England Travel Log #3 - June 13, 2000, part 1

 June 13, 2000

Tuesday

This morning I feel perfectly grand!  Got my eight hours of sleep, figured out that the constant wheezing that I hear must be a pigeon outside my window instead of a couple having bad sex next door or somebody with emphysema in the next room.  My bags should be arriving this morning so that I can wear my blue striped t-shirt & blue jeans.  continental Breakfast is from 7-9, so I've got a half-hour or so to knock about & take my time.  I took a shower first thing when I got in yesterday, so I won't really need one right now.

I didn't take a whole lot of time to describe my room yesterday, so I'll go ahead & do that now while I'm waiting.

First thing you notice is that there's probably more space floor-to-ceiling than there is wall-to-wall.  It is a very tall room with some embossing around the ceiling, painted white.  The walls are papered in this horrible third rate peach and maroon stuff that only hotels use.  the paper is a combination of stripes, swirls, and diamonds.

One thing that room is not lacking in is bed space.  I guess that one twin bed and one single bed is enough for one person, wouldn't you?

I can hear the trains rumble through Paddington station every once in a while.  I feel it in my chest a bit more than just hearing it, but it's a comfort.  Something like how the ocean roars when you're staying on a condo near the beach.

As I mentioned before, I believe, the bathroom's particularly small.  The toilets here are different than U.S. toilets.  They're round on top instead of oval, and they're very, very deep - reminds me of a hole in the ground.  Thankfully, however, they do have seats on htem.  I hear there are some countries that do not have seats on their toilets, and I would find that exceedingly uncomfortable.

The shower is very small as well.  Basically, you step to one side of a little trough and you're in the shower.  The sink is in the same 'room' with the shower, which takes some adjustment.  The shower consists simply of one of those massage nozzles on a long tube.  There is a mount for it, but you must take the nozzel down to adjust the temp. 

I'm actually being a bit unjust in my description of the shower.  After I think about it, it seems practical to have the sink & mirror in with the shower.  Makes it particularly easier for a man to shave while showering instead of after.  And they do have what almost equates to a vanity in the bedroom.  In all, it's a very nice room.  No pillows, since I don't use feather due to my allergies, but the bed is comfortable and I can use stacked up towels for my pillow & do just fine.

There are reading lamps above the beds & also two bed stand tables.  I've got a nice little self-heating pitcher to make hot water for the tea or coffee they've provided.

Funny thing I found yesterday was that the phones charge per minute on local calls.  I was trying to call Richard so that I could get back my rain jacket.  Sadly, I'm probably going to have to get a new one.  But I'll drop back by the bar we stopped into by Kennsington Palace.  I'll find it very easily because there was a Burger King right across the road.

And speaking of roads!  They're so tiny!  Wow!  They've got the words "Look Right" or "Look Left" marked at some of the crosswalks.  Most people walk or use the Tube (subway trains) I believe.  It is also funny how some of the lines on the road are zig-zaged instead of straight.  I'm honestly glad that I'm not driving because I'd be far too confused in the city.  It might be easier in the country, but between driving on the left and one-way roads, I would be use to get in an accident.  Thank god for the European obsession with public transportation!

*  *  *  *  *

June 13, 2000 (cont.)

Well, the contacts are back in and seem to be doing O.K.  One thing I am missing about this bedroom is a box of kleenex.  My nose is giving me little fits from the new pollutants and I'd really like a proper kleenex to blow it in.  My allergy medicine is also with my bag.  I hope I won't need much because I only brought a few pills worth of Chlortrimeton.

The instant coffee is pretty good.  Cream & sugar & all, it tastes like the regular stuff!  Only a couple of packets though, so a real heavy coffee drinker would be up a creek.

*  *  *  *  *

Called Mom to let her know that I got here O.K.  Didn't mention about the bags or anything.  Also called the airport.  They said it'll be afternoon before my bags get here, so I'll be sight-seeing without my new camera today.  Maybe I can get a disposable & a t-shirt.  I can't go to Westminster without a camera.

Pictures

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*  *  *  *  *

June 13, 2000 (cont.)

O.K., it was funny when it was just misplaced, now they've only found the one bag.  I broke down and picked up some essential toiletries - shampoo, deoderant, razors.  Was sick of smelling myself, but the Tube had stunk so bad it didn't matter if I was adding one more odor.  Picked up a new shirt & am cleaning out the one I was wearing in case the bag isn't my clothes bag.  Put an extra change in the other, though, so at least I'll have a change of clothes either way.

Still morning now.  I'll be heading off to Westminster now that I'm feeling human again.

Funny thing: Everybody in London speaks French.

Temps in upper 60's (F)

Pictures  (listed in my journal, all not necessarily shown when you see these lists)
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Thames @ Westminster

Aqurium w/ Millenium Wheel

Westminster "Bridge Street"

Big Ben

Sovreign's Entrance - W.A.

Golden Eagle

Yellow - Big Ben Building

White = Westminster Abbey

Oliver Cromwell in front of Big Ben

Churchill in front of W.A.
George V in front of W.A.
BesideW. A.

Gardens inside W.A. (Little Cloister - College Garden)

Let me give you an idea of how awesome it is to be sitting on the steps of George V's statue between two of these most impressive pieces of historical architecture.  Big Ben (named for Sir Benjamin Hall, who commissioned its building) rings every fifteen minutes.  What I refer to as Big Ben in the pictures also includes the Parliament Building, which it is attached to.  

Clouds billow here and there in the sky, which is extraordinarily blue for a day that started out being so overcast.  People drive, walk, rollerblade, and motor by, as i f there is nothing here to be particularly impressed by.  But they see this daily.  There are also tourists like myself taking pictures to capture every moment.  Now off to find out how I can get in to see the abbey.

Not hard at all to get into the abbey, but they don't allow picture-taking.  There are statues everywhere, donated by all sorts of people from English history.  Yes, the architecture is truly breathtaking - I don't believe my writing could ever do it justice, so I'm just going to walk around and marvel at it.

I am down to change & was going to cash one of my traveler's checks, but he said they don't take them here.  I pulled out my change, ,which was three pounds & a bit.  He said "I'll take the three pounds and will just call you a student, how 'bout."  I am continually amazed and grateful for how kind the people are here.  there's not been one person rude or nasty.  Everybody's been so marvelous and even going out of their way to help this  silly little American girl.  It would be so easy & tempting to make London my home.

*  *  *  *  *

I am overcome by a sense of worship and kneel before the steps leading up to the altar.  I feel God in this place.  The awesome power of millions of worshippers through four centuries of celebrating God's work in this world through Jesus Christ's teachings.  One's soul is touched by the amount of love coursing through the veins of stone.  I'm sure that the remains of the most powerful and talented people in my history have only added to the energy of this awesome spectacle.  

I came through poet's corner just before entering the Worshiping Abbey.  How many people lay here!  Chaucer, Keats, Lawrence, Tennyson!  It must be the English in me that admires great works of thought over and above works of strength & state.  Seeing Mary, Elizabeth, Richard II, Edward, Henry, etc. etc. - it's amazing.  But the Poet's corner, that is beauty and grace at its finest.

O.K. - the abbey was founded in the tenth century, so we're talking a thousand years.  St. Paul's is only four centuries - and not quite even that.  This is a Gothic place - truly.  In every sense.  I should be getting along to that boat tour, or lunch, or something - but I am loathe to leave.  No wonder there are so many skinny English.  It takes too much time to eat when there's so much else to see and do.

England Travel Log #2 - June 12, 2000

 June 12, 2000

Monday

I just saw the most incredible sunrise of my life this morning.  I've seen sunsets and have painted sunsets which could rival the beauty of this one.  But I still can't believe how I saw an ocean of red appear eastward over the Atlantic, followed by ever lightening but equally as vibrant shades of orange, yellow and blue.  Of course, with the majority of the sky still being deep blue or black.

There is a little frost on my window from the night air.  I guess we've been in the plane for two hours or so.  I've slept, but I put my watch in my bag and was barely able to reach down and feel out this notebook.

This flight really has been incredible from point "A" where I boarded to find a little care kit complete with toothbrush, eye covers for sleeping, and a blanket.  All of which I get to take with me.  Given, the hour wait inside the plane, sweltering, I could have done without.  We had to wait for the storm and lightening to let up and the airplane's A/C can't work while we're setting still.  I'm really going to need a shower when I get to London.

I so wanted to take a picture of that sunrise from the window here, but I couldn't figure out how to stop the flash - and that would have been incredibly rude to the other passengers if I'd done it.

I just ate "dinner," which was fisherman's pie.  It really was wonderful - fish, potato, carrots, etc.  A bit like a pot pie, but without the breading.  They kept offering wine & other alcoholic drinks, but I really don't feel like drinking anything after Saturday night's wine tasting.

They keep asking me to put down my window completely, so I suppose I must now.  It doesn't take but a crack to let in a flood of light.  I still need to get some more sleep, myself.

Turns out I'm not the only one with my window open, but I am on the bright side of the plane.  Oh!  You should have seen New York City when we took off!  So many lights!  I even saw the statue of Liberty's torch lit up.  How amazing it all was!

*  *  *  *  * 

Managed to get a fair amount of sleep on the flight, but my eyes sure stung when I put drops in them just now.  I hope that's just from the lack of sleep the last day or so, because I'd hate to have to spend the whole trip without my contacts.

The Englishman sitting beside me says that Americans are obsessed with cleanliness.  this is really news to me.  I know some Americans who do have this obsession, but not many.  Particularly not in my generation.

They just passed out Boarding Passes to all american passport holders.  I guess we must do something weird with ours that Europeans do differently.  Landing soon, have to put all this away.

*  *  *  *  * 

I'm already having great fun!  I've had my luggage lost by the airlines, so they gave me 75L to help out.  I took "The Tube" and a guy came on with his guitar, playing Beatles songs for spare change.  Then I got on the wrong train (a couple of times) & met a guy named Richard who is from northern Africa.  He offered to help me find my way.  Right now we're visiting a friend of his in a very plush bar, where they play blues music like "Blue Moon" over the speakers.  I'm drinking a beer called "Stella Artois" off tap.

*  *  *  *  *

Yay@  You'll all be so proud of me, I finally found my hotel.  It's called the Ty-Melyn instead of just the Melyn.  It only took me a half hour of walking aimlessly up and down streets.  Ah well, c'est la vie!

Turns out that I left my new camera in the airplane, but they'll put it with my other bags to be returned to me tomorrow morning.

Richard started professing his love to me after the beer, so I had to set him straight on my views of long-distance relationships.  Not interested.  Holy cow, I'm in another country twenty minutes and already I'm breaking hearts.  It must be like what Monty told me about the American accent sounding so seductive to Europeans.  Gotta love 'em.

Richard is going to visit a friend in Miami Beach anyway, so everything is good.  I may meet up with him for a friendly dinner next Friday.

However, back to the light side of things.  He took me over to Hyde Park to show me Kennsington Palace.  We sat & chatted in a bit of Franglaise.  It's really a beautiful day here.  Temperature is 70s-ish, humidity is high, but the sky is clear as anything.  Apart from the architecture, vehicles, and knocking into everyone walking on the left side of the sidewalk, I could almost be back in Virginia.

Given, the hotel room is small, as is the bathroom, but it's not like I have to entertain guests or anything, so who cares?  There is a TV, but I'm too tired to hunt down Baywatch.

I've got post cards, but right now I'm beat.  So I'm going to sleep for a millennium & write them when I wake up in the middle of darkness.

Damnit.  Feather pillows.  I can't sleep on those.  No problem - just try without pillows.

*  *  *  *  *

Author's notes from 2013:

     When I converted money from dollars to pounds, I had to ask if they used base-100 for their currency.  I over-thought the thing, yes, but I didn't know if all countries devided their base unit of cash into 100s!  It could have been 75s or 10s or 1000s for all I knew.

     A second point that must be considered - coming to June at this time of year meant that I was near the Spring Solstice.  England is on a high latitude and I had not connected before getting there that the solar day would be similar to a polar solstice -- no dark.  Since England is not in the arctic circle there is a dimming at 'night' but the whole night concept is purely based on your clock.  I would have benefited greatly by a nice thick sleep mask.

*  *  *  *  *

June 12, 2000 (cont.)

Well, I don't know what made me wake up three hours after going to bed.  However, it's dinner time, so I went wandering through my surroundings here.  There's the Burger King on the corner, which would just be too easy.  There are several fast-food "Fish & Chips" hanging about.  A number of nice pubs - British, Greek, and other.  

I settled on a basic deli sandwich - which was actually difficult enough in a greek store where I not only have a communication & access barrier between myself & the chef, but also don't recognize the names of half the meats listed on their menu.  I chose the meat, told him that I trusted him with the rest.  I picked up this banana yogurt drink & some water (in case liquid yogurt was a foul thing).  It's not bad, but certainly different.  The huge display of cookies in the deli leads me to believe that the English have a definite bent on a sweet tooth.

Norfolk square is "very lovely," just as the two older women at the news stand indicated when they gave me directions earlier.  The temperature has dropped significantly, but I don't have a change of clothes, nor do I know where the nearest department store would be to get some.  There was a vendor on the corner, sitting several long dresses, but I really don't think I want to do that.

They rang up my food & I felt almost like I was back home with dollars and cents, etc.  I've got to keep in mind that a pound is worth more than a dollar.

It's 8 o'clock & still light outside.  Feels like it will remain so for a while yet.  Oh, I wish I had my clothes!  Am still wearing my glasses because of my eyeball being scratched slightly.

To do
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Thames River Boat tour
St. Paul's Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
Mme. Tussaud's Wax Museum
Hyde Park
Richmond Park
Globe Theater
Tower of London
Big Ben
Buckingham Palace

England Travel Log #1 - June 11, 2000

 June 11, 2000

Sunday

First leg of the trip and I've already mixed up one thing.  After last night's party I had wine speckled all over the khaki shorts I wore.  So I hand-washed them this morning.  I laid them outside to dry.  Well, now I'm in the Richmond airport and they're still out there on my front porch for the world to see or steal.  I called a friend and left a message on their machine asking them to pick up my shorts.  I'm sure they'll get a good laugh over that.

Right now I've got all sorts of butterflies in my stomach.  Of course, part of that is last night's wine, but this happens to my every time I fly.  The excitement of going somewhere far away - somewhere new that I've never been - and it's only a few hours away.

BTW - my handwriting is worse than usual right now because I only got three or four hours of sleep last night -- and most of that was the sleep of the passed-out-dead-drunk.  I'd better get some good sleep on the plain tonight or I'll be dead when I get to London.  My contacts are functioning really poorly since I put in the new pair today.  Probably just my poor tired eyes.

Just talked to the guy sitting beside me here, also waiting for the flight (which is running ten minutes or so late) - he's in the army and going to Frankfurt, Germany.  Small world, this is.

Well, the contacts are off, the glasses are on.  Tired eyes don't deal well with contacts I'm realizing (and tired fingers still don't write well).

The crowd is getting rowdy - their flight is late and everybody's ready to go.  There's an interesting blonde lady waiting.  She looks like she was a debutante thirty years ago in Texas.  Big hair, sun-roughened skin.  Cute little brown-eyed girl-baby just pulled my hair from behind.

*   *   *   *   *

Yay!  On the plane and only fifteen minutes late at doing it.  Karen, beside me, had her US Air flight cancelled and was dumped into this little flight.  Little meaning three seats across and only ten rows.  It's hot, you can smell the people around you, even if you can't see them.  One guy just jumped on, but the flight's apparently over-booked by one.  Nice lady from up north just gave her seat to him since she's apparently not in a real hurry to get away from her family.

Please god, let the flights over go safely & without mishap.

Always makes me nervous when the stewardess asks the people in the exit row seats if they're willing to assist the other passengers in case of evacuation.  Patrice just made the final announcements (she's the stewardess) and it's now almost a half-hour past the scheduled departure time.

The people behind me are sarcastic & nasty, feeling compelled to comment on everything they see as less-than-perfect.  But the heat in the plane could do that to anyone.

*  *  *  *  * 

June 11, 2000 (cont.)

In the Kennedy airport right now.  It's funny how I can look around and tell the English from the Americans by how they look &/or are dressed.  I'm setting across from an American couple who look like college students.  It seems strange that it's the American accent which sounds out of place here.  

When we landed here I saw airplanes from more companies than I'd ever heard of before.  Israel, Ireland (clover on the tail), Africa, France, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia -- I think just about every country or continent under the sun.  And, of course, people from each of those countries.  Not that this truth is new to anyone -- an International airport should be so colorful & multi-cultural.

How do I describe the difference between the Americans & English here?  That the English are perhaps more angular?  Not that they're necessarily skinnier - but they have an edge to them, where americans tend to have softer and more rounded features.

Are they more serious?  Perhaps.  If not, they do look it at least.  I still don't know how I'll get used to hearing the English accent surrounding me.  It feels like I'm listening to a foreign language even though it is my own.

I was reminded earlier of one of the opening scenes of the movie "Dogma" where the two 'angels' just sat around watching or talking with the airline passengers.  They would do it just for fun -- I can see the attraction now that I'm alone in the airport, myself.

*  *  *  *  *

No one seems particularly interested in talking, so I may as well write some more.  We're playing a bit of musical chairs here.  I went to the bathroom & someone sat in my seat, now I've done the same to someone else.  We've only got a short while before boarding and all the empty seats are being filled up.  The airport is cold, so I put on my faincoat, which is surprisingly warm.

There've been a couple of Orthodox Jews walking around with their big beards, long black coats, & wide-brimmed hats.  They look a bit like the Amish.  I never realized before that they shave part of their heads.

We just got notice that due to the lightening outside, they've stopped fueling the plane & we have an undetermined boarding time.  However, one of the men I met here said he just came from the check-in desk and there are about a hundred people still checking in & that must be the real reason for the delay.

I am loving the Air France announcements in French & English.  I could pick up my French again by listening to them long enough.

The man beside me is from Bulgaria, but is now a resident of NYC.  He doesn't speak very good english, so I've been trying to explain to him that the flight has been delayed because of the storm.  He'll be flying a long time since he's going back to Bulgaria to visit his parents.  I don't envy him the flight.  Poor guy can't even understand the announcement about which rows are seating.  I tried to explain, but he doesn't understand.  I guess I was lucky to be able to explain about the storm.

(Kennedy to Heathrow: 5 hours, 45 minutes)

England Travel Log - Prologue

To put this in context:

The year was 2000.  The stock market had dipped from its 12,000 Dow high, but had not crashed.  The NASDAQ had been hovering in the 4000 range.  The tech bubble was full and there were few who would predict it to burst.  Clinton was in his last year of presidency.  He and Hillary had weathered Lewinsky and we were all grateful not to be hearing anything more about the stained blue dress except in off-color jokes.

There had been no Mad Cow -- no 9/11 -- but yes, we had Columbine.  We had a housing market with values growing ridiculously every year and we all knew it, though the Realtors all claimed "this is the best time to buy and own a home!"

I had been working in the banking industry for three years.  The last two and a half had been in sales and I was licensed for deposit accounts, lending, and brokerage.  What's more - I was good at my job.  My clients loved me.  I maintained relationships.  I was honest and set reasonable expectations.  They trusted me and I was proud of that trust.  With it came bonus checks -- that seemed like just too much after I allocated large amounts toward savings.  So I took a trip that I'd always wanted to take - and didn't worry about the cost.

I went to England.  On my own, feeling safe.  Feeling all the hope and idealism that comes with being able to create your own destiny.  No International cell phone service, just a camera and paper maps.  This is my story.