London to Paris: Proof that money cannot buy happiness...

So, in an attempt to have a seamless travel day, I opted to pay for a cab to Heathrow, and then to our Paris apartment after landing at Charles De Galle. The cab in London was $80, and that was ok with me! We'd had a rough time on transit getting there...so, we had our final English breakfast, did a load of laundry down the way, hit a fantastic local, organic fancy-pants grocery - and then headed to Heathrow. This part went great!

In Heathrow, Jill found her first Makers Mark since we left. It was heaven for her, and she had one while I had another cider (new addiction, to be curbed by my lapband being switched back 'on' when I get back). Our flight was ok but we were seated separately. Earlier in the trip, Jill at one point turned to me as we boarded a plane and said, "Awesome! There's a baby on this flight too!" - well, the baby from London to Paris took the cake. And Jill was sittin' just behind her. Oy! She screamed for the bulk of the hour flight...

Arrival in Paris proved challenging as we could not (it seemed) find a legitimate cabbie, and settled on a car service that seemed ok. Well, we got gouged in the end but what can you do? There were two of them, they had all our bags...so we paid about $30 over what is normal. It was painful, but a good lesson. We're going to do better getting back!

On top of that, while on the eternal, hot, cab ride we phoned the apartment manager who said "Oh, I have to put you in a different apartment..." and immediately I thought, "oh my god - I got the bait'n'switch that you read about everywhere" when you book one apartment, and show up to find a dump. So, there we were - perhaps the lowpoint of our trip - sitting in a hot, stinky cab in horrific traffic, being ripped off by cabbies and finding out we may be staying in a pit. Good times. We felt like we were getting it from all angles...

So, we show up and the apartment is a couple blocks further out than the first, lacks a bathtub - but, is bigger, and still well-located enough on a nice street with a few restaurants, shops and grocery stores. Since I paused, the dude said, "I will give you zee free night, madam, for the trouble..." - I thought, well, there's a break - finally. So, we schelped up the zillion stairs to our loft apartment, which is pretty nice - and settled in. We rounded out the night with a quick trip to the grocery, a drink out, and a simple dinner at home. Lesson learned: Even when you try to make travel easier by kickin' money at it, still, things just happen. But we knew this already, no? Alas...not our favorite day; though, we're psyched to be in Paris!!







Laundry, high-end grocery in London where you never need to guess where you're meat came from; groceries and a drink in Paris. Phew!

London: Last Day

Despite waking up to a gorgeous day, we started indoors with the National Gallery Museum after breakfast - though we enjoyed the weather as we walked there down the Mall, arriving just after the 10 a.m. opening. Featured here is really a fantastic range of art - sadly, the Impressionist rooms were closed, so we'll have to wait for Paris to see more of some of my favorites (Picasso, Van Gogh, Chagall...). That said, we still saw an amazing batch of art - including Caraveggio, Vermeer, Renoir and some unfinished Michelangelo works - giving some very interesting insight into how he worked and his artistic process.

Next we headed to Brick Lane in the East End. Here we splurged for what was a relatively simple Bangledeshi buffet for lunch (tipping the wallet at $60 for what is about $20 in Fremont!) However, the experience was great - our server - an Arab fellow studying hospitality in London - had worked 12 years at an American company in Dubai, so he quite fancied us (of course, asking "Did you leave your husbands home?"...to which I said, "Yes." Still, he slipped us business cards and it seemed he fancied Jill, as he put his cell number on hers...). The food was great, somewhat reminiscent of Udupi Palace in Seattle which serves up South Indian food; however, this had a good lot of meat. They pretty much only eat lamb and chicken at these places; beef is too costly and being that most are Muslim, they eschew pork. Always happy to eat lamb, there were no complaints coming from our table :)

Rest time took place in the late afternoon before heading out for our final dinner here. Despite our initial thoughts of eating a nicer dinner in each city, we opted to attempt to stay on budget and do something simple after a walking tour. Now, I know, tours are at times kinda lame, but we did a THE COVENT GARDEN PUB WALK (Off-piste in Gas-Lit London) that was riddled with history, drinks, and some of the remaining several hundred gaslights in London mostly in the Covent Garden neighborhood. We met some nice people (having the tour centered around a couple pub stops forces some interaction, which we wanted and found nice). From there - since it ended at 10 p.m. - we did a grab'n'go last run of fish'n'chips before hitting they hay.




















Shots outside the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square; Brick Lane...food, spices, atmosphere; London Walk - pub, gaslight, Oscar Wilde sculpture..and I found the one pink taxi in London, and got the driver to smile for me! :)

London: Tate, Tooting & Billy Elliot

Whoa, it got chilly! Today was gray and cool, which was actually quite welcome after yesterday's sun and heat - so we started out by walking the whole way to the Tate Modern Museum, about 3 miles from our hotel. I warned Jill of a long walk, and well, I didn't lie :) We spent quite a bit of time at the Tate, as last year when I visited the permanent exhibit portion on the 5th floor was closed, so there was a lot new for me to see, and lots on the 3rd floor to revisit.

Next, we walked across the Millennium Bridge over to "The City" - mainly the financial district where we walked past all of the PIB's toward London Bridge, which gives a nice view of the Tower Bridge (the one that Americans typically think of as London Bridge, myself included...doh!). We headed into the Southwark (that's "suth-ick") neighborhood and stopped for a drink and snack. Here, we decided to go to Tooting - touted as the "new Brick Lane" for good curries and Indian food overall, we hopped the tube and arrived in relatively short order.

Here, we found a whole other London: A definite ethnic, Muslim neighborhood with a variety of ethnic foods, shops and people. We were both happy to step out of the touristy hub-bub of the core of the city to this clearly working-class 'hood. It was worth the trip, and it refreshed us both to see a different angle of London. Because we had tickets to see Billy Elliot (which I'd seen a year ago...and thought Jill would enjoy) we had to eat too early to really sit and enjoy the recommended eateries. However, we made do with cheap (re: $30) Indian 'fast-food' which was good enough before heading back for the show.

It was enjoyable, though I was reminded that the seats in that theater are horrible! Jill liked it, I liked it a lot too - but in retrospect should've picked something new for us to see together. Ah well, it was nice to just sit and stare - we'd had two long touristy days - one sun-baked - so the evening of 'rest' - just sitting and being entertained - was nice!












A few stolen shots at the Tate Modern; London sights along the way (Big Ben, The Eye...which we didn't end up riding due to crappy visibility, particularly when weighed against the cost); our trip to Tooting; and finally, a few shots of Billy Elliot's encore.

London: The Pound is Painful!

I am not trying to be some sort of lame American whining that "London is so expensive!" but...good gawd, it is 'spensive here!!! Like last year, most everything costs exactly the same in Pounds as it would in dollars...only a Pound is only worth 50 cents on the dollar. So, for example, dinner tonight was comprised of two ciders (pints) at 3 each, a side of fries for Jill at 3.5, fish & chips at 10.5, and a roast beef baguette at 9...so basically, $60 for a simple pub dinner. We've had the same experience grabbing two sandwiches to go and water, spending around $20 for tuna salad and water. Again, you know this when you sign up to come here - but it makes it hard to justify buying a single thing!

Anyhow, the good news is that all museums are free here! And so is walking around...which was a lot of what happened today - it's Jill's first time here, so we opened the day with a walk to Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, and then on to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, past 10 Downing Street and all the big'ole Marble buildings to Trafalger Square. We paused here, but it was so gorgeous out we opted not to go inside to the National Gallery and reserved it for another day. We instead carried on and walked about in Leicester Square, SoHo, Chinatown and the Theatre District before heading home. It was a long, big walking day! Dinner was the aforementioned pricey-but-really-quality pub dinner near our hotel, followed up by a short walk before having some chill time back at our room.














Various shots of London!

Amsterdam to London Today!

Not too much to report today as we moved from Amsterdam on to London. Our flight was later afternoon, around 5:30, so we had a good bit of the day in Amsterdam and spent it lazily walking around. We opted to go out for a hot breakfast, as Jill was wanting something different from the usual cheese, croissant, ham, coffee, etc. - it was a nice morning and we enjoyed sitting outside with the locals for Saturday morning breakfast. Next, we visited a market and then hit the 9 Streets - a shopping area close to our B&B. We each splurged for a cool t-shirt, and picked up a really cool bathmat for the bathroom (which we're planning a poor-girl remodel of...).

Our trip to London came with a few challenges - mainly me having too much stuff and being cranky. But, eventually we did make it to our London hotel only to find it was unacceptable in terms of size and dumpiness. This town costs a fortune to visit, and even knowing that, this place was truly horrible in light of its cost ($110/night). Fortunately, I knew nearby was the hotel I stayed at last time...so I called and got a walk-in rate (a mere $170/night, rather than the book-ahead $250) for a small, simple double room. We moved immediately and were finally able to settle in. The Lime Tree Hotel, where we ended up, has the traditional breakfast included as well which offers some budget relief too!

The wrap-up on Amsterdam is that we both really love that city, and I kinda forgot how much. Still, I'd pick Paris over any city in Europe - but Amsterdam is so easy to get around and fit in...not to mention, they speak English, things seem to cost about what you'd expect, and there is plenty to do. The Dutch are just nice folks, to boot, making it a place I wouldn't hesitate to visit again - soon! Outside of a night-time canal ride, we hit pretty much everything we wanted to do.






A bit more of Amsterdam, and me in the Tube in London - artsy shot by Jilly.

Amsterdam: Kickin' It

While waiting on the Wilco show, Jill did some homework in the local Amsterdam weekly - so today we headed out for some smaller art exhibits more or less without a plan.

We visited the Stedelijk Museum and saw a very thought-provoking and interesting exhibit by Paul Chan, an American artist. His show, 7 Lights - actually only featured six installations. Later, we found a book on this exhibit which was interesting to look at and read. Each exhibit was essentially a movie shown on the floor of the room, with objects 'falling' into the screen. The most riveting was a recreation of what it would've been like to be inside the World Trade Center on the top floors after the September 11 attacks. You stand before the window and see debris falling, and occasionally, a person falls past the window - in one part, two people fall, holding hands. Along the walls were studies of the shapes he used in the films. Though it doesn't sound particularly uplifting, good art doesn't always make you feel good - but rather, it makes you think. This did the job - we were both glad to have experienced it.

From there, we walked on and enjoyed a particularly nice day weather-wise. We headed to the newer portion of Amsterdam, saw the Waterlooplein market, visited some bookstores, had our requisite coffee, strolled past the Bloemenmarkt, etc. and then headed back to the B&B for a siesta before dinner. Tonight, we had the Indonesian Rijsteffal - something I didn't do last time and have regretted ever since. We took our host's recommendation and had a fantastic meal to celebrate our last night in Amsterdam!














Random shots of Amsterdam; some of hte Paul Chan exhibit...and me, looking annoyed but not: rather, it was me squinting into the sun!