Travelling: it's all a question of your outlook

[Mermaid]

We've just come back from ten days in England and France. By all accounts it should have been the trip from hell but instead it was an adventure, thanks to a very determined "glass half full" attitude, which I would recommend anyone with a passport to adopt.

It started out with a serendipitous upgrade to business class on the way to London. Free booze! Footrests and wide seats!!! Heaven on an airplane. We were sozzled sleepy and stupendously happy when we set foot on English soil. Which was just as well seeing that we--not our bags--were all that arrived. A trip to the lost department ensued and the very helpful lady at the counter gave us each a goody package and assurances that our luggage would be delivered in 24 hours or less. Free chichi toiletries and an undershirt big enough to work as jammies for the night (though no "knickers," the lady said, because British Airways was tired of all the complaints that the ones they provided were never big enough ), and, best of all, no luggage to lug on the tube. Heaven in an airport!! The lady at the counter was flabbergasted at my big grin. She was clearly more acccustomed to people yelling and swearing at the inconvenience, but how it could ever be construed as such is beyond me. Who doesn't like delivery service??

Off to London on the tube, which cost only 4 GBP ($8), one of the country's only bargains. Most tourists are led to believe they need costlier forms of transportation into the city, but that's nuts. You get the real flavor of a place when you do what the locals do.

We stayed at the dormitories of the London School of Economics. No view, no decorations, a shower the size of a shoe closet but it was only 90 GBP a night, which seems like highway robbery (it is) but for London was a steal. http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=216 And what a location!! Smack dab in the middle of everything. We could walk to the river, the British Museum, Covent Garden, and best of all, the oldest pub in the city, Ye Old Cheshire Cheese. It should have been corny and touristy and dreadful and instead it was wonderful. Full of ancient beamed ceilings and nook and crannies and romantic alcoves and a stuffed parrot who cursed a blue streak in his living days and the most magnificent real ale ever tasted. We tasted a lot of it.

I especially needed lots of ale because all my flat shoes were packed and lost in transit. If I were to conquer London, it was to be done in 2" heels, come rain or shine. Kimmifunn would have been very proud of me because that's what I did. We took a nap as soon as we were allowed to check in to the dorms and after that we took a two and a half hour evening tour over cobblestones and back alleys and hidden courtyards. Thank goodness three stops for libations were scheduled...did I mention it was a publ crawl???

More later.

[InletBchDweller]

Aww, Mermy!

Welcome back!! I have missed you...

Glad you had funn and can not wait for more of your adventures!

[Miss Kitty]

...I must have ESPN because I just left you a message a bit ago welcoming you back and pleading for a trip report! You delivered! I can hardly wait for more, but I will.

Mr. K just walked in the door from London, himself! He is in a pissy mood and it looks like a long night for me.

[InletBchDweller]

...I must have ESPN becasue I just left you a message a bit ago welcoming you back and pleading for a trip report! You delivered! I can hardly wait for more, but I will.

Mr. K just walked in the door from London, himself! He is in a pissy mood and it looks like a long night for me.

well at least he is not a FLorida fan

[Mermaid]

Aww, Mermy!

Welcome back!! I have missed you...

Glad you had funn and can not wait for more of your adventures!

We must have had funn because the scale registered four pounds heavier this morning. I can't imagine where it came from.

...I must have ESPN becasue I just left you a message a bit ago welcoming you back and pleading for a trip report! You delivered! I can hardly wait for more, but I will.

Mr. K just walked in the door from London, himself! He is in a pissy mood and it looks like a long night for me.

Aha! I know all about men in pissy moods. In the next installment you will find out that our luggage was never delivered...and the electric shaver was IN the luggage. Unshaven men may look hunky on the outside but on the inside they are bears!! I had to ply Merman with copious quantities of alchol just to keep him civil. Who'd have thought it? Our goody bag had a manual razor in it but I think Merman was too much of a weeney to try it out. God forbid he'd have a few nicks on that grumpy mug of his. (I also don't think he liked me laughing at the salt-and-pepper stubble either. )

[DD]

...I must have ESPN becasue I just left you a message a bit ago welcoming you back and pleading for a trip report! You delivered! I can hardly wait for more, but I will.

Mr. K just walked in the door from London, himself! He is in a pissy mood and it looks like a long night for me.

Welcome to my world.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mermy's back!!!!

[Miss Kitty]

...there is nothing better than a trip report from Mermy! Oh, swoon...Merman with stubble!

Update...Mr. K is plying me with free chocolates he received. Now he is showing me all his gifts from the golfing outing. Good thing I went shopping last night and plied myself with new clothes.

[Miss Kitty]

Welcome to my world.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mermy's back!!!!

Never give up five minutes before the miracle.

[Chickpea]

Great report - want to read some more, especially about France.....

We are getting ready to go on a long trip as well and to be prepared I always pay my tickets with Amex as I have their baggage protection plan which is awesome!!!!

And yes, travel in business is another world experience....I am always reminded of that great Seinfeld episode which highlights the differences between economy and business brilliantly and with humor!!

[Cork On the Ocean]

I'm soooo jealous. I'm getting the itch to move! Keep the report coming. Love it!

[Mermaid]

Day Two
No bags. I was so confident that they'd have been delivered the evening we arrived that I neglected to wash socks and undies in the sink just in case. Arggg! Thank god we are not naturally stinky people or we'd have been sunk. On with the day old clothing and on with a stiff upper lip in the face of inconvenience.

Off to the endlessly fascinating Victoria and Albert Museum, the largest museum of decorative arts in the world. If it's pretty, it's in the V&A. We hooked onto a tour and luckily the guide was keen on the Indian collection (India's Indians, not ours) and we got a very good overview, which worked out nicely when we attened the lunchtime lecture on the last maharajah of the Sikhs. We met up with Merman's brother, who lives in the outskirts of London. Pension plans in the UK are miles ahead of ours and his brother, at the tender age of 55, is newly and blissfully retired, and therefore able to spend a day playing tourist with us.

We saw the memorial to Diana Princess of Wales after we left the V&A. It's dreadful. Absolutely horrible and she's probably turning in her grave. It's supposed to be a "fountain" but instead looks like an open culvert. I felt sad for her, especially since Victoria's memorial to her beloved Albert is in the same park, and it's lovely and grand and touching. Poor Diana.

We took the tube across town to the Imperial War Museum. It's a fascinating place and the building it's housed in is beautiful with a wide open atrium filled with wartime flying machines. I had particularly wanted to see the current exhibit about the children of London during the second world war. It's a sad story: London was constantly blitzed and parents had to ship their children out, some to the English countryside, some to Canada and other countries, most not to be seen until the end of the war. Heartwrenching, really, because while many of the children were welcomed into their new temporary homes, many were not. It was hard times. We also saw the exhibit on the Holocaust. It was shocking. I thought I knew all there was to know about it but I was wrong. I can't adequately describe the dread that seeps into you as you learn picture by picture, film upon film, what happened in those horrible years. It left a hole in my heart to learn how many innocent children were killed in cold blood by the Nazis. I hadn't known.

[Mermaid]

One of the nice things about having a British brother-in-law is that he has a British mobile phone (see, I'm catching the lingo really well ), which we used to call BA to see about our still-missing luggage. A 6 pm phone call on Day 2 of our London trip turned up no bags but the promise that a shopping trip for essentials would be reimbursed--35 GBP each to spend. Whooo hoooooo! Shopping trip!!!! Heaven in a big city!! We trotted off to Marks and Spencer where I found a new pair of blue jeans and a top and unmentionables for 34.50 GPB. BTW, the British do not believe in vanity sizing. I may be an ego-boosting size 4 at home but when I'm in Jolly Old England I'm a perfect size 10.

A quick trip to the supermarket provided cold beer, cheeses and cold cuts and snacks for our two hour London-by-night double-decker bus tour. We chatted up the bus driver, who took a liking to us, which was very good. Apparently the young hooligans who ride the British busses get drunk a lot and this prompted a brand new law prohibiting booze-on-the-bus. Luckily for us, the bus driver took us aside and said that although he'd seen the beer in our plastic sacks (darn!), it was alright because "the bus will be dark and you don't look rowdy."

London at night with a wise-cracking bus driver is a treat, and a perfect way to end a day.

More later.

[tistheseason]

Great trip report! I can't wait until the next installment!

[Miss Kitty]

Great trip report! I can't wait until the next installment!

I know! I am getting desperate to learn the fate of the luggage!

[Mermaid]

Some pictures to keep you interested while I eat dinner.



MAN BOOBS! Better than OMBs? (and if anyone can figure out what this subway ad is about, let me know). Some more in the gallery under vacation pictures.

[NoHall]

Yay...trip report time!

[Ocean Lover]

Glad you're back Mermy! I'm loving the installments. My luggage was lost once for a week but it was on the way home. I sure hope they found it!
That makes me really sad to hear about Diana's memorial. Did you take any pics?

[Mango]

Yay, Mermy is back and I wait with baited breath for the installments.

[Mermaid]

Welcome to my world.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mermy's back!!!!

Just to let you know that the ancient Egyptian mummies in the British Museum were dazzled by a certain pink bracelet.

Great report - want to read some more, especially about France.....

We are getting ready to go on a long trip as well and to be prepared I always pay my tickets with Amex as I have their baggage protection plan which is awesome!!!!

And yes, travel in business is another world experience....I am always reminded of that great Seinfeld episode which highlights the differences between economy and business brilliantly and with humor!!

Chickpea, we went to Normandy and missed the man flying over the channel by only a day! (I saw the Burghers of Calais, however, which thrilled me a damm sight more. )

I'm soooo jealous. I'm getting the itch to move! Keep the report coming. Love it!

After all the enjoyment and laughs I got out of reading your Europe adventure, sharing mine is the least I can do!

Great trip report! I can't wait until the next installment!

I am a glutton for praise, so I guess I will have to keep on writing.

Yay...trip report time!

If only I could insert pictures into the post as well as you!

Glad you're back Mermy! I'm loving the installments. My luggage was lost once for a week but it was on the way home. I sure hope they found it!
That makes me really sad to hear about Diana's memorial. Did you take any pics?

OL, google "Diana Memorial Fountain" and you'll come up with lots of info and photos, none of which will impress you I'm sure. They should have done better by Diana.

Yay, Mermy is back and I wait with baited breath for the installments.

I have a special photo for you in the photo gallery. Happy belated birthday!

[Sheila]

Hooray! No how am I that you are posting a TR before me!

Glad you're home. Keep your mobile on.

[SWGB]

Grayt trip report.

The ad in the tubes is for a gym?

P.S. I understand the razor, it usually takes a mans face about 30 days to get used to an electric razor. If you use a manual razor it takes 30 days to get back to the electric razor and it's all knicks and missed spots in between.

[Mermaid]

Day 3
Thursday morning. Merman wakes up and puts on the same pants he's been wearing since Monday. He could have bought new ones with his BA clothing allowance but couldn't be bothered trying to figure out the sizes, and settled for a new shirt, undies, and socks instead, for which I was very grateful.

We walked up to Bloomsbury to the British Museum and made an interesting detour: a church with unicorns!!! Jdarg, if you care to check out my photo gallery you will find a small photographic present awaiting you. I have even better close-ups if you're interested.

I hadn't expected to like the British Museum as much as I did. It's full of artifacts brought back from the four corners of the earth and I thought it would be dusty and old but instead it was fascinating. We looked at beautifully painted interiors of Egyptian coffins (mummies included), carved sandstone murals from long-ago Romans, intricately carved jewelry made before Christ's birth and so much more. And the atrium! It's soaring and modern and made my heart sing. There's something about the juxtaposition of the very old with the very new that when it works--and this does--it is wondrous. It's a modern marvel. My camera couldn't capture it all but I know you can find photos on the internet, and it's worth your time to look (and I do apologize for the lack of computer skillz or I'd do it for you myself).

One thing that sprung to mind in this, the third museum we'd seen in as many days, was that humans throughout the ages have at least two insatiable desires that are constant: the need to embellish and make beautiful, and the need to kill and conquer. Everything we'd seen had elements of either one or the other. Modern man has nothing on the ancients.

We left the museum and shortly found ourselves in a square surrounded by hundreds of crows. Oh, wait, not crows. Suits. All black and somber and serious. Not a frivolous gray or houndstooth among them. It appeared that one of the office buildings on Bloomsbury Square had either a fire drill or a bomb threat. We wandered onto the square as the sea of black serge milled about impatiently until they were allowed back in. It was like watching a swarm of bees reenter the hive.

We made our way to the Thames with a stop at a very and old interesting pub called Blackfriars. The interior was decorated with hand carvings of monks. Like so:



We sat at the table on the left and rested our weary feet. Make that my weary feet, which were protesting the heels-on-cobblestones treatment they'd been receiving for the last few days.

Ah, but all good drinks must come to an end and we headed out across the Thames River to see the reconstructed Globe Theatre. I saw steps down to the river bed at the end of the bridge and was all set to go collect a few river rocks but it was mucky on the bottom steps and I changed my mind. Ladies in heels must be mindful.

[Minnie]

Thanks for sharing, I love Trip Reports, almost like being there. And here is your photo, beautiful place.

[Mermaid]

Grayt trip report.

The ad in the tubes is for a gym?

P.S. I understand the razor, it usually takes a mans face about 30 days to get used to an electric razor. If you use a manual razor it takes 30 days to get back to the electric razor and it's all knicks and missed spots in between.

You were right--I was able to make out the web address and this is on its home page.

Thanks for sharing, I love Trip Reports, almost like being there. And here is your photo, beautiful place.

Thanks Minnie. This space is very appropriately called the Great Court, and it's breathtaking.

[Mango]

I have a special photo for you in the photo gallery. Happy belated birthday!

Oooh la la. My own double decker bus. Yes, I am all about shameless self promotion, especially on my birthday!

[Jdarg]

I am waiting on the edge of my seat to find out if you had clothes for the wedding!

[Allifunn]

I am loving your fabulous trip report, Mermy!!!
I can't wait to hear more! You make it all seem so real and interesting!
I want to travel with you sometime..we would have a pisser....

[DD]

I'm waiting too. I keep checking back to see if there's another installment.

[Mermaid]

Later in the Afternoon on the Other Side of the Thames

We promendaded on the Queen's Walk vainly searching for a restaurant on a deck with the Tower Bridge in the background. We'd seen it in the season opening episode of "Bones" on TV and wanted to recreate the scene where Agent Booth was downing a pint with his London counterpart (laugh if you will but think how many tourists go around tracing the Davinci Code!). We concluded after much walking that it was on the other side.

We were so worn out that the only sensible thing to do was to find a good pub. Naturally. And make a phone call. We'd called BA the evening before and found out that my bag was at my brother-in-law's house, the address we gave them after being told that the bags might arrive in London after we checked out! It wasn't worth the risk of our bags once again being where we were not.

So one bag down. But what about the other...the important bag, the one holding the electric razor and all the formal clothing for the wedding we were attending on Friday??? Not a clue. Usually the airline knows where your bag is. "Madam, it's been routed to New Dehli but we'll have it to you in 24 hours." Not even that! Poof! Our bag had gone walkabout.

No sense worrying about what you can't control though so we carried on puttering around the south side of the Thames. It reminded me a lot of the riverfront in Savannah Georgia with its vast brick warehouses and gritty pubs. You can walk under all the bridges and soak up the atmosphere and feel very Dickensian.

We crossed the Tower Bridge and came across a scene worthy of a photo were it not over in such a flash. There were workmen on the bridge and one youngish well-built should-have-been-in-the-Diet Coke-TV-ad construction guy caught my eye just as a double-decker bus rolled by. The busses, like the ones here, have the final destination on a banner above the driver. So here I am looking at stud muffin and the destination "Nuns Head" comes by. It was a humorous juxtaposition but I guess you'd to have been there to have appreciated it.

Onto the tube to take us to Merman's brother's house for the weekend. It suddenly occurred to me that it was very nice indeed to have lost baggage as we manouevered our way up and down deep escalators and in and out of turnstiles. See? It's all in the outlook.

We arrived in the London suburbs and after much hugging and kissing my SIL and BIL served us tea and crumpets (I kid you not) and I made more phone call because, at 5:30 pm, there was no big bag anywhere to be seen. It's funny but if you're the only American in the group, you automatically become the designated complainer. I'm not even going to delve into the implication of that; it's just facts. Although this time I didn't so much complain as whine. It wasn't that I was worrying about the tux or my silk dress but my hat!!! I suddenly remembered it, trapped in the bag for three days. My lovely hat which I'd bought just for my nephew's wedding and which Philippa had laboriously trimmed out for me. I was cringing at what it might look like once I had it back, if I ever had it back. "No worries, Madam, your belonging are in transit and you shall have them shortly." (quote unquote)

We waited. We drank more tea. We waited. We were expected at the rehearsal dinner at 7:15 pm and here was poor Merman wearing white sneakers. The horror of it! At 7:13 pm I made one last phone call and miracle of miracles, the van arrived. Talk about by the skin of your teeth. Merman whipped the bag open and donned his black linen trousers (Ralph Lauren, which I will unreservedly recommend because they had nary a wrinkle in them, though of course I am an expert packer ).

And my hat looked okay too.

[NoHall]

yay...! Pictures of the hat, please...

[Mermaid]

Here you go - the hat in the window at the wedding breakfast (which isn't actually breakfast, but that's what the English call it).

[DD]

LOVE IT!!! ALLLLLLL OF IT!!!

[Jdarg]

Dashing doesn't even begin to describe it!!! Y'all look amazing! You could go to one of the weddings in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and fit right in!

[Mango]

Loving the trip report, Mermy. Y'all do look quite English and like Royals! Brings back some fond memories of when my "Mum" was married in Torquay. I didn't wear a hat because I did not have time to buy one. I'm glad yours didn't come out of the suitcase dilemma looking like a sombrero.

[Allifunn]

Smashing!!!!
One of the best trtip reports, EVER!

I LOVE your descriptive words, Mermy

[sunspotbaby]

I feel like I was there ! Great report....when is the next outing?

[Cheering472]

What a wonderful story this trip report has been. You have missed your calling sweet Mermy, you can write a page turner. I have read it while laughing and worrying about the missing luggage and the wedding clothes. I'm so glad they found it finally (You looked wonderful by the way) and I'm glad you had funn. Welcome back!

[Mermaid]

Thank you everyone for the nice compliments and I'm glad y'all had a laugh or two. There were more incidents, er, adventures, in between but I'll save it for the next time I'm in SoWal...it's better when you see the hand motions and gestures and articulation...

Our trip ended much on the same note as it started. We arrived at Heathrow and proceeded to the automatic check-in only to have the machine spit out a terse message: "See the gate agent." Uh oh. We head to the counter where the agent looks over our ticket and gives us a doleful look. "You haven't heard, have you?" she says to us. Uh oh double Uh oh. Is the flight cancelled? Bombed? Are we on a suspicious person alert? What's wrong!!!!

The flight is full. That's it. Never say the British aren't masters of the power of understatement.

We asked for bulkhead seats because that was the magic request that propelled us to business class on the way over. No such luck this time. We get the bulkhead, but I also get the seat neighbor from hell--a big fat slob. Please, no accusations of being insensitive to large people. This guy really was a unkempt slob, the passenger everyone wishes would sit next to anyone but them. Even if he were skinny--which he were not --I'd have had the same opinion. And he took up the whole armrest! I was squished. The only positive spin I could put on it was that in this last inconvenience I felt I had endured and conquered all the trials of travel that separate the leisure traveller from the die-hard, from the over-booked flight to the lost luggage to the sweet upgrade...oh oh oh little did I guess there were more trials ahead.

The air traffic controllers' computers crashed. No one had any flight plans and no one was going anywhere. We sat on the tarmac for over two hours. The mountain of flesh next to me amused himself by reaching into a bottomless sack of food, working his way through sandwiches, fruits and drinks. I was actually kinda impressed at his preparedness.

Finally a take-off!!! It was an uneventful flight and long enough that I got to watch three movies. We missed our connection home.

There's nothing like arriving to find your name on a bulletin board with an official notice from the airline. Were we going to be shuffled onto a red-eye? Forced to sleep overnight in the terminal? Abandoned to our own devices?

No. We were offered a night-at BA's expense--at the lovely and plush Hilton at terminal 2. And a sumptuous breakfast as well before taking a late morning flight. Another day of vacation! WhoooHooo.

Like I said, it's all in the outlook.

[DD]

This is wonderful, Mermy. But what am I gonna read now?