Joseph, Gabriella, Julianna, James, and Elora

Joseph, Gabriella, Julianna, James, and Elora

Friday, December 19, 2014

"This Realm, this England": Day 2


"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands ---
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."
Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1



You know me - if we're talking about England, the first person who comes to mind is Shakespeare!

Sorry yesterday was so boring - all travel related. Today gets much more exciting because we're finally in England!

We landed at about 11:30 local time, which is eight hours ahead of Albuquerque. A few minutes before the plane landed, Jules woke up from her amazing sleep and we were both getting pretty antsy to get off the plane! The real problem was that I had been sitting for 8 hours, which meant no standing, which meant no bathroom breaks...I was really starting to get desperate by the time we made it to our gate. Of course, they have this brilliant system for loading people onto airplanes in small groups so it isn't chaos, but deplaning is a ridiculous free-for-all! EVERYONE stands up the second the plane ride is over - and I don't blame them - but it just causes a massive traffic jam for about 20 minutes. I don't understand why they don't announce "now rows 1-10 may disembark" and so on down the plane. Anyway, I was at the back of the plane AND in the window seat, so I just sat and sat until every other person had left, and then I begged the airline staff to let me use the restroom before getting off the plane so I wouldn't have to wait until after customs, because I was pretty sure I was gonna die! They were super nice about  it and one of them even offered to hold Jules for me. 

Finally off the plane and on English soil (hooray!) for the first time in my life, I now got to wait in the huge enormous customs line. I figured it was going to be hours but after only a few minutes a lady told me to follow her, and gather up a few more people with babies/small children, and led us to the front of the line! (I'm telling you - you should TOTALLY travel with a baby. It makes some things inconvenient but you get to move to the front of every single line. It's terrific. ;-) Got our passports stamped and tried not to grin ridiculously at the passport official simply because he had a British accent. Everyone had a British accent. I was surrounded by them. It was heavenly!

Went to collect my luggage and had a bit of trouble collecting my buggy (that's stroller for you Americans), since it came out in a different place, but I finally found it and there I was, loaded down with an enormous backpack, a rolling suitcase, a baby, a sling, and a stroller, and sadly, still only 2 hands. This would be the most challenging part of my trip, as I had to navigate myself, Jules, and all our stuff alone onto the Heathrow Express, a train that goes from Heathrow Airport in London to Paddington Station, where I was then supposed to get a taxi to take me to Dad's hotel. I bought my ticket and got on board the train all right, with some ridiculous maneuvering of all my luggage, and sat for a few minutes. I was chatting with the lady next to me, who was from Japan, and then she and all the other passengers got off the train. I stayed because I knew I was supposed to go all the way to Paddington and we were still in the airport. After just a moment, she came back onto the train and told me I had to get off because this was the end of the line for THIS train and switch to another to take me to Paddington. Yikes! I don't know what I would have done without her help; she not only came back for me, but helped me with my luggage and showed me where to go to switch trains. I was so blessed by her kindess! 

FINALLY on board the correct train, I stared eagerly out the window, but couldn't see much of the countryside; it was mostly industrial-type buildings and nothing terribly exciting yet. At last we pulled into Paddington, and I managed once again to maneuver all my luggage OFF the train onto the platform (sadly, not 9 3/4, but that comes later), get it all adjusted, and set off on the final stage of my journey: to find a taxi. I had never ridden in a taxi before, so that was exciting in and of itself, but to have it be one of the London "hackneys" was even cooler.

Okay, so this not the exact cab I rode in. My hands we too full to take a picture at that moment!

I have to confess something a little embarrassing here - ever since watching Season 1 of BBC's Sherlock I have been kind of terrified that the cab driver was going to murder me. Stupid, I know. Still true. So I was a bit nervous about climbing into a taxi in London, but I'm writing this, so everything was obviously fine. Unfortunately I happened to pick the only taxi driver in the entire city who was returning from a 6 month leave of absence and really had no idea where my hotel was - and I, of course, wasn't prepared enough and just had a hotel name, not an address or cross streets or anything. But eventually he figured out where he was going, and meanwhile I got to see London whizzing past in all its glory out the window! This was the first moment of my trip when it truly hit me that I was actually in London and despite being quite exhausted from being up all night, I got a rush of adrenaline and became extremely excited. Whoosh! And there went the Tower of London. Whoosh! There's Big Ben! Whoosh! The Eye of London. Not to mention the red double-decker busses and the taxis everywhere and all the little back and side streets with buildings that I knew nothing of, but radiated centuries of history...it was all overwhelming and wonderful and fantastic. (I know, I'm running out of adjectives. Sorry.) After a little mix-up with another hotel of a very similar name, the cabbie finally found my hotel and I tipped him (way too much, I found out later) gratefully, made my way to my room, and was finally hidden from strangers' eyes for the first time in over 24 hours. Whew! 

Dad was still at his conference, and I had to will myself not to just collapse onto the bed and take a nap, but I knew that the best way to survive jet lag is to get on a "normal" schedule with your country as quickly as possible. So instead I took a shower while Jules had a nap (her schedule was totally messed up and she spent a LOT of time sleeping, I think in protest of the whole strange phenomenon, but that was good for me!) and then I had a cup of tea. One thing that was really interesting about English hotel rooms is that each one had an electric hot water kettle, two teacups, and a basket containing a selection of teas, sugar, creams, and a few little biscuits or cookies. That way each guest could observe four o-clock tea everyday! I quite enjoyed it - it made me feel even more "British" than ever, and their tea is much better than ours! Their tea baskets did have instant coffee, but it was terrible; Dad drank it, but I stuck with tea. ;-) About this time, Dad came back to the hotel room - this was a relief since the biggest flaw in our plan was how to communicate once I finally arrived! After he changed, we set out for our first evening exploring the city! 

Our hotel was in an interesting part of the London - the Docklands, an area in east and southeast London that once made up the Port of London. Goods were shipped via the Thames, so the Docklands was an important center of trade, although now its mostly residential and commercial district since transportation is less dependent on the river. But in order to get to the main part of London from our hotel, we had to cross the Thames via ferry. The hotel had its own small ferry to take guests back and forth across the river. Something I didn't know about the the Thames before my trip was the it is an outlet to the sea, so it is actually affected by the tides. The first night I was there, we crossed at the really high tide and the whole ferry was rocking back and forth violently. It was pretty exciting!

A view of our hotel from the ferry. It is literally ON the Thames.

Grandpa with Jules. That's our hotel in the background, on the opposite side of the river


Some old warehouse buildings in the Docklands area, a strange contrast to the tall modern buildings in the background

Once on the opposite bank of the Thames, we boarded a "water taxi" like the one below, which took us down the river and past many of the major landmarks in London. It was one of my favorite ways to travel. Not only was it the easiest to get on/off of with a baby and a buggy, but also a great way to see everything and a pretty quick way to travel.

The water taxi

It took us under the Tower Bridge

Past the Tower of London

Past the Globe Theater (I'll be seeing you again soon, good friend!)

Past the Eye of London, the only modern piece of London architecture I actually like

We disembarked near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and took a walk along the bank of the Thames, stopping to look at anything that interested us. I was pretty much giddy with excitement (and possibly a lack of sleep), so that was nearly everything! 

I believe this was a WWII memorial 

And this was from WWI

I was so excited to see the traditional red phone booth!


Even their benches are beautiful!

Finally we went up a flight of stairs and there it was, right in front of us: Big Ben! Probably one of the most iconic symbols of Britain, right before my very eyes! 


Side note - Big Ben is actually the name of the clock inside the tower, not the tower itself. The tower was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. I felt sure you all needed to know that fact, in case you ever find yourself on Jeopardy...;-) 

Right next to - and I do mean right next to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament is Westminster Abbey, one of the places I was most excited about seeing. It was closed for sightseeing by the time we arrived, but I most definitely planned to come back another day! Just seeing from the outside was an amazing experience. I confess I may have cried looking up at it for the first time.

Dad and Jules in front of the "little side entrance" of Westminster 

Jules and I with both Westminster and Big Ben in the background


Here I am in front of the main entrance. Yes, I'm the tiny pink and black dot at the bottom. It is truly immense!

After walking around admiring Westminster, we sort of wandered down Whitehall Street, looking around and searching for a place to eat dinner.


Statue of Churchill

We passed Number 10 Downing street, where the Prime Minister lives. 

I'm fairly certain this is the entrance to #10 Downing

We ate dinner in the upper floor of a little pub along Whitehall. Babies seemed to be kind of discouraged, if not absolutely forbidden, in the bottom level of the pubs, where most of the "just stepped in for a pint" people were, but were allowed in the second level where more people were eating. I had a ploughman's lunch, which is basically just a sandwich, and it was okay but not great. Then we walked past Charing Cross, through Trafalgar Square, and then on to Piccadilly Circus. I must confess, Piccadilly was the only part of the London I truly didn't enjoy. I had always read about it, but didn't entirely know what it was until I got there, and frankly I'm still not sure what the allure is. But apparently it is THE place to be on a Saturday night in London! Everybody in the whole city seemed to have congregated there, to just talk and "hang out" on the steps on buildings and memorials. There were street performers and loud music and giant billboards covering the beautiful old buildings, which offended me greatly. :-) It was kind of like Times Square in NYC, from what I've heard, although I've never been there myself. Anyway, it just wasn't really my "scene," if you know what I mean.

Trafalgar Square


Cool horse fountain in Piccadilly

Atrocious billboards covering beautiful old buildings in Piccadilly
  
But we left there and wandered through Chinatown and finally made our way down to the Piccadilly line of the London "tube" or subway. Dad and I had both bought Oyster cards, which enabled us to travel the tube, the buses, and the DLR (that's Docklands Light Railway, an above-ground train), as well as a discounted rate on water taxis, for free. Well, not free, but you know what I mean. One price for all public transportation. The tube was really crowded, especially at Piccadilly, on a Saturday night, and it was tough to navigate with the baby and buggy as it involved flight after flight of stairs. Then once we got to the right stop, we caught the #10 bus, which stopped right outside out hotel. Whew! Transportation in London is complicated, and that's not even taking into account the whole driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road thing, which we didn't do until after we left London. But we finally made it back to our hotel and I absolutely crashed into bed in contented exhaustion.

Sorry this post was SO ridiculously long. I'll try to speed things up tomorrow!   

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

"This Realm, this England": Day 1

I found this post that I started writing back in June and it made me ashamed:

"I've decided I need to give up looking at Facebook for a while. Why, you ask? Because it's June, and everywhere I look I see pictures or posts about all my friends' amazing vacations - to Europe, to Disneyland, to the mountains or the lake or the seashore. My own family members are at the top of that list. One sister just got back from New York City and is now in Colorado hanging out with our other sister. My parents and youngest sister are in New York for a different musical event. My brother and sister-in-law are on a cruise in Europe. And me? Want to know where I'm going this summer? Yep, that's right. Nowhere."

 I didn't finish it because I couldn't figure out how to say what I wanted without sounding extremely self-centered and whiny and pathetic, which is exactly what I was at that moment, and I was ashamed of it. I had no idea at the time but my Heavenly and my earthly father had both been planning something amazing for me that made me even more ashamed of my self-pity. My dad had a business trip to London coming up, and he invited me (and Jules, of course) to come with him and spend a week there! I was completely floored.

I write this as much for my own benefit as anyone else's - so I can remember every second of that wonderful trip! Apologies if it is entirely too detailed.

Friday morning was spent trying to cram half my wardrobe, all of Julianna's clothing, a mountain of diapers, wipes, jackets, umbrellas, guidebooks, two extra pairs of shoes, and a myriad of other miscellaneous accouterments (most of which I didn't end up using) into a medium-size suitcase and enormous backpack. I was trying to keep my luggage to a minimum because I would be flying out by myself and had to navigate airplanes, airports, trains, taxis, and every other form of transportation alone. Dad had to be in London a few days before me, so I had to get myself, Jules, and all our stuff from the airplane to the hotel. Having never traveled alone in my life, I was a bit nervous. (Okay, truthfully, I was terrified!)

Saying goodbye to the kids was one of the hardest things I have ever done. They all drove off cheerily, smiling and waving and excited about getting a WHOLE WEEK of "sleepovers" at Grammie's house! I held it together and did NOT cry when they left, so it wouldn't worry them and they would be happy and not miss me too much. I was fine all the way up until Robert and I got to the airport, and then I realized I forgot something minor, and the tears started to come! BUT I managed to push them down and recover my calm, and even be excited for my trip! There was a brief moment of panic when I started to check in and they told me Jules was supposed to have a ticket, even though she was a "lap baby" for the trip, and they had theoretically mailed it to me, but I had never gotten such a thing. I saw my whole trip slipping away before my eyes and boy, would the tears have ever flowed then! But fortunately they were able to reprint her ticket there at the counter and then I was set! Robert and I hung out for a bit, had a coffee (a TERRIBLE coffee - possibly the worst coffee I've ever had! Don't ever drink the coffee at the Albuquerque Sunport!), and tried to evade for a few more moments the inevitable goodbye. A kiss, a smile, a few tears, and then I was facing my second great obstacle: Security. I am one of those people who, although I have always been a responsible law-abiding citizen, suddenly find my knees knocking together when faced with uniformed authority figures. Seriously. Every siren I ever hear has me convinced they're coming for me....although I'm not exactly sure why. Combined with the horror stories I've read about TSA searches....well, let's just say I dread those checkpoints for more than just the long line. But fortunately it was very painless. Then it was simply a matter of waiting for the plane to board. Unfortunately Jules took umbrage with the long wait and got extremely cranky and tired. I tried to calm her, but by the time we boarded, she was one big fuss. I boarded amid a few sympathetic looks from fellow passengers (and probably a few annoyed ones as well), and found my seat - a window seat, which was good from a privacy/nursing standpoint. And then anxiously waited to see who my fellow passenger would turn out to be. This may sound strange, but I had been praying ever since learning about my trip that I would be seated next to someone who liked babies; someone like an older grandma or a fellow mom, someone who would be kind and understanding and not get annoyed if Jules fussed the whole trip. So when it turned out to be a young, collage-age boy, I was quite disappointed. "Oh dear," I thought, "he's going to be the one who is annoyed most by us."

The next two hours I spent trying to get super tired, cranky Jules to go to sleep without kicking the poor boy next to us. I failed on both counts. He was pretty nice about it, though. He put in headphones and watched movies during the flight and responded with "no problem" to each apology for her kicking. And the silly baby just wouldn't sleep. We finally landed...and then a long long taxi to the gate and a wait. The landing part was interesting, though, because I had never been to Minnesota before and as we circled down, I could see setting sun reflecting off the "thousand lakes" below us. It was beautiful! Someday I would like to go back to Minnesota and see more than the airport for a four hour layover.

It was a long four hours. The airport was enormous - the biggest one I've ever seen, or at least navigated all by myself - so after finding my correct gate, I stuck to my own concourse. Got some dinner, bought some water and snacks for the plane, and then mostly just followed Jules around as she crawled around all the seats in the waiting area. I figured she should get as much "floor time" as possible before the flight, since she would be stuck on my lap for the next eight hours. There was a another mom with a little girl, about three years old, in the waiting area too, and she and Jules really hit it off. They were from England, returning on the same flight as us, so the little girl had the CUTEST British accent. She kept taking photos of Jules with her tablet and they chased each other all over the waiting area.
Jules "cruising" the seats in the waiting area. Sorry, it's the only picture I have from the first day

Finally, shortly before boarding, Jules got sleepy and went to sleep in my arms. It made boarding a little tough, but with some help from a kind gentleman, I was able to get my backpack stowed and settled myself and my sleeping baby into our seat - window seat again - and went through the same anxiety about my seat-mate, especially since this was a MUCH longer flight! Turned out to be a young woman, probably a few years younger than me, who hardly spoke a word to me the whole flight, but she wasn't unkind or anything. She just didn't really invite conversation. I had kind of been hoping that I would be seated next to someone from England and we could chat about our respective countries throughout the trip, Instead that was the person behind me, and he and the girl he was sitting next to had an interesting conversation (upon which I eavesdropped shamelessly) throughout the flight. So there we were - settled in and finally on our way! And then the most amazing thing happened. Jules slept for the ENTIRE flight. I couldn't believe it. I thought I would just let her sleep as long as possible, because she was sure to wake up and then I'd have to entertain her...but she just slept. And slept. And there I sat, for 8 hours, unwilling to get up or even move too much because I was afraid of waking her. I tried to sleep, but unfortunately the only part of me that was able to sleep was my lower extremities. It certainly wasn't a very comfortable flight but it was much better than I had expected or even dared to hope. I know it was God's grace that enabled her to sleep and give me such a (relatively) easy time; it was only the first of many such times I saw His grace demonstrated to me throughout the trip.

I will say this - transcontinental flight has gotten much nicer/more comfortable since my last trip overseas, which was about 12 years ago. The seats have more legroom than domestic flights, and each seat has its own entertainment system built into the back of the seat in front, with a selection of movies and music and tv shows and games...all kinds of stuff to pass the time. The stewardesses/flight attendants (not sure which they prefer to be called these days!) serve a seemingly constant stream of food and drink, it was all pretty good (the coffee was 10x better than that airport swill, surprisingly enough!), and they pass out hot towels to wipe one's hands. It is always a strange feeling to stay awake all night, without falling asleep at all, because one is never quite sure when one day has finished and the next began. But after that long, strange, quiet night of waiting and watching and trying not to wake Jules and failing to sleep....the sun finally rose and there, out the window, I could see it: "This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England!" (Richard II)