Day 8 in Europe – From Paris to St. Etienne

Posted on March 31, 2012 by ericasark

Our faithful steed.

Yesterday we left Paris and drove to St. Etienne in a rental car that Doug bravely rented and drove for us.  Actually, driving in Paris and the French countryside is not all that different from driving in the States.  We have a black Ford crossover type vehicle, which is plenty big for our luggage and the four of us.  It is much bigger than I was expecting we’d get.  Plus it is a diesel and is getting really great gas mileage.

We left Paris around 10:30, which was half an hour later than planned and half an hour later than we told the woman who rented us our flat who showed up promptly at 10 to clean it.  Thankfully at about 9:55 I had gotten it back into respectable order…..  She was very kind and since official checkout wasn’t until 11, she couldn’t really be mad.  I let her clean around us and recruited the girls to help me haul lots of luggage down two flights of windy, slippery wooden stairs.  We piled it in the open air “lobby” until Doug arrived.

It is possible that we got a parking ticket while we loaded our luggage, but we’ll never know because we didn’t notice it until we were on the highway and then Doug used the windshield wipers because some car put some water on our windows and whatever that little piece of paper was is now somewhere along the A6.  I don’t think it could possibly be a parking ticket because from my experience, the French don’t do anything super fast and we were only parked for about 10-15 minutes, of which at least 9 minutes someone was standing at the car.  But anyway, as they say here in France, c’est la vie.

We left France and got on the autoroute for awhile.  The French aren’t messing around with their tolls on their highways.  I guess it is similar to I-95 in the north east.  We paid 8 Euros at one stop and 3.50 at another.  There were a few more in between but I can’t remember what those cost.  About an hour into our trip we were faced with a dilemma.  The GPS navigation said to get off the autoroute and take a smaller road, but google maps that I printed from home said to stick with the big road.  The paper map that I had showed that the routes were about equidistant, but you never know with the smaller roads.  We decided to follow the GPS and it took us through an absolutely beautiful countryside.  We followed the Loire river for the entire trip.  Rolling hills, bright green fields dotted with cows and castles around every turn.  Really, really pretty.

For lunch we decided to just pull off and find a little town with a boulangerie.  Each town has these wonderfully large signs on the autoroute depicting their town.  Some have big castles on the river, some have ducks and chickens, and then some have really boring pictures of like a book and a feather.  I told Doug I only wanted to stop at one that had a castle with a river and a goose.  Sadly we were too hungry for that and just pulled off at one that had a picture of a really pretty drawbridge.  Once we got off the road, we decided not even to go to that town but to just stop at the first town we went through.

In we went to the teeny tiny boulangerie in town.  The people in this little town were super nice and we definitely turned heads because we scream tourist.  The boulanger, a woman, told us she didn’t have any sandwiches but sent us to the bar/restaurant down the street.   Every boulangerie in Paris has ham and butter sandwiches, but apparently not in small towns.  We bought a loaf of bread for the road, which the girls each nibbled on – from both ends – as we walked to the bar/restaurant.   We got to the bar/restaurant and asked for ham and butter sandwiches to go.  The very nice lady waitress said she’d just have to go look for the bread, which of course she then had to go purchase from the boulangerie that we just came from.  Ten minutes and eight euros later we had our ham and butter sandwiches and were on our way.

On we continued along the Loire Valley admiring the beautiful scenery.  Seriously they have castles dotting the hillsides kind of like we have billboards.  They definitely got the better end of that deal, although I guess they have centuries of bloodshed to show for it.  At one point we passed a chicken farm where the farmer had built a little wooden bridge over a pond for the chickens, who were dutifully strutting over it in a line.  That might be the best thing I’ve seen on this trip.  They’ve got some beautiful livestock and poultry here – we passed some black chickens that were raven colored, shiny, with red accents.  Hopefully those are just prize chickens placed on the side of the road by the French government to maintain the picturesque valley and not eating chickens.

We had about 6 hours total to travel, which included the stop for lunch and a stop at a gas station since our next travel day is

Girls in the rental car at our stop for gasoline.

on a Sunday when gas stations are sometimes closed.  The gas station was a BP, just like in the states, but differed in one critical way:  they carry Lays Roasted Chicken and Thyme potato chips.  My dear friend Bethany had told me about these at dinner a few nights ago and ever since then they were all I could think about.  My love for potato chips is vast.  These did not disappoint.  I must find them in the States.  I also failed at getting coffee from a vending machine and instead ended up with rather bad hot chocolate.  I’m having trouble getting coffee here in Europe, which I realize sounds ridiculous, but it is true.  I’m hopeful for the next leg of our trip through Switzerland, Austria, and Germany (although the latter two will probably wonder why I’m not having a beer for breakfast).

We arrived in St. Etienne at our friends’ house around 4:30.  Doug was an exchange student in France in 1988 and he stayed with Laurent’s family.  Laurent then came to the States the next year and the two have remained friends ever since.  This is my second visit with them and Doug has been here multiple times.  They have four children who are so sweet and so well mannered.  Clemence, the only girl, turned 15 yesterday.  Pierre Antoine is 13, I think.  Benoit is 10 and Simon is 8.  The younger two don’t speak English, and the older two speak some English.  As soon as we arrived, Pierre Antoine had soccer practice so Doug went with Laurent leaving me here at the apartment with Claire (Laurent’s wife).  My French, limited as it was when I graduated high school, has plummeted in the many years since.  But we managed to have a pretty good conversation for about an hour, totally in French (albeit with the help of a French-English dictionary).  I mean, I’m certain I mutilated the beautiful language, but I was able to convey my thoughts.  I can understand a lot more French than I can speak.

The kids playing foosball with Benoit.

Watching our kids play with them has been so fun. When the adults aren’t around (or are around but not actively talking to them) the kids find ways to communicate.  They even played the game Guess Who last night, where each player takes turns asking the other player questions to determine which card they have (i.e. “Does your person wear glasses?  Does your person have blonde hair?”)  We haven’t totally figured out how they managed, but they did.  Each kid keeps coming in to ask one of us how to say something and then hearing them try to repeat it in English/French is just precious.  I think within just a few weeks here our kids would have a working grasp on the French language.

One way, and perhaps the best way, to learn French culture is to just come stay at a French person’s house.  So far I bet Elisabeth would say it isn’t that different from ours.  They’ve spent most of the time here playing foosball or Playmobile (which is sort of like Legos/Little People combined).  This morning we’re heading out to Simon’s soccer match.  For breakfast they had cereal and bread with jam.  So, for all Elisabeth’s fears that we were walking into some alternate universe when we left home, I think so far she feels relatively at home here.  Except for last night when they tried to serve her pate made from the liver of a pig.  That definitely made her feel not at home…

One funny story from dinner…. when we got here we still had that loaf of bread from the small town.  Sure the ends were eaten in a most barbaric fashion, but Claire took it from us and hauled it out at dinner.  Now, my kids don’t really like the exterior of French bread.  Just the interior soft bits.  So when Claire sat down to slice it, the first few slices were just the crust with no soft bits in the middle.  So were the next few slices.  And the next.  What we brought them was essentially a hollow tube made of bread crust.  I have no idea how Charlotte got her little hand about a foot down into this loaf of bread, but we all had a good laugh about it.  I think they compared her to some kind of rodent, which isn’t completely inaccurate.

We had a terrible night’s sleep.  Charlotte is in some sort of sleep deprived mental state where she makes no sense and wakes herself up to complain about random and ridiculous things and then of course can’t get back to sleep.  So it might be a long day.  We spend all of Saturday here in St. Etienne and then we head to Switzerland on Sunday morning.

Our pictures are few from today.  Driving doesn’t lend itself to many pictures, and when we got here my camera was 100% dead.  I had a major panic attack because I’m quite fond of my camera, but then realized it probably just ran out of batteries.  Sure enough it is ok this morning.  So, just a few pictures from today.  More tomorrow though.

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Day 7 in Europe – Paris’s Revenge

Posted on March 30, 2012 by ericasark

When we last left off, I admitted that I don’t love Paris.  Approximately 5 hours later, I was up with a vomiting child.

Poor Elisabeth, sick in bed in Paris... but not for long.

Elisabeth was sick for about two hours and then managed to fall asleep.  Amazingly, and thankfully, she woke up this morning feeling a lot better.  She and I laid low this morning until we could be sure that she’d keep down food and water.  And we all said a little thanks to the makers of Imodium.  So, I take it back Paris.  You’re just grand…

Actually, today ended up being a good day despite the rocky start.  Doug set out this morning to Monoprix (the stinky store from yesterday) where they have a grocery store.  He brought back some more applesauce packets since we’ve gone through ours, more chocolate cookies, some ginger ale, lots and lots of bottled water, and some milk for me to experiment with the Nespresso machine.  Elisabeth promptly drank two glasses of ginger ale and I think I screwed up using the Nespresso machine.  C’est la vie.

While Elisabeth and I stayed home recuperating (watching the Muppet Movie, last night’s American Idol, playing Sudoku – in other words kind of in Heaven), Doug took Charlotte out to La Musee de Poupee – the museum for dolls.  If you know Charlotte, you know that her actual life revolves around the fictional life of her dolls.  She marks their birthdays on her calendar.  They have birthdays approximately 12 times per year, each, and they’re always turning two.  But Doug indulges her and throws birthday parties for the dolls, so amazingly they keep having birthdays.  She truly loves baby dolls and a doll museum is right up her alley.

Charlotte's picture of some of her favorite dolls.

Charlotte got a camera for her 4th birthday which she has been itching to really use.  It has turned out to be a good thing for everyone because it keeps Charlotte involved – which makes us happy – and also makes her very happy because she’s an artsy fartsy type.  She took pictures of her favorite dolls, which as far as I can tell includes just about all of them.  They also had a sort of scavenger hunt in the museum, with things like:  find a doll with a soldier’s uniform on.  Doug reports that this interested Charlotte and kept her going through the museum.

Doug came back home from the museum with Charlotte and then headed out to grab us some lunch:  obviously I had a jambone beurre (which is properly pronounced jam boney beurre in my world), Charlotte had some other kind of ham sandwich creation with “sweeter and softer bread,” Doug had my leftover quiche from breakfast, and Elisabeth wanted a baguette.  Doug pointed at a loaf of French bread and

Girls ready to devour le pain, not le baguette.

said un baguette s’il vous plait, much to the delight of the worker because what he pointed out wasn’t a baguette at all.  It was “un pain” – or a bread.  Silly, ignorant Doug.  As best as we can tell a baguette is smaller than un pain, but the innards are all the same and that’s all Elisabeth eats anyway.

After lunch, we set off to do what Elisabeth has wanted to do this entire trip – go see the Eiffel Tower.  A dear friend warned me to buy tickets in advance because the line is long.  So, I tried earlier this week from London.  But sadly one of the elevators is broken and so they’re only selling advance tickets way, way in advance and we aren’t coming back in June.  We had prepared Elisabeth for the idea that if the line to take the steps up was too long then we wouldn’t be going up the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, once we got there, the line was only about 30 minutes long to take the stairs up.  If you wanted to take the elevator up, it was probably two hours wait.

It is 669 steps up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower.  We were huffing and puffing to be sure.  Our legs will be sore tomorrow.  But we didn’t have to wait.  And then, once you get to the second level, you can buy tickets for the elevator to the tippy top with no wait at all.  This is where Elisabeth chose to unveil her French skills.  She nervously asked the lady for our tickets “en francais,” and the woman apparently understood and gave us the appropriate tickets.

We made it all the way to the top of Le Tour Eiffel!

So, up we went.  The view is really spectacular.  It is neat to get a better understanding of where things are.  And the Paris smell doesn’t make it all the way up those 270 meters.  We spent about 20-30 minutes up at the very top looking all around.  The kids and Doug managed to spend most of that on the outside, caged in part.  After about 5 minutes of that I had to go back to the glassed in part and try not to feel like the whole platform was moving.  Elisabeth was absolutely thrilled to be at the top of the Eiffel Tower.  I think Charlotte was too, but she wasn’t as vocal about it as her sister.  They each took a few pictures with their cameras and then we set off back down.

Charlotte and I chose the elevator allllll the way down while Doug and Elisabeth took the elevator to the second floor and then hoofed it back down the 669 steps.  Charlotte and I didn’t beat them down by much, only a few minutes.  Once at the bottom, we re-energized the kiddos with chocolate cookies and apple sauce and then set off to take even more pictures.

 

 

 

The kids got a kick out of the way I managed to get this shot:

Elisabeth and the Eiffel Tower.

and Elisabeth then wanted to take a picture of me taking a picture like that of Charlotte and post it on the internet – so I do that for her now.

Elisabeth was amused that I got into this position to take their pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower.

I love watching the kids take pictures with their cameras.  Elisabeth is very into the technical aspect of it:  which setting should her camera be on and is the flash going to go off or not?  Charlotte is more artistic about it and looks for the composition she wants (and demands).  It made me laugh to hear my pint sized 4 year old tell us where to stand so she could take our picture in front of the Eiffel Tower.  She’s pretty demanding, that one.

Charlotte directed us where to stand as she took this picture of our family.

After we wrapped up our time at La Tour Eiffel, we hopped back on the Metro down to Notre Dame.  I  think we’re pretty lucky that we got to see Notre Dame while they were actually having a church service.  I am always completely enamored with old churches and even more enamored with pipe organs.  Notre Dame fits both categories, and this time someone was actually playing the pipe organ. I could have stayed all day, but we were getting hungry and tired.  But when I have more time in life, I plan to travel around and see church services at old churches with pipe organs.  I would love to learn to play a pipe organ one day.

Around the back of Notre Dame there is a small playground (which is quite frankly more entertaining than the Jardin de Tuileries much heralded playground).  The girls enjoyed playing there for about 20 minutes while I tried to get ahold of my friend Bethany about dinner plans.  Elisabeth came over and asked how she would go about telling someone that she doesn’t speak French.  Doug suggested asking the little girl for her name instead and went over to help her.  Apparently strange men talking to small little girls in parks instills fear in the little girls and she ran off after telling them her name was Eloise.  We were so hoping that Elisabeth would make a little French playground friend!  Alas, another time.

From Notre Dame, we walked back to our flat in Le Marais in about 15 minutes, through a cute part of Le Marais that we hadn’t yet walked through.  Paris is full of neat little specialty shops.  We passed a few chocolatiers, someone that makes handmade pressed cards, a store that specialized in wooden rings (for fingers) made with multiple types of wood, and a luthier.  I badly wanted to go into the luthier’s shop and ogle his beautiful instruments, but my French is really terrible and it would have been tremendously awkward.

We stopped for dinner for Doug and the kids to bring back to the flat.  I had a crepe with sugar and lemon juice to tide me over.  The girls found chicken nuggets at a middle eastern stand that they were happy with and Doug got a crepe with cheese, ham, and egg.

We came back to the flat and soon thereafter my dear friend Bethany from MIT came by.  Charlotte and Elisabeth both brought her their cameras and showed her the pictures they’ve taken.  At the same time.  It was pretty cute to see them so excited to show her their pictures, and also pretty normal that they were competing so strongly for someone’s attention.  You’d think no one ever listened to them!!

Bethany and I then walked through Le Marais until we came to Place de St. Catherine – which is a little square with restaurants all around it.  We picked one and sat down to a very typical French meal.  It was not a touristy place.  Our waiter didn’t speak much English at all – but we managed to get by with our limited French and end up with the meal and wine that we intended.  In typical French style though we had to ask for our carafe of water multiple times, he forgot to place our order and had to come re-take it, and then we had to ask multiple times to get our check when we were done.   It was a nice meal though.  I was seated just next to the cat food – which I actually find charming.

Then Bethany walked me home and hopped in a cab for her ride across the Seine to her flat.

This was our last day in Paris.  It was much better than yesterday.  I enjoyed walking around Le Marais today, which is much less touristy than other areas we’ve been to.  And if I lived on Ile de St. Louis, I wouldn’t be heartbroken – it is really quite cute and upscale.  I am taken aback by how many people there are here in Paris.  It feels more crowded than Disney World at spring break.  I know that many of the people are tourists, but they aren’t all tourists.  It is a huge, crowded city.  It feels more crowded than New York feels to me.

Tomorrow we rent a car and drive to St. Etienne, which is near Lyon, to stay with one of Doug’s friends.  I’m not sure what the internet access will be like there…  so if you don’t hear from me don’t send the SEALS just yet.  On Sunday we go to our little farm B&B near Gruyeres, Switzerland which if I recall correctly has wireless internet.  But for now, I must sleep.  Here’s the rest of the pictures from today.

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Europe – Day 6

Posted on March 28, 2012 by ericasark

Bienvenue a Paris!  Or, as Parisiennes would apparently say to us… “Welcome to Paris, you who are clearly American.”  I am almost offended by how many people are speaking to us in English without a word coming out of our mouths.  We sat down outside a cafe for dinner tonight and within minutes had a fully English version of the menu in our hands without asking.  Walking down the Jardin de Tuilleries, the guys hawking water looked at us and said “water for one euro??”  So apparently we clearly look like a group of American tourists.  And most of us are not even wearing white sneakers…..

Playing cards on the Eurostar to Paris.

Anyway, we took the Eurostar to Paris this morning.  The train ride was rather uneventful except that every teeny tiny tunnel we went through caused all of us to grab our ears because it hurt!  The Chunnel itself was actually not bad.  The train seemed to slow down significantly as it went through the tunnel.  The train purser and manager had the most wonderfully fabulous French accents.  They were definitely either the chef on Little Mermaid or the French soldiers in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in previous lives.  On the English side of the tunnel they speak in English first, French second and on the French side it is reversed.  And in case anyone is curious, they take both pounds and Euros in the dining car.  We played cards on the train:  Go Fish and Michigan.  And we also listened to a British mum try very hard (and fail) to control her 8 year old son.  We all listened to that.  The entire car.  Sadly (for all of us) it was the British mum who disrupted us far more than anything her son did.

We arrived in Paris, at Gare du Nord, about 20 minutes behind schedule.  Then we waited in a fairly long taxi queue and by the time we got to our flat we were about an hour later than expected to meet Laurence, the woman who owns the flat.  We’re staying in the 4th arrondisement, in an area called Le Marais.  It is a bustling area that’s very central.  We can walk to Notre Dame in about 10-15 minutes, and the metro is probably about 5 minutes away and is on the line that has all the big tourist attractions.

Our flat is down a small street called Rue de Beautrellis.  Right next to a Cuban restaurant (I have not yet checked out their menu, my dear Tampa friends, but I plan to).  It is a neat building because you use a code to come through the exterior door, then you come through a second interior door out into a patio that is open up to the sky.  Then you climb two flights of circular stairs with two 50 pound suitcases, two kids, and a big huge bag full of carseats and jackets and you’re at our very small flat.  It is called a one bedroom, but I dont know if it would count as a bedroom in America.  The wall, such that it is, doesn’t quite go all the way across the room, and anyway is only dry-walled up for the first 18 or so inches.   The rest is exposed beams.  I’ll take pictures tomorrow if it doesn’t look too much like a tornado hit it.  The kitchen is small but functional.  The bathroom is probably bigger than an airplane bathroom, but not substantially.  But for the price and the location, it is fantastic.  The owners were so easy to deal with and so nice.  Doug impressed Laurence with his excellent French.

After we got our keys and got situated, we tended to the important matters:  finding me a jambon et beurre and finding me a hat.  All of this sun is killing my eyes (not to mention it is terrible, terrible picture taking weather!).  But anyway I suppose its really nasty of me to complain about lovely weather so I’ll stop there.  Remind me of this next week when the highs are in the 40s in the Alps…..  We walked about 10 minutes, past a bunch of places that sell jambon et beurres, until we found what is apparently one that is more expensive than it needs to be.  Perfect.  Two jambon et beurres, two quiches, a croissant, two drinks and we’re 26 euros poorer.  Anyway, at least it was good food.  After that, we went to Monoprix – which my foot doctor’s receptionist told me about – and I bought a hat.  You’ll see pictures in a bit.  I probably won’t be wearing it in the pictures, though, because within 2 minutes it was on Elisabeth’s head.  It is really sunny out.  We all need hats.  Monoprix

Elisabeth, wearing my new hat, in front of the Louvre.

smelled putrid.  I have since smelled that smell a few more times and I think maybe that’s just Paris.

After lunch, we quickly came back to the flat to grab my camera and other necessities (cookies mostly) and set off to the

Jardin de Tuilleries.  In all of my research, I’ve read that Paris has the greatest playgrounds and the chief among them is at the Jardin de Tuilleries.  So off we went.  And we walked. And walked.  And walked.  An hour later we found the Jardin – just past the Louvre which is enormous – and then after a bit finally located this grand playground of all playgrounds.  Which quite frankly paled in comparison to the playgrounds we found in England – especially the one at Lacock.  I think maybe kids from other areas are playground deprived because just about every playground we have near our house makes the playground at le Jardin de Tuilleries look pathetic.  But, all that said, our kids seemed to enjoy it.  They played on this rope climbing structure, swung in hammocks that the other kids swung like crazy, and spun around on a little self-push merry go round thing.

After that nice respite, we set off to the Latin Quarter, where Doug and I both had separate fond memories of eating in years past.  We walked up the Louvre side of the Seine, across Pont Neuf bridge, right in front of Notre Dame, and then over into the Left Bank where we found the Latin Quarter.

Such a nice walk along the Seine, Doug with his two girls. Life is grand.

 

Yeah, from the front maybe life is not super duper grand...

 

After about an hour of walking from the Louvre, we found what looked like a good cafe and sat down, where they promptly gave us English menus.  I find it ironic that in a city known for its food we had, by far, the worst meal of our trip.  It.  Was.  AWFUL.  These people have apparently never seen a spice, including salt.  And, I’m sorry, if you can’t make French Onion Soup in Paris, you should be banned from owning a restaurant here.  Doesn’t the French government crack down on this like they do the language?  Elisabeth hasn’t ever met a steak she doesn’t like until tonight.  And Charlotte just kept saying “horrible, horrible horrible.”  Normally I stop her, but she was right.  And, of course, we got the traditional snail’s pace service.  I know that many people appreciate the French style of waiter-ing where you have to tackle le garcon in order to get your check – but I am not one of these people.

About to have dinner in Paris, all very tired, and all about to be very disappointed.

 

After that delicious dinner, we needed something to cleanse our pallets so we did the thing Elisabeth has been waiting for ages — got crepes from a proper creperie.  I thought I did a good job ordering our “un crepe avec sucre et citron et un crepe avec  confiture” but the guy answered me back with “apricot or strawberry?”  Anyway, votes are in, and crepes with sugar and lemon juice beat crepes with strawberry

The Creperie where we almost got crepes, until we found some cheaper ones across the street with no wait.

jam.

Then we took a ~30 minute walk back to our flat, along which we passed the left side and back of Notre Dame.  Notre Dame is really quite impressive.  I’m excited to go inside it (again) tomorrow.  I saw it in 1997 but I don’t remember too much about it.  Also, in case you thought that it was just a rumor that people set up on sidewalks to draw in Paris (not for money, just for pleasure) – it is definitely not a rumor.  I can confirm it because I saw at least three people doing that today.

In other counts, Charlotte found 22 smart cars and some number of mini-coopers.  I’m just glad she found an outlet.

Also on our walk home, we found a store called Thanksgiving – Cuisine de la Louisiane.   In this store they sell every single stereotypical American item you can imagine.  Stove Top Stuffing, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Heinz Ketchup, etc.  But strangely they have a bottle of marmite in the window, which leads me to believe they have never been to America, much less Louisiana,  and have never spoken to an American.  Marmite?  Really?

Cuisine de la Louisiane --- a collection of stereotypical American foods.

We got home and skyped with my mother because today is her birthday (Happy Birthday!!) and then put the kids to bed.  We’re all in one room for the first time this trip, so Doug and I are huddled on one side of the flat in dim light both on our laptops.  The Cuban restaurant appears to be just revving up downstairs…  could be a long night.

I’m going to admit something that will probably cause me to lose credibility in many of your minds:  I don’t love Paris.  I never have in all the times I’ve been here.  I keep hoping I’ll see what others see, but I haven’t yet.  It is dirty and somewhat unfriendly.  Sure, the buildings are truly beautiful, but I don’t love the atmosphere.  As we walked along the Seine today – there was trash everywhere.  Apparently when you finish your beer by the Seine, the appropriate course of action is to leave the can right where you sat, along with a pile of cigarette butts.  The Parisiennes have a beautiful city that they’re trying their hardest to dirty up.  Although tonight as we walked home, through Ile de St. Louis, I did get a glimpse of what many people like.  That really is a beautiful part of Paris.  Tomorrow we’re doing the Eiffel Tower, maybe walking up the Champs Elysee, peeking in Notre Dame, and then seeing one of my dearest college friends, Bethany.   Now let’s all just hope I can successfully navigate the coffee procuring process in the mornings…

Here’s the pictures from the day:

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Europe – Day 5

Posted on March 27, 2012 by ericasark

One of the many positive things I can say about this flat is that it is in a very quiet area, so we slept really, really well last night.  In fact, most of us slept until 8am!  This was very good because Charlotte was up until well after 9pm last night, so for all of our sake she needed to catch up on sleep.

I got up and went out to fetch the pain au chocolats and a mocha for me.  I left and returned all before Doug got out of the shower – so it was all nice and close.  Elisabeth ate herself sick on pain au chocolat, so we had to rest a bit before leaving the flat. I think she plans to do that each day she can.

We left the flat around 9:45 and walked the two minute walk to the West Kensington Tube stop where we boarded an east bound District Line train to Tower Hill.  Turns out Tower Hill is where they beheaded all of the royals who were deemed traitors.  One interesting tidbit I learned today is that only important people got beheaded.  Commoners were hanged.  Upwards of 100,000 people would turn out for a beheading.  Such strange times.

The Yeoman Warder leading our tour. Named Alan.

We toured the Tower of London today, which was a palace/fortress first erected by William the Conqueror.  Subsequent monarchs have added onto it.  It still houses some Yeomen.  I think.  Unless the tour guide was kidding.  It was hard to tell.  The outer walls are 10 feet thick and they taper to 8 feet thick at the top.  There is an exterior defensive wall and an interior living space.  There’s a moat, too.  The moat apparently used to be really disgusting, filled with excrement, dead dogs, dead people, food scraps, etc.  Seems like a pretty good way to keep people out.

It has been used in many different capacities over the years – a palace, a prison, a monument, and now a tourist destination and safe keeper of the crown jewels.  Apparently kings and queens used to move around England a lot, with one king (Edward I I think) moving 80 times per year.  With 700 staff persons.  Crazy.  So they probably never spent very long at the Tower of London.

We had planned to take a Yeoman’s tour (Beefeater Tour).  We took about 1/3 of it before the kids got bored.  Instead we followed a “family trail” which was like a little scavenger hunt for the kids.  It asked them to find things like where the king’s toilet might have been and where did it empty out.  Here’s a picture:

The King's toilet.

and as you probably guessed, it emptied out in the moat where the royal poo mingled with the dead dogs.

The family trail was nice, though.  Along the way they had actors dressed in period costumes.  We met a knight, a princess, and a prince.  The princess was named Princess Elizabeth who said she had heard of a Princess Charlotte but was certain that we could not have come from any place called Virginia because Ireland was definitely the westernmost place she’d ever heard of in 16 something or other.

The Two Princesses Elis(z)abeth.a Princess Charlotte but was certain that we could not have come from any place called Virginia because the Westernmost point she knew of was Ireland.

We got to see the Queen’s bed as it would have looked in Tudor times.  And most importantly, we got to see the Crown Jewels.  I was surprised at how much the kids liked the Crown Jewels.  They are pretty spectacular though.  My favorite part is that they keep the current crown there, so whenever the Queen needs it they have to send someone over to fetch it.  No, that’s not my favorite part.  My real favorite part is that the box they use to carry the current crown is also on display, behind a display case.

After touring the Tower of London, we set out to find lunch.  Not something that should be difficult, but it was the lunch rush on a beautiful day, in a very busy part of London.  And I don’t like sandwiches.  So we found a little pasta shop that was pretty crowded, but we shoved into a corner and ate pretty well.  Then I had to buy sunscreen because contrary to what everyone has always told me, London is really sunny and hot and I’m sunburned!

All Charlotte wanted to do in London was ride on a double decker bus.  That was the post-lunch plan:  get on a double decker bus and sit on the top and head to Waterloo station to begin our scavenger hunt/walk.  Sounds simple.  Except it is hard to figure out where the busses go.  Luckily Doug is pretty good at it.  We needed a 521 bus headed towards Waterloo.  We got to the bus stop and waited.  A 521 bus came, but it was a single decker so we let it pass and then marveled that it was the only single decker bus we’d seen on our trip.  Then our worst fears came true and a second single decker 521 bus came by.  We decided we had to get on that one because maybe all 521 busses are single decker.  Then for 27 minutes we heard “Allllll that is ever going to make me happy is to ride on the top of a double decker bus.  That is the ooooooonnnnnnly thing that will make me happy.”

Kids and Ben.

We got to Waterloo station, had a softie with a flake (soft serve/whipped ice cream with a chocolate stick in it), and then went off to start our scavenger hunt right by the London Eye.  The scavenger hunt is pretty neat – they give you a map and some trivia questions.  You follow their directions looking for placards and things like that while walking around scenic areas.  It gives the kids something to focus on while we get to see interesting things.  From the London Eye, we walked across the Westminster bridge right next to Parliament and Big Ben. I think Big Ben is what Elisabeth’s been most excited to see since we got here.  From Big Ben we walked by the House of Parliament and over to Westminster Abbey.  I’m so disappointed that Westminster Abbey closed 15 minutes before we got there.  I will definitely visit on my next trip here.  It is just gorgeous from the exterior.  Once we got past Westminster Abbey, it was pretty late so we skipped the last half of the scavenger hunt and headed back to our flat.  Via double decker bus – hooray for Charlotte!

We only stopped in at the flat for a few minutes before we set out to find a pub for dinner.  The first pub we got to looked at us like we were nuts for wanting food at 5:15 pm like the senior citizens we are.  They turned us away because the kitchen was closed.  So we wandered to an Indian restaurant I had seen.  Also closed.  Seriously, we are really not so hip.  We then asked some people who were sitting outside the coffee house I bought coffee from this morning and they directed us to another area about 15 mins walk away with lots of different things.  And there we found the Goose Pub.

At the Goose, they had a sign on the wall that said no kids allowed after 6, but we got there at 5:59 and they were happy to seat us.  Elisabeth was thrilled to see chicken nuggets on the menu.  This probably requires a little back tracking.  You might remember how much I like the notion of “tea” for kids and full dinner for adults.  But, Elisabeth has been saying ever since we got here that she really, really wants DINNER.  She eats a lot of her calories in the late afternoon/evening, so this has been hard on her.  And those of you who know her know that she is picky picky and rarely cleans her plate.  When they brought the dinner, Doug and I held our collective breath because the nuggets did not look like normal nuggets.    They looked more like fish and chips.  A catastrophe in the making.  Well – this is her plate during and then after dinner:

During dinner at the Golden Goose Pub.

Empty plate!

And then she had some of Charlotte’s nuggets and fries.  I had something called Boozy Pie which was beef in gravy in a pasty served with mashed potatoes and peas.  It too was deeeeeeeelicious.  I could have had two Boozy Pies.  Doug had chicken tikka masala, which he said was good.  All in all, we were very, very pleased with our meal – and all that for only 20 pounds!

Then we walked back to our flat and put the kids to bed!  Oh but on the way, we took a picture of Kebabish, just in case any of you don’t believe me.  The kids keep asking to go BACK to Kebabish, so apparently they liked it.

I have to say that after a weekend in the quiet, beautiful English countryside, being in a big city is quite a shock to the system.  It has been enjoyable, but given the opportunity I would head for the hills in an instant.  I think I truly fell in love with England last weekend.  I have even found myself feeling natural looking to the right to see if I’m about to get run over or not.  Just in time to head to France.  Tomorrow we have a car coming to pick us up at 7:45am to take us to St. Pancras Station to catch the train to Paris.  Two nights in Paris and then we’re on to St. Etienne.  So long English language and being able to order coffee without fear of getting laughed at for my pathetic French.  But helllllllo crepes!  And creme brulee!

 

Heres the rest of our pictures from today.  If you click on individual pictures, they open up full size.  Au revoir for now!

 

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Europe – Day 4

Posted on March 26, 2012 by ericasark

The old church in Ashbury.

Before we can actually talk about Day 4, we have to circle back to Day 3.  See, after I wrote Day 3’s update, we went and did more stuff!  Just after tea and before putting the kids to bed, while dear Kirsten drove the two hours to fetch Doug’s camera, the rest of us took a walk to the center of Ashbury and visited their church – the Church of England Parish Church of St. Mary.  It dates back to Norman times.  For those of you who are so uneducated that you don’t know when Norman times were (for shame!!), it began in 1066 when William the Conqueror started taking over bits of England.  Or so says Wikipedia.  The church was rebuilt in the 13th century. It is just amazing to see buildings this old.  It is gorgeous and stately and moving to stand inside.  As with most old churches, it is built in the shape of the cross.  It has ornate stonework and beautiful windows.  I love old churches.  An old church in the US might date back to the 1700s.  I just read that the Old North Church in Boston is the oldest still standing church building in Boston and it was built in 1723.

The church has a first edition King James bible in a display case.  I stupidly did not take a picture of it.  I believe it was printed in 1620.  The page it was turned to still looks picture perfect.

Out behind the church is an old graveyard.  A really old graveyard.  We spent some time walking around it before discovering

Back of the old church in Ashbury.

a path that looks exactly like a path in Robin Hood.  We waited for some riders on horseback to plunder, but all we saw were some March hares.  Anyway, back to the graveyard, I was surprised to see how many people lived well into their 70s back in the 1700-1800 timeframe.  Healthy place, that Ashbury.  I found a tombstone (from 1900) that I particularly liked with this poem on it:

Weep not for me dear wife, For I to you was only lent.  In love we lived, In peace I died, You asked my life but twas denied.  So mourn not but contented be, For we shall meet again.

Then we walked to the manor house in the Village, which apparently has flooring dating back to the Norman period, and has been continually inhabited as a house ever since.  Dominick says this is indicative of the fact that bad things don’t really happen in that area.  They survived all the things that obliterated other manor homes of that era.

So then now we can talk about Day 4 – The London Excursion.  This was sort of a “down day” for us – a travel day in between two busy days.

On the train from Swindon to Paddington

We booked ourselves on the 9:30 train to London from Swindon.  Our cab ride was much more enjoyable this time as the driver did not seem to have a death wish.  When we got onto the train with our ~150 pounds of luggage and two small children, there were no spots for either.  Doug dealt with the luggage situation while I looked pitiful until someone told me that even though 99.8% of the seats had reserved cards on them, I could almost definitely sit in any spot because we’d passed all of those stops.  This was brilliant as standing up for an hour train ride with Elisabeth and Charlotte was not going to happen.  We were all very tired this morning and I was undercaffeinated so it would have led to unfortunate situations.  As it was, the girls got their own two seats where they were fully engaged with a Kindle Fire and an ipad while Doug and I got to sit and have polite conversation.

We arrived into Paddington on time and our first order of business was to find the Paddington Bear Statue.  I’m pleased to

Charlotte found Paddington Bear!

report that the statue is every bit as cute as the drawing in the book and I felt terrible dragging Charlotte away.  I will buy her a Paddington Bear when we are home.  I can’t haul anything else.  Unless it is a new hat for me.  Or a cuckoo clock.

We then took a taxi to our flat.  We rented a flat in London because a hotel room for 4 was very expensive and/or one of us would have to sleep strung up from the ceiling and our luggage would have to stay in the hallway.  We’re in West Kensington, which isn’t too far from Kensington Gardens.  And also not terribly far from Wimbledon, Daddy dear.  I remember visiting Wimbledon when I came to London with my family in the 80s.  Mother, I also saw Herrods today.  Your mecca.

Our flat is quite nice.  Very well appointed.  They were keen to ensure that we have enough tea to make it through two days in London (i.e. a LOT of tea).  The girls are sleeping on a pull out sofa in the TV room and Doug and I have a very nice room to ourselves.  The bathroom is also very nice.  Having a kitchen is invaluable.  The kids had a take and bake pizza for dinner because we didn’t have time for a sit down meal and they very much needed some decompressing time.

After we got to the flat and settled in, we set out to find lunch.  We had lunch at a place called, and I’m not kidding, “Kebabish.”  And a more fitting name it could not have had.  We had kebab-ish stuff.  The girls had fried chicken.  I had a kebab but it was really only just kebabish.  It was food, it was fine, and it was relatively fast.

Then began our adventure on the London Underground (aka, the “Tube”).  We wanted day passes that would not put up a fuss if we wanted to travel at “peak times.”  The pass specifically said “off peak” so we didn’t buy it from the machine (and had missed the ticket counter person by 5 minutes).  So we decided to walk to the next Tube stop where after what seemed like ages we finally found a ticket counter that was open.  Turns out that if you buy a day pass, even one that says for off peak travel only, they really only mean you can’t travel in the morning rush hour.  Everyone is very polite here, so although we were somewhat frustrated it is awfully hard to be angry about it.  We got our pass and set off for Hyde Park with our ultimate destination being the Princess Diana Memorial Children’s Playground.

Climbing at the Princess Diana Memorial Children's Playground

Hyde Park is beautiful.  It reminds me of a cross between New York’s Central Park and Boston’s Esplanade.  There were dogs everywhere.  People picnicking.  People exercising.  Cricket matches.  Soccer balls.  Sun.  Swans.  Boats.  It was perfect.  We then crossed over into Kensington Gardens and walked until we got to the playground.  The kids enjoyed the playground and managed to find the two American kids there and hang out with them.  Charlotte loved the sand box, predictably, and Elisabeth enjoyed the see saws.  We eventually had to pull them away so that we could get back and eat before we set out again.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment, so far, is that Elisabeth did not enjoy the Harry Potter Walking Tour.  She was expecting someone to be dressed up like Hagrid, I think.  She was also expecting more Harry Potter the Book stuff and less Harry Potter the Movie stuff.  She is also very very tired.  She’s probably at the worst of this cold that Charlotte gave her.  So we stuck around for about half of the tour and then just left and came back home.  Doug and I enjoyed the tour.  The guide showed us really neat alleyways in London that we never would have found.  They have pubs and shops in them.  It feels magical to turn what looks like a desolate corner and find a burgeoning social scene.  The guide also showed us some sights from Dickens books.  I think I’d like to do another walking tour sometime, but we’ll leave Cranky #1 and Cranky #2 at home.

Now we’re back at the flat.  Charlotte has been in twice already for various ailments.  Our list so far:  her ear hurts, she is physically unable to close her eyes, she’s hot, she’s hungry, her knee hurts, and her jaw hurts.  When she brought out the sixth reason in approximately 45 seconds of talking, I had to audibly laugh.  Honestly, that kid is quite a piece of work.  I think she is asleep now, but I can’t completely tell.  We don’t dare poke our heads in there again…  no stirring up the beast.

So I will close this very lengthy update now.  I have more to say about England in general, but I know that the little lovely ones will be up again soon and I need to get some sleep.  But a few impressions of London first:  people who think they want to drive here must be certifiably insane.  Pasties (for 1.11 pounds) are delicious snacks.  I will need a supply of digestive biscuits to keep at home.  We all love them.

Tomorrow we see the Tower of London and do a little scavenger hunt/walking tour made for kids.  Hopefully it goes better than tonight’s walking tour.

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Europe – Day 3

Posted on March 25, 2012 by ericasark

Family photo outside Lacock Abbey

We are much heralded here in England, in small part because we have brought the most beautiful spring weather with us.  Highs in the 60s and sunny.  The mornings have a bit of fog in the hills, which just adds to the beauty of the area.

Today we set off for Lacock, which is a small village that dates back to 1232.  The village grew up around Lacock Abbey.  The village is entirely owned by the National Trust and so it has been well preserved as an quaint old town.  There are no electricity poles or telephone lines overhead and the buildings look just like they have always looked, aside from freshened up paint.

Because of its well preserved nature, Lacock has been the set for many movies and TV shows.  Among them are Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version), Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Emma, The Other Boleyn Girl, and our favorite BBC production – Cranford.  (seriously, we really loved Cranford.  If you haven’t seen it, fix that immediately.)

The village of Lacock. Imagine no cars and dirt roads.

The village is really neat to walk around.  People live there, but they all rent from the National Trust.  There are a few stores, a pub, a very old church, and of course the Abbey.  Lacock is also famous as being the birthplace of photography because William Henry Fox Talbot invented the process of photography and in 1835 he made the earliest known surviving photographic negative using a wooden camera.  Because of this, they have a lot of photography classes.  I was obviously distracted by that and wanted to stay and take some classes but was rudely interrupted by a break for ice cream.

When we arrived in Lacock, the very first thing we saw was a playground.  We spent close to an hour watching the kids have a grand time playing on very nice play equipment.  Apparently one thing that our friends here miss the most about the States is the playgrounds.  We’re very lucky to have such nice playgrounds. After some playtime, we took a walk around the village.  Much to Charlotte’s delight, she found a butterfly.  We went to a wool store where they sold all sorts of handmade wool sweaters that were quite beautiful.

The kids enjoy a 4 way see-saw.

There are lots of dogs around here in England.  I love it.  Big dogs, little dogs, dogs in bags.  I want to stop and pet each and every one, but I realize that it might drive the rest of my travel companions batty.  So I try to only pet the cutest ones.  Yesterday I pet this adorable puppy that looked like it could have been a Bernese Mountain Dog.  It was very tired and kept sitting down to rest and chew on its owner’s shoe.  Today we had two very sweet but unidentifiable dogs near us while we had tea outside.

A very nice family in the town had a little girl and a little boy riding horseback.  The boy was probably 7 or 8 and the girl was only about 4.  They had two little horses named Beckham and Snowy.  The little boy could see my kids eyeing his horse and he very politely said “you can stroke him if you’d like.”  Then the little boy proceeded to tell us all about Beckham.  Apparently you can tell Beckham is working properly if he gets a little foam around the mouth.  I really do need to get a British kid or two.  And perhaps a horse to ride into town.  We don’t have enough of that in the States.  At least in our area.

After walking around the town, we had a picnic lunch.  We had gamon, which as best as I can tell is just ham.  It was quite good, and made for a very nice lunch on buttered bread.  I’ve never heard of gamon before, but it is apparently very common here.

Our last stop in Lacock was to visit the Abbey.  The Abbey has an interesting history.  It used to house nuns, but then after the Dissolution (when the English stopped falling in line with the Catholics and Henry VIII took over as head of the church) it became a private residence.  I could be making some of that up, but I believe that’s what I was told today.  It is no longer a private residence.  We only toured the Cloisters part of the Abbey because we were all a bit tired and some of us were unable to keep quiet and calm.   I’ll leave it to your imagination to wonder who, since it isn’t nice to name names.

One of the rooms where they filmed classroom scenes for Harry Potter.

The Cloisters part of the Abbey is where they filmed many of the classroom scenes in the Harry Potter films.  There’s a room called the “Warming Room” where they have a big cauldron that was surprisingly not just added in for the movie.  The Warming Room was the only room in the Abbey where a fire was kept, so the nuns could go there and get warm.  Even today, when it was 60 degrees outside, the Abbey was really cold.  I would have made a terrible nun for many reasons, not the least of which is how cold and ergo cranky I’d be.

We wound up our day in Lacock and drove back to Ashbury only to find out that Doug had left his camera in the “loo” (new favorite word) back near the Abbey.  A few frantic digs through bags and a phone call later, we had located the camera which is now located in a pub in Lacock awaiting to be reunited with Doug (it is in the pub because the Abbey will be closed by the time we can go pick it up).  Kirsten insisted on going to pick it up for us since we don’t want Doug driving on these tiny windy streets after dark.  It is really very nice of her to go fetch it for us since it is about a two hour round trip drive.

We came home and the kids had their tea, which was macaroni and cheese tonight.  My kids were immediately excited and the British kids timidly asked “what’s this?”  Everyone liked it though.  We’re about to walk down to the church in the village before we put them in bed for hopefully a better night than last night.  Charlotte did not get much sleep last night, ergo neither did Doug.  She doesn’t wake me up in the middle of the night because she’s learned I’m not very nice when woken.

Tomorrow we are taking a 9:30 train from Swindon into London to start our 2.5 days there.  I’m so excited to go to London, which is one of my very favorite places.

Here’s the rest of the pictures from today (ps, we have the camera in our hot little hands now!):

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Europe Day 2

Posted on March 24, 2012 by ericasark

After quite a good night’s sleep, we (well most of us) woke up around 7:15am.  Charlotte, aka Sleeping Beauty, slept for two additional hours when I finally went and woke her up so that we could get started with our day.  We had corn flakes, toast and jam, coffee and tea for breakfast.

On the agenda for today was Avebury, which is a stone circle similar to Stonehenge but even older.  Avebury was begun around 2600 BC and they believe it took about a century to build.  They believe that the currently visible part of Stonehenge was begun in 2400BC.  Of course, around here, two hundred years is nothing in their history whereas it spans the majority of what we know of as America.  In my reading on Avebury, I learned that there is an outer circle which was either built contemporaneously with the inner circles or…. 4-5 centuries later.  What’s 500 years here and there?

Avebury is different than Stonehenge in a few respects.  First, there’s a quaint village in the middle of it.  Second, they let people go right up to and in fact climb up onto the stones.  This is fantastic for visiting with children and if it weren’t for the strong sun I think we might have stayed all day.

The drive to Avebury from Ashbury is absolutely gorgeous.  We saw lambs, sheep, ducks, people on horseback in the middle of the road, people walking in the middle of the road, hares, badgers (dead but still cool), and another pheasant.  The towns that we passed through were nothing short of adorable.  Thatched roofs often have little thatch woodland animals on top of them, and there is a sweet sign warning you that ducks cross the road, so please mind them.

Everything here is very polite.  Drivers are polite.  The signs are more verbose and quite polite:  please do this, please don’t do that, watch out for the sweet little animals.  When people go into a cafe, they ask if they may use the restroom instead of just assuming they can barge in and use it.  Even the toilets are more polite here – much to my kids’ joy there have not yet been automatically flushing toilets.  This is a joy for me as well because I don’t have to contort myself in small stalls to cover the sensor.  Even the ATMs are polite.  At the end of my transaction, I was offered an advice slip.  I’m still kicking myself for not taking it.  I’d love to see what kind of advice they offer – diversify your portfolio?  Mind the gap?  Watch for thieves?  (I’m not an idiot, I know it is just a receipt.)

Speaking of cafes, when we got to Avebury we elected to have a snack straight away.  I went to the cafe to get two teas and a coffee.  They don’t mess around with their tea here.  I was sent outside with a proper tea service on a tray:  a silver teapot full of hot water and tea bags, two mugs, and two little small pewter cups full of milk.  At a national park cafe.  There were no styrofoam cups in sight.  Here’s a picture of me with my tea service.

Tea service at Avebury, part of the National Trust.

In Avebury there is a manor house that the BBC has recently renovated as part of a “reality tv” show.  Each room is done up to match what it would have looked like during a certain time in its long history.  The kids enjoyed the 1930s room with things like a rotary telephone and zebra skin chair.  The Tudor bedroom where Queen Anne once slept was a huge hit.  The great thing about this house is that it is a “please touch” type of house.  Get in the bed.  Play with the kitchen equipment.  Sit in the dining room chairs.  Play billiards.  Great place for kids.

Kids with funny hats in a Tudor era dining hall.

To get into the manor house, you have to buy tickets in the barn which has a nice little museum attached.  On our way out we saw a huge placard about all of the bats that call the barn home.  They live right up in the thatch.  We managed to get Charlotte out of there before she saw anything about the bats.  I don’t need another sleepless six months.  But, hey, at least they’re immunized against rabies now, right?

Our dear Charlotte has found a way to keep herself perpetually occupied.  Ladybugs.  She collects as many ladybugs as she can find and lets them ride around on her all day long.  She really, truly loves her ladybugs and thankfully Britain seems to be covered in them right now.  I was very worried about Charlotte not having butterflies to chase and a million stuffed friends to carry around but it seems as though we’ve found our replacement, at least for this weekend.

One of Charlotte's many lady bugs, resting on her hand as she eats lunch.

After the manor house, we had a picnic and then walked around the stone circle.  The kids very much enjoyed climbing up onto the stones and then running down into and back up the other side of an enormous ditch.  Probably 25 feet from top to bottom and very steep.  Doug and I chose to be spectators to this chicanery.  Then we had some ice cream from “The Shop” in town and played on a few more gigantic stones.

On the way back to Ashbury we stopped in Marlborough, which is notably where Princess Kate went to what we consider high school.  It is the cutest town with a very wide main street lined with shops.  Clothes shops, book shops, a yarn shop, and most importantly to the kids, a tea shop.  We went in and had our first (but hopefully not our last) proper tea at Polly’s Tea Rooms.  We each had a scone (properly pronounced scon, rhymes with con like convict) that we piled high with clotted cream and a variety of jams.  The children had milk, except Elisabeth who had a hot chocolate.  I could very much get behind this tea tradition.

The Tea Rooms where we had proper tea.

Then we came back to Ashbury where the children played in the garden and my children infected their children with a love of Angry Birds and Cut the Rope.  But after an entire day outside, they needed some time out of the sun.  Red cheeks all around.

A second round of tea (this time sausages and broccoli for the kids), bath time and off to bed they go.  Doug and I might escape to a proper pub this evening, provided we can stay awake.  I’m half asleep!  Up for tomorrow is Lacock, which is where they filmed parts of Harry Potter and one of our favorite series, Cranford.

As the sun sets on our second day here in England, this thought occurs to me: I would like to transform my children to be British children.  I love their manner of speaking.  Not just the accent but the actual language.  I have yet to hear any of these kids say “yeah.”  At lunch today we met some Canadians.  The little girl had what looked like an American Girl doll with her, so I asked what the doll’s name is.  The response I got was “her name’s Karen.  She’s VERY expensive.”  That child needed a little more Brit in her than just being from a country that’s under the Royal Crown.  Our friend Kirsten said to her son Benedict today, “You have ten pounds in savings to spend” and his response was “Have I?”  Picture a four year old British boy saying “Have I?” and contrast that with what a four year old American boy might say.  I am incredibly aware of how often I myself say “yeah” being here.  It is a beautiful country, with beautiful traditions, and a beautiful language.

But I might miss Target….

Here’s the rest of the pictures from today:

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Europe – Day 1

Posted on March 24, 2012 by ericasark

We left our house last night at 8:30pm to start our first transatlantic crossing with two kids, heading to London to start our 17 day vacation around Europe.  I wasn’t sure how sound our plan to leave well after the kids’ bedtime was, but it worked out for the most part.  I had to hear an awful lot of whining about how sore Charlotte’s legs were, and whining about why she couldn’t get a pillow out of the bag to fall asleep on the 3 minute train ride to the terminal, but all in all both girls were real troopers.

When we boarded the plane and took off, they served dinner.  At midnight.  Luckily Elisabeth was already asleep by this point, but they put a pile of chicken nuggets down in front of Charlotte, so she gobbled them up and didn’t fall asleep until much later.  Elisabeth was the luckiest with regards to sleep.  I think she probably slept about five hours.  Charlotte probably got close to 5 hours too but it was very fitful.  She woke up crying 3 or 4 times.  Doug dozed.  I’m not even sure I dozed.  So I’m writing this, at 5:38pm EST, after essentially having stayed up all night.  It is 9:39pm here and we just wrapped up a lovely dinner.  More on that in a bit.

When we landed at Heathrow, we were picked up by a car service to take us to our friends’ house in Ashbury, which is in Oxfordshire.  The one+ hour ride to their house took one+ year off of my life. Aside from everything being on the other side of the road, the non-motorway roads here are very narrow!!  At one point our route was completely blocked by a big truck carrying hay that had torn down electrical wires and spilled its hay all over the road.  The driver was messing with the electrical wires, so I”m expecting to read his obituary tomorrow.  We had to change course and go a different way.  We drove 70+ mph down what was essentially paved lanes through wheat fields.  These lanes were not generally big enough for two cars to get through at the same time.  So when a big “lorrie” (truck) came head on at us, I had to close my eyes and pinch myself so as not to scream.  And passing – my goodness – passing here is not really an artform as much as a death wish.

We did make it to Ashbury intact.  When we got here, it was so wonderful to see our old friends.  We know them through our preschool – Elisabeth and their eldest daughter were in their 3 year old class and their pre-k class together.  The two girls reunited as if not one second had passed.  Their two girls and one boy and our two girls all played together in their “garden” (backyard) while our hosts made lunch.

Lunch here is a big meal.  We had lasagna and salad.  At 4 or 5, they have “tea.”  Tea is essentially dinner for the kids.  Today’s tea consisted of warm milk, crumpets with jam and butter, apple slices, grapes and cheese.  Then the kids play for awhile longer and go to bed.  After the kids are in bed, the adults sit down for a nice dinner.  This is quite a good plan, I think. We had such a lovely dinner with good conversation and wine while our little lovelies were literally snoring loudly upstairs.

After lunch, in order to better acclimate ourselves to the time change, we thought it might be a good idea to get outside.  We drove a few miles to a place called Uffington Whitehorse Hill, which is a chalk horse carved into the side of a hill over 3000 years ago.  Climbing to the top of the hill you realize what a gorgeous country England is.  These beautiful green fields laid out all around you.  Rolling hills.  Trains going by every once in awhile.  Truly, truly beautiful.

Apparently if you stand on the eye of the horse and make a wish it is good luck (despite the sign that says don’t stand on any part of the horse).  So I think we’re set for good luck for awhile.  After standing on the eye, we turned and walked up to the very top of the hill where we found an entire flock of sheep grazing.  This is how they deal with mowing the grass.  I think I want a couple for my backyard.  The kids practiced their border collie/shepherd skills.  I think they’re ready for prime time. They had those sheep rounded up in about 10 minutes.

Doug is the brave one doing the driving here.  I’m still a nervous nelly as a passenger in a car driven by our friends.

Being an old fogey, one of the first things I noticed about England was their different birds.  We saw two magpies on the way here.  They have pigeons the size of beagles.  Seriously.  Huge.  They have very pretty robins that sing beautifully.  And we saw a pheasant!

Up next, we’re going to see Avebury, which is a stone circle like Stonehenge but apparently really quaint with a village in the middle.  And now I plan to crash and sleep and sleep and sleep.

But first, here’s a photo gallery from the first day:

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The Ark Flies at Midnight…

Posted on March 21, 2012 by ericasark

…or, more precisely, 11:02 pm on the 22nd of March.  We land some hours later (I don’t actually know how many, and I am pretty sure I don’t want to calculate it) at London Heathrow.  I’m pretty sure we’ll all four sleep peacefully for the entire time and wake up feeling completely rested and ready to start our vacation.  Yep.

We’ll be away from home, exploring 5 different countries in Europe for 17 nights, heading back home via Munich on Easter Sunday.

I think we’re all feeling a mix of excitement tempered with a sense of “what are we about to do?”  Elisabeth says she’s a little nervous because she doesn’t know what it will be like.  We keep telling her how different it will be, and I think we (well, I) carried it too far because we had to backtrack and tell her it is less different than, say, going to the moon.  She seems to think that everything she knows and is used to will not be there in Europe.  So, I think she’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that the sun still shines and there are things like trees and dogs and cars in Europe.

Charlotte has finally admitted that she will come with us.  Up until yesterday, she kept denying that she’d be going and brainstorming which friends of ours she would be willing to stay home with.  We’ve packed three stuffed animals (Baby Ginny, Cutie Cutie, and…. Colored.  Yes, that is her name.).  Princess Cat, the dread-lock wearing baby doll – the original Charlotte baby doll – gets the honors of riding on the plane with us.  

I’m just missing my bed and my big soaking tub.  I’m sure I’ll be fine once I leave the house.  The “note” that I’m leaving for the cat sitter has spilled onto a 6th, typed, page…  I might worry a teeny tiny bit about things.

As for things we’re excited about, here’s a brief list:  Elisabeth is excited to see the Tower of London, all of the Harry Potter sites we can find, the Eiffel Tower, eating pain au chocolats and crepes, and French playgrounds.  Charlotte is excited to go to England because that’s where James and the Giant Peach takes place.  I’m excited to go to England and have fish and chips and a pint and hear that lovely British accent, I’m also pretty excited to go back to Switzerland perhaps solely because the livestock wear bells.  I adore Salzburg, too.  Eating all of the local cuisines also gives me a thrill.  I think Doug is most excited about seeing his French friend and dusting off his French skills.  He and Elisabeth have always shared a special bond about France and things French (so much so that she told her class she is part French), so it will be fun for him to show her Paris.

I’m hoping to live-blog the event, right here.  So for starters, here is our detailed itinerary (for the curious).  See you on the flip side!

Friday March 23:  Arrive LHR 10:15am.  A car service picks us up from the airport and drives us to a friend’s house in Ashbury, Oxfordshire which is about 30 minutes from Heathrow.  

Approximate location here:  http://g.co/maps/vwtr4

Friday March 23, 2012- Monday March 26, 2012

Stay with friends in Ashbury.  Things we plan to see while in Ashbury:

The town of Lacock – where they filmed both Cranford and some of the Harry Potter movies, favorites of Doug and Erica and Elisabeth and Charlotte (respectively).

Avebury Stone Circle – which is apparently more entertaining and interesting than Stonehenge.  

Oxford – besides being one of the world’s pre-eminent universities, the cafeteria apparently inspired the Great Hall in the Harry Potter books.  Do you see a theme here?

Monday March 26, 2012 – Wednesday March 28, 2012
Monday morning – travel from Ashbury to London via train with the commuters.  
We will be staying at the Castletown House apartments in West Kensington.

Things we plan to do and see in London (we will pick some from this list, not all!)

Wednesday March 28, 2012 – Friday March 30, 2012

Wednesday March 28, 2012 – take the 9:12am Eurostar train from London’s St. Pancras International Train Station to Paris’ Gare du Nord.

We are staying in the Marais section of Paris, in the 4th Arrondisement, here.  The apartment looks like this.  Despite the appearance, we don’t think it is under construction, as Elisabeth asked.

Things we might see in Paris:

  • Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
  • Another treasure hunt
  • Eat ourselves sick on pain au chocolate, croissants, and crepes.
  • Cite des enfants (science museum)
  • Tuilleries Garden (where they have, among other things, trampolines)
  • Jardin du Luxembourg
  • Musée de la Poupée (the Doll Museum) is a cozy museum in the heart of Le Marais, with a collection of more than 500 dolls dating back to the 1800s,
  • La Charlotte de l’Isle (24 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile), on the Ile Saint Louis, is a whimsically decorated tearoom known for its hot chocolate—deliciously thick and yummy, unlike what American children are usually used to.
  • Additionally, we are going to see my friend Bethany from MIT

Friday March 30, 2012- Sunday April 1, 2012

We are renting a car at Charles De Gaulle airport on Friday morning and driving to St. Etienne where we will be staying with Laurent (Doug’s exchange student friend) and his family.  

Drive from Paris to St. Etienne:  about 5.5 hours.  Route here.

Sunday April 1, 2012 – Tuesday April 3, 2012

Sunday April 1, 2012 we will leave Laurent’s house in St. Etienne and drive about four hours to Montreux, Switzerland along this route.  There we will tour La Chateau de Chillon, a very well maintained medieval castle.  From there we will drive another 30 minutes to our bed and breakfast, which is a working farm near Gruyeres, Switzerland.  Check out the pictures of the farm… there are goats.  With bells.  

On Monday we will explore the town of Gruyeres, eat some cheese, maybe run through some alpine fields, and go tour a chocolate factory where as I understand it you get to eat as much chocolate as you want at the end.

Tuesday April 3 – Friday April 6, 2012

On Tuesday April 3 we will do the longest drive of our trip, about 6.5 hours, and drive from Gruyeres to Salzburg Austria along this route.  In Salzburg, or rather slightly outside of Salzburg, we will stay at Hotel Bloburgerhof, which used to be a dairy farm.  In Salzburg, we plan to take a Sound of Music Tour, explore what I think is one of the most beautiful cities on Earth and also the birthplace of one of my favorite composers (Mozart), and eat Wiener Schnitzel.   The town square in Salzburg has a giant chess board, maybe we’ll challenge the kids to a game.

Friday April 6, 2012 – Sunday April 8, 2012

On Friday April 6, we will take the short one hour drive to Munich where we are staying at the Hotel Laimerhof.  The innkeepers have twin seven year old boys and have given me a list of fun things to do in the area such as a toy museum, the human nature museum, and the Deutsche museum.

Sunday April 8, 2012

All good things must come to an end, and so we will pack the tired kids and adults onto a plane and return to the states, unfortunately not via a direct flight.

We leave Munich at 11:50am local time and arrive in Toronto at 2:40pm EST.  We leave Toronto at 4:52pm EST arriving at 6:19pm which will feel like after midnight for us, so I’m sure everyone will feel just dandy.

Sometime Mid-May, 2012

We will be caught up on sleep.

 

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Kidz Bop

Posted on March 6, 2012 by ericasark

As I believe I’ve mentioned…. the girls in this household like to have dance parties.  We can turn a bad day into a good day with a dance party.  We have disco dancing cleanup contests (dance and clean at the same time, winners awarded for most cleaning, most creative, best endurance, but definitely not only most dancing….).  When Doug is away we’re known to have disco dinners:  eat a bit, dance a bit, repeat until late for bath.

The problem is <old fogey voice> The music these days is just not appropriate for children! </old fogey voice>

There’s a song that I thought was called “Forget You.”  I garnered a choice look from a particularly judgmental preschool mom when we pulled up at school singing at the top of our lungs with the music blaring.  I got to work, mentioned this judgey look to a younger co-worker, who enlightened me to the fact that I was listening to the radio version and the real version is really F*!# You.  Now…. if I were the judgmental type I might wonder how the judgey preschool mom knew the real lyrics, but I don’t have time for that.  Thankfully Forget You has now also been remade by the Muppets Chickens, so we can sing the entire song with Bock Bocks.  And that doesn’t get annoying.  At all.

But it is difficult to find any current dance songs that don’t have inappropriate lyrics.  Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, LMFAO – all bad news at places.  Yet these are the songs the kids at school are singing, so I understand why the kids want to hear them.  Enter Kidz Bop.  I thought we had found the solution to all of our problems.  Today’s songs remade, fairly well, by kids, with kid appropriate lyrics.  And they, for the most part, don’t annoy me.  The kids seem to prefer them.  Problem solved, right?

Not so fast.  Here’s what I hear from the back seat:

Elisabeth:  “Mommy, one difference in the Kidz Bop version of Moves Like Jagger is that they say jaded instead of naked.  And they also say take me by the hand instead of take me by the tongue.”

Elisabeth:  “Mommy, in this version of Edge of Glory they sing ‘there’s no reason you and me should dance alone tonight’ instead of BE alone tonight.”

etc.etc.

(Don’t get me started on why the can correct the context but not the grammar….  it probably makes me look more of a fuddy duddy than I am).

So, it appears that my lesson is this:  Kidz Bop, while having better lyrics, only serves to highlight the adult themed language in songs, since they are apparently hearing the songs elsewhere too and making their lightning fast comparisons to figure out the differences.

I don’t know which is better…….  let the lyrics wash over their heads (hopefully) or highlight the bad lyrics by listening to Kidz Bop.  We shall see.

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