Cheerio from Jolly old England!! My, we are getting around this trip, aren't we?? It's been another busy and fun week.
The week started off with the Rinaldi's coming over for dessert on Monday. This was so that they could say hi to my parents, who were arriving that evening (more on that later), and also so they could say goodbye. Tuesday was to be the last tutoring sessions for the boys as Shahla is heading to Iran for 5 weeks. So we had cookies, brownies, and cidre and all laughed and talked together. My parents called after a while and said that they were stuck in Toulouse. The train that runs to Colomiers stopped running at 9:00 and they arrived at 9:10. So some of us made a trip to get them. It was good that the Rinaldi's were there. We would have never found them otherwise!!
Tuesday, Andrew had a full day with the tutor. Then my parents, the boys and I (poor Dave) packed off to Carcassonne overnight. We stayed in a bed and breakfast in the walled city. The bed and breakfast was very pleasant with a very interesting Scottish host and a loud TV. He fell asleep in front of the TV with the volume all the way up. Fine, until it was just static!! Before bed, we had an interesting dinner at a cave-like restaurant. The sign outside said that there was live music. It was actually a practice session for a not so good band. They would start on a song, then stop half way through when they messed up. Then they would start over again. It got a little annoying after a while.
On Wednesday, we saw the city. We bought some souvenirs (after all, we may never be back, right?) and Andrew discovered that he does NOT like haunted houses. We spent all day there and got back in time to pick Dave up from work.Thursday morning, Dave dropped my parents off at the airport. They were heading to London for a day before flying home. I spent the day cleaning the house. You see, the realtor got our month's notice, and already wanted to show the house. Sigh. I was hoping to rest for a day before packing. Oh well, now we will come home to a clean house.
Friday morning the realtor came through the house. All that cleaning, and they only spent 10 minutes in the house and tracked flowers all over!! Then in the afternoon, I took Shahla to the airport. We said goodbye. I hope that we see her again. We have come to really like the family. Maybe Roxanna will come visit with us this summer.
Saturday, we started off on our last big trip, London! Our plane was supposed to leave at 9:40, but, as there was an "unofficial" security strike, it took a long time to load the luggage. It was almost an hour before we left. And, of course, when we arrived in London, one of our bags was missing. We had all our clothes and things, but no cameras!! Bummer.
That didn't stop us, though. We took the express train into London and found our hotel. It is a really cute bed and breakfast in Belgravia. We are a few blocks from Buckingham palace! After settling in, we asked for a recommendation for someplace quick for lunch. We are used to living in France, where this is difficult, but in London, no problem. The guy that checked us in suggested we go back to the train station (three blocks) and eat upstairs. So we followed his advice and you'll never believe what we found. All of the major tube stations have malls in them. Stores, groceries, and a food court! There was a Starbucks, burger King, Mc Donalds, and a bagel shop. We settled for the KFC, although the deep dish pizza place looked good too. Funny how good fast food tastes when you haven't had it for a while.
After lunch, we bought a disposable camera and took the tube to the Natural history museum. This was a good way to spend the rest of our first day here. They have a special dinosaur exhibit. There were lots of bones and interactive displays, but the most impressive were the animatronic dinos. The T-rex was very realistic and appeared to be sniffing you. Very scary. Michael thought it was really cool and had a big grin on his face when we left.
We also checked out the mammal exhibit (complete with full scale models of a Blue whale and many other large mammals), and the "creepy crawly" exhibit. Gross! In one section, they showed you all of the bugs that live in your kitchen. The boys loved it.
Unfortunately, the museum was closing, so we took the tube back to the hotel to see if our luggage had arrived. Nope. So we went for dinner. What else do you have, the first night in London? Fish and Chips. Yum! Andrew is even sold on Vinegar instead of ketchup.
Sunday morning, after discovering that our suitcase had arrived, we had a real English breakfast. France has great food, but the breakfasts leave a lot to be desired. We had eggs and toast, fried mushrooms, ham, grilled tomatoes (read to-MAT-toes), OJ, fruit, bread, cereal, cheese, and of course TEA! We enjoyed it so much, that Dave and I were planning what we would have tomorrow before we finished.
Then we took the tube to the Westminster pier. While looking at Big Ben, we bought tickets for a river cruise to Greenwich. The tour was very pretty and the guide was really funny and informative. When we got to Greenwich, we explored the last remaining Tea Clipper, the Cutty Sark. This boat could travel up to 20 miles per hour, had three masts and over 11 miles of rope on the deck. We got to tour the whole boat, from the head, to the galley, to the crews quarters. It even had a saloon, even though there were only about 28 people on board.
After exploring the ship, we had worked up an appetite, so we stopped at a local grocery to pick up picnic supplies. We ate in the shadow of the clipper, before heading on to the Old Navel College.
We walked the grounds and peaked in the chapel and the painted hall, but there was nothing much to see here. So instead we moved on to the Maritime Museum. We spent a long time here. They have displays on any aspect of sea faring. I enjoyed the section on arctic explorers and shipwrecks the most. There were quite a few things displayed from the titanic. The boys really liked the art room (where they made 3-D rock ponds. I have no idea how we are getting these home), and the "hands on" kids area. They got to practice loading cargo with a crane, test out deep sea diving equipment, and have target practice with a cannon. It was a really cool museum. We had a hard time dragging them away.
We had other places to go, though. We trudged up a steep hill to the Royal observatory. At the top of the hill, we got to stand on the prime meridian (0 Longitude) and see the clock that sets the world's time, Greenwich Mean Time. As Dave said, this place is obsessed with clocks!! In the museum, there were all different kinds of clocks. Even an atomic clock. There is also a large telescope here. And, in one of the rooms, there was an ancient telescope that you could look through and see Pluto (as in Mickey and Pluto. Very Funny).
As we were walking through Greenwich, we decided that is was time for dinner. So, when you are in Greenwich, what do you eat? Tex Mex!! It was actually a really good meal. Then it was back to the hotel for baths and bed.
Whew. This was a really long note. I will try to divide up the rest for you. We have a lot of really cool things to see this week. I think we all will be really worn out by the time we leave on Sunday, but you only get to do this once, right? Until then!
Amy
