2002-10-08 - 6:56 p.m.

Well, back to the old grindstone. Actually, I feel as if I am still on vacation as work has been really slow this week. I got to go with my associate (who I like very much) and buy things for the office. I love decorating. We got new pictures, plants and chairs. I think it looks great and so does she. We've gotten a lot of compliments from the staff as well. Yahoo - I love to shop!!

So, I'll tell you a little about our trip (or maybe a lot, depends on how much time you've got).

The first day we got to the airport early, which turned out to be a very good thing, as our flight from Mpls to Chicago had been changed to a later time, making the crossover to the Paris flight pretty tight. Luckily the agent at the desk caught this and got us on an earlier flight. We met my family at O'Hare and then boarded to go to Paris. You already know that we became "those people" - my dad was supposed to stay up front in his business class seat (courtesy of my sister) but about an hour after the rest of the plane had fallen asleep, he felt the need to come to the back and chat (loudly, with my uncle who also chats loudly). We finally sent him back up front and the rest of the flight was uneventful.

We arrived to a beautiful fall day in Paris, dry and sunny. We milled around the airport a while, waiting to claim luggage and find taxis. At this point, I began to hear a lot about Rick Steves - some traveling guy with every traveling tip known to man. According to Rick, I should have bought his carryon luggage and not taken the rest of my stuff, only the one bag. Too bad, Rick and dad, I needed more than that and the one bag Scott and I checked was nothing next to the luggage my sister and her fashionable husband toted around Europe. We only stayed at two places, anyway, so we didn't exactly have to cart it around a lot.

We found our hotel - Hotel de la Tulipe - a quaint, beautiful hotel near the Eiffel Tower. It didn't exactly have the best shower, but our room opened onto a small courtyard full of plants and it was clean and well taken care of. We got up both days to a delightful continental breakfast of really good coffee (with warm milk to add to it) and great bread and croissants. The second night we were there the concierge recommended a great restaurant for us, even calling and setting it up - I would highly recommend this hotel - we had a wonderful stay.

As soon as we dropped off our stuff, Scott and I napped a little while my family sorted itself out and a couple of them took showers, etc. We then milled around the lobby before starting out for the Louvre. We spent a couple of hours there (lots to see but too tired to do the whole thing) and then walked through the city, stopping at Notre Dame and the Isle de la Cite before finding a restaurant. The restaurant was a little disappointing - the meat was ok, but the rest was a little weird. It was very dark and I think maybe to keep us from knowing what we were eating. Jessica remembered her previous trip to France, and although she did not eat much at the restaurant, she filled up on the cheese puffs and granola bars she brought with her from America.

Note: In front of Notre Dame, there is a metal circle inside a stone circle that is the center point of all Roman roads leading out of Paris. If you stand on it you will return one day. We all stood on it - including Scott, since we tricked him into it and I didn't want to come back by myself.

We dragged our tired buttcheeks back to the hotel, where we slept like babies. Got up the next day, showered in the closet with a drain, ate breakfast and headed out to the Eiffel Tower. It was another gorgeous day and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Scott and the group head up the elevator while my mom and I stayed down. She has no head for heights, neither do I and I had been to the first floor before. We hadn't had good mom-daughter time, anyway and we walked through some nearby gardens and had a great time.

After the Eiffel Tower we all milled around a bit, then got a city bus tour and traveled around Paris. We stopped at Montmatre, an open place (full of touristy crap) that is near Sacre Coeur - a beautiful church on the highest point in Paris. I fed some pigeons and got to use an automated, public toilet. Weird, but it worked pretty well and was surprisingly clean.

We all milled around again and then found the bus stop and headed for the Sorbonne area (a large university). We found a lot of good souvenirs and beautiful little shops, then walked back to the hotel, waiting for my sister to arrive from her work stuff. When she got back the concierge set up our dinner at a fish restaurant. The mussels were to die for and the salmon Scott ate, the fish I had and the fish my dad ate were divine. The dessert was tres magnifique as well. We went back to the hotel to crash again before getting up to catch a cab and the train to London.

Milling around in the morning, we got into the taxis and found ourselves at the train station. Through sheer luck, Scott and I asked a person when the train was boarding, only to find out we were on the wrong floor and the train would be leaving in about 15 minutes - so get your booties up and through the passport areas so you can make it to England, dumb Americans!!

We hustled through and barely made it aboard before it pulled out. Then, three hours later, we arrived in Merry Old England.

I love the cabbies in London - I realize I'm repeating myself, but I'm enjoying the mental image of them as I'm writing about our milling around the train station before deciding to catch a couple of cabs to the hotel. This one was the Hilton Metropole. My sister got a great deal and we enjoyed our stay there a lot (except for the inhouse restaurant, where everyone was rude). I must say, for an English hotel, I think more people spoke English in France than there.

We unpacked, freshened up and headed out. My sister had a work thing again, her husband, Bud, and my uncle Dave headed out to walk around. Scott, me, my parents and there friends Ed and Mary caught a cab and headed to the West End to catch a show. They were able to snag tickets for "Bombay Dreams", a musical about Bollywood, India's version of Hollywood, where a million cheesy, b-rate movies spring from. The musical followed along this line, with big MTV-like musical numbers and a boy-meet-girl, boy-lose-girl, boy-get-girl sort of plot, complete with gangsters and ghettos. It was great and I'll have to find the cd one of these days. We snagged some dinner and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning my parents, Dave and Ed and Mary headed out to have a walking tour but Jessica, Bud, Scott and I had slept in too long and missed it. So we grabbed breakfast and caught a bus tour of London. We got out at the Tower of London and took the tour (fantastic tour - highly recommend it), saw the crown jewels - my husband had always tried to convince me they were in his pants but oh! he was proven wrong - and headed back to the bus after eating McDonald's (the fries are the same all over the world).

We met our parents back at the hotel and all set out to get some dinner, then rest.

Note: On my parents tour, they ended up near Picadilly Circus, and since my diabetic uncle was getting low blood sugar from all the walking, they stopped to eat at the Hard Rock in London. For some anniversary, they are opening up their basement and having some special tours of the cool stuff they have stashed there. The guide was talking to my uncle after the tour, as Dave is a huge fan of music and guitars. The guide opened up the case and my uncle was able to sit on Jimmy Hendrix' couch while holding first, Elvis' guitar, then Bob Dylan's. Ed was able to hold Louis Armstrong's trumpet, bringing tears to his eyes (he's an instrumental music teacher). Needless to say, it was a high in both of their lives. Too cool.

We all got up a little late on Thursday (except Ed and Mary, because it was their last day - they finished out the bus tour on Scott and my tickets and we met them in the afternoon). Dave, mom and dad, Bud, Jessica, Scott and I found our way onto and through the Tube (subway) to go on a walking tour based on the Beatles' stay in London. We say Abbey Road, a couple of studios, the place where John and Yoko met, where they played on a rooftop, etc. All led by a strange little man who stretches fan into fanatic. It was a good tour, though, and cheap. Again, I'd recommend it.

We found some food near Baker street at a great little pub - eating fish and chips, of course, and drinking some ale (actually, I had hard cider).We also found Sherlock Holmes' residence, right next to the Beatles' paraphernalia store and Elvis' souvenir shop. Then we caught the tube again down to meet Ed and Mary near that giant ferris wheel (the London Eye). My mom and I sat and talked again while everyone went up and took in the sights.

All of us milled around a bit and then went back to the hotel, changed and set off for the Jack the Ripper tour. It was really neat, especially on a dark autumn evening. The tour was very well done (another thumbs-up) but too many people on it, making it a little hard to hear. Also too gory, inciting my husband, even now, to look up gruesome stuff on the computer. We found some dinner and went to bed.

My parents and I got up early to see Ed and Mary off - they are wonderful people and I am so glad they were able to come with us.

I got my husband up and we got ready and headed off to Harrod's with my sister and Bud. My parents met us there after going to see some very early Methodist church and the home of John Wesley, founder of Methodism. It sounded pretty neat but we were too tired to get up early to go. Harrod's, though, was great. Even though it's mostly a huge department store, it was fun to finally shop a bit.

After Harrod's, Scott and I left the group to go to Westminster Abbey, of course arriving about half an hour after it closed. We walked around, got a few pictures, then headed back to the hotel. Everyone met together and the we headed out for the Sherlock Holmes Pub, where we had our best meal in England. We had bubble and squeak (a fried mashed potato and cabbage fritter) and steak and ale pie, shepherd's pie, roast chicken, etc. It was DEE-LISH! We got old fashioned bread pudding and custard for dessert (none of us went out on a limb to order Spotted Dick with custard - although the waiter, with a straight face, even, said it was cake with raisins in it - the Dick is apparently some character in a book, spotted refers to the raisins). Back to the hotel, up with the birds to catch a couple of taxis to the airport. Again, an uneventful flight to America and then again from Chicago to Mpls. It was good to be home.

Well, that's our trip. I hope you enjoyed it a little (though it's not the same as the actual experience, is it?). Now I can go back to short, everyday, informative entries on our home life.

Until later.

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