Safari So Good

5:30 am taxi ride to the airport and off to Spain we go.  It is a short flight and we arrive in Barcelona at 10:20 a.m.  Finding two taxis is easy, so we are soon on our way to the Hotel 4 Barcelona.  We immediately feel like we have traveled through time from the 19th Century to the 21st — how refreshing!  Four lane highways, modern buildings, and traffic that respects the law and is not intent on mowing down pedestrians for sport.  We are unable to check in and our rooms won’t be ready until 3 p.m. so we check our bags and head out to walk the streets for food and sights.  We find a small cafe nearby and have tapas and drinks (I have my first Sangria – a favorite of mine – and it is delicious).  We are very tired, but must kill some time, so after we eat, we walk to the nearby beach!  Holy Moly, it’s the ocean!   We come upon a beautiful beach and a deep blue ocean as far as the eye can see – Hello Barcelona, I Love You.  There is a large walkway with people jogging, skating, bicycling and just enjoying the beautiful sunny day.  It feels like Long Beach in SoCal.  Even as tired as we are,  it is a sight to see.  We find a few concrete seats and lounges (surprisingly comfortable) and wait out the remaining time.  We finally walk back to the hotel, get our rooms, rest, change and meet again to take the girls back to the beach.  This time, they have bathing suits under their shorts and we get some beach towels from the Hotel and head back out.  The girls lay on the beach, tanning themselves, while I relax at the Beach Bar in the shade.  We have dinner at the restaurant ManGo, and order Paella, the delicious Spanish dish with rice and veggies or meat served in a big skillet for 2 or more.  Everyone is a bit burned out, so we agree that we are going to take it easy in Barcelona.  Michael gets Hop On/Hop Off tickets so we can ride around and see some sites.  The only scheduled stop is Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia (Sacred or Holy Family), a large unfinished church, that was started in 1883 and Gaudi took over construction in 1884.  It is an amazing architectural sight and includes several different types of staircases and many stained glass windows.  We then split up as the girls would like to do some shopping.  We find a street of clothing stores and everyone tries on clothes – Hailey and Brittney find something to buy, but Lexi has no luck.  Next, we go to La Rambla (a huge open market) and are greeted by the sight of fruits, vegetables, meats, breads, fish, and seafood – what an incredible display of edible treats.  By now it is late and we start back to meet the others for dinner.  The next day, we head once again to La Rambla, as we just didn’t get enough the afternoon before.  Afterward, I take the girls back to the beach, where they enjoy the sand and sun and I enjoy another Sangria (I am in Spain, after all).  We get up the next morning and go to the train station heading for our final destination — Bilbao, in the Basque Country.  The trip takes 6 hours; fortunately, it is a very comfortable train and the countryside is beautiful.  We had no idea that the Basque Country was covered in such lush green mountains.  We arrive at the Sercotal Hotel Gran Bilbao.  It is a beautiful hotel, with the largest rooms and bathrooms that we have had to date.  The only downside is that we are not in the center of the city, so we have to take taxis to get anywhere at all.  Very few people here speak fluent English; as a result, we are extremely grateful for the Spanish that Michael and Amanda are able to recall, which enables us to communicate everywhere we go!  We spend the first morning at the Guggenhein Museum – a modern art museum that some appreciated more than others.  We had a nice lunch and then walked around Bilbao and came upon the Basque Musuem!  We had to wait until 4 p.m. to visit, as we arrived during Siesta.  There are four floors of Basque History and it is fun to see the Echeverria heritage.  We taxi back to the hotel for dinner there and then retire to our rooms for much needed rest.  Our final day, we venture once again for a last trip on the metro to find a bridge that our taxi driver told us about the evening before.  We have to take a taxi to the metro station, then the metro to a few blocks from the bridge, then walk to the bridge, which is on the water front.  It is really a very nice city, with many beautiful buildings.  The area is clean and the people friendly.  The bridge is unbelievable!  It carries a ferry on cables from one side of the river to the other.  It can hold up to six cars and many people.  We discover that you can ride an elevator to the top of the bridge and walk across.  A treat we cannot pass up!  We then go walking through town looking for a restuarant.  We happen upon an Italian restaurant (yeah, I know, we’re in Spain; but when you have 7 people to seat, you can’t be picky)!  Turns out this food is phenomenal.  We each order a pasta dish and are surprised by the amounts they serve.  We have been used to getting fairly small portions in Europe — not a complaint, just the way it is; as America has a tendency to serve really large portions.  We comment how these servings seem more like American servings.  In fact, none of us can finish our food and we all agree we will take our leftovers back to the hotel and eat them for dinner; saving ourselves another trip out in the evening.  Funny thing is, when we are looking for the restroom; I notice a table with 4 people and they have 2 bowls of pasta and they are spooning servings into separate plates they each have in front of them.  I realize that what we have done is order a family size plate of pasta for each of us — the waiter must have thought we were such pigs!!  When I go back and inform everyone what we have done, we all have a very good laugh.  Someone observes that at least we didn’t eat it all.

As I close out this blog for our European Trip, let me just say that I, for one, have had an incredible time.  So many good memories and laughs and fun adventures.  I think the granddaughters have learned a lot — about different cultures, how to use the underground (aka subway, aka metro), how to step out of their comfort zone and take a few risks, an appreciation for different foods, a keen awareness of what a blessing it is to have been born in the United States of America, and how happy they will be to be back in their own beds, with their own pillows and beloved pets!

Beach Bar on the beach in Barcelona, Spain.

Hailey, Lexi, and Brittney tanning on the beach.

Tapas – delicious!

The ceiling in the Sagrada Familia church.

A spiral staircase

The front of the Sagrada Familia.

La Rambla market

The flower dog in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Hailey, Lexi, Brittney, and Amanda at the Guggenheim.

Giant spider sculpture at the Guggenheim.

Entering the Basque Museum.

The ferry hanging from the bridge. We walked across the span you see at the top of the picture.

Florence is the place pictures are made from. Literally, all those pictures of grapevines with terra cotta colored houses on the hill are from this beautilful Italian Tuscan countryside, in the middle of which lies Florence.  With the Arno River running through the city and its many bridges, I am reminded of all the movies I’ve seen that were filmed in Italy.  When we arrived by train in Florence on Friday the 13th, it was pouring rain.  We weren’t sure where to go, but a nice gypsy-looking woman asked Michael if we needed a taxi and he said “yes”, so we followed her outside where she walked us past the waiting taxis to two cars down the way.  They piled our luggage into their cars and we  piled ourselves in.  As we were pulling away, several of the taxi drivers who had been in line started yelling at the drivers and pounding on our windows.  I wasn’t afraid, but it was very weird.  Our driver, Angelo, yelled back and then loudly proclaimed how stupid those guys were and they “get out of prison with all their tattos and they get a taxi license…” He went on and on the entire trip to our Hotel saying “They can’t speak to  the customers because they can’t speak their language, they can’t even speak Italian!”  All the girls were in his taxi (me, Amanda, Hailey, Brittney and Lexi) and we were trying very hard not to laugh.  When he droppped us off, he gave us his card and said if we needed any rides to call him direct.  It turns out the loud gesturing Italian temper is not just a stereotype!  Once we got settled into our rooms, we tried to get our laundry done, but discovered (after all of us filled out the forms and stuffed our dirty clothes into laundry bags) that they only did laundry Monday through Friday and it had to be picked up in the morning for next day return.  Since it was already Friday afternoon, no laundry would be picked up until Monday morning and we were leaving Monday.  We were now into Day 10 with no clean laundry in our future!  That problem was exacerbated by the heat and humidity – nuff said.  We found a great restaurant just a couple blocks away called the Rotunda. After dinner we settled in to get a good night’s sleep because we had to leave fairly early the next morning to go on our Vespa Scooter ride.  We called Angelo and he agreed to come get us at 8:30 a.m.  We arrived early to the tour office for the Scooter ride, so we walked down to the Piazza.  It was very pretty and we vowed to return later when we had more time.  We finally were rounded up and climbed into a van to take us to the location where we would get our scooters.  It was a good 40 minute drive, for which I was grateful, as I did not want to ride scooters in the city with all the crazy Italian drivers.  If you think Americans drive bad — these folks have no use for lane markings and it seems a challenge to see who blinks first in the game of chicken between the autos, the bikes, and the pedestrians!  When we arrived at the “scooter barn” we were greeted by 3 gentlemen – two Italians and a Bostonian (the Bostonian was the hardest to understand).  They were young and walked through the safety concerns and offered us scooter insurance, in case we wrecked one of their bikes.  Michael purchased insurance for all (what a lack of confidence)!  They separated the group into 2 – those who have ridden a scooter or motorcycle before and those who have not.  Only Amanda, Hailey, and another woman had never ridden; so they stayed for some instruction while the rest of us rode off for a test drive to make sure we could handle the scooters.  When we returned a few minutes later, Hailey proclaimed that she would be a passenger and she was upset.  I asked what was wrong and she said she couldn’t understand the guy who was instructing them because his accent was so strong and she was scared to death to drive the scooter.  I assured her she did not have to drive and that she could ride with one of us or even in the golf cart-like vehicle that follows the group.  She agreed to ride behind Henry and he graciously agreed (what a great guy).  Lexi and Brittney already knew they had to be passengers because you had to be 18 or older to drive.  Brittney rode with me and Lexi decided to ride with one of the instructors, as Michael seemed a bit unsure of having a passenger since it had been so many years since he rode a motorcycle.  Amanda did very well during the lesson and she was eager to get on the road.  So, off we went — a line of goofy looking tourists riding their Vespa scooters through the hills of Tuscany.  It was so fun and so beautiful.  We stopped a few miles into the ride to take pictures of the countryside.  Brittney was a little apprehensive, but eventually settled in and relaxed.  At least until a large insect of some kind (my best guess is a dragonfly, since that is about the right size) flew into the chin strap of my helmet and got stuck there!  I had to reach up with my hand to get it loose and I was yelling something like “what the hell”.  I had control of the scooter the entire time, but my yelling and rubbing my chin freaked Brittney out a little.  However, we survived the mini-crisis and carried on.  We eventually stopped at the Castello Vicchiomaggio Winery and took a tour of the winery, then sat in the shade to have breadsticks and taste some wine.  There was only 1 white and I don’t like red, so it was easy to keep the promise I made Natalie (Brittney’s Mom) that I would only sip a little wine, so as not to place our Brittney in any danger.  The wine was very good, so we ordered some to be shipped home for us, as well as for Amanda and Henry.  We then got back on our scooters and headed back out for some more riding.  A while later, we were taken to La Paglietta Restaurant, a little place up on a hill in the wine country. It was mostly just our group in the restaurant (which included our 7, plus a couple and single woman – all from the United States).  We had a wonderful meal of meat, cheese and bread to start; then minestrone soup, then pasta, then dessert!  Also, all the red wine you could drink (that really doesn’t seem like a good idea, does it?).  Fortunately, our group was very responsible; plus as mentioned earlier, I don’t like red wine anyway.  After eating and getting to know the other 3 Americans that were also on the Vespa tour, we finished our ride and were taken back to town by van.  It was late afternoon by then, so we didn’t do much else.  The next day, we bought Hop On/Hop Off bus tickets and rode the bus around several times — an indication of how tired we were all getting from so much walking, stair climbing, touring, and traveling. When I put my ear buds in to listen to the tour guide describe what we were seeing as the bus maneuvered through the heavy traffic, I could not hear anything in my right ear.  I turned to Michael and the girls and in a panic, proclaimed “I’ve gone completely deaf in my right ear!”  Michael calmly took the ear bud out of my left ear and put it in my right ear and said, “Can you hear now?”  I sheepishly admitted I could and realized one of the ear buds was not working.  In self defense, my hearing has gotten pretty bad these last few years and the girls are always giving me a hard time; I just figured I had finally gone over the edge.  And that — “I’ve gone completely deaf in my right ear” — is the Quote of the Day for Sunday, June 15th.  (I realize I have not had a quote every day, but really, documenting a trip like this can be challenging in and of itself; give me a break, okay?)  During one of our turns around town, we got off to see the Duomo, the first large cathedral dome built without scaffolding!  It was incredibly impressive.  We also stoppped up on a hill to see the Piazzale Michelangelo, where we were able to get a great picture of the Duomo amidst the many buildings in Florence. On more than one occasion, everyone took advantage of the many Gelaterias on every corner (like Starbucks, only 10 times better).  Yummy!  Next stop, ROME…

This bridge across the Arno River has shops and apartments built on it.

Lexi, Hailey, and Brittney on the scooters (they didn’t actually drive one).

At the Winery.

Amanda and Henry relaxing at a Tuscan Winery.

A view of the Duomo.

Tuscan Countryside.

The girls in front of the Louvre.

I have 3 days to cover in this post.  On Sunday we left London and took the Eurostar “chunnel” train which goes under the English Channel to France. It was a comfortable ride and only took about 2 1/2 hours (not including the underground/subway rides to/from the train OR the trip Michael and I took on the underground the second time to see if someone found my i-PAD — which I stupidly left on the train — and took it to the Lost Property Office — which of course, they did not).  By the time we got back, it was late afternoon.  We found the hotel in Paris to be quite different than our London accommodations.  The rooms are very small (in fact, Lexi and Brittney can open their door only about 2/3rds of the way because it hits the bed)!  Our room is a little larger, but we have no closet, only an open valet to hang our clothes.  The elevator only holds 2 people with luggage, 4 without.  The upside is that we are directly above the most wonderful Patisserie filled with incredible baked goods, all made on site. I swear, we have died and gone to tiny hotel/pastry heaven!!  The first day here was really about travel, settling in, and getting something to eat.  For lunch we found a Pub and had great food, including cheeseburgers, pizza, and fish and chips.  While the food is delicious and plentiful, water is a rare commodity and ice even rarer.  Often, if you ask for water, you will get a liter bottle of water sans “gas” (that means no carbonation) and several 4 oz glasses.  If you are lucky, you will get an ice cube in your glass. Contrary to stories I have heard; so far all the service people have been very nice and extremely patient with our inability to speak their language.  I did learn quickly why the French are so thin, in spite of the wonderful pastries, cheese, wine etc.  You must walk everywhere and/or take the metro buses — all located up and down millions of stairs (really, only a slight exaggeration).  I don’t know what disabled people here do!  Elevators and escalators are few and far between.  It is common to go up and down stairs 6 – 10 times for one trip on the metro. My bad leg is very unhappy, but I am trying very hard to keep up.
After returning from our unsuccessful trip to find the i-Pad, we found a bite to eat and went to bed. The next morning, we got up and went to the breakfast buffet at the Hotel. After the wonderful food at our London hotel, we were very disappointed in what was offered at the 55 Montparnasse Hotel in Paris. In fact, after the first day, we had breakfast at some of the many nearby Pubs, where we found a French breakfast each day, consisting of orange juice, coffee or hot chocolate, a croissant and a baguette with butter and jam — delicieux!!
The next morning, we went to the Louvre. What an amazing museum! The place is huge and includes the famous Mona Lisa, the Athena statute and Venice De Milo. We only saw a small portion of the displays. They say it takes 3 days to actually see every single item! After we left there, we walked to the garden and had lunch. What a treat – we had crepes! Our waiter was one of those Frenchmen you hear about — calling each of the girls “Bebe” (baby — add the french accent), flirting with each of us with abandon! It was fun, but he did mess up our order a couple of times – oh, well, C’est la vie! When we finished lunch, it was still early, so we wanted to go to the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon to celebrate several military victories, for his soldiers to march through when they returned to Paris from the battle field. We were quite tired of walking and I spotted a TukTuk (basically a golf cart) and asked Michael if he would see if we could get a ride to the Arc. Yes, we could! We squeezed in and had a great ride to the next attraction. Once at the Arc, everyone but me walked the 275 steps to the tower for a fabulous view of the city, including the Eiffel Tower. Because we had already walked for hours, I was not about to attempt it (while holding up everyone behind me). We then walked back to the Metro and worked our way back to the hotel in order to clean up and get ready for dinner at the Eiffel Tower. We also treated ourselves to a taxi ride back to the Eiffel Tower. I don’t like elevators, but was willing to take the one up to the first level of the Eiffel Tower to get a great view of the city and have dinner at their elegant restaurant. We were seated at a table near the window and had a wonderful dinner. Everyone got champagne, but not everyone drank it (guess which 3 did not). We had 3 courses to choose from – an entree (appetizer), plat (or plate) and dessert. It was delicious. We all kept looking at the view and pinching ourselves, saying “WE are in Paris!”. Lexi then looked around and said “This is freakin’ AMAZING” so that was our quote of the day.

At the Louvre.

The TukTuk that took us to the Arc de Triumphe.

The French waiter flirts with Brittney and Hailey.

Eiffel Tower

Brittney and Hailey get silly while trying to get on the pedestal to take a picture.

The next day, we took the metro to a hop on/hop off bus station and we bought tickets for everyone. Our first stop was the Lock Bridge, where visiters from all over the world decorate locks and put then on the bridge. The girls brought the locks they decorated, including the one Brittney made for Amanda and Henry, and put them on the bridge. Just at that moment, a Korean News Crew came up and started interviewing Brittney, then Lexi. They were doing a story about tourists who place locks on the bridge because a section of the bridge railing had just broke due to the weight of the many locks. It started raining really hard and we all got ponchos and umbrellas. It was suddenly coming down in sheets. Nonetheless, we toughed it out and waited in line to get into the Museum D’Orsay, where we saw the Van Gogh exhibit. While in line, 2 people cut in front of us and Hailey said “Hey, those guys cut!” Then another couple joined them and Hailey said something again and the new couple said, “Well, we’re with them”. Hailey said, “Yeah, they also cut!” The first couple turned around and they told some stupid story about the directions for lining up aren’t very good and they were in one line, then told to go to another…” Hailey said something like “I don’t care, you just cut in front of us and all the people behind us!” The woman said, “Well go ahead then” but we had 7 people with us, so that wasn’t so easy to do. Then Hailey very loudly said “Just commit to the cut, commit to the cut, people!!” Lexi, Brittney and I laughed so hard we could hardly stand up. I’ve never seen my oldest granddaughter be so assertive. Quote of the day for Tuesday “Commit to the cut!”

Brittney getting interviewed by a Korean TV Station about the locks on Lock Bridge.

Lots of Locks!

Lots of Locks!

The whole group in front of the bus station.

We went back to the hotel early because it was raining so hard and everyone was very tired. We rested for a couple of hours, then went to dinner and all laughed and acted silly. What a fun day – in spite of the rain.

Waiting for our train in the underground.

Amanda, Hailey and I posing as the French flag.

Wednesday, June 11th was another travel day. We made reservations for a couple of shuttles to take us to the airport to catch our plane to Venice; unfortunately, to our dismay, on Wednesday there was a scheduled national taxi strike. The Hotel clerk had warned us that the shuttle drivers may support the taxi drivers and also not run. He said he would tell us for sure Tuesday night. When we returned from dinner, we got the bad news – No taxis, No shuttles! We would have to drag all our luggage and carry ons through the Metro system (up and down those damn stairs) to get to the airport. He warned that it would probably be very crowded so we should go really early to ensure we got to the airport before our check-in time. Although our flight wasn’t until 9 pm, we left for the airport at 1 pm. We wanted to get to the airport before the evening rush hour, which would be even worse due to the taxi strike. When we got on the first bus, it didn’t seem too bad. According to the woman at the information booth, we only had to take two buses. We got on the second one okay, but before we were half way to the airport stop, a woman on the bus said “This isn’t going any further, you should all get off.” We were very confused, but since the bus was almost empty, we got out. Finally a Metro worker came along and said “This bus is not going to the airport, you have to go up those stairs and get on the train and it will take you to the airport.” So, up we went, shlepping all our stuff. We got on the train with everyone else, hoping it was the right train and hoping we would end up at the airport. A gentleman moved his bag to let us put our luggage near his and I said, “Merci” and he said “I don’t speak French very well.” I said, “Well, neither do I. In fact, that was pretty much the extent of my French.” He said, “Surely you know ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ or something?” I admitted I did and he said, “Well, there you are, you already tripled your French vocabulary!” He was a pleasant man from Chicago (there are a LOT of Americans in Europe.) Anyway, he has been working in France and assured me we were on the right train, going in the right direction. The rest of the trip went off without much hastle, although we ended up in the Charles de’Gualle airport 6 hours early – a very long wait indeed! Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention what the Hotel clerk said to us when he was explaining the strike to us and what impact it was going to have on our transportation to the airport — “I apologize for France” No doubt, this was the Quote of the Day! NEXT – VENICE

At the beginning of this trip, my plan was to identify a “Quote of the Day” for each day we traveled. However, on day one (Wednesday) our quote seemed a bit insensitive, so I decided not to publish it. Thursday, I didn’t hear anything quite worthy enough, so again, no quote of the day. Yesterday and today, we had some winners! I was too tired to blog last night, so I’m catching up tonight by covering two days (Friday and Saturday). The time has gone by so fast and we are having a great time, seeing all the important tourist attractions and eating at a different place for every meal, except breakfast, which is included in the room charge (plus it’s delicious)!
So, back to our quotes — Friday’s Quote of the Day was “Deep in the Jungles of London”. That quote came from Hailey when we were in the underground (a.k.a. subway) waiting for Grandpa to purchase subway tickets, when the subject of his attire came up. He was wearing beige shants (you know, those pants where the bottom zips off and they become shorts, shorts + pants = shants) and a light brown shirt. One of the girls asked if he bought the pants and shirt for Africa, since he looked like he was going on a safari, and I said yes. Hailey’s reaction was “Well it makes sense he would need them here, Deep in the Jungles of London!” Her delivery was spot on and we had a good laugh, declaring that we finally had our first Quote of the Day! Our primary mode of transportation yesterday was a “hop on/hop off” boat cruise down the Thames (pronounced Tems) River, starting from Westminster Pier (just a short subway ride from Victoria Station, which is a block from the Hotel) and ending at Greenwich Pier. Prior to catching the river cruise boat, we spent a couple of hours at Westminster Abbey, a breathtaking church with the most incredible stained glass windows and architecture. No pictures allowed inside, but I got several of the outside. Once we boarded the boat, we took it all the way down to Greenwich. What a lovely little town! We walked through Greenwich Park and made it up the hill to the Royal Observatory, where we were able to put one foot on the Eastern Hemisphere and the other foot on the Western Hemisphere – at the Greenwich meridian, which is the universal time clock.

Westminster Abbey

On the River Cruise.

The girls at the Greenwich Observatory

I didn’t finish writing last night because I got too tired, again. Site seeing for 14 hours a day is exhausting for an old girl like me! Anyway, Saturday quote of the Day – “How Did I End Up in This Family – Twice?” We had a wonderful day Saturday, beginning with another ride on the underground. The girls have become quite adept at moving through the ‘turnstiles’ and getting onto and off of the cars with no trouble. Our first stop was the London Tower, a medieval castle where the infamous Anne Bolen was beheaded, along with many other men and women. We saw ancient weapons and suits of armor and the tools used for making the very first coins. Henry said it was the most swords he had ever seen in one place. Oh, yeah, we also saw the Queen’s Crown Jewels! Got some great pictures of the Tower Bridge and ventured to the other side of the river to have lunch. After lunch, we walked back over the river to St. Paul’s Cathedral, another amazing ornate church. We then found Dirty Dicks, an English Pub, where we had a wonderful dinner. Hailey ordered a beer (and to my surprise, drank most of it). All the walking an climbing we had done took toll on my right leg (the one I had surgery on several years ago), so I took 4 Motrin with 2 glasses of wine. That worked wonders, but the fact is, I drink very little on a normal basis, so after two glasses of wine, I was finally, and literally, feeling no pain. To hear it told, I can be a bit silly when I drink and was behaving so, as we wandered back to the underground and boarded the train. We were all laughing and watching the cars swerve back and forth and I looked at Brittney across the aisle and said “what are you looking at?” because she was watching me with the strangest look on her face. Grandpa said, “she’s asking herself ‘How did I get into this family — twice?’ Everyone burst out in laughter and agreed that we had our quote of the day!

London Tower

On the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

On the underground subway.

The Tower Bridge from the walkway of the London Tower.

I think we must have walked over 5 miles today! We started the day having a buffet breakfast at our Hotel – the Park Plaza Victoria. In addition to a “full English breakfast” (eggs, pork and beans, grilled tomatoes, and bacon), there were many different kinds of cheese, pastries, and breads. What a great way to start the day! We walked to Buckingham Palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial, then through St. James Park, past Big Ben, across the Thames (pronounced ‘Tems’) to the London Eye. The London Eye is the world’s largest cantilevered observation wheel (not a Ferris wheel). Hailey and I were quite anxious about going on it, but both agreed that we would hate ourselves if we missed this opportunity, so we faced our fear and boarded with the others. It was amazing! We were so busy taking pictures that neither of us had any major problems. There are 32 capsules on The Eye, each holding about 20 people. They are numbered 1 – 33; can you guess why? That’s right — no number 13! It is 135 meters high or 442 feet or equivalent to a 40 story building. The sky was clear and views incredible, so completely worth it. After all the walking we did, we decided to take the underground (subway) back to our Hotel. A new experience for the girls, so a bit of a challenge getting 7 people on before the doors clanged shut – but everyone made it just fine. Tomorrow we are going to Westminster Abbey and other interesting sights. The food has been great, but the rich food is taking it’s toll. I might have to take it easy tomorrow (or maybe not). We got lots of pictures – see a sample below. More to come tomorrow!

Cops on Horseback

Buckingham Palace

Brittney, Lexi, and Hailey in St. James Park.

Henry, Amanda, and Michael in Trafalgar Square

The capsule next to ours at the top.

A view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from the top of the world!

So many details to handle when traveling to another country!  Arranging pet care and obtaining passports are the more obvious. It turns out those are only the tip of the iceberg.  There are also tasks such as notarized letters when traveling with minors that are not your children, notifying banks that you will be incurring charges on your credit cards in another country (if you forget to do this, your purchases are likely to be declined), remembering to get cash in the currency used where you are going to travel (for tips and such), remembering to pack conversion plugs, and many more.

Someday, we will sit in those big cushy seats in the front where one can stretch out and make an international flight without getting leg cramps.  In the meantime, we were sardined into the same cramped seats as everyone else, first for 3 1/2 hours to get to Minneapolis (where we met up with Michael’s daughter Amanda and her husband, Henry); a 3 hour layover; then another 7 1/2 hours to Heathrow Airport in London.  Due to the time difference of +8 hours, our goal was to sleep during the last flight, feeling rested and awake when we arrive in London around noon Wednesday!  Great plan, impossible execution!  In spite of a new travel pillow; sleeping in an upright position, strapped into a seat designed for someone weighing 110 lbs, jammed sardine style squished against the other captives in the giant metal tube, is hit or miss. But everyone did get a few winks and we were excited to finally arrive in London! We were happy to see that drivers with two pre-arranged cars were waiting for us after clearing customs and getting our luggage. To Lexi’s delight, one of the men held a sign saying Alexanria Julianne Stroud. “I have my own car!” She declared!
All is good as we head for our Hotel. We get a few miles then run into the most incredible traffic jam we have ever seen (and we’ve been to LA during commute!). We come to a complete stop and sit there for 10 minutes crawl forward a few yards and stop again. I finally ask the driver, “Is the traffic always this bad?” “Oh, no, but today is the official opening of Parliament, so they have all the roads around the Houses of Parliament cordoned off.” Our centrally located Hotel happens to be very near the very same Houses of Parliament! Great location (if it isn’t opening day). And, just like in California, drivers in a London traffic jam are not real patient. Especially the guy behind us who continually honked his horn, as if that would magically remove the hundreds of cars, buses and trucks surrounding us. Nonetheless, we were in London and that was enough to keep our spirits high and our attitudes positive. After checking in (so happy to find our room right next to Lexi and Brittney’s room and two doors down from Hailey’s), we went out to get an early dinner and walk around for a while — finding the beautiful Westminster Cathedral (no inside pictures allowed). Here are some pictures.