LONDON - FULL DAY OF STOMPING

We got up this morning and had a breakfast at the hotel.  Error!  We were forced to demand coffee.  After that, the rest of the day, fortunately, went beautifully. We first walked to the British Museum Store - one of the greatest museum stores ever.  It had been undergoing renovation the last time I visited, now it's fixed up and gorgeous!

 We began our stroll through Gray's Inns and Lincoln Inn Fields - beautiful buildings and gardens hidden amongst them.  Off to the Temple, then down to the Embankment,  It was a beautiful day with big fluffy clouds and wonderful visibility.  We walked down to Westminster bridge.  A great stroll.

The Griffin is the symbol of London.  These symbols mark the borders of the city sections.

We took the Westminster tube to Leister Square.  Normally, we end up in the square itself, brassy, loud, full of cheap restaurants and touts.  By a slight error, we went into China town.  I don't remember it being as large as it seemed today.  It's probably grown.  By error, again, we wandered into a restaurant called Baozi - we had meat baozta (yum!) and dumpling soup.  Mine was outstanding.  Charlie ordered sweet and sour which was very spicy.  On our way out the door, we found out the place was Zagat rated - I would have, too!

From lunch, we took another tube (we, obviously had a day-pass) to Charing Cross tube station and went to the National Portrait Gallery.  With all our walking, and being leg-weary, we found it interesting anyway.

From there, we took another tube to Piccadilly Circus.  We walked down Regent street to Fortnam and Mason's.  Nothing really appealed, although I was drawn to an "Owl and the pussy cat" lunch box.  Reason prevailed, and I didn't buy it!  We needed a bit of a rest, so we stopped at a Starbucks.  Hey!  They have flat whites here AND lemon cake - the best of Australia and Canada!

We then got on the Green Park tube and went to Covent Garden (ack!  another station with elevators - or 192 steps)  We found some cute kid's T shirts.  Back to the tube then to Tottenham Court Road and walked down to Foyles.  By that point we were getting really foot weary.  We went back to the hotel, got our suitcases out of storage.  It was only 4 pm.  We really didn't want to have dinner - too full - so we decided to go out to the airport on the tube.  We walked to Holborn Station (not too bad) and took the 1 hour ride to Terminal 1, 2, 3.  Outside of Terminal 1 we got a bus to our hotel, Sheraton Heathrow.  Had a nice dinner at the hotel, early bed.  Tomorrow back to LA.  How weird!

BACK TO LONDON

For a very hurried trip to London and Paris, it worked out well.  We got up, had our tea with Geoff this morning, then walked to Cactus Cafe for the wonderful croissants.  Geoff's leg was bothering him, so Charlie and I hoofed it down Rue de Temple to the Jewish Historical Museum.  Weirdest part were two semitic guys out front hovering around.  They didn't seem to belong to the place, but as we walked up to the door, they asked us to put our carry bags through security.  It's a beautifully laid out museum, but many of the items, I knew - torah decorations and the like.  One room, however, had models of Eastern European Temples which were interesting. They had another room of Hanuka lamps, many the traditional candle holders, but some with oil that were more interesting. Another larger room had costumes and jewelry from Sephardic Jewish communities in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.  Really interesting, and things I had never seen.  I was gearing up for the historical drag through the Nazis, but fortunately, they first had a room of art ( a lot of which was black on black), another artist did doll-like things hanging from threads, then a wall which was visible through a stair landing with people's names on it.  Then they gently let us outside.

Back to Geoff's.  After a bit of conversation, we walked downstairs to his local boulangerie - it's called Le Gai Choc - Geoff's section of Paris is famous for it's gay and bisexual population.  This particular boulangerie has brioches made in the shape of men's parts.  Last year when we visited the creations were prominently displayed because there was a gay pride parade.  This time, they were discretely in the back.  We got sandwiches which were delicious.  Charlie and Geoff got ham and cheese, I got a chicken all of which were on wonderful short baguettes.

After lunch, we walked to the Pompidou centre.

 Geoff went off on a bus to work, Charlie and I took the 38 bus to Gare du Nord.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the bus is very easy to get, clear as to where you are (there is a LCD display telling you what the next stop is, what the last stop is, and how long you can expect to get there).  Gare du Nord is the terminus for the 38 bus, so we really couldn't mess this up.

We took the ride back to London, and, of course, gained our hour back.  We then got tube tickets for today, and day-passes for tomorrow.  I remember that the ride to Heathrow by tube is 5 pounds each.  For 8.50 pounds, we got day passes that would let us ride to Heathrow at the end of the day.  We took the Piccadilly Line from St. Pancreas to Russell Square.  Charlie remembered (I'd forgotten) that particular station has an elevator to the street - that or 175 steps - we took the elevator.  We then walked to our hotel.  Radisson Eduardian Kennelworth on Great Russell Street.  There are two Radisson hotels within a block of each other - ours and the Bloombury (something) - ours is clearly the "deal" of the two.  We still have a fun view from our window.

We walked to  Covant Garden for dinner.  Right in the middle is "The Pie Shop"  Hurray!  More pies!  Back to the hotel for a quick pint.  Now in our room with free WIFI.    Tomorrow - our last day of the trip - will be wandering around London for fun.

Hasta manana

WEDNESDAY IN PARIS

We had a cup of tea, then a stroll out for a croissant and coffee.  (coffee creme is pretty close to flat white) After breakfast we walked over to the Doll Museum very close to Geoff's flat.  It is a wonderful museum. Dolls are sorted 1.) by what they were made from (porcelain, paper mache, "biscuit" a lower fire clay, and plastic.  2.) where they were made  3.)  what they were representing (babies, adults, foreign places) 4.) what companies made them.  Some were really nice, some were down-right scary.  My favorite bits were the doll dishes, silverware, pets, etc.  There was a room of dolls representing characters from history.  As Charlie said, they were definitely nice versions of the people.  Finally, my all-time favorite, they had a special display of Ken dolls through the years.  He was always a wimpy doll - even with added muscles.

Building was across from the cafe where we had breakfast

Geoff and me in Anne Frank's Square near the doll museum

After the museum we had a perrier near the Pompidou Centre (also near Geoff's flat)

We then walked to the river, and took a bus to the Jardin des Plants.

We went to the Natural History Museum.  Lots of great displays of all types of animals, emphasizing evolution and diversity.

A stroll for lunch through the Jardin des Plants.

A plant house at Jardin des Plants

We then took the Metro back to the river.   Geoff bought a few plants for his house.  Geoff and Charlie then lugged the larger of the two back to his house.  Rest this afternoon - dinner at a close restaurant tonight.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN.....

This is already Wednesday, but I'll try to fill in on the last few days.  We left LA on Saturday.  The great fear at the time was that CARMEGGEDON  would destroy the traffic in LA.  The powers that be were closing a 10 mile stretch of the 405 Freeway.  Friday night was a barrage of new-casts basically declaring that we would be stuck for hours on any Freeway we tried.  We dropped Wally at Jodi's at 1:00. (Our flight wasn't until 5:55 pm - but CARMEGGEDON was here!!)  All the traffic reports Saturday morning had nothing to say.  We left Jodi's at 1:10 and drove straight to LAX.  HO HO HO.  We got there in 40 minutes.  We had checked in to our flight and were sitting in the Red Carpet Lounge by 1:45.  CARMEGGEDON was an exciting story, but there was no there, there.  Our flight was as smooth as smooth could be.  We landed in London by 11:30 Sunday morninig, easily found the bus to Cambridge, and were met by Mike, who walked us to their house.  Tea, and a nice chat.  Walked back along the river to a pub for some English beer. We got Indian take-out for dinner.  Easy easy easy.

On Monday we had a slow nice breakfast, then took a walk to town.  We strolled up and down the river went into town briefly,  got a coffee, then back to Mike's for our quesidilla lunch.  After lunch we went to Newnham - our old hangout.  We wandered past 27 Marlowe Road - our old flat looks pretty much the same.  The yellow door is now white and the kitchen looks like it's undergone renovation.  From there we walked to Grantchester - one of our favorite strolls.

Punters can be seen on the Cam from the path to Grantchester.  Since the Cam is level with the path, it gives a surreal view of people on the river - they look like they're plowing through grass.

Back to Mike's.  Last night we had a meal with Mike, Maureen, Vikram, Norman, and his new girlfriend, Jeanette.  Interesting night.

This morning after another leisurely breakfast, we wandered to town and went to the Scott Polar Research institute (the Scott Polar Museum).  There were exhibits from the Arctic explorations, the Inuit people, and the Anarctic explorations.  Lots of memorabilia.  Very interesting.  Learned a lot about Franklin (as from the Canadian folksong - the "hand of Franklin" - which describes the hunt for the Northwest Passage).

We met Mike for a coffee, then went back to his house.  We picked up our bags and he drove us to the train station.  We got the 12:45 pm train to King's Cross, and got over to St Pancreas Station to get the Eurostar.  Things had gone so smoothly, we were there by 1:45.  We tried to get an earlier train, but we had bought our tickets on-line, and, unbeknown to us, got a great deal.  So here we sit, in the St. Pancreas station waiting for our 4:22 pm train to Paris.  Nice WIFI though.

Hasta Manana -

BACK HOME

We're back home.  Wally is conked out in the dining-room (it's the coolest room in the house).  Back to an almost normal like do laundry, pay bills, and settle into a summer routine. 

Our flights went smoothly, but...   Charlie and I like to get to the airport for our flights nice and early.  You can relax in with a book or a coffee (preferably both) and wait for the flight to go - no muss no fuss.  Our travel arrangements were set up by an Australian tour company and our old buddy, Marsha, who's been helping for a long time.  Marsha's getting old (aren't we all) and had a few scrambles setting up this trip.  After a month or so, the whole thing had been "arranged",  Marsha called us with the details.  She left out the Tasmanian part.  Back to the drawing board.  Eventually, we got all the pieces together, but we really didn't see the details until a week or so before the trip got going.  Given the last minute feel to the set up, it really went nicely.  However, we spent our last night in Australia in Hobart, Tasmania.  This meant a flight from Hobart to Sydney with only two hours between that domestic flight and our big, international one back to the states. Had anything gone awry, we would have missed the flight home.  Since we had upgrades to business, that would have meant losing the upgrades and 14 hours or so (probably longer) getting home any which way we could.  The other issue that was concerning us was that we were landing at the domestic terminal and leaving from the international terminal which was too far to walk.  We had 3 choices, a tram, a cab, or a train (it really is a long distance).  We opted for the train, the fastest method of the three options. $5 Australian dollars each and a 2 minute ride.  We knew we were OK when the Quantas flight went well, even though getting to the train involves elevators, tickets, more elevators.  Also, leaving internationally takes a lot of fiddling around - check-in, customs, security.  We were also helped a lot by the Australian signage - it really is wonderful - signs everywhere.


The moral to my tale is that in future, we'll set up the trip details ourselves.  No more middle-(wo)men. 

HOBART - OUR LAST FULL AUSTRALIA DAY

We got up had a lovely flat white and pastries in the hotel restaurant, and then at 9 were met by Paul.

He first drove us around some of the older wealthier neighborhoods of Hobart.  Arthur Circus, a setting of little houses in a circle, which had a very English feel to it all.

We drove around Battery Point, a very wealthy little area.  In the area was Hobart's first casino, and Australia.  After a tour around, we drove to an over look to see the Governor's House.  Apparently, it's special because it has a huge number of acres of land around it, and it's own herd of cattle associated with it.

From there we drove along country roads past hops fields, oust kilns, stone fruit farms, sheep farms, and beautiful glaciated valleys.  Rosegarland, Gretna, Hamilton, finally we drove into a wildlife preserve called Bonorong.

We had a guy tell us about Wombats.  Hey, I thought they were like big, fuzzy guinea pigs.  WRONG.  For beginners, the males grow to about 40 kg (88 pounds - they're about the size of Wally, the dog).  About two years after they're born, they reach maturity, and the males turn on their moms and toss the moms out of the den.  If they're attacked, the run into a den and turn their backs to the attacker.  The back side of a wombat (back 1/3 - 1/2 or so has a thick cartilage plate under the fur.  Any attacker has to deal with the plate.  If the attack continues, the wombat lowers itself down, the attacker rushes head into the den to get at the wombat, which then rises up and crushes the attacker.  They've been known to crush skulls, break bones, and cause real damage.  They also bite.  They still look cute, they just don't act it.

Our next visit was with a Tasmanian Devil.  They are adorable, and unfortunately, not well suited to much but crushing bone.  The one we watched munched through a wallaby leg - bone and all- in a few minutes.  They're slow, mostly eat carrion, and unfortunately not diverse biologically.  When a group of  Devils meet a large carcass, they bite at each others mouths, the winner gets the first tastes.  When they developed an awful, mouth cancer, it was transmitted mouth to mouth, causing a huge number of them to die in the wild.  The group of Tasmanian Devils at the park that we saw were disease free, but couldn't be released to the wild and to a certain death.  The park's plan was to raise as many as they could and hope there would be somewhere, eventually where they'd be safe.

We then saw a couple Koala Bears.  They are really cute.  However, they're slow as molasses, stupid as sticks, sit around eating poisonous eucalyptus leaves, and spend most of their day (22 hours) sleeping.  They are closely related to the wombats, and after close inspection, really look similar. They, too, have the cartilage plate.  They use theirs to help ease their bottoms while they sit in the crook of a tree all day long.

We then walked around the park checking out other things:  some emus, kangaroos, wallabies, cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets and a whole host of other miscellaneous birds.

We were given a little bag of food to feed the kangaroos and wallabies.  This one grabbed my hand to make sure she could get the grub.

Our next stop was Mt. Field National Park.  We had lunch, and then, Paul drove us to the top of a trail.  Charlie and I walked down the trail and Paul met us at the bottom.  It was called the "tall trees trail" and led through a growth of huge eucalyptus (swamp eucalyptus was the thinner ones), super ferns, moss, it was the most primeval of forests, dark and wet.  I kind of imagined finding a raptor out of Jurassic Park in its midst. The trail included Horseshoe falls and Russel Falls.  These were really magnificent, especially since it's been quite wet around here, and there's been a lot of snow melt.

Mt. Field National Park in the distance.

Horseshoe Falls.

Russel Falls.  This was particularly spectacular from the top.

We made our way back to the hotel.  Then we decided to go off to dinner.  We had a wonderful soup and sandwich at lunch so neither Charlie or I was very hungry.  We ended up at a bakery and had a great, warm chicken, cheese, asparagus pie for dinner.  I wish we could get good pies in LA.

We're back in the room, packing and getting ready for the airport run tomorrow.  Our flight from Hobart doesn't leave us much time for the flight to San Francisco.  We can always get a good worry going when we don't have much time.  Sigh

FREYCINET TO HOBART - JULY 6

After breakfast this morning we began our drive south to Hobart.  The nice thing about driving on a smallish island is that driving doesn't require much navigation.  It was such a pretty drive, I'm a bit sorry we did our drive from Launceston to Freycinet in the pitch black.  Sigh. Maybe another trip. 

The photo above is looking back across Oyster Bay at the Freycinet peninsula.  On the left of the mountains in the distance you can see the Hazard Peaks that were close to where we were staying at the lodge.

Another shot of the same thing - it was also a gorgeous day, as well.

The southern end of the Freycinet Peninsula (to the south of the first few photos)

Charlie is standing next to the Spikey Bridge.  It was built by convicts as part of a carriage way to Hobart. 

Black swans on a lagoon seen from the road.

The gum trees along the highway were wonderful.  There were several stands of them.

The town in the photo above is called Triabunna.  It has a ferry to the island you can see in the distance, a part of the Maria Island National Park.  The town's setting along the water was great, too.

We drove along the ocean for the first two thirds of the trip to Hobart.  We then went into the mountains for a bit.  Not sure which river you can see - there were about three that seemed to be along the route we took, and it wasn't posted.

Once out of the mountains, we crossed two causeways on the Tasman Highway just outside of Hobart, the photo is of one of them.  It was a lot like the Florida Keys (only a LOT colder).

Hobart can be seen in the photo above.  It sits at the base of Mt. Wellington, snow capped and usually (based on our one-day look) covered in clouds.
Once we got to the hotel on Davey Street, the guy at the desk told us that our "harbor view" room couldn't be had because they had accidentally overbooked.  Charlie, who was tired from driving for two and a half hours on the left side of the road in a car we DO NOT recommend (a KIA), wasn't having any of their problems.  He looked Charlie-annoyed - not dangerous - but definitely peeved.  The hotel guy looked at Charlie, went to his manager, and we got an upgrade harbor view room.  Charlie will be happy to sell his peeved look to anyone who needs it in the future. Here's the view from our room.

The boats in the foreground are filled with lobster pots.  Here's a close up.

After we settled in the hotel we wandered around town for a quick look and for lunch.

We had lunch in a coffee shop in Salamanca Place (an old market that now has lots of trendy stores, restaurants, bars, and the like.  The place was called the Coffee Doctor.  We had excellent barley-vegetable soup.  While we ate, we noticed their coffee-dripper experiment.  Fresh water at the top, course ground coffee in the middle, coffee at the bottom.  Wierd, but fun.

My tour book had a quick walk around town which we followed.  Most of the walk was around the dock area.  The photo below is an even closer view of the lobster pots.

A look back at some old Hobart buildings from the harbor.  Hobart is the second oldest town in Australia.

Salamanca Place outside of the square.  Very English looking, lovely shopping and eating.

Tomorrow we get a tour (of the city? environs?) and a lunch.  Then we'll have tomorrow to stomp around some more.  Friday, we drive to the airport (Hobart to Sydney) then Sydney to San Francisco then San Francisco to LA.  If all goes well, we leave Hobart at 10:40 am and land in LA at 4:38 pm.  Obviously, lots of hours in that day.  Gak.