Greenwich, a “Prime” day

Yesterday, July 31, we went on another class field trip to Greenwich. I was so excited about going to Greenwich, for lots of reasons. First, I teach Geography, and the Prime or Greenwich Meridian is VERY important. Secondly, I love the movie "Mary Poppins" and Burt, the chimney sweep says "The world gets its time from Greenwich, but Greenwich gets its time from Admiral Boom!" If you haven't seen "Mary Poppins" lately, go watch it, you'll remember. We rode on a boat down the Thames to get to Greenwich (pronounced "GRIN-itch" not "Green Witch, which I know, but the IT guy here felt obligated to correct me while I was telling Lenese how to spell it the other day – yuck!) and I was again struck by the architecture along the Thames. There are old buildings that look abandoned, new building built in old styles, old buildings being refurbished and new, and fantastically designed buildings like the one called "The Bullet" or "The Gherkin." I took even more pictures of the Tower Bridge, and St Paul's as we went by, but I'll restrain myself from showing you those pictures again!

As we got to Greenwich, we saw the Greenwich Wheel, which is a mini version of the London Eye. It's cute, where the Eye is massive. We wandered through town to the complex that holds the Queen's House (which we didn't go in), The Royal Observatory, and the National Maritime Museum. We went first to the Royal Observatory, which is up a STEEP hill. I think we were all gasping for breath by the time we got up there. The view from the top was worth the climb. At the top, the first thing is an official clock and the official lengths and measures for Britain. You can also see the Time Ball, which falls every day at 1:00, which is 13:00 hours, I think. I called it 13 o'clock, which I know is not right. Apparently, to find longitude, in the old days, ships had to know the official time at their home port to figure longitude. The Time Ball is located high on a hill, so ships anywhere in the vicinity, could see it fall and set their clocks for official time. It still falls nearly every day at 1:00. We went into the Observatory, where we saw some bits and pieces of old things used to figure longitude, and then we went around the corner, and there is was, right there – the Prime Meridian. People were lining up to take their pictures, and of course we took our turn. You can see some of my pictures of me standing in two hemispheres at once. It was seriously cool! There is a gift shop, and of course I found some stuff to wear when I teach the Prime Meridian.

We had lunch, and then we went back to the National Maritime Museum. If I didn't have my Uncle Bob, and my cousin Michael who is retired from the Navy, and my cousin Barry, who is about to retire from the Navy, I don't know if the Maritime Museum would have interested me so much. There are huge anchors outside, and some great stuff inside – figure heads from ships, huge propellers, and a great display of uniforms. I still don't know if any of their uniforms look any better than Michael and Barry in their dress whites, but the ones we saw were still impressive. It was just cool. There was a shop, of course and they had the cutest shirt – of course none the right size, but it was a red shirt that reads "Hello, Sailor!" I thought about my Aunt Mary Ellen – she would have loved it.

We wandered our way back to the dock to get back on the boat – it started to rain. Now, I have discovered that English rain is NOT like Florida rain. At home, it rains hard and fast, and it's over. This rain doesn't do that. It sort of spits rain. It's vaguely irritating – not enough rain to make it worth fishing out and fighting with your umbrella, but too much rain to go without it. Then, when I do decide to open up the umbrella, I worry about poking out someone's eye. I only worry about this, because I nearly run into other people's umbrellas all the time. Maybe I should have gotten an eye patch at the Maritime Museum. . .

We came back to our flat, and all my flat mates when to see a show – Linda and Katherine to see "We Will Rock You" and Jessica and Pamela saw "Zorro." I was a good girl and stayed here and worked. It was worth it, I got my podcast and digital story mostly finished, they both just need a little tweaking. Jessica and Pamela came in dancing and swashbuckling and Linda and Katherine came in singing. It was a good day!

Heaven in a bowl!

Today is starting off GREAT! Today we are going to Greenwich which is very exciting to me. I don't know how excited the rest of my class mates are, but teaching Geography, I'm excited. And to get even better, last night at our American dinner, Dr. E found some grits! Yes, I had two monstrous bowls of grits with my fish last night and it was so good – I don't even have the words. So guess what I'm having for breakfast this morning. Right another big bowl of grits with lots of butter. Heaven in a bowl, I am a happy camper! Dr. E, you are the Queen of the World!

Paris, part 2

Today I'm doing homework, and I can't imagine that anyone would want to read my thoughts on that, so I'll finish my weekend in Paris. The view from the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre was incredible. Our guide told us that the church has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nearly since it was completed. That is pretty impressive. Notre Dame has the most gorgeous stained glass windows I've ever seen, and the rose windows are incredible. A book I bought about the stained glass says the west rose window is the smallest; it's only 10 meters across. Only 10 meters? Now, I know that I am innumerate, but I do know that my meter stick and my yard stick are nearly the same length, so that is sort of like 30 feet across. ONLY? Of course it doesn't seem so big, when you're standing at the bottom looking up at it. I really wanted to see some of the gargoyles on the corners, but we could never figure out how to get up there.

After we left Notre Dame on the bus, the guide and driver took us to the Opera House. This is a fantastic looking building, with gold figures and massive steps. We were given more free time and the bus was picking us up again at 6. Katherine and I were tired and hot and I was getting a bit irritable, which I know is hard to imagine. We asked our guide how to get back to our hotel, and we left. We took the metro, right by ourselves, except for the lady from Taiwan and her two little boys, who followed us. We only made one wrong turn, we went the wrong way when we came out of the metro and walked about three blocks away from our hotel instead of towards it, but we figured it out. Actually Katherine figured out most of it, I just followed her. When we got back to our nice cool hotel room, I took a long, cool bath and read a book. I thoroughly enjoyed the bathtub at our hotel. Katherine read a book, and then I took a nap. We woke up about 7:15, I think. We braved the Metro again, and went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. Why the Hard Rock? One big reason is that they have free refills – Yay!!!! After the Hard Rock, which took about 2 ½ hours (and we weren't waiting in line) we went to the Eiffel Tower.

Now, up to this point, I was really not so thrilled with Paris, and was sort of regretting the trip. I know that part of this was the ineptness of our guide and driver and not the city of Paris itself, but regardless, I was not impressed. But when we came out of the metro station and saw the Eiffel Tower through the trees, all lit up in blue, it made up for everything.

The Eiffel Tower is such an iconic image – everybody knows what it is and where it is. It dominates that part of the skyline. I just couldn't keep myself from taking pictures of it, even if I could only see one little teeny tiny part. On Friday afternoon, I took about 20 pictures of it in the daylight and I think I took more than that when we saw it on Saturday night. I was amazed how something so big, and so massive, can still manage to look so delicate and almost lacy. That sounds really stupid, but when I look at it, that's what I think. Katherine and I waited in line, the top level was closed, and we could only go to the second level. I was a little worried about the little elevator (we did NOT climb the steps) but it was OK. While we were waiting in line, for about 15 minutes, there were flashing lights that just exploded all over. It was incredible, and the collective gasp of "OOOOO" and "AHHHHH" was quite impressive.

When we stepped out in the 2^nd level, there are hardly any words to explain how beautiful Paris looked. I made a video for my family, while going from side to side. You really can't see anything, except lights, but it's beautiful. While we were up there, there were fireworks somewhere in the distance. While we were on the first floor of the second level, we heard some serious cheering and congratulating from the second floor, and I wondered if someone proposed to someone else. I don't know why I thought that, but it would be awesome if it were true!

We left the Eiffel Tower and grabbed a cab back to our hotel. It was nearly one o'clock when we got back to our hotel. The next morning, we went to the Louvre. We had a little issue with traffic as the Tour de France was ending in the city in the afternoon, and they were already beginning to close streets. We spent the morning in the Louvre; we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Again, I was just amazed at all the people snapping pictures and this time, there was no sign to say not too, so I snapped right along with them. We did hear that near the Mona Lisa, there is a sign that says "No Flash photography" but we didn't see it and it didn't stop anybody at all. We left the Louvre, avoided the Tour de France barricades and headed back "home" to London.

On the ferry from Calais to Dover, Katherine and I stayed outside the whole time. This ferry was MUCH smaller than our first ferry and actually had an open deck. The "White Cliffs of Dover" were fantastic, and I was so glad to see them. I wondered how much more I would feel if this were actually my country, and I had been away for a long time, how it would feel to see those white cliffs. I thought about airmen during World War II who were flying missions and not knowing if they would make it home, and seeing the cliffs. I can't imagine how it would feel.

Life Lesson # 2

Last week I learned a life lesson – to not quit my day job and take up photography as a career. Today I learned another life lesson – never talk with your hands while eating a donut on the beach at Brighton, at least if you stop to talk. Today we went to Brighton. A two hour bus ride from London is this beautiful beach. Not at all like a Florida beach, no clean white sand here, this is a pebbly, rocky beach but the rocks are smooth, not jagged. (I'm not sure what the difference is between a pebble and a rock.) It has a pier with all sorts of interesting things on it, rides, a game room, and all sorts of "fair food." As I write this, my stomach is feeling a little ill from all the junk I ate today, but it was good. When we first got there, the sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing, it was COLD! We got off the bus, with Brian, our fabulous Blue Badge guy, and walked to the Royal Pavilion. On the way, we had to put on our sweaters and I even zipped mine up. We took an audio tour of the Royal Pavilion, which was just incredible. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so I can't show you what we saw, but the dining room of this place was incredible. The chandelier in the dining room is a dragon, and it is holding the biggest part, with five or six smaller dragons holding lotus blossoms where the lights are. It is magnificent. I think the audio guide says the chandelier weighs a ton. The kitchen was remarkably designed with a steam table to keep food warm and an actual menu from a meal with 35 entrees. Unbelievable! The whole pavilion looks almost Indian in design; with domes similar to the Taj Mahal, but the decorations inside have a definite Chinese flair.

After our tour, we walked back to the beach and Andrea, Lenese, Katherine and I struggled our way down the pebble beach closer to the water. Three of us got our feet wet and wow, was it cold. Trying to get back up was much harder. Pebbles in your shoe hurt a whole lot worse than sand in your shoe. We had fish and chips for lunch. According to Brian, the real way to eat fish and chips is with vinegar on it, but I had ketchup anyway. We ate outside with the sound and smell of the water – by now the sun was shining and it was quite warm. It was fabulous.

After lunch we went down the pier. We walked past the candy shop and the jewelry shop and through the game room. We made our way to the ride section, where we were amazed at the prices of things. All the rides took tokens and each token cost 1. Most of the rides took between 3 and 8 tokens. That means for the ride called the Booster, which required 8 tokens, which is equivalent to $16, for one ride!!! Needless to say, we didn't ride anything. There is an electric train, which goes from one end of the beach to the other, and we rode on that, right past the "Naturist Beach" which is a story for another day. While we were on the pier, Dr. E found some cotton candy, which is called candy floss over here. It was delicious, so we helped her eat it. Then we saw this booth selling waffles on a stick, which is regular waffle batter, made sort of like a corn dog, but with chocolate and nuts on it. Quite delicious. Later, we passed a booth making and selling fresh donuts. They actually dropped into the hot oil right in front of us and made their way down this little hot oil bath, where they fell out into sugar. Lenese and I had to have some fresh, hot donuts. They were so hot when we first got them, that we couldn't eat them. So, we're walking along, minding our own business, eating our donuts. I stopped to look at a sign that said "Fish and Chips, with Mushy Peas" which is a cultural anomaly. How can a country as civilized as Britain actually eat and be proud of eating mushy peas? How gross is that? Anyway, while I was pointing at the sign and commenting on mushy peas, I felt this "whomp" against my hand, and my donut was gone. I looked up and a giant sea gull flew away, with my donut. I even looked all around thinking I dropped it, but nope, that bird snagged my donut. I was not a happy camper. I hope it made him sick! So, we learned while eating donuts don't stop walking, and don't stop and point at anything. If you stop, I guess the sea gulls think that you are fair game. So, we got on the train and rode down to the end, and then rode back. It was a fabulous, relaxing, fun day.

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A weekend in Paris

Katherine and I spent the weekend in Paris. When I read that, a weekend in Paris, it sounds sort of glamorous and lovely – it wasn't. We went with a tour group, the same group that we used for Scotland last week. When we got on the train to leave for Scotland, we all got an itinerary with the address where we were staying, what time we were doing what, and even what time we would be leaving, and what seats were reserved for us on the train. Because that was our experience, we were expecting something like that again this weekend – it didn't happen. When the coach to pick us up was about 15 minutes late, we started to worry a bit. Then, the tour guide person, who we thought was the tour guide, told us that we would meet our guide in Paris, we worried a bit more. Then, when he added that we would be meeting the other tour, and that our whole group would be 49 people, it just got worse from there. Our driver never said a word to us, until we got to Dover. At that point, about 25 minutes before we parked, she walked through the coach yelling at people to wake up. Literally yelling, I'm not just exaggerating. She said "You have to wake up; you can't stay in the coach on the ferry." Mind you, we hadn't even been given permission to drive onto the ferry yet, much less driven on. She was quite an experience, all by herself.

So we finally drive onto the ferry. My experience with ferry boats is limited to the ferry at Disney World that takes you from the parking lot to the Magic Kingdom, and even then, I prefer the monorail, so I was not prepared for how monstrous this thing we got on really was. The ferry had four parking levels, and it was just monstrous. We didn't actually get a great view of the "White cliffs of Dover" until the way back.

I'm skipping over some stuff here, our driver getting lost, our great 20 minute lunch stop at a rest station, and some other stuff. On Friday, we got to Paris, took a river cruise on the Seine, wandered around the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, and checked into our hotel. Katherine and I checked in, and went for dinner.

On Saturday, we took a bus tour and went to Montmarte, and to Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. It was a fabulous view, although the men trying to tie these string things on us at the bottom were seriously creepy. They were very aggressive and would actually grab you. I have a thing about being touched by strangers and it was very uncomfortable for me. They wouldn't just go away. We rode the little elevator thing up, and then walked down the steps. On the way back to the bus, I had a wonderful experience; I had to use a public restroom. Thank goodness for Jill and Thomas, a couple from New Zealand we met, Jill saved me. She had disposable toilet seat covers and disinfectant wipes, because the toilet wouldn't let me wash my hands, even though there was a place to do it. I tried really hard not to breathe the whole time I was in there. That may be the most disgusting thing I've ever had to do in my life.

    Next, we went to Notre Dame, and wandered through the church. I was amazed at the people snapping pictures like mad, even though there were signs everywhere that said NO PHOTOGRAPHS. It was like fireworks on the Fourth of July in there, with all the flashes going off. I was also amazed that no one was telling anyone to stop. Katherine and I both tried our own little brand of subversive-ness; we tried to get in the way of as many pictures as possible.

I think I need to do laundry now, so I'll come back to this later.