Europe 2009 Part I: London

OK, what day is it now? October 25th? I got home from vacation twenty-two days ago. Everyone's been asking for pictures since then. I'm going to do this in installments. London is first.


19-22 September

If you ever fly into London's Heathrow airport terminal five, grab a cup of coffee and watch the fountain for a while.



I didn't take many pictures in London, probably because I've been there so many times that what seemed foreign at first seems ordinary now. I got the touristy stuff out of the way on the first trip. Nowadays we just walk around and visit a few regular spots. We'll go to some museums; most of them are free. I always visit the Bead Shop in Covent Garden and Omygod in Soho, usually on my first day, when jet lag clouds reason enough that I'll wind up buying more than a clear head would allow.

We've accumulated a fair number of friends in London, so we try to see as many of them as possible. This time we had dinner with friends three nights out of four.

I'm looking at my notes from London. I could bore everyone with the details of what we did each day, but it's more fun to describe trying to do laundry in the hotel room. The humid weather wasn't helping the situation. We had a lot of socks that refused to dry for days until we stuck them onto the hair dryer one sock at a time. The sink was mostly clogged and the shower curtain rod kept falling down, which made the DIY laundry experience all the more interesting. This place was one step above a youth hostel but the price was right.

At the Bead Shop I rang up my usual huge tab on beads I can't get in the States. In the clearance box I found a handful of glass mouse beads so I bought some cheap gold-plated chain and set about at night making necklaces for a handful of the people I work with who, like me, work with mice.

At Omygod, Steven warned me that a lot of Venetian glass is being made in China and shipped back to Venice. I'd keep that in mind; I'd be there in a week or so. I loaded up on gifts for the birthday girls back home and on focal designs I would work around, with Steven's permission, of course. I promised him pictures this time.

We did see a life-size chess game outside of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. The board is set up next to Nelson's Column.



The pieces were ceramic on wooden bases. It took two people to move them around.




Here's Catherine and Jay's "puppy," Oscar, the Standard Poodle who turned heads in Aix-en-Provence two years ago. People there weren't used to seeing dogs that don't fit into handbags.



We left London by train from St. Pancras station to Paris Gare du Nord. I've done the Chunnel ride a few times. It's no big deal. The countryside on the English side looks the same as the countryside on the French side except the signs are in a different language. I did notice, though, that one graffiti tag was the same on both sides of the tunnel.