London Trip Part 5: Victoria and Albert Museum

Matt was in a business meeting, so Frankie and I had the morning to ourselves on Friday. Since I was in charge and Frankie is basically my tourism prisoner, I drug her over to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is a decorative arts museum. They have an amazing collection of furniture, glass, sculpture, art, fashion, jewelry,and household items from the Renaissance to the present day. It was my kind of museum. They even had a whole room devoted to md-century modern furniture, which is totally my favorite thing in the world.

Perhaps most impressive was the building itself. It was an enormous palace, beautifully ornamented and absolutely gorgeous to look at.

The V&A did have some nice activities for kids. They handed out "adventure packpacks" and invited kids to follow a series of clues through different galleries of the muesum, which was very fun for Frankie.They also had a quilt making workshop that Frankie and I sat in on.

We were there for four hours, and then Matt joined us after finishing up his meeting. From there, it was on to the Natural History Museum.

London Trip Part 4: Picadilly Circus

Our first big outing was to Picadilly Circus. It was a beautiful afternoon. We walked through Soho and Chinatown as the sun was setting, and then took Frankie out to dinner and a movie. We ate at the Rainforset Cafe, a nice compromise for Frankie who has been very good at eating at boring grown-up restaurants lately. Then, it was off to How to Train Your Dragon in 3D, which she loved even though it was a little scary.

Frankie's favorite part of the day were the buildings covered in tv screens. It totally blew her mind. She laughed and laughed, and clearly thought London was one crazy town. Can't say that I'd argue with her there.

London Trip Part 3: The Tube

It had been around fifteen years since I'd ridden on the London Underground, and being at the tube station really brought back some fond memories. It was so busy, noisy, and energetic... It was honestly kind of thrilling taking that first ride.

Frankie loved the idea of a network of underground trains that ran, hidden, throughout the entire city. She seemed to take the noise, heat, and crowds in stride, and took to the experience like a real city gal.

I don't have any pictures of the crowds on the underground, because there were moments where it was so packed full of people, I could barely move my arms let alone raise a camera. I'm not sure if it was due to the airport freeze, or if it's always that busy down there. It seemed on one or two occasions that we wouldn't even be able to squeeze out of the subway car, we were so packed in.

It sounds miserable, but it really wasn't so bad. It was exciting, as long as I didn't let my claustrophobic side take over.

London Trip Part 2: The Bonkatorium

We walked from Euston station to our hotel, where Matt had booked us a "family room." (Translation: Room with two beds.) The hotel was in a great location, right across the street from a tube station, and very near lots of interesting restaurants and pubs.

The hotel room was very nice, and very comfortable. It did, however, have some of the weirdest structural details I've ever seen. The room was on the top floor, in what, once upon a time, would have been considered the attic. The shape of the attic translated oddly into the room itself... It was like there was a giant inverted pyramid in the center of the room, right at head-bonking level. Thus, we christened the room "The Bonkatorium."

It was as if the hotel room had been designed by MC Esher.

Frankie's favorite part of the room were these weird gigantic round pillows that the hotel kept on the floor by the kid's bed. I honestly can't figure out what purpose they were intended to serve--- They were way too big to fit on any of the beds. They made for a great slide, though.

London Trip Part 1: The Train

The London trip was such a whirlwind of activity, I hardly know how to describe it. We were there for almost four days, and tried to cram in as much sightseeing as possible. It was exciting and exhausting, all rolled into one.

Part one of the trip was the train ride into London.

We left from the Maryport train station, which is right around two miles from our house. The Maryport station is really small. There are no buildings there and no ticket office-- It's just a platform with a tiny wind/rain shelter. Because we didn't have anywhere to park the car at the station, we had to walk from our house to the train. Matt, Frankie, and I had a loooong walk over, dragging all of our luggage down the narrow sidewalks and trying to make it to the platform on time.

Because the Maryport station is small and kind of deserted, we didn't know what to expect frm the train itself. When we got on, though, it was actually pretty nice. The train was clean, and the seats were large and comfortable.

We transefred trains in Carslile, about 45 minutes away. This station was much bigger,with multiple tracks. .

(Frankie enjoyed a chocolate muffin while we waited for our London train.)

It was at this point that we started hearing about the volcano in Iceland. It was all over the news, and it seemed like the freeze on air travel was going to make for a very busy day at the train station.

The train to London, predictably, was totally packed. Every seat was filled by frantic businessmen, trying to make arrangements to reschedule meetings or figure out how to get in & out of London. It was a hectic scene.

About hour two into our five hour trip, I came down with a bad case of motion sickness. When the train pulled into the Euston station in London, I was so happy to finally not be moving!

Travel Update

We're headed off to jolly old London tomorrow. Yay!

Also, it looks like Matt, Frankie, and I will be coming back to Colorado for a visit at the end of May. Double yay!

Culture Shock: British Telly

I’ve been living for a month without DVR service, and I hate it. I feel like I've been catapulted back in time to the year 1996 via some sort of nefarious wormhole. Remember 1996? Hardly anyone over the age of 20 knew how to use email, laptop computers were something you'd see in a sci-fi film, and cell phones were the size of bricks.

I can't go back there. I just can't.

Back in my previous life in Colorado, I'd occasionally talk to someone that didn't have a DVR and claimed not to like tv. On the surface, I might pretend to commiserate with them. "Oh, yes. TV. Hardly watch it myself. Mind-numbing stuff. Kills your brain." Silently, though, I'd pity them. I'd think.... Of course you don't like tv. You don't have a DVR! Without the godlike power to pause live tv and skip through commercials, what’s the point?

I know this is a very uncool thing to say, but I actually love tv. I love sitting down at the end of the day and plowing through an episode of America's Next Top Model, or Glee, or whatever sort of semi-trashy, mindless show I’ve recorded.

Matt, he likes highbrow documentaries and science shows. Not me. I love campy junk. A totally predictable procedural drama like Castle? Yes, please! Project Runway? Bring it on!

But, the pleasure that tv gives me really only works through a DVR. If I have to sit on the couch and flip channels until something mildly tolerable comes on, only to then have to sit and wait through a dozen awful commercials before the show I could barely tolerate in the first place comes back on the screen…. Well, it pretty much kills all of the fun of watching for me.

Since watching television without a DVR feels like taking a step backwards to the tehnology of 1996, it seems appropriate somehow that the shows being aired on British television are also frozen in time. In total, we have about twenty channels that we can access through our tv. No exaggeration, at any time during the day I can turn on the television and find an episode of Friends on the air. If that doesn't suit your fancy, then flip to another channel where reruns of Top Gear play in an endless loop. After that, guaranteed, will be an old episode of CSI: Las Vegas.

In the evenings, Matt and I will sometimes sit in the living room and before turning on the tv one one of us will say to the other, "So... What'll it be? Top Gear, or Friends?" Because other than commercials, that's pretty much it. The free channels that we currently get via antennae don't give us any first-run American shows, or any British shows that seem remotely watchable. (Ok, other than documentaries. Matt watched a two-hour documentary on bread the other day that he's still excited about.)

But, we're on the road to modernization. I've called a cable company, and we're going to get cable and a DVR service installed on Monday. Personally, I can't wait. The new season of Glee has already started, and I missed Sue Sylvester's shot-by-shot remake of Madonna's "Vogue." I've got to get with the times!