We're getting ready to head to the airport to come home.
There are new posts below.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
No Sheep? No problem.
Monday morning, we woke up bright (well, gray) and early to leave London and catch our Ryanair flight to Dublin. Ryanair is basically the Southwest of Europe. You board like old Southwest way – a cattle call to find the best available seats. Hey, who can blame us? Our tickets were about $100 for both of us. Anyway, the hour and a fifteen minute flight flew by and before we knew it, we were in Ireland.
The Brazen Head. The oldest pub in Ireland. Founded in 1198.
Gallagher's Boxty House. Freakin' delicious.
We walked around a bit. Monday was Scott’s day to be grumpy. He complained about his feet and back hurting to no end.
We saw the famous Molly Malone statue, with her heaving breasts and cart full of shellfish.
She wheeled her wheelbarrow, through streets broad and narrow...
...singing "Cockels and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"
Again, per Kyle’s recommendation, we made our way by train to Dun Laoghaire to see rolling green hills and sheep. I think there may have been some miscommunication on our part – we didn’t see any green or sheep. In fact, this is the only green we saw.
Coming back into Dublin, we went down to Temple Bar to find an authentic Irish pub for dinner. We ended up eating dinner at some pseudo-Italian place in an alley. All the while, an entire row of Irish bars made up the next street over. Oh well, live and learn.
After dinner, we settled on a bar with real Irish music. It was packed. It was fantastic. People were clapping and singing and even dancing to the music played by two old Irish chaps. Again, fantastic.
This morning (Tuesday), we went back to Temple Bar to explore more of the city.
Taking a break from Guinness to salute my good friend, Eileen, with a half-pint of Murphy's.
We walked down Grafton Street toward St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful (and crowded) park smack dab in the middle of the city.
Grafton Street at midday.
St. Stephen's Green
Then we walked to take a tour of the Guinness factory. This was definitely one of my favorite things. Guinness = deliciousness.
Outside the gate at St. James's. Yes, James's is how it's spelled.
There was a whole section dedicated to Guinness advertising through the years.
Slainte!
"I love Guinness. And grandpa sweaters."
We ended the evening with dinner and drinks in Temple Bar.
Sorry this is short and sweet - but I need to hit the hay.
Slainte!
Scott and I enjoying our last pints of Guinness on this trip.
Short video of the music we've heard the last two nights.
The Brazen Head. The oldest pub in Ireland. Founded in 1198.We made our way by cab (with the world’s oldest cabdriver) to our hotel – which we both had concerns about. Obviously, we had never seen it in person, and the hotel’s site make it look glamorous. Again, we got this on the cheap. Turns out, it’s actually pretty good. We have a 2BR apartment with a washer/dryer, kitchen, dining area, living room and balcony that looks toward a church built in the 11th century.
At any rate, we dropped our stuff off and headed a half kilometer down the street toward Temple Bar, per Kyle’s recommendations. Walking down the street, people said hello and smiled at us – a stark contrast from London. Even our waitress was nice – then we found out she was three weeks in from Slovakia. No difference. The lesson here is that Irish people are much nicer than English people.
Gallagher's Boxty House. Freakin' delicious.We walked around a bit. Monday was Scott’s day to be grumpy. He complained about his feet and back hurting to no end.
We saw the famous Molly Malone statue, with her heaving breasts and cart full of shellfish.
She wheeled her wheelbarrow, through streets broad and narrow... 
...singing "Cockels and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"Again, per Kyle’s recommendation, we made our way by train to Dun Laoghaire to see rolling green hills and sheep. I think there may have been some miscommunication on our part – we didn’t see any green or sheep. In fact, this is the only green we saw.
Coming back into Dublin, we went down to Temple Bar to find an authentic Irish pub for dinner. We ended up eating dinner at some pseudo-Italian place in an alley. All the while, an entire row of Irish bars made up the next street over. Oh well, live and learn.
After dinner, we settled on a bar with real Irish music. It was packed. It was fantastic. People were clapping and singing and even dancing to the music played by two old Irish chaps. Again, fantastic.
This morning (Tuesday), we went back to Temple Bar to explore more of the city.
Taking a break from Guinness to salute my good friend, Eileen, with a half-pint of Murphy's.We walked down Grafton Street toward St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful (and crowded) park smack dab in the middle of the city.
Grafton Street at midday.
St. Stephen's Green
St. Stephen's Green
Then we walked to take a tour of the Guinness factory. This was definitely one of my favorite things. Guinness = deliciousness.
Outside the gate at St. James's. Yes, James's is how it's spelled.
There was a whole section dedicated to Guinness advertising through the years.
Slainte!
"I love Guinness. And grandpa sweaters."We ended the evening with dinner and drinks in Temple Bar.
Sorry this is short and sweet - but I need to hit the hay.
Slainte!
Scott and I enjoying our last pints of Guinness on this trip.Short video of the music we've heard the last two nights.
Crazy Lady Headquarters
Sunday morning we jaunted out to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. It was nothing short of insane. It's basically an area where anyone can get up on a soapbox and start ranting about whatever they choose. A crowd forms, they argue or heckle with the speaker, and everyone else enjoys this. Think of it as a live-action Jerry Springer show, only with British accents and crazies hosting the show. Our favorite (Scott nicknamed her Crazy Grandma) thought everyone was going to Hell except for natural-born, white English people. She was great. She called us stupid Americans. Another man said that women were stupid. Another guy said that Muslim women (he was Muslim) were basically second-class citizens. All good fun. Scott can elaborate much more on this, as I think Speakers' Corner turned out to be his favorite part of our entire trip.
We had a quick jaunt over to see Westminster Abbey, which we somehow missed - even though it's right by Big Ben/Parliament. This evening, we headed back to Speakers’ Corner to here a new crop of crazies. Scott ended up chatting with a group of Muslims for about an hour. I wandered around and made a new friend named Jounaidi. Then this crazy lady pushed a kid out of his wheelchair (both of his feet were in casts). Then she called everybody liars and screamed about theft. Again, good times.
We packed up our stuff tonight, a bit bittersweet to leave London.
We had a quick jaunt over to see Westminster Abbey, which we somehow missed - even though it's right by Big Ben/Parliament. This evening, we headed back to Speakers’ Corner to here a new crop of crazies. Scott ended up chatting with a group of Muslims for about an hour. I wandered around and made a new friend named Jounaidi. Then this crazy lady pushed a kid out of his wheelchair (both of his feet were in casts). Then she called everybody liars and screamed about theft. Again, good times.
We packed up our stuff tonight, a bit bittersweet to leave London.
NFA = No Fixed Address
This will be short. We're still catching up on our posts and Scott likes to upload 16 videos and 35 photos, along with a short novella of what we've done, which ends up eating four hours of time. I'll keep mine short and sweet.
We spent Saturday morning in an area called Camden Town. It was filled with booths and little shops filled with all sorts of things you don’t need but totally want to buy. I had pictures, but my camera decided to delete them all.
It was also the area of town where punks lived. We then touristed it up down at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
We then had a couple pints at Blackfriars Pub and met some lovely fellows with, between the two of them, about four or five teeth.
We walked across the River Thames to have dinner at a dim sum place, where Scott tried to talk to our tablemates. They snubbed their noses at them. Skanks.
After dinner, we ended up back at Shepherd Market to find out what a jacket potato is and eat one or two. But we were too late – the kitchen had closed. We ended up walking down the alley to another pub. The bartender and servers there were finally nice – the first genuine English pub workers we’ve found to be as polite and nice as those in the States. Good times.
We spent Saturday morning in an area called Camden Town. It was filled with booths and little shops filled with all sorts of things you don’t need but totally want to buy. I had pictures, but my camera decided to delete them all.
It was also the area of town where punks lived. We then touristed it up down at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
We then had a couple pints at Blackfriars Pub and met some lovely fellows with, between the two of them, about four or five teeth.
We walked across the River Thames to have dinner at a dim sum place, where Scott tried to talk to our tablemates. They snubbed their noses at them. Skanks.
After dinner, we ended up back at Shepherd Market to find out what a jacket potato is and eat one or two. But we were too late – the kitchen had closed. We ended up walking down the alley to another pub. The bartender and servers there were finally nice – the first genuine English pub workers we’ve found to be as polite and nice as those in the States. Good times.
Park sex, Punk Rock and the City of Brotherly Love (and hate) PT.1
It’s Monday nite as I sit and write this…Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have come and gone without me writing about them. That being said, this post will probably be a let down. The good news for you, faithful readers, is that Glenn will also be filling in the gaps, and he’s a much better writer than I. Besides that, he’ll also show you the touristy stuff, so I’ll try to show you some of the things that I found interesting…the real London. My apologies for the lameness of the following….
Friday was the day that we both blew our wake up time. We were supposed to be in some nerdy class that Glenn registered us for, but we never made it. So instead we went to Buckingham Palace. Buckingham itself was kind of lame (sorry Shareen, I know that your British president lives there) but the walk to the palace turned out to be pretty interesting. Turns out, that in London, it is completely appropriate to make love in public parks. No kidding. This is what we saw on our walk through St. James Park on our way to the palace:
These two started going at it right there in front of us. They did not care that the kids in the park could see them or that I had a camera on them the whole time. Didn’t matter. It was time to get down. Brown chicken brown cow.
We continued on to the palace and wrestled our way through the crowds just in time to see people yelled at by the Bobbies and the changing of the guards. The changing of the guards was cool, but it was soooooooo loooooong. It seemed like every jerk in London was trying their hardest to body check their way closer so they could get a view of what was going on or to get their chance to breathe thier hot breath down my neck. Turned out all we could see was this:
Glad I was almost crushed to death for that.
Meanest cop ever.
As we started to leave I heard two notes of a refrain I had heard many, many times before. I said, “Dude, Glenn, I think they’re playing Star Wars.” He looked at me, like he has so many times on this trip, and just shook his head. But, believe it or not, they were playing Star Wars.
(Check Glenns post for the video) Turns out that the Queen is a huge sci-fi nerd. Not long after the band started to jam the theme song from a galaxy far, far, away the Queen came out in her wookie suit, did the wookie wave and started to sign autographs. She also said that she’d be in Louisville for Wonderfest next month and gave me her number saying she’d like to have a pint with me while discussing which was the better British actor: Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. I’m looking forward to it. She seemed like a really nice old lady.
Afterwards we back tracked through the park and…guess what? That couple was still going at it! A whole hour had gone by and they were still groping each other for the world to see.
Go for what you know bro! Nice!
(As we discovered later, this is acceptable behavior. Seriously, these were only the first couple that we discovered shared a love for public exhibition. We saw at, at least, 3 more couples doing the same thing.)
Then it was on to Piccadilly for some shopping. We had some Malaysian food and saw this:
‘nuff said.
After ward we got on like five trains that took us to the far side of London so I could buy my dad a Harley shirt. (Love ya’ dad.)
I can’t remember what this area was called, I just know that I will thank God daily for sparing our lives. I’m sure that this area was crawling with the crazies that Glenn is so preoccupied with.
As scary as this place was, we also saw another Ferrari. Over the next few days my tally would eventually come to this:
Ferrari: 4
Lamborghini:1
Bugatti:1
Rolls:1
Lotus:1
Smart cars: Like 100 or something
Cabs with my name misspelled:1
A note to my faithful readers: My apologies for the lack of substance/humor/intelligent observation in today's two part post. I'm behind and trying to catch up. Glenn's getting hungry so were off to eat. I'll get part 2 up later.
Friday was the day that we both blew our wake up time. We were supposed to be in some nerdy class that Glenn registered us for, but we never made it. So instead we went to Buckingham Palace. Buckingham itself was kind of lame (sorry Shareen, I know that your British president lives there) but the walk to the palace turned out to be pretty interesting. Turns out, that in London, it is completely appropriate to make love in public parks. No kidding. This is what we saw on our walk through St. James Park on our way to the palace:
These two started going at it right there in front of us. They did not care that the kids in the park could see them or that I had a camera on them the whole time. Didn’t matter. It was time to get down. Brown chicken brown cow.
We continued on to the palace and wrestled our way through the crowds just in time to see people yelled at by the Bobbies and the changing of the guards. The changing of the guards was cool, but it was soooooooo loooooong. It seemed like every jerk in London was trying their hardest to body check their way closer so they could get a view of what was going on or to get their chance to breathe thier hot breath down my neck. Turned out all we could see was this:
Glad I was almost crushed to death for that.
Meanest cop ever.
As we started to leave I heard two notes of a refrain I had heard many, many times before. I said, “Dude, Glenn, I think they’re playing Star Wars.” He looked at me, like he has so many times on this trip, and just shook his head. But, believe it or not, they were playing Star Wars.
(Check Glenns post for the video) Turns out that the Queen is a huge sci-fi nerd. Not long after the band started to jam the theme song from a galaxy far, far, away the Queen came out in her wookie suit, did the wookie wave and started to sign autographs. She also said that she’d be in Louisville for Wonderfest next month and gave me her number saying she’d like to have a pint with me while discussing which was the better British actor: Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. I’m looking forward to it. She seemed like a really nice old lady.
Afterwards we back tracked through the park and…guess what? That couple was still going at it! A whole hour had gone by and they were still groping each other for the world to see.
Go for what you know bro! Nice!
(As we discovered later, this is acceptable behavior. Seriously, these were only the first couple that we discovered shared a love for public exhibition. We saw at, at least, 3 more couples doing the same thing.)
Then it was on to Piccadilly for some shopping. We had some Malaysian food and saw this:
‘nuff said.
After ward we got on like five trains that took us to the far side of London so I could buy my dad a Harley shirt. (Love ya’ dad.)
I can’t remember what this area was called, I just know that I will thank God daily for sparing our lives. I’m sure that this area was crawling with the crazies that Glenn is so preoccupied with.
As scary as this place was, we also saw another Ferrari. Over the next few days my tally would eventually come to this:
Ferrari: 4
Lamborghini:1
Bugatti:1
Rolls:1
Lotus:1
Smart cars: Like 100 or something
Cabs with my name misspelled:1
A note to my faithful readers: My apologies for the lack of substance/humor/intelligent observation in today's two part post. I'm behind and trying to catch up. Glenn's getting hungry so were off to eat. I'll get part 2 up later.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Ireland
**I posted about Friday below.
Hey all.
Sorry for the lack of posts - we had a busy weekend.
Anyway, we're in Dublin, about to head out for the day. We'll both post a ton tonight.
Hey all.
Sorry for the lack of posts - we had a busy weekend.
Anyway, we're in Dublin, about to head out for the day. We'll both post a ton tonight.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Wicked Royalty
After missing our seminar, we came back to the hotel and changed to go out into the city.
Because our hotel was so close, we set off on foot to see the Queen and Buckingham Palace. It turns out she's not out on the lawn playing croquet and eating biscuits all the time. Instead, we came upon a horde of people from around the world crowded in front of the palace, all pushing each other to get closer.
I'm 76% sure that's not real gold.
Horses!
(Side note: What exactly does the Royal Family do? I have never been able to figure this out. How can Elizabeth (or Lizzy as I like to call her) be Queen of England and still have her face on Canadian money? Also, can she just do whatever she feels like doing? I don't get it. But they worship her. Oh, and Princess Diana. There are memorials and commemorative plates everywhere. She must've been really nice.)
So, there was this band in front of the Palace playing British stuff, when all of sudden, we here Scott's anthem. It's in the video below.
At least they did better than this girl.
On the way to/from the Palace, we came across this bird that we nicknamed Oppy, because he hops. Scott scared the crap out of him.
In honor of one of our favorite Brits (Shareen), we ate at a delicious Malaysian restaurant. Scott's food looked good.
My food looked better.
That night, we dressed up like we were going to prom and headed off to see the show. It was pretty incredible - totally changed the way I perceive one of my favorite movies. You should see it. It's coming to Louisville in January.
Because our hotel was so close, we set off on foot to see the Queen and Buckingham Palace. It turns out she's not out on the lawn playing croquet and eating biscuits all the time. Instead, we came upon a horde of people from around the world crowded in front of the palace, all pushing each other to get closer.
OMG! The Queen! Calm down. It's not like this is Christina Aguilera's house.
I'm 76% sure that's not real gold.
Horses!So, there was this band in front of the Palace playing British stuff, when all of sudden, we here Scott's anthem. It's in the video below.
On the way to/from the Palace, we came across this bird that we nicknamed Oppy, because he hops. Scott scared the crap out of him.
We ended up visiting Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, picking up some cheap souvenirs and tickets to see Wicked in the West End.
My food looked better.
That night, we dressed up like we were going to prom and headed off to see the show. It was pretty incredible - totally changed the way I perceive one of my favorite movies. You should see it. It's coming to Louisville in January.
Friday, July 18, 2008
A brief tutorial for crossing streets whilst in London
We're headed out to catch a show tonight so I must, if I can, keep this brief.
We've talked enough about our fears and difficulties in crossing streets, now it's time to show you. For your consideration I proudly present "Scott crosses the street."
We've talked enough about our fears and difficulties in crossing streets, now it's time to show you. For your consideration I proudly present "Scott crosses the street."
Day 3: Bollocks
Due to poor planning and an early start time, we missed the web seminar this morning. I guess that's why we have Shareen.
So, we regrouped and settled back. (Sarah, I had a pain au chocolat for breakfast in honor of your absence.)
Contrary to Scott's posting, I was just being friendly on the train yesterday. If you were stuck in a foreign country with Scott, wouldn't you talk to the first friendly person you encountered as much as possible? (Just kidding, buddy.)
London is a beautiful shade of gray, with just a tinge of pewter this morning. Anyway, I think we're off to do a bit of sightseeing. Suggestions from those of you who've been here are welcome.
So, we regrouped and settled back. (Sarah, I had a pain au chocolat for breakfast in honor of your absence.)
Contrary to Scott's posting, I was just being friendly on the train yesterday. If you were stuck in a foreign country with Scott, wouldn't you talk to the first friendly person you encountered as much as possible? (Just kidding, buddy.)
London is a beautiful shade of gray, with just a tinge of pewter this morning. Anyway, I think we're off to do a bit of sightseeing. Suggestions from those of you who've been here are welcome.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Day 2: You can fly, you can fly, you can fly
Tonight we set out for a trendy area called Covent Garden. It's a place Glenn's new train girlfriend, Sarah, recommended. (Speaking of Glenn's new girlfriend, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you all what a complete and total STUD Glenn is. It's a side that, I would guess, few people know about.)
We sat down on the train this afternoon in a set of three seats that faced three other seats, in which Sarah, a.k.a Glenn's train girlfriend, was already seated. The train had been moving smoothly along it's rails for a good 15 minutes when out of now where this girl who had been sitting across from us, trying her hardest not to make eye contact, sneezed. A good healthy sneeze too. (Crap. Now that I think of it I should probably be concerned. Do they have that danged bird flu over here?)
"That was disgusting," she said.
"Bless you," replied Glenn.
And from that point forward the two of them didn't stop talking. No kidding. This girl had said nothing for like 20 minutes and Glenn says, "bless you" and now she couldn't be silent if she had been born without vocal chords. They chatted and laughed the rest of the way to Farnborough. (Which is like a 30 minute trip form the beginning of their conversation.) Then, when we finally get to Farnborough, we all say our good bye's and good lucks and Glenn turns to me and says, " Geez man, you were really quite on the train ride today." I thought, "Yeah...no kidding Casanova...who was I going to talk to? Myself? Or maybe the crazy-eyed lady in the next seat who was talking to her reflection in the window?" Glenn and this Sarah talked as if they had always known each other forever. What a stud. He's turning out to be a full fledged international man of mystery.
But I ... this post was supposed to be short and sweet so I could get to bed before midnight. Looks like that is not going to happen. Any how, we took the suggestion of the afore mentioned Train Sarah and went for our evening sup in this trendy area know as Covent Garden. It was incredible. It looked like it might be a fairly tiny area in London, with only a few places to eat. In fact it seemed that there were only two or three places to eat. (We found this not to be at all true, when after dinner, we began our wandering through the streets of Covent Garden. Each corner revealed new surprises...and more places to eat. Dang.) We opted to treat our palates to the culinary wonders of "The White Lion." Pic below.
Side note: Each /pub where we have enjoyed our dinner meal has served us in an upstairs dinning room. Consequently, every bathroom has been in the basement. Do people not eat at street level? They may not, that seems to be reserved strictly to the consumption of pints. Seriously, every pub is literally spilling over with patrons drinking everywhere and anywhere they can. You have to part the crowd, at times pulling them to the side, just to get into some of these places. It's crazy. Another interesting tidbit: If, while enjoying a pint in these pubs, which, if I had to guess, have been there since the crusades, you expect to hear music from Englands thriving music industry, or some other form of international melody...well my friends, you will surely find yourselves disappointed. We have heard nothing but American Top 40 crap. We ate in this place tonight that was just dripping with character and had to listen to Sheryl Crow. Nothing against you Ms. Crow, but really? It made for a strange juxtaposition: rich, oil rubbed mahogany walls, tables worn from years of plates being slid across them, and an astonishing panoply of different dialects surrounding us, and what is coming over the speakers of the place: "I want to soak up the sun." (Which is funny, because, as I have discussed on a previous occassion, there is no possible way they can hold to any idea of what the sun even is. When have they ever seen it.) It just seemed so strange to me.
Here are a few shots of the area known as Covent Grove:
Note all of the guys standing in the streets enjoying a pint. Is this Vegas?
Check out the sign that says "Live Bait" at the bottom of this pic. Nicest looking bait shop I have ever seen. And right around the corner from the Themes. Talk about location.
After dinner we started meandering through the streets of Covent Grove, and, after many twists and turns we found ourselves on the river Thames. I found myself speechless as I looked down the river at the Eye, Big Ben and Parliament. Breathtaking.
Some times I find out that I have weird things associated with the world around me. When looking at Big Ben for the first time I was, after my initial wonder, a bit disappointed that no matter how hard I looked, I could not find a giant, cloud-shaped pirate ship. I'm looking at Big Ben and all I can think is, "Man I hope Peter Pan comes flying out from some hidden place and invites me on an adventure in the Neverland." Then as I looked down the river Thames to where the London Eye is located I found myself relieved that the people of London have somehow repaired the damage done to it by the Silver Surfer upon his visit and subsequent battle with the Fantastic Four. The giant hole is filled back up. —what the crap is wrong with me? I'm such a nerd.
We really had a great time here tonight. It was crazy cool. Something I'll never forget. For the first time we found ourselves going into full-on tourist mode and began snapping off pictures like mad. Unfortunately few of them turned out well. The ones that are worth sharing can be found below.
First view of the River Thames.
Look Bec: "Big Ben, Parliament."
See Bec, I really did come to London and not some geeky monster convention in Pennsylvania.
"Hey there...I talked to a girl today."
Look Holden, this one is for you: The Joker can see you...why so sad? Ha! Love you champ!
See...no more hole in the Thames. Thanks Fantastic Four!
Glenn taking a shot of the Eye. This one is for the ladies. You can look, butt you can't touch. (man, I'm gonna' hear about this one tomorrow.)
I am also in the midst of a great battle with the housekeeper assigned to my room. More later...
*this post has now been spell checked with the help from Glenn's mom.
We sat down on the train this afternoon in a set of three seats that faced three other seats, in which Sarah, a.k.a Glenn's train girlfriend, was already seated. The train had been moving smoothly along it's rails for a good 15 minutes when out of now where this girl who had been sitting across from us, trying her hardest not to make eye contact, sneezed. A good healthy sneeze too. (Crap. Now that I think of it I should probably be concerned. Do they have that danged bird flu over here?)
"That was disgusting," she said.
"Bless you," replied Glenn.
And from that point forward the two of them didn't stop talking. No kidding. This girl had said nothing for like 20 minutes and Glenn says, "bless you" and now she couldn't be silent if she had been born without vocal chords. They chatted and laughed the rest of the way to Farnborough. (Which is like a 30 minute trip form the beginning of their conversation.) Then, when we finally get to Farnborough, we all say our good bye's and good lucks and Glenn turns to me and says, " Geez man, you were really quite on the train ride today." I thought, "Yeah...no kidding Casanova...who was I going to talk to? Myself? Or maybe the crazy-eyed lady in the next seat who was talking to her reflection in the window?" Glenn and this Sarah talked as if they had always known each other forever. What a stud. He's turning out to be a full fledged international man of mystery.
But I ... this post was supposed to be short and sweet so I could get to bed before midnight. Looks like that is not going to happen. Any how, we took the suggestion of the afore mentioned Train Sarah and went for our evening sup in this trendy area know as Covent Garden. It was incredible. It looked like it might be a fairly tiny area in London, with only a few places to eat. In fact it seemed that there were only two or three places to eat. (We found this not to be at all true, when after dinner, we began our wandering through the streets of Covent Garden. Each corner revealed new surprises...and more places to eat. Dang.) We opted to treat our palates to the culinary wonders of "The White Lion." Pic below.
Side note: Each /pub where we have enjoyed our dinner meal has served us in an upstairs dinning room. Consequently, every bathroom has been in the basement. Do people not eat at street level? They may not, that seems to be reserved strictly to the consumption of pints. Seriously, every pub is literally spilling over with patrons drinking everywhere and anywhere they can. You have to part the crowd, at times pulling them to the side, just to get into some of these places. It's crazy. Another interesting tidbit: If, while enjoying a pint in these pubs, which, if I had to guess, have been there since the crusades, you expect to hear music from Englands thriving music industry, or some other form of international melody...well my friends, you will surely find yourselves disappointed. We have heard nothing but American Top 40 crap. We ate in this place tonight that was just dripping with character and had to listen to Sheryl Crow. Nothing against you Ms. Crow, but really? It made for a strange juxtaposition: rich, oil rubbed mahogany walls, tables worn from years of plates being slid across them, and an astonishing panoply of different dialects surrounding us, and what is coming over the speakers of the place: "I want to soak up the sun." (Which is funny, because, as I have discussed on a previous occassion, there is no possible way they can hold to any idea of what the sun even is. When have they ever seen it.) It just seemed so strange to me.
Here are a few shots of the area known as Covent Grove:
Note all of the guys standing in the streets enjoying a pint. Is this Vegas?
Check out the sign that says "Live Bait" at the bottom of this pic. Nicest looking bait shop I have ever seen. And right around the corner from the Themes. Talk about location.
After dinner we started meandering through the streets of Covent Grove, and, after many twists and turns we found ourselves on the river Thames. I found myself speechless as I looked down the river at the Eye, Big Ben and Parliament. Breathtaking.
Some times I find out that I have weird things associated with the world around me. When looking at Big Ben for the first time I was, after my initial wonder, a bit disappointed that no matter how hard I looked, I could not find a giant, cloud-shaped pirate ship. I'm looking at Big Ben and all I can think is, "Man I hope Peter Pan comes flying out from some hidden place and invites me on an adventure in the Neverland." Then as I looked down the river Thames to where the London Eye is located I found myself relieved that the people of London have somehow repaired the damage done to it by the Silver Surfer upon his visit and subsequent battle with the Fantastic Four. The giant hole is filled back up. —what the crap is wrong with me? I'm such a nerd.
We really had a great time here tonight. It was crazy cool. Something I'll never forget. For the first time we found ourselves going into full-on tourist mode and began snapping off pictures like mad. Unfortunately few of them turned out well. The ones that are worth sharing can be found below.
First view of the River Thames.
Look Bec: "Big Ben, Parliament."
See Bec, I really did come to London and not some geeky monster convention in Pennsylvania.
"Hey there...I talked to a girl today."
Look Holden, this one is for you: The Joker can see you...why so sad? Ha! Love you champ!
See...no more hole in the Thames. Thanks Fantastic Four!
Glenn taking a shot of the Eye. This one is for the ladies. You can look, butt you can't touch. (man, I'm gonna' hear about this one tomorrow.)
I am also in the midst of a great battle with the housekeeper assigned to my room. More later...
*this post has now been spell checked with the help from Glenn's mom.
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