Month: January 2017

More Moronic Mustardy Monday Musings

Hello from Dijon, France.  They have excellent mustard here.
I’ve been dumping stuff out of my brain for a while and it’s time to share.

To paint my view of our UK experiences with broad strokes:

• The English people we met were very friendly and nice and helpful and made our time there great.
• The Scottish people we met were friendly, seemed willing to pay for your groceries, invite you to dinner, and dive into an icy river to save your children if needed.
• We loved the Scottish countryside and nature hikes and such but I think, subconsciously or not, it was the people that kept us there for over a month.

I really don’t miss anything about the food at home.  Maybe Carbone’s pizza.  And  I miss hockey.

People look at us like we’re crazy when we tell them we’re traveling by rail and bus. I’ve run the numbers a bunch of times and we’re coming out ahead for sure. In addition to the hassles of driving and finding our way around in traffic, most days we walk through cities or hike around.  That means we’d be paying for a rental car that would just sit, parked, in a paid spot most of the time.  We definitely give up some flexibility, but not enough to have a negative effect.

My hiking boots died in Annecy in November.  I had them for at least 15 years, wore them a ton all over the US and the world, and the toe stitching finally blew out.  RIP.

I got new boots from Amazon and started wearing them in late November.  I’ve worn the new less-comfortable-but-cheap boots for two full months, walked literally hundreds of miles in them and, for some reason, I just got blisters after a 6 mile walk to see the aqueducts in Lyon this past Saturday. Was it the Roman ghosts getting back at me for not fully appreciating all they did? Or did my luck just finally run out?
I bought the new boots from Amazon.fr but you can kinda see what I’m wearing here, if the link works, although I only paid about $30 for them at the time (Disable ad blocker if you can’t see the links, and let me know.)

[amazon template=banner easy&asin=B005BK9IQQ]

My son’s entire waking day is one big High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session. Why walk when you can run? Why stand when you can jump? Why not bounce off walls instead of just staying on the sidewalks?  There’s something to be said for boundless energy.

There comes a time at every location we visit when I just get soooo sick of planning routes and finding lodging. Then we move on and discover new places and people and all is well again.  And we’ll keep going.

We’re having a blast and learning a lot but, since I’m not working, there are somethings that I think just aren’t worth the money.  We’re certainly not sleeping in hostels and stealing breadcrumbs from pigeons like I may or may not have done while in college, but we’re also not eating 4 course French dinners.  It’s tough to strike a balance and keep the experiences good.

Other than the boots, the other best purchase I’ve made on this trip are batteries which are SUPER expensive in stores in France – use the links below to get your own (if they work – I’m making this WordPress stuff up as I go – disable ad blockers if nothing is showing up):

[amazon template=banner easy&asin=B00LH3DTYS]

[amazon template=banner easy&asin=B00NTCHCU2]

Old is relative:
Our St. Paul house is from 1941…most of the Twin Cities was still farmland then.
The Lyon Roman ruins are over 1000 years old, Some Greek ruins  are older…way older.
Some of the stuff we see is from the 1500’s but have BRAND NEW upgrades done in the late 1700’s.
And all this stuff we see, no matter how relatively old, is still standing.  People just live by it, work next to it, or shop in it…just like it’s totally normal to be hanging with a 1000 year old gargoyle.

I hope all is well with everybody, always.  Above all, have fun!

Channel Tunnel (a.k.a. The Chunnel)

We’ve been back in France since January 14, when we left London via the Eurostar traveling through the Chunnel! (For those interested in less chit chat and just the facts about the Chunnel, you can scroll to the end of this post. 🙂 )  We left from King’s Cross/St. Pancras Station (where platform 9 3/4 is — Harry Potter reference). I was a little nervous about taking a train underneath the English Channel, but I kept my thoughts to myself and decided it would be a quick trip and an adventure!

After going through security, we heard an announcement that our train was delayed as a result of technical issues. Luckily, they were able to put on on another train, so we were only a half hour later than we’d planned.  The only uncertainty was that we weren’t sure if it was going to affect our ability to make our connecting train to Lyon, which we were catching in Lille.

The Eurostar was a very roomy, comfortable train, and we enjoyed sitting 2 by 2 with a table in between us.

There was plenty of countryside to see and tunnels we went through as we traveled along. At some point, we noticed that the tunnel we were in seemed a bit longer than the others. Just about the time we were trying to figure out how long we’d been in a tunnel, we were back in daylight and the signs outside were in French!

The train continued on to Gare de Lille (Lille, France train station), where we got off and headed up the escalator to catch our train to Lyon, assuming we’d have a little wait. As we were going up, we heard an announcement saying the train to Lyon was leaving from the same platform in 5 minutes, so we scurried down the other side and hopped on the train with just a minute or two to spare.  Even with our delayed start, we actually were able to catch the train we’d planned on with minutes to spare! 🙂

As we boarded the train, we were still trying to figure out if we really caught the right train, as we assumed we wouldn’t get to the station in time.  Add to that there was a woman with a 1-year old little girl and two large suitcases trying to catch her train as well.  We all got on the same train.  She was hoping it was heading to Marseilles, and we were hoping it was heading to Lyon.  Per the overhead announcement (after the train left the station), we found out it was going to both!  We all heaved a sigh of relief. 🙂

On the train from Lille to Lyon, we had some snacks, played hearts, tried to play speed (but we forgot the rules), and Mike taught the kids how to play Blackjack! 😉 It’s a kind of math, isn’t it?  A lesson in probability?

Some Fun Facts about The Chunnel:

The whole length of the tunnel is 31.4 miles and only 23.5 miles are under the sea.  At its lowest point, it’s 250 feet deep.  The maximum speed of the train is 186 miles per hour, so the time under the sea isn’t long, and it seems to be over just about the time you realize you’re going through it!  The train leaves England in Folkestone, Kent and arrives in France in Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais. There are no announcements about leaving or arriving or going through the tunnel (which for me was probably a good thing)!

A little bit of London

On the train on our way to London from Glasgow, we had time to play a little chess, do a little coloring, and watch the views.

We took Virgin Trains, which always provide some sort of entertainment.  Here’s the sign they had in the bathroom! 🙂

On the tube traveling to our apartment in Fulham (a borough in southwest London).

Day 1:

First day out was quite rainy and blustery, and we were all a bit tired.  We decided to just roam around our neighborhood and see what we could find.  We saw sights a typical visitor to London might not see. 🙂  Fulham Palace, for example, was a Bishop’s residence for more than 12 centuries — about 700 to 1975!  Excavations in the area revealed that it was used by people much earlier than that, back as far as 3,000BC!

It was a warm and friendly place on a chilly day with a beautiful, cozy cafe and a small, but very well-done and informative museum area and gift shop.

Below: The Tudor courtyard of the palace, and L making a wish on a 2-pence coin he threw into the fountain.  A mosaic in the chapel.

Just outside the gardens of the palace was the River Thames!

We walked along the pathway and came to a church — All Saints Episcopal Church.

While the original parish dates back to the 13th century, the current church building was built in 1880.  That said, the church grounds are still covered with grave markers and tombstones from those very early years, including the one below from 1686!

Here’s a picture Mike snapped of the rain/snow mix. Looks like quintessential London. 🙂

Day 2:

These guys were up on top of trees as high as our building with chainsaws trimming branches!  They were connected to the trees with ropes and their chainsaws were connected to them by ropes!  YIKES!

Quaint little house on a street near our apartment.

Took the tube to Westminister, got up to street level, looked up and there it was — Big Ben and the Elizabeth Tower. (L prefers to use both names!)

And right down the street was Westminster Abbey (which we enjoyed from the outside)…

and as we crossed the street along side of Parliament Square, was a statue of Winston Churchhill looking over at us!  We hopped back on the tube at Westminster Station…

and hopped off at the North Greenwich Station, where we headed for the Emirates Air Line, which is a cable car link across the River Thames.  Before we got there, I had to get a picture in front of this perfectly pink sign spelling out CRAFT!  It’s actually a cafe/restaurant/bar, but it just spoke to me! 🙂

The Emirates Air Line cable car opened in 2012, so we thought we’d give it a go. From the cable car, you get to see some London sights from a totally different perspective and since our time in the city was limited, we thought it would be a unique way to see a few things from a different view.

As we walked up to the ticket booth, one of the helpful crew members told us that due to the windy conditions, the ride was suspended for 10 minutes and then they’d let us know. (My first thought…how is the wind going to stop in 10 minutes? It was really windy!)  We walked down to the River Thames to have a look at the river and up at the cable car above us.  And 10 minutes later we found ourselves soaring over the river! (Just so we’re clear, it was still windy!)

Cool views, although I was focused more on the cable cars heading back on this round-trip adventure that seemed to be swaying more than I wanted to see.  You can see L’s happy face and my “why are we up here face?” below.

Those dark blue ridges in the water below are actually waves the wind was making on the river.  Did I mention it was windy?  Those tiny little white blobs and the bigger square thing in the middle are for wake boarding lessons — on the River Thames!  Who knew?

We had booked a “round trip” cable car ride, so we were supposed to ride over and ride back in one lovely, relaxing ride.  Instead, when we got there, they had us get off because of the wind.  Again there was the magical 10-minute wait, and we were on our way.  It was still windy. Windier! And on the way back, the cable car rocked sideways and back and forth. I was not a fan.

Below, the round, space-ship looking building with the yellow cranes coming out of it is called the O2, and it’s actually quite a cool building. (You can walk across the top of that, too, if you’re so inclined. I wasn’t.)  And the other picture is of G and L in the cable car, safely on the ground.  Mike took the picture as I was still shaking. Really. :/

 

As part of the cable car experience, there was another area — the Emirates Aviation Experience, where the kids could sit in a pretend cockpit and learn a little about air travel using interactive displays.

We headed back to the tube to get back to our apartment.

And there you have our slightly unusual tour of London!

Glasgow – Day 3

On our last day of sightseeing in Glasgow we decided to visit the Scotland Street School Museum, which covers education in Scotland from the late 19th century to the late 20th century.  The school building was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, so even though we didn’t get to see his house (see Glasgow-Day 2 post), we still got to see one of his buildings.

On our way there, we had some fun with the paintings on the walls surrounding the Tennent Caledonian Brewery. 🙂

Then we passed by some super cool, “nature in the city” paintings on a couple buildings in the city center.

Model of the Scotland Street School. Checking out interactive exhibits and looking at the architect’s designs for the building.

 

Beautiful stained glass windows in the school.

 

The different types of work taught and learned during school.

L met a friend in the boys’ stairwell.  (The girls’ stairwell was on the other side.)

G assuming the role of a 19th century teacher. Poor L.

Trying on uniforms from the 40s on the left and G in a Victorian-style uniform on the right.

Taking the subway back to the city center disguised as Charles Rennie Mackintosh!

The next morning, we packed up and headed to the train station.  Next stop: London!