London!

Without a doubt the very best attraction in London was Joann! Having been away from the love of my life for 30+ days I was very ready to see her.

She got to the Hotel before me and met me in the Lobby, I think that the Desk Clerks were somewhat embarrassed by our greeting - that's their problem! (Yes, we kept our clothes on...). We stayed at the Hotel Indigo near Paddington Station. It is a part of the Holiday Inn chain. The Hotel was marvelous, the room was great (air conditioned!), and the staff very friendly and helpful. We headed out that evening and wondered in a big circle looking for the place to pick up my London Pass. We found it about 10 minutes after it closed!

We walked through St. James Park which is near Buckingham Palace, we went across the River to the South Bank and rode the London Eye. It is the second largest observation wheel in the world (darn that Singapore). The pods hold around 15 people and give you a great view of London. We found some fresh donuts, wondered around some more and then headed home.

The next day Joann tried to walk me to death. We walked, and walked, and then we walked some more to another place where we could walk more! Due to the lack of oxygen in my system a lot of the timing of things is still fuzzy so I'll just hit some of the things we did in no particular order.

River Cruise...

We took the City Cruise which was really fun. They give a "guided tour" which was interesting and funny. We went all the way to Greenwich, that't where time is measured from (GMT - Greenwich Mean Time). The Cutty Sark was undergoing some remodeling so we didn't get to visit it but we did visit the Painted Hall. It was built as a Sailor's Hospital. An American painted it. It was truly amazing. We also viewed the Chapel there.

The Tube...

We did indeed master the London Underground. It's fast and furious but we got it down. Joann would consult her hard-copy map and I would use an App on the iPad, then synchronize our plans and head out. A few trains were those packed to the gills ones that you see in the movies. It is a very quick and efficient way to get around town. If only we still had the Leonard's Subway in Fort Worth!

The Phantom of the Opera...

As I sign of my true love to my wife I got her tickets to the Phantom of the Opera. We took a cab (the tube was kinda warm at times) and headed to Her Majesty's Theatre. The show was very nice and we had a great time. I can tell you the ending if you want to know it, just let me know.

London At Night...

Sunday night we rode a double-decker tour bus. It was neat to see London all lit up and from a higher level than street. We had to wait at the Tower Bridge as it was raised, that only happens 3-5 times a week these days..

Kew Gardens...

A trip out of the busy city to the beautiful countryside. The gardens were huge and awesome. they have the tallest indoor plant in the world (so they say - I didn't get a chance to measure it and check). You'll be glad to know that the lift (elevator) to the tall tree-walk was broken so I got to walk up about a bijillion stairs! Glad my legs weren't tired or anything like that. It was beautiful.

Overall, we had a great time and the time with the love of my life pretty much saved my life and gave me the ability to make it through the rest of the assignment. Thanks Joann!

If you want to see pictures they are here:

General London

London Eye

Buckingham Palace

Westminster

Greenwich

Tower of London

Kew Gardens

The Good and Bad of Half Way

Wednesday marked a transition in my life here in the UK. I passed the one-half point of my 75 day stay. I have been very thankful lately that I am not here for 90 days as I thought it originally was.

The good is that I am now getting closer each day (sure, I was getting closer before but it feels like progress is being made now). The bad is that I realize I have a long time to go! Having a few days with Joann here has made my life so much happier! Thanks Baby!

I am reminded daily that there are many of our military troops that deploy for a year or more under considerably more harsh and threating conditions than me (although I am dealing with 9 - 13 year olds!). I appreciate their gift of service even more now than before.

So, now I have 5 weeks of Summer camp left. I'll make it, one day at a time...

Carved Walls of Green

Yes, I'm behind on things. I'll try to catch up some today.

I went to Bury St Edmunds today, big shopping trip, I got a TV tray and some dishes that won't melt in the Microwave. (Unlike the plastic plate I have with a hole in the middle of it that evidently wasn't microwavable. I found that out when I finished the pizza and found the hole melted in the middle!)

I had lunch on the TV Tray. Wow, that sure beats holding everything in your lap and reaching down to get your drink over the edge of the seat. The tray came from Argos, you place your order in the store and the items magically come down the conveyor belt to you.

But back to the Wall of Green. I am in a very lush, agricultural area of England. As you drive often the roads are lined with greenery, shrubs / trees / etc. that are quite often very tall. The large trucks keep the greenery "trimmed" back which then gives you a carved wall of green. Well, really sometimes a carved tunnel of green!

The roads are very narrow and you hold your breath when you are meeting a large truck or a large tractor pulling a large trailer. To make things even more exciting people are passing each other left and right. The twenty mile trek to Bury is dotted with about a dozen small towns with beautiful small houses, pubs, and churches. One town has several thatched roofs as well.

I'm looking forward to dinner on the TV tray!

TDF Video

Here it is, the stunning video of the TDF trip condensed into 4 minutes!

A waffle dream...

No, not a dream about waffles, a waffle dish that was a dream! I'm back in Brussels with about a 4 hour wait for the Eurostar (I had considered trying to catch the start of the tour from here but after all the standing yesterday I'll just watch it on the iPad. My second option was to do some walking around but the combination of yesterday's standing and the rain here in Brussels staying in the station seemed like a good plan.) so I grabbed a sandwich, walked around looking at the shops and then I saw it. The Waffle Dream. It was at the Hägen Das ice cream shop, a fresh warm Belgium waffle with two scoops of pralines and cream ice cream topped with a thick gooey carmel sauce, nuts and cream from a large machine that serves to dispense a steady stream of goodness. It was awesome, the perfect end to a Belgium adventure.

Now, I sit (ahh...), and watch the Tour on the iPad!

TDF - Been there, done that and yep, got the shirt

Like most sporting events, the Tour De France is much better to watch on TV than live. But having been able to be on the side of the road as the Peleton rushes by is pretty cool. When I realized that I would be within "striking distance" of the Tour while in England I knew that I had to make the trip.

It all started many, many years ago, long before Lance actually. Back then you might catch a few hours of the tour on a Saturday afternoon on one of the major networks, you mainly followed it in the newspapers, yep, that's how far back I'm talking about. I remember being excited when a young kid from Texas was going to ride, he didn't make a very good showing the first year but he had potential.

Since then the Tour has been a yearly ritual at our house. Thanks to TiVo we could record it and then watch it every evening. That young kid from Texas did indeed have potential, he is my hero. I remember when he was diagnosed with cancer, to see the images of a young man who had been in the prime physical condition but was now in cancer treatment were heartbreaking, and yes, I did cry when I saw them. But as you know, the story didn't end there, Lance came back and not only did he ride again, he showed them how to ride, and how to win. And yes, I cried when he came back and won!

I went to the town center after grabbing breakfast to see how the crowd was going to be. At 9:00am there were only a few people out and about. The barricades were already out and they were towing several cars that had been left on the road the tour was coming down. About 9:30am they turned on the large projection screen showing the start ot race, lot's of speeches and ceremonies. I went back to the room and took a nap!

I went back out around 11:30, the crowds were starting to gather but not bad. I sat and watched the big screen while watching on my iPad which rocked, I was able to track the location, get updates (in English!), and watch live video feed. You gotta love technology. Around 1:00pm I headed to where I wanted to watch the tour. I was just at the foot of the large church tower in town on the shady side of the street (very important). I sat on the steps of a closed restaurant and met a nice couple who lived about 40 miles away and had come in to see the tour. They had been to South Padre and Austin and liked Texas, duh, who doesn't? We sat there for quite a while following the tour status on the iPad. Soon the crowd started growing and we staked out a piece of barrier. We stood for almost an hour and then the caravan came through. You don't get to see that part of the tour on TV, it is made up of the sponsors in some very strange vehicles. They all have loud sound systems and throw trinkets into the crowd. Being on the front was actually not the best place to be for swag as most of it went over my head. There was one piece that was thrown at my foot, I quickly steped on it to secure ownership, turns out it was a candy bar. A now very squashed candy bar! I left it there.

All my new friends along the barrier were enjoying watching the video on the iPad and we kept the surrounding folks updated on the vital stats. Then you heard the noise coming from up the street, a growing crescendo of cheers and excitement accompanied a solo rider on a breakaway, my friends quickly informed me that he was a Belgium. They were very excited about that. Then very quickly the other breakaway riders came whooshing by. Another 45 seconds or so and the peleton came around the corner. I was holding the video camera with one hand, snapping pictures (blindly) with the other hand and watching at the same time. (Oprah calls it multi-tasking.)

The peleton goes by amazingly fast and then it's over. Wow. It actually takes a fairly long time for the team cars to go by, much longer than the riders.

So, I've been to the Tour de France. I'm glad I came, glad to experience it firsthand. I think that I will probably stick to the TV version from now on but then again I will still be in the area when it finishes in Paris!

Hmm..., where is that train schedule?

I'm not sure what I'm eating but it's pretty good!

Saturday evening finds me in Mechelen, Belgium. Why you ask? TDF. But that's another post.

I walked around for an hour or so and managed to work up a pretty good appetite. I had a sandwich on the Eurostar while I was under the English Channel going 183 miles per hour, for future reference understand that chicken salad is not what we think it is, it's chicken with tomatoes and lettuce (the salad) but that was many hours and miles ago.

As I walked around I read the signs in front of the restaurants and realized that I was I big trouble as my French is not particularly strong (that would translate into non-existent) and there was no way I was going to successfully navigate ordering.

Since the TDF is coming through town there is a carnival in the town square. I studied the menu of the "snack bar", and found something that looked a lot like round funnel cakes with a liberal sprinkling of powdered sugar on top. I'm in. The nice carnival guy spoke English, French, German, and something else that I didn't catch, I ordered 7 of the hopefully tasty things, only 4 Euros. Then as I was headed back to the hotel I found a "My Kabob", how hard can that be?

It only took a few tries to order a "mixed kabob", the sticking point was whether I wanted it with bread or not. We got that figured out, added fries and a Diet Coke, good to go!

So, I just finished the sandwich, it was great, I'm still not sure what it is other than darn tasty. I just tried the things with powered sugar, mmm..., imagine funnel cake puffs drowning in powered sugar. Life is good.

Sure, I could've just gone to the Pizza Hut (they are EVERYWHERE), but I'm trying to live local. Bottom line, great meal.

Tomorrow, I see Stage 1 of the TDF, LIVE!