping with sweat by the time we emerged on the streets of London. We popped out at the Piccadilly Circus, since I remembered that was pretty much in the thick of things. The first thing we did was stroll through a small market in front of St. James church. The next thing we did was almost get run over by a bus. Oops. I wouldn’t have mentioned our lapse and lucky miss, except that a woman with green eyes approached me and admonished me to be more careful. I admit I was a bit rattled – though I think more by the woman than by the bus! I do believe in messengers though, and while I would never purposely endanger myself or especially Ryan, we all lapse now and then, so I took her admonishment to heart.

We needed some refreshment, so we stopped for a drink and a snack at a little café called “Fait Maison.”

Unfortunately, by the time we had driven from Alconbury to Ruislip, then taken the tube to London, over half our day was gone. However, JoAnna was content to just be in London, so we wandered around a bit. Our wandering led us to Waterstone’s (a bookstore), which was having a sale on “holiday reading,” (aka, “beach books”). We both bought a signed copy of a book called not that kind of girl, by Catherine Alliott. We needed something to read on the tube and at night. The book would prove to be a very fun element throughout our trip. JoAnna and I both read it at the same time, and it was fun to compare notes and chat about the characters and the story.

We decided to check out Leicester Square. We had some ice cream and took in the scene. As we were walking around, a polite young man asked us if we liked hip hop. Turns out his name is Zuby and he has a cd. It was only four pounds, so I bought it – and had him sign it! You never know. That cd might be worth something someday! (I added Zuby as a friend on MySpace.)

Larry had gone to London last year before Ryan and I moved to England. He said the Globe Theatre was something good to see. I hadn’t seen it in my previous trips, so JoAnna and I decided to check it out. After a tube ride and a long walk, we found we missed the last tour of the day by seconds. *sigh* Oh well. We took some pictures of the Millennium Bridge and walked back towards Piccadilly.

At this point it was high time for dinner and we were all hungry. JoAnna suggested the Rainforest Café, thinking Ryan would enjoy the restaurant’s rainforest theme. It’s a loud, fun place to take a family to eat. Every half hour a “thunder storm” breaks, complete with thunder and lightening. The place has a very Disney feel to it. We had a good time. The food was decent, and JoAnna got some very cute pictures of Ryan.

After dinner, we took the long tube ride back to Ruislip. Once at the station there, we walked back to the car, only to find someone had thrown up on it! EEEEWWWWW!!! It was completely disgusting. It was on the driver’s side window. It was also half dried and hard to get off. I made an interesting discovery though. We stopped at the nearest gas station to clean the car. Apparently British gas stations have free plastic gloves for patrons to wear so they don’t get their hands dirty while fueling or window washing. Very cool. I was grateful for those gloves, let me tell you! It took a while, but I got pretty much all the barf off the car. I mean really, who throws up on a car?!?

London Day One

Here are links to my previous London trips: https://hkvlayman.tripod.com/id11.html

https://hkvlayman.tripod.com/id35.html

(I don't know why, but for some reason this blog building utility isn't letting me rename the hyperlinks like it used to, so that's why they look like that.

I am sad. JoAnna left today.  I can't believe how quickly the time she was here flew. We had such a great time!

Ryan and I were sort of lost today. We'd gotten so used to being on the go and traveling, and being outside almost all day every day. It's been raining and windy and almost cold the last couple of days, so Ryan was getting some serious cabin fever.

It felt so weird not to have JoAnna here today.

I will try to have the next installment of our trip up tomorrow. I have a good portion of it written. I just need to finish it up and make a photo album for it.

I would like to wish Rebecca a very happy birthday today!

Hope everyone's week is going well.

Hey Paula! Best wishes for a fabulous birthday!

Much love,

~Holly and Ryan

I thought I would reassure everyone that barring any natural disaster or illness, I plan on continuing to post about JoAnna's and my adventures in London and Paris starting tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

I would also like to comment on the drawing in my previous post. Besides being relevant to the post's subject matter, I included it for another reason. I love family and friends. That's the most important thing in life to me - being surrounded by loved ones. The drawing captures that feeling of love and celebration, and I wanted to share that.

Happy birthday JKR and HP!

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#article:8906

(Drawing by PrettyAnnaMoon.)

Happy Birthday Shelly! Hope it's wonderful!

Love,

~Holly and Ryan

Happy birthday to Larry Sr.! Hope it's a great one, Dad!

Love,

Larry, Holly, and Ryan