Rochelle's Blog ::: Subtitles Included

December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

This one moment sticks out more than others and it was when I was in England. On the first full day we were there, we took a train to Bath. It was ambitious of us to try and attempt that on our own and we actually almost missed the train. I mean, we barely got on the train in time and when we did get on it, we weren’t sure we were on the RIGHT train. It was scary and rushed and full of panic. But it was the right one and we had to take our seats.

Since I was with my mom and sister, and there were only two front facing seats left, I volunteered to go on my own. That’s just how it goes. I’m sort of the loner and they needed each other much more. So I found my own seat, and that’s when I had the best moment of peace.

I found my seat a few rows away and turned on my iPod. As the train sped toward Somerset and the English country side, I was able to reflect on what it took to get there and how my very own eyes were seeing the place I had done so much research on and dreamed so much about. In the book I’ve been writing, my characters travel to Somerset, and so to be there, where my characters went and what initially motivated for me to make this trip happen, well it all came full circle and I was so happy.

If I remember properly I turned on one of my favorite playlists that I use for writing and I listened to the likes of Radiohead, Regina Specktor, and Damien Rice. And that just enhanced the experience. It was one of the best moments I’ve all year.

I actually snapped a picture of myself with my iPhone, which felt silly at the time, but I’m so glad I did, because that moment means more to me now than I was able to process at the time.

Our last hours spent in London flew by. We had breakfast in our hotel one last time and then decided to just walk through the park for awhile. I cannot think of a better way we could have spent our time. When London first popped into my head as a place where my story could take place, I started with Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It felt like a good starting point and from there I expanded all my research and if it weren’t for all that, I would have never gone to London in the first place.

So the park meant a lot to me. It was so peaceful and pleasant. The one thing that I didn’t have the chance to do yet was visit the Peter Pan statue. The would feel incomplete without making a visit since it was the only thing left on my checklist. So we ventured toward it but stopped first at the Italian Gardens, which was a lovely place with lots of benches to sit and just enjoy the fountains on the edge of the Long Water.

My mom and sister made a new friend by Queen Anne’s Alcove and they had a fun time talking about President Obama.

And then we walked down the path toward the Peter Pan statue and along the long water. I tried to take everything in and focus on where my characters would find a spot to sit at. It was so different than what my research had shown and so I’m glad I got to see it first hand. They pass by the statue on the way to their spot and so I nerded out and took lots of pictures to remember it.

I finally settled on a spot underneath a beautiful old tree that had a nice view.

And that was that. We walked back to the hotel and got our luggage together. We headed to Heathrow and checked in and did a little last minute shopping in the airport for snacks and such.

When we got to the gate, my mom realized that she’d been upgraded to first class! It was crazy. And even though Marissa and I were in the the economy plus section, which was super nice…we were definitely jealous. The trip couldn’t have gone any better for us.

The flight back turned out to be really fun and the people seated around us were nice. The nine hours in retrospect went by pretty quickly. But nonetheless, we were all loopy by the time we arrived in Denver. There was quite a customs scare though when it was realized that my mom and sister smuggled English bananas into the country. They were sniffed out by a cute little beagle.

And then we headed home and I was without my travel companions and back to the real world. It had been an amazing week that was so jam packed and active that I would love to go back and take it easy. I’d love spend a whole day in the V&A going slowly and taking breaks. I’d love to go back to Bath and just hang out. And in London, I’d love to spend a whole day in Hyde Park. And I will do those things, hopefully sooner than later. Stay tuned!

The rest of my pictures from that day:

I promise there is a light at the end of the London entries. For those that have been reading along, thanks! More than anything, I don’t want to forget my stories and timeline and so these marathon blog posts are really helpful for getting it recorded. I will admit that I can’t wait to get back to some normal blogging. I’ve got all kinds of crap to talk about, but I’m holding off until I finish this series.

So, without further ado. Here’s how our last full day in London went down. We really packed a lot of stuff into it.

It began with my mom not waking up my sister and I for breakfast. I was miffed at first, because I don’t function well with out breakfast and it was something that I was paying for with the room. But I got over it as we got out there to see stuff and I had a muffin. Our goal, to make it over to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guard. You know, it’s just one of those things that you’ve got to see to say that you’ve seen it. Like it gives one the ability to check off an item on the life to-do list. Overall, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about going to the effort to see it, but I was happy to check it off.

We rushed over there on the tube and made it in time. I got out my telephoto and started snapping away between the crowded bodies just trying to catch a glimpse. I got a few good ones and so I’m happy to say that I’ve done it.

Love this photo. One of my favorite from the bunch.

We spent some time after that resting around a fountain and admiring the palace from afar. I had planned on viewing the state rooms, but we were just spent by this point and a little bit poor so we skipped it because we had bigger plans in mind.

Marissa rests in front of Buckingham Palace.

When I went to Ireland, we did a hop-on/hop-off city bus tour. Well worth it. It never really occurred to me to do it here until this last day. I knew that we were behind and there was still so much more left to see. So I convinced my mom and sister to do it so we could get over to the London Eye and the Tower of London, etc. The eventually agreed (my sister held out for awhile).

So before we got on the bus, we walked through St. James Park which was well manicured and had a lot of tourists snapping pictures while Londoners jogged through it on their lunch break.

On the blue bridge in St. James Park.

On the other side of the park we walked past up the road toward Big Ben and then found the Red Lion Inn to stop and have lunch. More pub food! This one was pretty good.

Pub food! At the Red Lion.

Then it was on the bus for a really first short ride. We essentially drove over the bridge and got off at the London Eye. Another location that I use for my book. And it’s kind of an important one. So I dished out the ridiculous fare so we could go onboard and get a bird’s eye view of the city. Well worth it for the book and for our own senses.

The London Eye.

There were amazing views to be had a lots of photographs to take.

Look kids...Big Ben, Parliament!

We even made friends with our fellow observers and had a really nice gentleman take our picture.

Here we are, above London.

Then it was back on the bus for a guided ride to the Tower of London. We drove through actual London, which is only a square mile. We aw St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Where Charles and Diana were married.

We went over Tower Bridge.

The "London Bridge" of our minds, actually Tower Bridge.

And just saw a ton of other picture worthy things that rushed by us.

Lots to see....lots to see.

We got off at the Tower of London and walk around the moat to get to the entrance. Once again we were left with little time to see it all there, but overall we had a a pretty positive experience. Since I’m a big fan of the Tudors I was intrigued by it. Thinking of all those that were jailed there like Ann Boleyn and St. Thomas More was pretty intense. I got really nerdy about it and told my mom and sister the story about Henry VIII, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, along with tales of Henry’s wives. I think it gave them a better appreciation for what they were seeing.

The Tower of London

A definite highlight was seeing the Crown Jewels exhibit. I keep reminding myself that it would be fun to watch QEII’s coronation. I’m sure it’s on YouTube or something by now.

And there is…check it out:

After the Tower, it was back on the bus for a chilly open air ride at sunset through London. We were probably on the bus for an hour, maybe longer, and we saw a lot. I took a million pictures (well not quite a million, but a lot) and got to work with some amazing light, which compensated for the fact that I was on a moving vehicle the whole time.

It was one of the greatest ways to end our last full day. We got to see so much of the city that we would have never made it to on foot. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the bus ride:

One of the greatest moments of our bus tour was when we went on the round about used in European Vacation when Clark can’t get left and he keeps pointing out Big Ben and Parliament. This little comedic bit has been used in our family since that movie came out in 1985. Whenever we are in are any kind of repetitive loop we mention it and whenever London comes up we mention it. So this was a very fun thing to do for us. Here’s the clip I’m referring to.

The bus dropped us off right in front of our hotel, which was an awesome perk. Well worth the cost. There were definitely things that I would have loved to stop and look at, but there just wasn’t enough time.

That night, we took to the Tube down to Oxford Street again and went back to Top Shop so Marissa could finally make some much considered purchases. While there, I bought myself a new purse. So yeah, even I can shop! And then we ended up having dinner at a Garfunkel’s, which felt very restaurant chain-ish. And American restaurant chain-ish on top of that since we got big tall drinks with lots of ice in it and tons of menu choices. We decided that it was for the best since it would help acclimate us to the excess we were used to back home.

And then it was back to The Swan for one last drink at our favorite pub. We were sad to see that our favorite bartenders were not there, but we figured they deserved a day off here and there too. We closed the joint again and walked home, feeling utterly comfortable in London and sad to leave it behind the next day.

The rest of my pictures:

Tuesday we were back in London. Our agenda: go into the park, visit Kensington Palace, have tea at the Orangery, go to the Victoria and Albert museum, and do some shopping at Harrods.

And that’s exactly what we did. We stuck to it pretty well. On this particular day, I was feeling a little under the weather, so as the day progressed, I stopped taking pictures.

So we started in Kensington Gardens, which was right across the street from our hotel. I was eager to go in there because there are two scenes in my book that take place there and so I wanted to get a real feel for it. We strolled down a walk way and then meandered toward the palace by way of the Round Pond. We were delighted at the sight of swans and ducks. It was a lovely morning and the animals were quite active.

My sister and mom in front of the Round Pond.

We approached the palace and stopped first at the Queen Victoria statue. I’d seen a million pictures of this piece but I couldn’t help taking a million of them for myself. The light was beautiful and the sky was really blue that morning.

Well hello Vickie.

Afterwards, we explored the grounds a little bit and then we went for the tour inside the palace. It was a mixture of eras. There was a pretty decent sized Diana display since she lived there before and after her divorce. William and Harry were raised there too. I have to say, it wouldn’t be a bad place to grow up!

We got to see some of the dresses Princess Diana wore to such amazing events as the "Back to the Future" film premier.

And there was a lot that dated back to William III (late 17th century) and then of course Victoria who was born and raised there until she was awoken with the news that she had become queen.

A throne fit for a king who would appreciate a little more elevation.

It was neat to see the King’s staircase in person since I’ve written a scene there too, albeit a short scene.

King's Staircase

The palace also displayed an exhibit about Debutantes and how they were presented to the King or Queen for quite a while. Apparently Elizabeth II put a stop to that pretty early on in her reign. It was an interesting display though.

Actual "Debs" describe the experience.

After the palace, I had to walk back to the hotel to get my extra camera battery. Of course when the time came to change the battery I wasn’t prepared, even though I had been overly prepared up until this point. But it turned out to be a good thing. I got a little alone time and a nice walk through the park without feeling like a total tourist. When I got back over to the palace we went to the Orangery for lunch and tea. This was one of the best parts of the trip. I’m really glad we stopped in. The tea was great and we had some excellent sharing plates. Then we each ordered our own desserts, which were really good. The best part about the Orangery is the building itself and the open airiness to the place. Lovely white marble and white table cloths and little accents of orange and green. It felt really fresh.

Marissa at the Orangery.

With not a lot of time to spare we marched over to the Victoria and Albert museum. Like Kensington Palace and the Orangery, the V&A makes an appearance in my book. My character spends almost two whole days in the V&A and I’m glad I wrote it that way. There was so much to see there and we barely scratched the surface with our hour and half visit. It was completely overwhelming and so we had to water it down. We got high speed glances at incredible artifacts and artwork with little time to really appreciate it or understand it’s context. But that happens. A return visit will be first on my list when I return to London.

The amazing Victoria & Albert Museum.

After the V&A we walked down the road to Harrods. Now by this point I was really feeling poorly, which probably wasn’t the best time to visit Harrods. I had heard a lot of hype about the joint and so I expected to be let down when it didn’t live up to the hype. And since I’m not a shopper, I expected to be bored as well. So with all this working against Harrods (sickness, etc), I couldn’t believe that I was indeed dazzled by it. Once again, it was overwhelming and amazing. We stopped first for more dessert, which probably didn’t help my weak feeling, but my mom and sister enjoyed a gigantic $40 ice cream sundae. I stuck to a croissant and a diet coke. Slightly recharged, I went off in search of the men’s section to buy a gift and the other two stuck around the food halls (which by the way was just insane in it’s own way), and eventually had to ask for help to find it. I found what I was looking for and got fantastic customer service. I eventually found my way back to the food halls and somehow found my sister and my mom. By this point I was pretty exhausted and it was nearly closing time.

So we left Harrods and headed toward the Knightsbridge tube station. On the way I got a good glimpse of the Mandarin Oriental hotel which is the model I’m using for my book. It was nice to see how it was situated and it’s distance to the park. I had no idea originally just how close it was to fine shopping and Harrods and the like. I wish so badly I could have gone inside to see the lobby, but I was just too tired. And truthfully, since I’m not calling it the Mandarin Oriental hotel and it’s simply a model it’s probably best to leave it up to the imagination.

We had to change trains twice to get back home and so it was a bit of trek, but when we did get back across the park to our area, we got off at Lancaster Gate and went to the Swan once again for a little bit of dinner and for some drinks. The hunky waitstaff were there once again and we stayed for a little while. I never did improve and so I stuck to water while my mom and sister enjoyed wine and beer respectively.

Once back in the room we made our phone calls to our loved ones and then it was back in bed after another great, albeit long and tiring, day in London.

My mom using skype to talk to her husband.

Here are the rest of my pictures from that day:

Monday was a jam packed day. We had booked a guided coach tour to Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Oxford. I was really looking forward to this day for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I liked being off the hook and letting someone else guide us around. I’m one of those kinds of control freaks. I like to take charge and then complain about it.

So Monday arrived and we didn’t want to have a repeat of getting on the train to Bath, so we arrived at the tour office extra early. This turned out great because then we were first on the bus and got seats up at the front. I should back up a bit and say that we got over there so early, we were able to call home and talk to our loved ones who were still awake in America and we were able to stop at Starbucks and get some breakfast. I special ordered an iced tea. They looked at me like I was a crazy loon, but I didn’t care. So worth it!

The Starbucks on Buckingham Palace Road.

So back to the tour. Mark, our “hard-ass” tour guide told joked dryly with us as we left the likes of London and went northwest to Warwick. Along with Keith, the bus driver, Mark was quite a hit in my family. We still talk about him all the time. He was full of facts and loved to act out Shakespeare. He brought along old text books and read to us. He was quite the tour guide. He was also a “hard-ass” (as named by Marissa), because he was obsessed with staying on schedule. I personally appreciated that, but it wasn’t so hot for Marissa when she wanted to get a quick smoke in.

Mark the "hard-ass".

So first up on the trip was Warwick castle. Warwick is quite a lovely place and the castle is quite charming, even if it had a Disneyland feel to it. There were lots of activities to do and not a whole lot of time. We saw a huge catapult demonstration.

I'm sure this guy loves his job. Seriously...he probably does.

And peacocks.

Admittedly, I'm frightened of peacocks, so the long lens came in handy.

The castle itself was pretty nice.

Where's Cinderella?

And then, with only a few minutes to spare, I made the brilliant suggestion that we do the wall walk. Upon entering the wall walk doorway we were bombarded with warning signs. If you’re faint of heart, out of shape, disabled, old, wussy, do not do this. “Warning: there are 550 STEEP steps.” I may be all of those things, but I am crazy for good pictures and interesting angles, and so I convinced my mom and sister to do it too. Sure, there were points while climbing up the tower that I thought I would fall backwards and crack my skull open. And yes there were moments when my heart wanted to beat out of my chest from the exertion. But was it worth it? Eh, probably not. I did get some good shots of the city and the views were breathtaking. But we grew very aware that we could miss the bus, and because Mark was a “hard-ass” he would simply leave us behind. He did, after all, instruct us how to catch a cab to Stratford, and predicted how much that might cost. But we made the bus and it’s now a funny story that we can tell when we get together and talk about our trip.

Smiling on the wall walk as my family gives me the evil eye.

So next up was Stratford on Avon. Stratford is one of the cities I’m writing about it my book. Not much happens there, but it was good for research none-the-less. We went directly to lunch at Marlowe’s and I was introduced to Cottage Pie, which was quite yummy. We even got ice cream, coffee, and we got to sit with another American. She was nice enough and had even lived in Colorado for awhile. She brought up health care and my sister and i just stared at each other. I tried to remain polite as she and my mom bonded over their feelings on the matter, until I simply said, “I’m sorry. I fundamentally disagree.” Politics with strangers is my pet peeve, but I couldn’t resist. At that we were able to steer the conversation away to other such topics.

They sure are funny at Marlowe's.

Before we knew it, Mark was shuffling us out of the restaurant and over to Shakespeare’s birth place. A quick tour through there proved only slightly interesting, and then we hit the gift shop, where I went bananas snatching up souvenirs for co-workers and a few for myself too.

My mom and sister look so thrilled with the birthplace.

With a few minutes to spare we took obligatory red phone-booth photos of each other, which is just one of those things you have to do.

Touristy and proud.

It was at that moment, when we were rushing back toward the bus that Marissa said it and said it so seriously, “God, Mark is a hard ass.” I thought I would die from laughing.

Keith, our delightful and somewhat neglected coach driver, then streamed us through the Cotswolds while Mark read us sonnets. Beautiful country there and a lovely ride. And then it was Oxford time. Oxford was the place I was looking forward to the most. Since my adult-life has been all about higher education, I am of course very interested to see other campuses, colleges, and universities. To know that we were going to one of the most prestigious in the world with the finest architecture and used for such lovable movies and television shows, I was I excited to say the least.

There was definitely not enough time in Oxford.

We went to Christ Church College and I was blown away. In what little I saw I was amazed and delighted. I wish we could have been there when school was in session, but we were a week or so off. Absolutely stunning.

It was impossible to pick a picture to place here. I have so many.

And as we walked off campus it felt as if we were still there. The town is gorgeous and about the same size as Boulder and the university has about the same amount of students and faculty. Big difference though is that some of the colleges date back 1,000 years. CU feels so new in comparison, and there are definitely old things at CU in the context of where we live.

After our walking tour, where Mark led us by a plaid umbrella he held up in the air (closed of course, there was no rain), he took us over to the various souvenir shops. I once again went crazy and bought up all kinds of Oxford stuff. I was simply stupid over it. Oh well, it feels good to be a tourist sometimes.

Lots of cute shops for me to waste all my money.

A couple of interesting things happened on our rushed tour through Oxford. First, they were filming a Detective Lewis show right by the shops that we had to somehow bypass. That was very cool.

Mark describes what the filming is all about.

And second, we encountered some interesting graffiti on various passage ways. They were very Banksy-esque and so we’re wondering if we got lucky and stumbled upon his work or if it’s just another talented artist making his or her mark.

Banksy? Maybe, but even if not...very cool.

And that was it. We drove back to London and we were let off at Notting Hill Gate. It was sad to say goodbye to Mark and Keith, but we are better off in life now that we’ve been on one of their tours.

With our bags full of over-priced souvenirs and tons of stories to recall for years to come, we found a pub and bunkered in for what would turn out to be quite an interesting night.

Once again there drinks to be had and more pub food. But what that night had in store was not only some of the finest looking Englishmen everywhere we looked but quite an incident by my clan. This was the point in the trip when the three of us got in a major fight that led to me, my mother, and my sister crying in a pub in London. Yep, we did that. All over politics. It was bound to happen since politics is so personal in our lives and we disagree so much with our mom. But we got past some issues that we’ve been carrying around since 2008 and so it was probably for the best, even if the venue was all wrong.

Puffy eyed, sore, and tired, we stumbled back to our hotel and called it a night.

Overall it was a fantastic day and one I will never forget!

Check out the rest of my pictures from that day, especially the Oxford ones.

Sunday morning we were feeling just a little bit rough around the edges from our activities form the night before. But I will tell you that being at a lower altitude definitely helped matters. Our plan for the day involved more shopping and then trying to visit Kensington Palace in the afternoon.

So we once again had a lovely breakfast in our hotel and then we were on the Tube and headed east to Liverpoole station. Much like how my mom wanted to visit Portobello Road, Marissa wanted to visit the Spitalfields Market and the Brick Lane Market. Both of which have their busiest days on Sunday. I was nervous again about large crowds and the heat, but it turned out to be okay.

We first walked over to Spitalfields Market. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what it turned out to be. This large and airy market was covered and clean with nice facilities and lots of places to take a rest and get a snack. The stalls were nice and interesting. I will be honest and say that it was a bit more yuppyish and maybe that’s why I was comfortable there. I’m lame, I know.

Loved the more open feel of this market.

I had a nice rest and diet coke at a coffee shop called The Daily Grind. They had wireless there too, so I was able to make some phone calls over skype.

There's a "Daily Grind" in Pueblo too.

From Spitalfields we walked a few blocks to Brick Lane. Another open air market, this time with a very urban and young feel. Youngsters (like my sister), sold old clothes and other “vintagey” things. The Brick Lane area also had a lot of Indian food, and similar region cuisine, restaurants. It was so tempting to sit down and partake, but we pushed through.

It all looked and smelled so good!

Marissa had it on her agenda to visit Rough Trade records, and so we found it and ventured in. There was a fun vibe in the shop, even if a lot of the folks visiting were taking themselves a little too seriously. My sister searched through the vinyl bins and I sort of floated around. I found a seat (yes, I’m that lazy…seats were like gold to me), and started reading a flyer about their record of the week, an album called Warm Heart of Africa by The Very Best. It was such a happy and pleasant story and it was an album recorded in East London, not far from where we were. I went to a listening station and sampled it. I loved it. Such a happy album. So I bought it. Yes, I bought something! Now my sister tells me that I was ahead of the times, because it got picked for Pitchfork Media’s pick of the week, even though it’s not even released here yet. See how cool I am?

Rough Trade was a off a side street of Brick Lane.

Anyway, after Rough Trade, we continued down Brick Lane, but the crowds were overwhelming again and I had more than one local tell me that I should watch my backpack because of pickpockets. We squeezed through the masses to get into a vintage clothes shop. Sadly for my sister, her time had run out and we needed to get back to the West End. We fought a little bit about the whole thing, but made up pretty quickly. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

A woman selling some goods.

Back on the Tube, we were totally exhausted again. We got off at Queensway, which was the stop nearest our hotel, and then walked up the road to find some dinner. We had missed out on Kensington Palace again, and so I was little bummed. But we resolved that we would definitely fit it in on Tuesday. We found an Indian Food restaurant that was really nice, super delicious, and not crowded in the least. We went all out and spent a lot of money. Well worth it in my opinion.

Now, if you’ve been following my story, you’ll know by this point that my hair had sucked thus far because I was without a straightening iron. I couldn’t take it anymore and so I asked our waiter where I could find a place to buy one. He recommended a shop across the street. So after dinner, we found ourselves walking through a very interesting market that had lots of different little shops. We finally found a man selling electronics and purchased a hair straightener that looked like it had fallen off the truck if you know what I mean. I didn’t care. I was just happy that my hair was going to be good once again in the near future…

…well it would look good again after harassing the hotel staff for a proper hair dryer. Yes, I became the ugly American. You see, after dinner we went back to the hotel to get some rest, make long phone calls, and take showers. I washed my hair and tried to dry it with the crappy hair dryer again. After the first time it shut off (two minutes in), I called to ask for a new one and ASAP. I basically got brushed off. I tried again to get it to dry my hair. Nope. So with a half wet head and in my pajamas, I went down to the lobby and demanded a new hair dryer. Ten minutes later, a man knocked on our door and offered me another crappy hair dryer. The same kind of hair dryer that I had been using. I begged him to find me a different one, and within a minute he came back with a fancy hotel hairdryer that was far better than the one I have at home. I was delighted and told him that he was my favorite person and he replied “you are my favorite person” in an Indian accent. He was adorable.

So yes, I was able to do my hair, and it made all the difference in the world, which was good because we had a big day ahead of us.

More pictures from that day:

Saturday in London was a very tiring day. I would say that we did things sort of backwards with our trip. Instead of going to see the basic touristy places, we traveled out of the city on the first day and then went shopping on the second.

Saturday was all about shopping and then about drinking. One of my mom’s requests was to go to the Portobello Road Market. So after sleeping in and almost missing breakfast, we walked down to Knotting Hill. Right away I noticed that there were a lot of people with the same idea, so the market wasn’t hard to find, we just followed the crowd.

It should be noted that the grumpiness of the rest of this post has to do with a couple of factors. First, I’m not a big shopper. I kind of hate shopping. Second, it was really hot. Yes, hot. In fact, it never once rained while we were in England. So yes, it was hot and I get grumpy when I’m hot. Third, it was really really crowded. We were still fresh off the boat and afraid of being robbed. So we were filled with paranoia and it certainly didn’t help to have strangers pressed against you every other minute.

Crowds!

So right off, I was tired and grumpy and paranoid. But I tried to have a good attitude and went along with it anyway. I really wanted to love this market, and after a short break in a coffee shop with a bottled water and rest I had a better spirit about the whole thing. Marissa found a used record shop and I found the cookbook shop used in the movie Notting Hill, which my co-worker Lisa demanded that I go to.

The shop front used for Notting Hill

Overall, my mom found some nice pieces of antique jewelry and Marissa got an old vinyl record for a great price.

Mom and Marissa, shopping for antique costume jewelry.

We marched back to where we came from and stopped in to have lunch at a small restaurant at the mouth of Notting Hill. It was about 3 p.m. or so and we were sweaty, dirty, and tired. Service wasn’t the greatest, but we did have a great cheese plate with grapes and crackers, and we also got spendy by ordering some diet cokes.

Still rocking the wavy hair.

Recharged, we decided to take our first trip on the underground tube system. Admittedly, there was confusion as we tried to figure out how to get Oyster Cards, but we got it worked out and were on our way to Oxford Street. The idea was that we would do some more shopping, visit Top Shop for Marissa and have dinner down there. When we emerged from the underground the first thing I noticed was the litter on the underground’s steps and then I noticed all the people.

The crowds at Oxford Street made Portobello Road Market look like a wide open meadow. We were literally shuffled down the road, shoulder to shoulder with other visitors. You know how there’s that obnoxious guy at concerts that yells “Mooooo” when the crowd is trying to get in or out of the venue. Where was that guy? It was never more appropriate in my life. We escaped into Top Shop and were immediately overwhelmed. Four floors of trendy clothes and high prices. We ventured to the basement and I saw a light at the end of the crowd tunnel. There was an EAT shop there and so I got myself a brownie and a seat. My mom joined me a bit later while Marissa shopped to her heart’s content. As for me, I had already lived once through the 80s and early 90s and didn’t need to recreate any of my wardrobe from fifth grade.

I know I sound bitter about this part of my trip, but I was just so tired and sweaty, with no real purpose.

Sadly, Marissa didn’t make a purchase there, and so we went off to H&M. The clothes were just as 80s there but much cheaper. Marissa found a few good items and even my mom was found a thing or two. I found some barrettes that I could use with my new short haircut to keep my hair down.

Bags in hand and back on the Tube, we headed back west on the Central Line to Lancaster Gate. We needed a beer and food pronto. So we went back to The Swan. What happened next was one of my favorites nights of my life, and sadly there are no pictures, because I got completely drunk with my mom and sister. We closed the joint! After staring at hot boys and giggling about everything, we stumbled back to the hotel, laughing the entire way.

Once back in our room there was just more laughter and silliness. We went to bed late that night, but happy. It hadn’t been the best day for me, but my mom and Marissa sure enjoyed it and that made it all right.

More pictures from that day:

Our first night in the hotel room had gone okay. It was really warm there and so I had some trouble sleeping. We also had electrical issues right off the bat and the hotel provided hair dryer was horrible. I blew out my hair straightener even with the adapter and converter. It was just a bit of a disaster. So for a couple of days my hair was terrible! It made me regret getting my short hair cut, because a straightening iron is definitely require for it!

So on Friday morning, we woke up and managed to become some what presentable. We made it downstairs for the buffet breakfast and enjoyed it. I knew that the breakfast was going to come in handy as our trip went on.

After that it was off to Paddington Station to catch our train to Bath. With little room to spare we arrived at the station, retrieved our tickets out of the automated kiosk and then scrambled to figure out what train we were supposed to board to Bath. We had to run down to platform 8, which was the last one and then we worried that this train to Bristol wasn’t actually going to stop at Bath. Thankfully, another passenger helped us. We had reserved seats, but we weren’t even in the right train car, and no one paid attention to reserved seats anyway.

My mom and sister on the train to Bath.

The next hour and half was splendid. Seeing the English countryside was lovely and it was so bright and sunny. I sat alone and listened to my iPod. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip.

We arrived in Bath at twenty past noon and stumbled our way out of the train station and into the heart of Bath. We walked around a bit and found ourselves going up Union street which was mostly closed for pedestrians. Lots of shops lined the streets and there were plenty of visitors just like us. The Georgian architecture was stunning, and there were flowers everywhere. It was beautiful.

Love the Georgian architecture.

Lunch was on our mind, so we wandered around and found an Italian restaurant called Strada that my mom was really interested in. We went for it and had a delightful lunch, and I had my first diet coke since leaving for London. It was my favorite part of the meal.

Check out my terrible hair.

After our lunch we visited the Jane Austen Center, which was just up the road. This was the reason why I wanted to go to Bath. I am a huge Jane Austen fan, and while we were visiting they were having the Jane Austen Festival. Lots of events were going on, and sadly we didn’t get to attend any of them. But we did visit the center and go on the tour and listen to a lecture about her. I also spent a ton of money in the gift shop and saw some participants in the festival wearing their regency garb. I could have spent the whole day there.

I love their spirit and excitement for the period.

We kept walking up the street and reached The Circus, which was basically some upscale housing in the shape of a circle that surrounded a circular park with giant trees. I got some amazing photographs of my mom and sister and they even snapped one of me.

Me and a very old tree.

We took the long way over to the Roman Baths. What an interesting exhibit. It was a bit pricey to get in, but seeing artifacts from the Roman empire blew my mind a bit. The bath itself was mildly interesting, but what I found better was the light. It was late afternoon and the sky turned blue and the sun came out. So I had a ton of fun taking photos.

One of my favorite pictures. Marissa at the Roman Baths.

After the Roman Baths, we scurried into Bath Abbey, which was just next door. It never ceases to amaze me how intricate, detailed, and gorgeous old churches are. And I always love the fact that it’s still in total operation. They were having choir practice.

Bath Abbey

The inside of the church was simply stunning, and I was oh so happy I had my DSLR camera and that I’m a better photographer, because I did a whole lot better taking photos in Bath Abbey than I did in Ireland at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Quite a church organ.

We left Bath Abbey at a quarter until six and spent some time in the square. The light was still beautiful.

Another angle of Bath Abbey.

Outside in the square there was an environmental display with a map of the world that people could walk on. It was fun to watch all the different people march across the planet. It brought everybody, adults and kids alike, a lot of joy. Even men in business suits were out there. It was a pleasant moment.

Walking across the world.

As the sun was setting we walked around the town more. I could keep going off about how gorgeous it was and all that, but there really aren’t enough descriptive words to describe Bath. It’s a city that I would go back to, time and time again.

The river Avon

We finished the night at a local Bath pub and then took the train back to London. It was a great day!

Here are the rest of my Bath pictures.

We arrived in London around noon and it felt like morning. After going through an enormous customs line, we were on our way to our hotel. There was a lot of debate about how to get to our hotel from the airport and we finally settled on paying the high price of the cab. I’m glad we did this because we had so much luggage to manage.

We settled into our room at Thistle Kensington Gardens. The room was great and overlooked Kensington Gardens.

The view from our room.

Marissa crashed out, while my mom and I unpacked. Before we knew it the sun was setting and we were starving. So we walked down to The Swan, an old pub on Bayswater road. We were a little nervous at first, but then settled down when we realized how to order food and had a few beers to drink.

In the pub, we were on the look out for any HGs (hot guys) and were disappointed when we didn’t find any. Little did we know that the rest of the trip would be sprinkled with them.

We stayed at the pub for quite a while and then went back to our hotel for the night.

So it wasn’t the best use of our time in London, but it was relaxing and fun.

I had such a busy day getting ready and finishing up my packing for London. My  mom arrived around 4:30, and then Marissa got here at 5. It wasn’t long after that we were headed to the airport for our trip. We got on the flight and in our upgraded seats (THANKS Angela!). The flight was perfect. I slept the majority of the way, so a 9.5 hour flight seemed like nothing at all.

My new suitcase was filled to the max.