PARIS AND LONDON - September 2019

Thursday September 5, 2019

Not our “usual” kind of adventure, but we travelled to Paris / London to celebrate Bailey’s 30th birthday. Her birthday isn’t until November 22nd, but I thought the weather would be better in September (a decision I made when Jeff and I were in Paris in the rain/cold in May).

Bailey and I left Madison about noon, had a layover in Detroit (nachos and beer at the bar there), and then an uneventful flight over the pond, even in coach! I watched the three episodes of season 2 of “Big Little Lies,” then we both watched “Crazy Rich Asians,” before I tried unsuccessfully to sleep. Ended up just playing Black Jack through breakfast until we landed, just after 7am local time (7 hours ahead of home). It doesn’t help me with jet lag to think about what time it is at home!

I think because of construction, we off loaded down the stairs (like the Caribbean) and onto buses, which dropped us off at the terminal where we were directed up the stairs and into a long queue for border control. We had about the same wait as when we left Paris last May (>1 hour!). From there to baggage claim where our bags had arrived earlier and were just sitting there - yikes! We then began the long walk/escalator trip to the train. I’d done this before, but in my research last week I found a guy who’d posted the whole experience step by step with photos, so having just viewed that, and following the words “to the train” in English made it easy! Some issues with the kiosk to get tickets, but Bailey figured that out. Then down to the platform and to the train. We picked one with lots of stops, but through Gare du Nord with no issues and 2 stops later we got off at the station in the Latin Quarter, just 600m from our hotel.

It was a beautiful day, and we rolled our bags up and down Rue des Écoles a bit until we got oriented enough to figure out the numbers (normal anywhere). We got to our hotel just after 10:30am, not expecting to check in, but delighted when we were able to!

We got settled in our little room (emphasis on little - especially the shower!), the the beds were just too inviting. 90 minute naps, and even though we were still groggy, we hauled ourselves out onto the street. You never know when you book a hotel online (and this one with credit card points) but this is an amazing location!

We walked just two blocks and came upon a little market, and stopped in a café. Bailey got her first crack at ordering from the menu. She learned she doesn’t like “café americano,” she needs to order café crème, and her Mac and cheese with salmon was a bit too fishy for her. I had an omelet with salad and fries, and black coffee the way I like it!

With full bellies, we set off, just two more blocks and we were at the Seine, gazing out at what was left of Notre-Dame after the fire last spring. I had to pull a photo up on my phone to compare what it had looked like. The roof and the spire are gone. What’s most striking however is the scaffolding. What remains is the scaffolding that was there for the repairs that started the fire. We learned later that the heat of the fire fused it together and the immediate challenge is what to do with it! The whole block is cordoned off, so it’s best viewed from the left bank of the river.

From there, we continued our stroll along the Seine. Bailey was intrigued with the “Left Bank booksellers,” just like I always am. Good to have a fellow traveler that doesn’t mind poking around like that! We crossed the Pont Neuf and headed towards the Louvre. Initially we set out just to see that courtyard of the Louvre, and then we were going to turn back. But the closer we got to things, the more excited Bailey was to see everything, so we just kept going! When we saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance, she wanted to make a beeline for that! I told her it was further than it looked, but she was determined. We walked there and back! I’d changed into tennis shoes, but she was in sandals and got a big blister on the bottom of her foot (didn’t complain though!).

We strolled back along Boulevard St Germaine and stopped at a Brasserie to recharge, with salads, water and wine. Then an easy walk back where we collapsed into bed. We walked over 12 miles today!

Friday September 6, 2019

I’d pre-booked an excursion for us today, not really considering jet lag. We fell asleep easily, but I was up and wide awake at midnight, 1am, 2am, etc. When the alarm went off at 6am, of course I was sleeping then! We got up and we were back on the street before 7am. Grabbed a coffee and croissants from Starbucks and headed down into the metro station, emerging near the Eiffel Tour about 20 minutes later. Quick walk to the tour office helped us wake up, and we arrived with lots of time to spare and browse the brochures to see what else we might want to do this week. I’d booked this excursion online through Viator and it worked great.

Soon our guide, Mechell, arrived and we headed off to the van, with 4 folks (sisters and husbands) from St Louis and another couple from Ohio. All the folks awaiting various tours were older (70s); not a lot of families traveling right now. We loaded into a VW van and headed out towards Giverny and Monet’s garden. Mechell was a great guide, talking about French history and art, and pointing out sites along the way. We approached through the back country, little farming villages a lot like what we’ve cycled through in Europe. We didn’t go through Vernon or see the river, soon we were just in the parking lot, which was familiar to me.

When Bailey was little, she had a book and a doll, "Linnea in Monet's Garden." We'd talked about visiting Monet's Garden together for many years, and I felt a little bad that I'd now been her twice without her! We arrived about 9:30am and there was practically no one there yet. We quickly viewed the house and used the bathroom (Bailey for the first time saw that “no squatting on the toilet” sign) and then crowds started to descend. We enjoyed the gardens, shopped a bit, and still had 30 minutes to explore the little artist village. We walked to the church when Monet and his family are buried before walking back and joining the group.

Back in the van for about 15 minutes, then we arrived at our lunch stop. I thought lunch might be a sandwich and coke somewhere, but it was a three course lunch with wine. Beautiful venue, along a little stream and a house that had been a mill. Great food and conversation with our delightful little group (Bailey may not have been the most excited, but as for random trip mates, these folks were great).

Back in the van, and in about 30 minutes more we were arriving at Versailles. It was a beautiful day and I was glad to learn we were able to tour the garden too. Mechell had left us on our own at Monet’s, but she was our guide at Versailles, first in the garden and then all through the palace. This was my 4th time here, and I hadn’t seen it this sparsely crowded - some bottlenecks here and there, but not too bad. I had forgotten how extensive the garden is, what we saw just barely scratched the surface.

Back in the van, and Mechell was willing to drop us wherever, so we had her drop us near the Galleria Lafayette to do some shopping. The crowds and size of the store overwhelmed Bailey a bit, so we bagged the idea of shopping and started walking back towards our part of Paris, deciding we’d find dinner on our way.

We decided to stop at an Italian restaurant. I screwed up my salad order (octopus!), but we also had a nice bottle of Chianti, a pizza and Bailey had pretty standard looking spaghetti with meat sauce. It was a fun scene to watch - people parading by on the street. Towards the end of our meal, light rain started! I put up my umbrella, rather than trying to move inside. It was quick light rain anyway.

We wandered through neighborhoods a bit as we snaked our way back; lots of action being Friday night!

Super exhausted again as we fell into our beds.

Saturday September 7, 2019

We slept in this morning and missed breakfast, but found a café on the river where we could still get omelets.

Last night I bought 2 day passes for the Hop On Hop Off Big Bus, which had a stop right outside the café. Before boarding, we also bought tickets for the night ride for this evening.

We rode the bus along the Seine, up and down the Champs-Elysees, getting off in front of the Grand Palais. From there, we walk through the Jardins des Champs-Elysees and around the Place de la Concorde, working our way over towards the opera where we jumped on the Big Bus blue line up to Montmartre. We rode through Pigalle and past Moulin Rouge, getting off near Square Louise-Michel and walking the steps up to Sacre-Coeur.

It was very crowded with folks just hanging out on the steps, eating picnics and enjoying the day. We saw our first “yellow vest protest,” and while they had some signs, it looked more like a family picnic. We hung out for a bit just watching people and chilling out.

I remembered when I was here long ago, we’d walked though an area where artists were painting and selling their work. We cut to the right and came to a beautiful square where we saw exactly that. Many doing caricatures or portraits on the spot, but some other really good painters. Felt right to see that happening in Paris!

Back on the bus, Saturday evening traffic was crazy so it took quite awhile to get back to the opera stop, but it’s always so enlightening to view the city from the top of the open air bus. I’d seen this before, but it’s so funny to transition from Pigalle and the sex shops to just around the corner and there is a block of wedding dress shops!

Back to the opera stop, then we walked down to the Louvre and took a right, all the way through the gardens to the Champs-Elysees. Lots of families out enjoying the gorgeous evening.

We had about 2 hours before the 9pm night bus tour, so we settled in at the Pierre Hermès café that was part of the L’Occitane store for a great dinner and bottle of wine. Only negative part was being surrounded by cigarette smokers, but we were having dinner outside on the Champs-Elysees!

We boarded our bus and got great seats on top for the 2+ hour after dark trip. It got cooler as the night went on, and by the time we stopped to see the Eiffel Tower light show from the Trocadero, we were ready to be done. Unfortunately the tour also ended at the top of the Champs-Elysees, 3 miles from our hotel. Given the late hour, we walked down to the end of the boulevard and hailed an Uber - easy way to get back to our hotel about midnight!

Sunday September 8, 2019

As we boarded our bus yesterday, we were told there would be a route “disruption” today due to the women’s race (we’d seen the setup for it on Friday by the Eiffel Tower). Good excuse to be pokey ourselves.

I got tickets for a 12:30pm climb to the second tier of the tower, so we had our Starbucks breakfast and jumped on the metro. When we got out, we could hear the excitement of the “La Parisienne” run - might have been a breast cancer run, reputed to have 1000 musicians along the 7km course! We walked along the course for quite a ways, finally found a space where we could dart through the runners and get to the inside for our tower climb.

We got into the now secured area under the Eiffel Tower a bit early. As we climbed to the first tier, I had a minor panic attack, not being a fan of heights. I looked down to see how high we were, and up to see how far we had to go yet, and thought about what this tower was made of and how old it was. Then I just rationalized that today was probably not the day it was going to fall down and kept plugging along. It was a beautiful view, and fun to see the race going on all around us below.

We walked all around the first tier, then climbed the stairs to the second tier, and the view was even more spectacular. Didn’t dally there though, and we had to walk back down and catch the elevator down from the first level. Good tour and I’m glad we did it.

The streets were still blocked because of the run, so we had some time until the buses would be running again. We got crepes and a bottle of water and sat by the Seine for a bit, then decided to walk over and check out the Trocadero and it’s fountains. Windy day, so the fountains felt like rain.

We got to the top, and saw our Big Bus there, so we got on board to finish the tour of the red route. From nowhere, we had a few raindrops and they handed out free plastic ponchos so we put those on and stayed on top. Most of the tour we were already quite familiar with, but we stayed onboard to see what they’d say anyway. Disappointing that 6 months after the fire, they hadn’t changed the language about touring Norte-Dame and they still talk about climbing the tower, etc.

We continued the ride and got off at the top of the Champs-Elysees, and walked through the tunnel under the round about, coming out at the Arc de Triomphe. It was chilly and very windy, and they had much of it blocked off. We took a quick gander and enjoyed watching the traffic spin around. We noticed a bike event, where about a 100 riders wearing the same jersey were huddled with bikes and support vehicles, but couldn’t tell what it was from across the street.

We headed back through the tunnel, and then saw a few riders walking towards us, while the others had crossed the Champs-Elysees and were now mulling around along with the French police. Their jerseys said “Bike to Paris” and they appeared to be a Legion group from the UK. The police stopped traffic on the roundabout, and led them across to the Arc - much horn beeping from the stopped traffic, that I don’t think was of the supportive nature!

We got back on the Big Bus, and spun around the Arc again - should have gone back over to check out what ever kind of ceremony was happening!

We rode just down to the next stop at Petite Palace, then walked across the river to the Orsay museum. I’d been there before, but was happy to go back. The Orsay is a renovated train depot that hosts the paintings of the impressionists Monet and Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas as well as many sculptures. The building itself is a work of art! It closed at 6pm, but we entered at about 4:45pm without much wait, and we were able to kick it into turbo to see most of the paintings and enjoy the amazing building.

Afterwards we walked back to the Latin Quarter, and stopped at an Italian restaurant where we enjoyed salad, pizza and maybe too much wine.

Monday September 9, 2019

Everyone knows that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, so I’d bought us Monday tickets in advance, which was actually a smooth easy process!

We had breakfast at a nearby café, then strolled an easy walk to the Louvre and got in a bit early actually. We rented headphones and set out for the self guided tour. We stumbled upon all we wanted to see, and at the winged victory sculpture I recalled how to get to the Mona Lisa from there, so we followed the crowd that seemed to be heading there. Much to all of our dismay (tour guides too), she’d been moved - completely to the other side. We finished off that section, really enjoying some French work by Delaroix that Bailey had studied in art history. Then set off to find ML. Our hunt took us to parts of the Louvre I’d never before been in, and found it quite interesting. At the end, we finally learned that we had to exit back through the pyramid, stand in a separate line and follow that line up escalators to the 4th floor of the Richelieu wing, and there she was. It was a smooth and rather entertaining process actually.

By 3pm, we’d had all we could take. We left and got a sandwich, water and coffee and browsed around in some high end shops before staggering back towards our hotel. We stopped at a brasserie near our hotel and Bailey had a cheeseburger, while I had yummy French onion soup!

Tuesday September 10, 2019

Last full day in Paris. Started our day with Starbucks and the metro again to get over to the Eiffel Tower neighborhood. We walked through the Rue Clar markets, was fun to recall being here for several fun dinners with JT and mom & dad 4 years ago. Also saw flower shops that looked like they had flowers direct from the warehouse we saw in Holland last year!

We went to the Invalides, which is a collection of military museums, a veterans hospital (past and current), and a cathedral with Napoleon’s tomb. Jeff and I had been here before, but most of what we saw today was new to me. Most amazing was the Musée DeL’Ordre De La Liberation, which told the story of resistance workers during WWII, both the resistance effort, and the deportation to concentration camps for those who were found out. I’ve been to Dachau and the Holocaust museum, but this display was very different. Though few likely survived, this display showed their resistance side, a resourcefulness versus being victims, even after they were captured. Most haunting where the sketches of fellow prisoners, with dates and locations. There was also a handmade set of playing cards and a little domino set made out of clay.

After several hours, we grabbed a sandwich in the café, then took a walk over to the Rodin house and garden. This was also new to me and I enjoyed it, plus it was a spectacular day to be outside today! The house is an amazing early 18th century mansion, and Rodin started by renting rooms there for his workshop, and ended up with the whole thing (which he donated along with many castings of his works). As a lover of art, he also has a few Van Gogh and Monet paintings in his collection!

By 5p we were thoroughly exhausted, 6 days of walking over 10 miles per day (many of those at a killer shuffling pace). I had all I could do to make it back to the Latin Quarter (so tempting to jump on a bike or electric scooter and fly back). We found another Italian restaurant and enjoyed salad, pasta, pizza and a bottle of wine.

Back early to shower and organize our stuff. Early train to London tomorrow!

LONDON September 11-15, 2019

Wednesday September 11, 2019

Up early to catch the Eurostar train to London. It was still a bit dark as we went out for our last walk to the Metro. Felt kind of sad to me leaving the neighborhood we’ve grown to be so comfortable in!

Back on the RER-B to Gare Nord, then a bit of stumbling around to find the Eurostar terminal (I’d seen the signs when we came through on the RER last week, but for awhile this am they evaded me). We practically had to leave, and then come back in. I thought back to 4 years ago when my folks got off our train to catch the Eurostar and we headed to Burgundy. Fun memories.

We got through passport control ahead of the crowd, and settled in to wait with a coffee shop breakfast. Soon it was time to board, stowing our big suitcases on our own like you do on European trains. Very comfortable ride, through the flat Normandy countryside nearly to the Belgium border. Then we were in the “Chunnel,” but it sure wasn’t for long. 50 kilometers and no idea what speed, but we covered the distance fast and soon we were at the main train terminal in London, St Pancras.

Down to the Underground, where I struggled a bit with the Ticket machine again (this time it was the machine). We bought day long tickets as we are unsure what we’ll be doing over the next days when Jeff joins us.

We found the Piccadilly line with no issues, and rode that to the South Kensington stop which was closest to our accommodations (we later learned that if we’d transferred to a different line we’d be closer, but it was great to get out and walk anyway). It was about a mile to our “hotel,” and a beautiful day. We walked through neighborhoods of high end multilevel houses (brownstones), schools, and several embassies (Iran, Bulgaria to name a few). Past the “Queens Gate” entrance to Hyde Park and on towards High Kensington and a shopping area, arriving at our destination about 11am.

We really didn’t know what to expect for these accommodations. We turned the corner and I was feeling hopeful, as it looked like the address would be one of these brownstones. There were signs that said “parking for embassy only.” However, as we walked down the street, the degree of renovation quickly declined. We entered number 58 as the door was open. We found a desk, with no one around, but heard a child up a few floors …. so we stood there for awhile, occasionally yelling out “hello!” Eventually, a tall thin elderly man with a little grey pony tail appeared. I didn’t get his name, but he was our guy.

Good news was he had our reservation, was expecting us and our room was ready. The good news really stops there. The rest wasn’t bad news, just odd. He said his lift was broken (the guy was expected today, which I believe was not truthful but inconsequential), and our room was #13 on the top floor. We said no problem and lugged our bags to the top floor.

Let me segue back to trip planning. I booked the plane tickets, and then I booked the Paris accommodation with credit card points. I knew where it’d be best for us to stay location-wise there, and found a decent 3 star hotel that wasn’t luxurious, and worked out just fine. For London, I wasn’t sure about the various parts of town and Bailey and I researched this one together. We found a big price difference between 3 star and 4 star, so we kept to the 3 star category and since Jeff was joining us here, we searched for 2 beds and 2 baths just to see what we’d get. We found this Kensington Apartment. It had one terrible review, and several fairly good reviews. What made it a little iffy was no photos, but we went for it anyway. We booked it with the remaining credit card points, and about $300 from what I recall.

So we dragged our bags to the top floor up the narrow stair case, arriving sweating so badly and out of breath. It was old, but not too bad looking. Two bedrooms, one with a double bed and one with two twins that had a bathroom en-suite. Opening other doors revealed a dinning room and kitchen, but not the other bathroom.

I checked my reservation and went back downstairs and asked the man about the second bathroom. He said “oh,” and confirmed on his copy of the reservation that we had requested two bathrooms. He said, “well, there is a second bathroom down one landing or I have a three bedroom with two bathrooms in the basement.” He took me down to look at that and I thought at first glance that would be a better option so we hauled our bags back down and got settled there. In reality, the basement apartment had a pretty big yuck factor, so we should have stayed upstairs. But it worked, we just limited the time we spent there! It was more efficient with Bailey having a tiny little bathroom of her own (good thing she’s tiny too).

We got settled and headed out. We decided to shop today, since it’s unlikely shopping would be on Jeff’s desired list of things he wanted to do! Our first stop was Harrods, and it was just about a mile from our place and we decided to walk and enjoy the day. It’s really a remarkable store, however we weren’t inspired to buy anything. They had a Christmas department set up already, and my one regret was I didn’t buy an ornament for a souvenir (I’m sure I can order a little red bus on Amazon)!

We started walking back just heading in what should have been the general direction, but got trapped in a beautiful little gated neighborhood and probably walked about a mile before we got back to the main drag. Then we were at a bus stop and I recalled Rick Steves talking about bus #9 being a direct route between Kensington and the tourist area and there it was, so we jumped on (our day tickets worked on the bus too). We rode back to near our place and then shopped there a bit in stores more in our price range (they had a TJMaxx, but it was TKMaxx, one of our favorite stores anyway!). There was also a Whole Foods and I was tempted to stock up on foods for our breakfasts, but the ick factor of our place stopped me from doing that!

Back to drop off our purchases, then back on bus #9 going in the opposite direction, through Piccadilly square. We got off at Trafalgar Square and just stood for a bit trying to process the madness! We walked around a bit, and found ourselves down on the bank of the Thames. We’d passed a half dozen pubs, so we wandered back and chose one.

It was just after 5pm, and we were close to Parliament. Jeff was in Washington DC these past few days and I marveled at the similarities, figuring the young professionals gathering in the pub were “running” London’s government, similar to the way ours is “run” by very many bright but young aides!

We found a small table and drank Guinness and ate fish & chips (I had a burger) and just soaked up the atmosphere - what a great introduction to London!

We left about 7pm and walked down “the mall” towards Buckingham Palace. It was a gorgeous evening, and the clouds were spectacular. Lots of people out, walking and biking, or tourists like us just looking at the palace. From there we walked though Green Park. It was getting dark and we were tired. We came out by a bus stop and we were thrilled to see #9 coming down the road! Quick ride back to the apartment. We walked over 12 miles today which should help with sleeping in less than ideal accommodations.

Thursday September 12

JT arrived early this morning, just after 6am. I set my alarm to meet him at the Underground station. He’d gotten some advice to ride the faster train from Heathrow to Paddington Station, so he ended up going a bit out of the way. But eventually he was there in the crowd emerging from the train and I was so happy to see him! It was fun people watching as I waited - people rushing to work, kids off to school and especially some of the little ones in their adorable school uniforms. There was a woman handing out “stop Brexit” leaflets and people either ignored her (most) or encouraged her (2nd most) or swore at her!

As Jeff was negotiating the transportation scene, he bought “Oyster Cards” for each of us, reloadable cards to use on the buses and trains.

Jeff and I walked back towards our apartment, stopping at Whole Foods to pick up fruit, yogurt and baked goods for breakfast, then to Starbucks to get coffee and back to see if Bailey was up.

We ate breakfast, I had a shower and Jeff had a quick nap, and by 11am we were back on the streets. We bought a combo ticket for Big Bus tour and Tower of London, and caught the bus right by our Starbucks (Kensington Palace stop). We rode the blue route through Notting Hill and Paddington - the coolest thing we saw were the pubs! They’re the most colorful beautifully bedecked buildings in town! There was a little drizzle, but not enough to make us leave the bus top (we’d had just a bit of this yesterday too - not enough for umbrella).

We’d gone around the other side of Hyde Park, and got out at Speakers Corner where the only action happening looked like set up for a weekend music festival. We switched to the red route, which took us all around the tourist sites, along the Thames, through the town of London (business part) and eventually over the Tower Bridge to the Tower of London. We were in luck as a guided tour (Spike the Beefeater) was just about to begin.

I’m not a big follower of royalty, and don’t know a lot of Britain’s history, but what I learned at the Tower was shocking. Jeff and I watched the entire Game of Thrones series last year, and it was gruesome and gory. But the stories that Spike told us were shocking, and it was Game of Thrones without the sex scenes (those probably existed by Spike didn’t talk about them).

Lots of beheading and other executions. After beheading, they’d put the head on a stick and parade it around town as a lesson to others of what could happen. Yikes. They beheaded queens, mothers of kings, ladies in waiting. Two little princes were probably killed by a jealous uncle who hid their bodies.

Another mind blowing thing was they had all these exotic animals living there from all over the world: polar bear, monkeys, lions, elephant snakes. Also “Game of Throne” like was they’d built a viewing stand and they’d have animals fight to the death for sport. The animals killed people - children! Unbelievable! Eventually they got smart enough and made a Zoo for the animals (and hopefully kept them away from the people). Many of them were given to the royalty as gifts. Crazy to think of the globalness of the world in those days, but England was all over the place claiming territories!

Spike was a great guide, and was emotional as he explained to us that he’s not a guide and his uniform was not just a costume. He’d served 35 years in the military and was chosen to be a member of the Queens Guard and what an honor it was. He lives at the Tower with his family and fellow Beefeaters.

He was funny and picked on an English kid in the crowd for not knowing his history (an American answered his question)! He was also a good sport and was kidding us Americans about how good our life could be if we’d have just paid our taxes in 1776. On their uniform they all have the QE II monogram (E II R), some one asked his if that would change when Elizabeth died and Charles becomes King. He said yes, but no one know what it’ll change to yet as Charles gets to pick his name?! Spike thought he’s unlikely to stay with Charles, as things didn’t end well for Charles I or Charles II. Enough to make me know I really don’t understand this royalty stuff and I’m ok with that.

We also toured the Crown Jewels exhibit. Unbelievable. All that pomp and circumstance!

Our Big Bus ticket allowed us to take a boat back from the Tower to the main Tourist area, so we did that, and had a jolly guide entertain us with stories along the way.

By then it was after 5 pm and Jeff was starting to fade from the overnight flight! We poked through a few pubs until we found a table and ordered Guinness and pub food: fish & chips for me, burger for Bailey and chicken for JT.

After that, we walked along the mall and through Green Park again, hoping to catch the Big Bus back to our place. It dawned on me that we were probably past the time our tickets allowed and they’d be into their night route now. Just then, our faithful bus #9 appeared and brought us back.

Friday September 13

Jeff and I were up early so we went out for a 3 mile walk through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park - absolutely gorgeous morning. Lots of runners and dog walkers in the park, cyclists traveling fast like they’re cutting through on their morning commute. Back to Whole Foods to pick up breakfast for the day. Today we realized they had premixed yogurt concoctions and hot breakfasts (poached egg over potatoes and beans) as well as a coffee bar, so we did “one stop shopping” for breakfast and skipped Starbucks.

Today was museum day, and we rode bus #9 to Trafalgar Square to go to the National Gallery. It’s an extensive art collection, and we staggered through three of the four wings, and skipped the really old stuff. We started with the 1600-1700’s: Vermeer, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck. Next was 1700-1930: Turner, Constable, Stubbs, Monet, Van Gogh and Seurat. Then looped back through 1500-1600’s (kind of dull to do that last!). Besides the amazing works, the gallery itself was a work of art. A beautiful building, and the galleries arranged nicely without crowding so we could really enjoy to art and talk about each one. There were several students there sketching, and one young man there painting (and occasionally stomping off to judge his work from a distance). It was also fun again to see how much Bailey knew about many of the paintings from classes she’d taken. It seemed like it was a real thrill for her to be seeing them in real life.

We went from the gallery out into the madness of Trafalgar Square. We watched a few sidewalk chalk artists, and a few not so great performers, then headed off.

Bailey really wanted to see the Tate galleries, but we knew we just had time for one so she chose Tate Modern. I discovered a cool thing on Google Map that when you choose the “public transportation” option, it gives real specific details about the Underground, locations, how to get there, which train to take, etc - super helpful! We took a line to Waterloo, then another to Jubilee, then about a 5 minute walk to the Tate Modern on the opposite bank of the Thames.

Admission to the general gallery was again just suggested donation, but you needed tickets for the special exhibitions. Bailey really wanted to see the Olafur Eliasson exhibit, but the available tickets would have been too late by the time we arrived. We spent two hours touring the rest of the art. Some were very interesting, some were questionable to me that they were art?! Something for everyone, they even had a very large Monet water nymphs!

What a contract between the two galleries! Most of the older paintings depict biblical scenes and “taught” the stories of the Bible to people when most were illiterate; someone’s interpretation of bible stories no doubt. And then modern art, again much left to interpretation!

We left there exhausted (Jeff left before us to find a place to veg out), popped into a Starbucks for a frappe to perk us up for the rest of the night.

Back to Google Maps to lead us back under the river and to the Theater district (Covent Gardens). I thought I was following the map to the theater to pick up out tickets at will-call, but my orientation was off and we did a bit of a tour of the district first!

Jeff suggested we see a play while we were here - great idea! We settled on “Mousetrap” which is an Agatha Christie play which has been in continuous showing since 1952 (at the perfectly suited St Martin Theater, which was old and not unlike our apartment - a little dank and musty with squeaky chairs!).

We picked up the tickets and headed to a nearby pub for dinner, Guinness for the girls, Fish & Chips for Bailey, Jeff and I each had Steak and Ale pie - yum! We sat in a quiet room in the back, and there was a large screen TV with a cricket match on. Jeff pulled up basic information about cricket on his phone and we tried to make sense of the game. We had a fun moment when a young man brought us our food and Jeff said “oh good, you can explain this to us!” He said he had no idea, didn’t understand it himself! Hmmm, thought it should have been trained in their upbringing! So we’ll leave London still not understanding cricket.

Then back to the theater. Fabulous show, and we’ve been sworn to secrecy about “who done it.”

Walked back to what I consider the main drag (with changing names). Fun to walk through the Friday night scene, and great to see bus #9 coming to collect us and deposit us back at our stop just after 11pm.

Saturday September 14

We all slept in a bit. Bailey and I are exhausted from 10 days of being tourists, and JT doesn’t know what time zone he is in! We got ready for the day and had breakfast at a little French café around the corner. At 10:30a we were on bus #9, heading down to watch the Changing of the Queens Life Guards (on horse back). As we were passing by Hyde Park corner on the bus, we saw 8 mounted guards riding towards Buckingham Palace, there they’d turn and head up the mall. We rode the bus through Piccadilly Circus, then got off and race-walked towards the parade grounds. Perfect timing to see them ride past us, as when they got to the grounds there was a mob of tourists, many Asians with guides with speaker/headsets that were just obnoxious!

We saw a bit, and even though I’d googled it, I couldn’t quite figure out what was happening!

We were perfectly located as we had noon tickets to enter Churchill’s War Rooms. We spent three hours in there - an amazing display and history of his life, and a glimpse of the underground bunker from which they directed their war action from 1940-1945. Besides offices and sleeping quarters, there was a small kitchen, a map room, a radio room, a telephone exchange, and a secretary pool. We did the audio tour, and I’d say I only looked at about half of the exhibits, it was so extensive. Most cool was to have recorded comments from people who lived/worked down there. One secretary who had to lie to her mum about where she worked, and you got the sense her mum thought she was a bit of a disappointment until after the war when she could disclose to her what she’d been doing! Impossible to imagine living underground, and emerging now and then to see the damage that the air strikes had caused.

That really drained us, and we emerged into a warm sunshiny Saturday with soooooo many people out and about! We walked around Westminster Abbey, and across the bridge which was just packed with tourists and families. We walked past the London Eye, didn’t really think about it with those crowds, even though it had been highly recommended to us and was a day with great visibility. We walked back over the Millennium pedestrian bridge, sat on a bench in the shade and just watched people. We were drained, but it’s not like we could go back to our apartment to relax!?!

We bought cold beverages in a convenience store, strolled through Trafalgar Square again to take in the various street performers and artists, then down to St James Park. Neat to see how packed the park was with Londoners enjoying the perfect September Saturday. Parties, kids feeding ducks and geese, people hanging out in the rented “deck chairs,” and others tossing balls around.

Someone in our party declared he was done eating pub food, so I went to my Open Table app to check out restaurants nearby. We went to the Blue Boar, between the park and Parliament. We sat in the bar for drinks before dinner and a LOUD bunch of Americans came in - ugh. They soon moved on to a private room. We had a great dinner in the restaurant, then back to Google Maps since there was an Underground station in the next block! Two trains and we ended up just the other side of our Whole Foods!

Back to pack and one last night of this apartment (Jeff described it as the same kind of feeling of camping with just a general iciness).

Sunday September 15

Up at 6am, and by 6:45am we were rolling our bags back down the street in the direction of our the Underground station - High Kensington. We rode the District Line one stop, and transferred to the Piccadilly line which brought us just a few moving sidewalks away from our airline check in point! Easy - just 50 minutes and we still ended up with pounds left on our Oyster cards.

Lots of travel this year has earned us medallion status on Delta, so we headed to the VIP lounge and had a nice breakfast there away from the madness of the usual airport crowds. Bailey said it felt snobby, but fell in love with the latte machine!

We’re all flying Virgin Atlantic (Delta partner) to Atlanta. Then direct home to Madison. Can’t wait to sleep in my bed tonight and enjoy my own shower!