Day 3: Windsor Castle and Hampton Court

Well, I was granted an extension until I got back from Paris, so here's a few brief posts.

On our third day, we went to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court using a tour. It was a little bit whirlwind, but since our time in London was limited, it was a cheaper, faster way to see both castles.

The first is Windsor castle, where the Queen still takes residence. It's apparently her favorite place of residence, as she is still (at 80+) an active horse rider and the area around Windsor has a lot of space for that.


Windsor Castle

There's also a town of Windsor, which is connected to the town of Eton just across the river Thames. Megan and I love Eton. It's just so cute.


A street in Eton

Windsor has a lot of interesting things inside, including the Royal China and a famous Dollhouse in which everything is exactly 1/12th to scale. The plumbing works and the books can be read. Sadly, Windsor, like many things in England, does not allow pictures inside.


The Queen's Apartments, where she lives when she's at Windsor


St. George's Cathedral, within the walls of Windsor

The next stop was Hampton Court, probably most famous for being the primary residence of Henry VIII. Hampton Court is a little different than the other castles, in that it was constructed as a palace, rather than a fortress, first.


Front of Hampton Court


Me, auditioning for the role of "Lion Gargoyle."

Hampton Court was nice, but it was getting dark already (there's only about 7 hours of daylight in this part of the world) and it was soon time to head back for the rest of our New Year's eve.

We ended up heading over to Buckingham Palace after we couldn't get over to the Thames.


The view from Buckingham Palace. The London Eye is in the background.

We have some pretty good pictures and video, but I think these sum things up best. Sorry for the quality and the sometimes-spastic motion.

Untitled from Chris Ing on Vimeo.

Snow! from Chris Ing on Vimeo.

More to come.

Problems and delays

Hello everyone,

I apologize for not updating this blog as much as I had anticipated. But there were some things that happened that I didn't mentally plan for:

1. No internet in Edinburgh. We thought we had it, but didn't. This is sort of a minor problem, though, because even if we had we'd be fighting off...

2. Complete exhaustion. Getting up and going every single day eventually catches up to you, and I've been collapsing into bed around 8 or 9 o'clock every night for the past few nights. I'm normally a night owl and I thought I'd be clicking these posts up at night. Megan and I have taken it easier for the last couple days to help reset, but...

3. My novel has a request for a full manuscript. I got this email this morning, despite it being sent a couple of days ago. This is a very rare thing for an aspiring author to, on his first try, get a partial and then a full. The problem is, of course, I'm in Paris. Megan has told me I should take some time and get it together so I don't lose my chance.

So, the blog is going to take some time. The pictures have been uploaded for many things in the album, so feel free to click around. I know I'll be finishing these updates eventually, but for now it looks like I'm stuck.

We're looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Day 2: Westminster and the Tower of London

Our hotel is set right in the city of Westminster, across from the official "town" of London (over the Thames.) Because of that, we decided that the first stop should be Westminster Abbey, which is a moderate walk away.


Westminster Abbey from inside the Cloisters

Oddly this is the best exterior shot I have. Somehow the rest of the pictures from the front didn't make it.

Westminster Abbey is probably the most important church in England, and one of the oldest, with a place of worship having existed on that spot for nearly a thousand years. This is also where the Kings and Queens of England are Coronated.

Sadly, you're not allowed to take pictures on the inside, which is weird since I thought I had taken them the last time I was there. But the interior is incredible, with incredible, varied architecture (the interiors often changed with Kings) and the graves of some of England's most influential figures, including many Kings.


The Cloisters, where much daily monk living took place

It took us about half the day to get through it all. Quite the site.

For the second half of the day, we sat through the last half of our Bus tour. It was still cloudy and cold, so by the time we got to the Tower of London we were freezing and hungry. But thankfully, we found a friend:



Wagamama is a Japanese Ramen house, and had easily the best food we've eaten so far, with the freshest ingredients and much-needed hot soup.


Megan has finally mastered chopsticks!


Spicy ramen with chicken.

After refueling, we headed into the Tower of London, famous for it's various functions throughout its history, but probalby the most imfamous as being a place of execution. This was kind of difficult for us to do thoroughly as it began to rain heavily while we were there. We managed to get through some of the perimeter, then saw the Crown Jewels (pictures weren't allowed there either) and then headed back.



The White Tower


Megan next to a Yeoman Warder (also known as a Beefeater). They guard the Crown Jewels and give tours, and they live in the Tower. We eventually had to give up the tour because of the rain and the ever increasing crowd that followed him around.


The building where the Crown Jewels are held. You can see the long line (or in British: "queue").

To end our day, we attempted to go on Ghost Walk. This Ghost Walk was free and part of our bus tour, but we never found the tour. We asked a policeman if he knew where they were, and said he hadn't seen any tours waiting in front of the National Gallery (and Trafalgar Square). He asked us if we had a contact number, to which I replied I didn't have a phone.

So, we decided instead to eat a a pub.


The spots are raindrops reflecting the flash, and not, in fact, ghosts.


Megan's Irish Beef Casserole

My steak and chips.

We have to partially forgive the British for their food, because this meal was good. Apparently one should just order what they know how to do, which is grill steak and make casseroles. Very satisfying.

The beer pictured is "London's Pride" which I ordered when I saw its name on the lever thingy. It was good. Well, I thought it was good. Megan had a sip, and her response was:

"It taste like it smells, which is gross."

And so we come to the end of Day 2.

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Apologies for the delay in the blogs. It takes a long time to upload the hundreds of pictures we take a day, sometimes up to two hours. I've also uploaded a few videos you'll see. By the time those pictures and videos are uploaded, I've usually fallen asleep on accident.

I'm going to try and get the rest of of them up later today, as all of the pictures are prepped. It's also a lighter day as we take the train to Edinburgh.

On Our First Day

Hello!

This is actually the morning of our second full day, but I fell asleep before I could post to the blog last night. We're still adjusting to the jet lag and should hopefully have it sorted out by tonight.

There are now a ton of pictures, far too many to post here on the blog, so make sure to look over at the slideshow. If you want to navigate through the pictures on your own, just click the link below.

http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk82/Cookingthings/europetrip/


Yesterday morning we walked around our hotel a bit, justs to get a flavor of London. Walking just down our street, however, we came across a house that Churchill once lived in. You can see a picture of it in the album. This is a good analogy of how the city of London is: covered in so much history that you end up walking into it without even looking for it.

But our first intentional thing we saw was Buckingham Palace, which is about a fifteen minute walk from our hotel. It was raining pretty hard yesterday, so the pictures are pretty gloomy. Thankfully, we had our raincoats!


Front gate of Buckingham Palace


One of the Queen's Guard. They usually wear red, but they seem to be wearing a winter coat.


Us at the Front Gate


Mrs. Ing Goes to Buckingham


I think this is the Royal Seal. Or it stands for Henrietta R. Hippo.

After our rainy exploit, we decided to head back to the hotel and buy a tour bus pass. We got a good deal that let us ride it for 48 hours. There are pictures from the tour bus, but many of them are through a window, and I'm hoping some of them will be better when we actually go there. There is this picture, though:


It's raining!...oh, wait, that's not that important part of the picture.

The tour took us through most of West London. We didn't really get off, except at Harrod's to go to the bathroom and take a peek around. There are a few pictures of Harrod's in the album. After a while, however, we got tired of riding the tour, and took the Underground back to our hotel.


Please mind the gap.

Megan stopped at a Casino, then we ate lunch. A horrible, horrible lunch. It seems that in the ten years since I've been here, the British haven't decided to invent any better food. I have never been depressed about eating a hamburger before, but I was! I was sad I had to eat it because it was so horrible!

We went back to the hotel and took an impromptu nap. I say impromptu because it was certainly not planned, and I could swear I was just going to rest my eyes...

After the nap, we headed over to Picadilly Circus, determined to eat something that was horrible.

 
Picadilly Circus, London's Time Square.


A famous English Telephone Booth in Picadilly Circus

We found an Italian restaurant and ate some spaghetti, much needed after our encounter with the odd hamburger. There's some pictures of the food, though I usually forgot to take the picture until after I started eating it...

After dinner we walked around Picadilly Circus, despite the rain, and found London's Chinatown.


One of the gates marking the entrance to Chinatown.

There are a ton of pictures of Chinatown, so you'll have to look through the album to see them all. I will share my favorite sign, though:




After Chinatown, we walked on Regent Street a bit, then headed back, exhausted. But not before we got some dessert.


Chocolate Muffin in the bag. Megan had a mint and chocolate McFlurry

That's all for now. We have to go to Westminster Abby now.

On Traveling Across the Pond

Well, we're here. It's 3:51 AM London time, and despite our best efforts I can't sleep any longer. So I thought I might as well post up what has happened thus far.

Us in LAX, still thinking that flying might possibly be fun.

The flight on Virgin Atlantic was niiiiice. Probably the nicest plane I've ever been in. It was spacious and clean and had about fifty movies you can choose from, along with TV shows, video games, and audio programming. We used the movies mostly, and never felt the need to pull down the ample supply of entertainment gear we brought along with us. Part of this was because we tried to sleep, but more on that in a second.

They gave us food, which was nice. In theory. Megan got the chicken and potatoes, which she liked. I chose vegetarian pasta. Those who know me will probably find this an odd choice, but I thought that a vegetarian pasta would consist of some penne with marinara sauce and some vegetables dropped on the top.

I did not expect a green-colored lasagna probably made of asparagus.
I wish I had taken a picture...

So, I ate the chocolate cake and continued on watching the movie. They gave me tea too, which was good. I've had tea three times since departing, twice on the plane and once here at the hotel, and it's so good. I mean, it's plain packaged tea, but somehow it's better here.

Anyway, I finished the movie and decided it was time to sleep. Prior to leaving, my brother recommended Tylenol's Simply Sleep, which is a pill that contains the ingredient in benadryl that makes you sleepy. In his words "Just take two, lean back, and feel really warrrrrm."

I did feel really warm. Too warm, in fact, and I had to take off my shoes and roll up my jeans. Megan decided to forgo her Xanax and tried to sleep on her own.

The next few hours are a bit sketchy on my end. Simply Sleep does make you mega-drowsy, but does not put you directly to sleep, and so I apparently did some odd things. Like shaking my leg while sleeping and telling Megan to not yell despite the fact she was whispering.

In any case, I did manage to semi-sleep for a while. In part thanks to the audio program on the plan "Meditate to Sleep." It's just this lady telling you how to relax your body mixed in with sounds of running water. Didn't actually put me to sleep, but I was too drowsy to change it. ;D

Closer to the end they gave us a bagel with egg and cheese for breakfast and we slowly descended into Heathrow. Emphasis on slowly, since it felt like we were taking a leisurely spin around England (the pilot even said the plane wold go as far north as Manchester).

The last time I came here, I flew in to Gattwick Airport. I remember this being a painful experience, including a depressing rat-maze like exit and a very, very long drive from the airport into London. This time, I decided we would go into the closer Heathrow airport, which as an Underground (the London subway) stop connected to the airport.

Heathrow, it turns out, is no less rat-maze like, but it's cleaner and brighter than the dank Gattwick. Still, there was quite a bit of walking involved, which was welcome after the long flight. Immigration was relatively painless, and both of our bags had arrived.

Another long walk through tunnels later, we arrived at the Underground station and got a ticket to Victoria station, which is London's main train and bus station, and is located just a few minutes walk away from our hotel.

Unfortunately, I slightly miscalculated how long it would take for the Underground to get us to Victoria. This is most easily evidenced by this picture of Megan on the Picadilly line.


"I'm smiling. But just barely."

It took us a while, though it was interesting to see the outskirts of London where the locals live. It was already dark, though, so most of the interesting bits were difficult to see. We changed trains once at South Kensington and evenutally go to Victoria Station. Apparently the Underground stations are not designed for people moving luggage, though. I think we went up and down four different flights of stairs?

We got to Victoria and managed to get to the hotel!


The Comfort Inn Buckingham Palace Road. Megan has some water we bought at a market.

We checked in and took some showers to wash airline-grime off. The room is nice and clean, but small. The bed is large enough for me, though, so no complaints.


The entirety of the room. The door on the left is the bathroom. The curtains open onto a small balcony overlooking the road.

After settling in, we went out to look for some food. And went to!...

...Subway.

Yeah, same Subway. Sandwiches and all. They have some odd sandwiches there, however, and a much smaller selection. Still, it's always good to find a backup food place where there's something familiar to fall back on.

After Subway we went back to Victoria Station to check out the shops and restaurants there. Again, more backup food (another Subway, McDonald's, KFC, a cool looking baked potato place) and a little market. We got some water there and headed back.

So that's about it! We crashed at 10PM, but we're pretty much awake at this point. We're just waiting for breakfast to open and watching British TV, in which they have a sign language interpreter in the corner, whom Megan like studying.

Updates later!

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A couple of housekeeping notes. You may notice the sidebar has some new features. The first is a slideshow, which will have every picture we take, regardless of quality, focus, and subject matter. It saves from me having to link every photo into the blog posts.

Second is the "Trafalgar Square Count." The last time I was here, we saw Trafalgar Square about a thousand times, each time the tour bus making sure we knew that the Lions around Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson's Statue were made of the Cannons from the French warships he defeated. So, for fun, I decided to try and count how many times we see Trafalgar Square this trip.

See you all later!

Chris and Megan.

Packing~!

Hey everyone!

Well, we're packing right now. That's it. Nothing else to say about that.

I just wanted to put a post here because it looked so empty and sad.

Good posts to follow!