Cutting the Ties That Bind Us

Once again, in the airline news, Budapest gets hit again. American Airlines announced they are cancelling their one and only direct route from New York to Budapest. This was not a year round service, but it was due to start again in June. Delta Airlines, which once had direct service between the cities had long since dropped their route. 

American stated they would still service the route through their partners British Air via London and Finnish Air via Helsinki. If you choose the latter, I recommend a stopover in Helsinki; it is a delightfully small city.  

Since I was not thrilled with the equipment American Airlines used on our last flights, I am not sure this is such a bad thing after all. However, it is a barometer of the global economy for sure.

Related articles

• Delta, TPG Separately Assess Bids for American Airlines (blogs.wsj.com)
• Delta and American airlines (kendoris.wordpress.com)
• American Airlines creditors want merger (ftalphaville.ft.com)
• Airlines to begin 120 new UK routes (confused.com)
• American Airlines Rumored To Be Considering Huge Move (huffingtonpost.com)
• Budapest boasts low cost city breaks | British Airways - Travel Industry News (travelnews.britishairways.com)
• Budapest booms with value-for-money Euro city breaks | British Airways - Travel Industry News (travelnews.britishairways.com)
• Wizz Air invests $100 million to expand Budapest operations (atwonline.com)
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A Disproportionately Fulfilling Afternoon

One summer about five years ago, I had a personal mission to visit every museum in Budapest. At that time, there were forty-five. I made it to thirty-six. I have yet to make it to the Ambulance or Police Museums. I enjoy museums, but one of the inhibiting factors is the cost.

Recently, I received my new membership card from the European Press Association identifying me as a veritable journalist. Having heard that this authenticity gives free passage to sail through the doors of Budapest Museums, without once disturbing my pocket anchored wallet. Yes, I had been more than anxious to test this theory. Anxious in both senses of the word: excited, yet nervous. I hate being embarrassed in public.

The Fine Arts Museum currently has a double extended exhibition: Botero and Klimt. Being a fan of both, I the cravings were gnawing at me, so Ron and I decided we needed to go yesterday. This was my chance to test my pass.


Two ticket offices open, I chose the one with no one in line. This would reduce humiliation if there were to be any. As I walked up, she put the closed sign down while waving me across the hall. A party of five were already confusing the ticket seller in Spanish; others were lining up behind me. Stand tall, hand over the pass, ask if it provides a discount. With a cheery smile, the attendant states "For you it is free." "Yes" I mutter like an unappreciative child, "but I want to see Botero and Klimt." Again she smiled "It is all free for you. Enjoy!" Enjoy? I am already ecstatic. This has just saved me 3,500 Huf or $18.00 or 13 euros. Ron gets in free since he is a docent. What a wonderful day!

The museum is missing 120 pieces of their regular collection. They are all on loan to the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Knowing I can return any time and having been here dozens of times already, I wanted to see Botero. We 'discovered' him into our lives when we were in Portugal years ago. There was an exhibit of replicas of his paintings, but they did have some sculptures too. 

His trademark is creating out of proportion. This is his version of the Mona Lisa. Notice the facial features. We were overjoyed to be able to drink in over 3 dozen of his paintings. In addition, they had a documentary playing about his life and work. Though we intended to only watch a small portion, we stayed for the entire ninety minutes. For once I was satisfied with not having my camera. It would have been a distraction. To read more about Botero, click here.


After more than 3 hours soaking up Botero genius, we ventured to the Klimt exhibit. Vienna, of course has the largest collection of Klimt and we have been to that museum. This exhibit generously encompassed the Secessionist group of which Klimt was the first president. None of the paintings for which he is best known within popular culture were on exhibit. In fact, most were from his band of brothers, Klimt just lending his name as the ringer. Closing the museum, we went for dinner. It was an exceptionally good day.

Related articles

• Treasures from Budapest, Royal Academy of Arts, review (telegraph.co.uk)

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easyJet adds Paris/Orly-Budapest route

Budget airline easyJet is adding a daily flight between Paris/Orly and Budapest on November 17.

Tickets are already available from the airline's website from Ft 6,600 including all taxes and fees.

easyJet aims to expand its 6% market share in Hungary, said Peter Voets, marketing director for the CEE region. The airline also connects Budapest to Geneva, Berlin, Dortmund, London/Luton, and London/Gatwick.

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Paul From London Wrote in...

Thanks to Paul, we have London info too for anyone traveling there. We do this here in London too, this weekend there are many buildings open and some that usually charge are free, sadly no Gherkin this year though. http://www.openhouse.org.uk/public/london/event.html

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Re-Entry Mode

Last night was not a good night’s sleep. It sounded like someone was tapping a nail into the wall on the other side of my bed headboard. That woke me continually, but when I did get to sleep, I dreamed of students not turning in their papers on time. Ron calls this my re-entering stage; this is the time when I know it is getting close to going back to the routine of home again. There will be papers to read and correct and a professional article to write, but thankfully, I will still be off from school until the 19^th of April.

Hearing the alarm at 9:30 am was not a pleasant sound, but I got up anyway. I could hear my new neighbor in the shower, so I did my preliminaries in the room until I heard him go back to his room. While I was waiting, I uploaded yet again, the pictures I took yesterday. I did it last night only to realize 1 ½ hours later, that I uploaded the 239 pictures without the captions. I deleted the album and started it again.

My new neighbor and I went to breakfast almost simultaneously, but did not meet until we were seated in the breakfast room and gave our room numbers again to the multitasking clerk. Retrospectively, I cannot remember his name, but he is from Costa Rica, works for Dole bananas as an accountant and has a business trip to London each year. He extends it to come to Amsterdam and some other cities before heading back. We talked all during breakfast and then he was off to an exhibit at a museum and I had intended to go to the Indonesian exhibit at the New Church.

My transportation pass expired at 11:15 today and I left the hotel at 11:00. By rights, I could have taken the tram, but the air was cool, clear, and fresh, so I thought the walk would be therapeutic for my aching legs that were abused yesterday. It was a relaxed pace as the path chosen was not the most frequented by the mobs of tourists. It is the one with the least number of shops on the way.

In my mind, the figure of four Euros for admission to the Indonesian exhibit happened to stick. As I was handing a 20 Euro bill to the cashier, she was just finishing the words “10 Euros, please”. Opps! Did I really want to see this exhibit 10 Euros worth? Not really! I could barely find Indonesia on a map if I had to do it under pressure, why did I really care? As this mental tennis match was happening, I already had my change and ticket in hand. Too inhibited to say, “Sorry, I just realized that I did not care that much about Indonesia that much, can I have a refund”, I went in anyway. What was option B? Well, I could walk the same streets that I have covered six times already to the point on knowing each manhole cover in a five mile radius or I could spend some time broadening my mind. The decision of whether or not it was worth the money came tumbling down to a final verdict when I asked if pictures were allowed. I was told that they were not. Well if I cannot take photos, then why am I here? You might as well tie my hands behind my back and then tell me to make a speech.

After two hours of roaming around the exhibits and watching a 14 minute movie, I felt justified in leaving. There was one spectacular sculpture from the 13^th century of a female deity. The detail was exquisite. This validated the expense. Sculpture has always been my favorite form of art, but at the moment, I am reading The Agony and the Ecstasy, so I am fine tuned to appreciating it.

Okay, Mr. Intellectual, what do you do now? Your transportation pass has expired, it is not worth 6.30 Euro for a 24 hour pass and you cannot make sense of the stripkaart, so what do you do now? It looks like you do what you have been doing all along, you walk. A latte sounded really appetizing and there are two places I knew would not disappoint me. One was around the corner from the hotel, so I headed back down to the one with the rainbow coffee canisters. It was a long walk with sore legs, so I needed to fortify myself halfway with two muesli cookies. At the coffee shop, I was able to get a seat right under the lilies that had photographed a couple of days ago. Again, with the slow wilting of the flowers, their changed personalities called for being photographed once again. While the camera was at hand, I was able to capture a baby with a humorous hat as mom was getting her off of the bike. I wanted to get a secret shot of the woman sitting across from me, but she shifted and spoiled the mood or my mood; I am not sure which.

It is at least two miles back to the hotel from this coffee shop. I tried walking in a way I had never done before to see some new sights, but the glitch in that plan is that there are not always bridges to get over the canals where you need them. That plan was not as fruitful as I had intended, but I did come across a gay bookstore that I have gone to back in 1984. At this point, I do need to say that coffee shop is not a euphemism for anything more than a caffeine stop. Smoking weeds give me a headache and set my sinuses off, so I do avoid those. The bookstore as well is not euphemistic for a porn store. This is a legitimate bookstore that sells books, magazines, and gay themed movies. I could not believe that they were selling new copies of novels I had read in the 70s. Who would have believed John Reichy’s novels would still be around today and in new editions besides? It was a real time warp experience.

As I was walking, I was debating the pros and cons of traveling alone. This occurred to me because after spending the last 12 ½ years in a relationship, it is rare that I travel solo. The only other times that I have were either for educational reasons or to see my nephews, but never strictly for a vacation.

Pro – You can eat wherever you want without anyone saying “I don’t feel like that tonight.”

Con – You have to decide on your own what you don’t feel like eating tonight.

Pro – There are no time constraints. You can get up and go when you wish.

Con – There is no one to push you out of the hotel door.

Pro – You can spend as much time as you want in a store, a museum, or a coffee shop.

Con – You can spend too much time in a store, a museum, or a coffee shop.

Pro – You can walk as much as you want and not have to worry about anyone else’s needs.

Con – You don’t have someone with better sense then you do who will say it is time to take a tram now.

Pro – You can sit at dinner and ignore everyone else if you choose to.

Con – You are sitting alone at dinner being ignored by everyone since they choose to.

I know there are many who travel alone and love it. I have never been one of them. When I have traveled alone in the past, it was only because I could not get anyone to go with me. That was never a deterrent for me to go somewhere. I would rather go it alone than not go at all.

The chill in the air was turning frosty, so going back to the hotel did not seem like a bad idea at that point. As I ventured over well worn paths, I look another look at this lock and realized there is a bagel shop next door. Locks and Bagels is the name of this photo. I cracked up.

It took an hour or so to blog yesterday’s ventures. It took six edits to get the font correct and I am not sure yet that it is, but working on a laptop with a touchpad, my fingers are getting calloused. Placing pictures in is a major hassle. Each picture goes to the top regardless of where you try placing it and then needs to be dragged into place. This is especially difficult with the small screen of a laptop, so I will improve them when I get home and am working with a swivel screen monitor and a mouse.

For dinner, I went to the falafel place that Ron and I went to often at the end of the flower market. It is a bargain for 3.50 Euros. Feeling gluttonous, I made my last trip to the French fry stand for my last sate sauce fix. On the way home, the air was frigid. I told the desk clerk that if it were to rain now, it would be snow. When does spring come to this country? Has the Spring Fairy passed them over for being bad? The radiator is cranked on high in my room.

The plan for tomorrow it to go to breakfast late with my bags in hand since check-out time is 11:00. My flight is not until 4:30, but I will most likely leave after a leisurely breakfast and then find the Diners Club lounge to spend the extra time in.

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Relaxed at Last

Relaxed at Last

We slept deliciously late, which is a real difference for me, so I must be relaxed and comfortable. Breakfast was at our leisure without someone making us feel rushed and knowing the kitchen would be open for as long as we cared to indulge ourselves sipping coffee. Merlin, the American manager, decided he could not stand the Nescafe any longer and bought a French press pot to make fresh brewed coffee. He said he had a feeling we would appreciate it more also and we were to help ourselves. No one needs to tell us twice to skip Nescafe over a better coffee.

We are walking more here, as the buses are a little more confusing than London and the walks are not that long. Within twenty-five minutes, we were at The Museum of Childhood. As it sounds, this is a free museum dedicated to the games, toys, hobbies, crafts, and any other imaginable object that can be related to children and their pastimes. Many of the articles displayed, dated back to the 1800’s and went to current. There are five galleries swarming with nostalgia as well as information of childhood amusements from around the world. It is a treasure chest when you want to forget the aches and pains that travel has produced in your aging body and allows you to go back to a more carefree time. We spent over two hours here and could have spent longer. A curmudgeon who claimed that he hated children started the museum. There is no evidence of his being a child hater in this museum.

Within a short distance away is another free museum that my friend Beverly had suggested. It is The Writer’s Museum. This is a small, but potent museum dedicated to three of Scotland’s greatest writers. Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson. There is one floor dedicated to each author. Their life is described in detail as well as some of their personal pieces from their daily lives. The fourth floor is dedicated to current Scottish writers, many of who still write in Scots, the native language. I thought it was Scottish Gaelic, but did not see any reference to that, only Scots. After an hour and a half of reading all of the displays, our minds were tired and needed a break.

Down the street is a Starbucks that I had been frequenting without purchasing a thing, so we decided we should patronize the coffee bar. We sat outside and watched the people go by and enjoyed the scenery when a young woman and a younger man sat down at the table next to us. After five minutes, it was obvious that this young man could have been one of Ron’s former clients. The young man was either Autistic or had Tourrettes Syndrome. It did not bother us, but it was interesting to observe without being obvious, how the young woman handled him. He was quite a handful and she was patient, loving, and gentle, but firm.

Along the Royal Mile is a statue with a unicorn on the top. The tradition was that all news that came from England would be announced to the masses at this statue. Since it took horses three days to make the trip, the news was already old when it reached Edinburgh. Out of a sense of tradition, even with technology and news being current on demand, the events are still announced at this statue three days after they happen.

One thing that we have noticed and our friend Anne told us it is true for London, is that a number of churches are closing due to lack of support. It seems the same is going on here too. Those that are still open have supplemented their costs by opening gift shops and many have cafés and lunch shops. Obviously, they have never heard about Bingo.

Ron had wanted to see the ship Britannia, so we questioned bus drivers until we found the correct one to take to get there. It was at the end of one bus route and when we got off, we did not realize that the huge building in front of the ship was a brand new mall. We walked all the way around the building, and then noticed the barriers. We walked through the parking garages and then found the entrance to a large, unadorned, incomplete mall. We had to walk through the mall and to the second level to access the ramp leading to the ship. The ship Britannia was the royal yacht for over forty years, traveling more then one million miles, making 968 Royal and official visits. It is now retired in dock and is a museum. By the time we got there, it was too late to tour it, so we were just admirers from a distance.

Bussing back to our area, we stopped in a pub that Martin the B & B owner had recommended. We were the first customers that evening as they had just opened at 7:00 pm. We had a wonderful talk with the bartender and walked the neighborhood to try to find one of two restaurants that Martin had suggested also. One, Nexus was a small café type restaurant with a very small menu and nothing that really looked appealing. We decided on the Blue Moon Café the second one on the list. This was a small restaurant with very colorful walls in strange combinations, but the menu looked appealing and we stayed. At the next table was a single man from New York. He asked if we were Americans and we started talking. He told us how difficult it was for him to take this vacation that he had planned and paid for months ago. He felt like he needed to leave NY, but on the other hand, he felt like he needed to be home too. He had spent three days in Iceland, then Glasgow, and now Edinburgh. He was from Westchester, but said that he had many ties to the City and every time something comes up, he gets emotional and choked up. He left before we were finished and we said our good-byes with a sense of sadness.

Back home, I knew this was not going to be a good night. I had forgotten my allergy pills in the large suitcases and when I went to use my nasal spray it was the last two spritzes. Within an hour, I could feel the post-nasal drip waterfall starting and the coughing followed shortly thereafter. It was bound to be a long night.

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No Need to Rush

No Need to Rush

There is no need to rush. We probably can’t get into the bathroom anyway. Breakfast is a buffet of choices and decisions. Ron brought our dirty laundry around the corner to the launder mat where the attendant will wash and dry it for us. Merlin will pick it up for us this afternoon, since he has a light day.

We decided to walk to the castle since the laundry woman told Ron a shorter route from our place. It is still uphill with a backpack on. Would you believe that I was a Boy Scout for years and the two things that I hated was camping and hiking? Nothing had changed since then.

On the way, we did come to the Museum of Edinburgh first and toured it. It was very interesting to see the history that went back to 3,000 years B.C. to the present. Across the street is a museum called The People’s Story. It is a museum that tells the condition of the ordinary people of Edinburgh from the end of the 18^th century to the current time. They use a lot of mannequins and create dioramas, which really adds to the interest. This was a real sociological experience and worth the two and a half hours we spent in there. Both of the museums were free admission.

We stopped at an outdoor café across the street for a latte and cappuccino before heading off to the castle. There are Starbucks everywhere both here and in London, which is a blessing for me since I have to find a bathroom every fifteen minutes or six blocks whichever comes first. My tests came back negative for diabetes and my doctor said there was nothing to be concerned about, but this is one reason why I shy away from established tours for days at a time. I would be the blushing one that has held the group up for the entire tour. That is the one thing that I like about having Starbucks, Burger King, and McDonalds everywhere we go. They are dependable rest stops.

We trudged up the Royal Mile toward Edinburgh Castle. It was cold and blustery up on that hill, but what a view of the city. It was incredible. With the admission, you get a CD-Rom in your own language that is a self-guided tour. You can walk at your own pace, play it as many times as you want or skip over what is not interesting to you. The castle was a medieval fortress and only many hundreds of years later turned into a castle. This is where James VI was born, in a very small, unadorned room off of his mother’s (Queen Mary of Scots) bedchamber. Most of the inside of the castle was functional, not ornate. In the jewel tower, there were life size models of all of the Kings of Scotland from the 800’s through to one Queen in the 1600’s, then Kings again until Mary. Then when she was murdered, her son became King and reigned over England and Scotland. It took us over three hours to go through everything, but we were told that the entire CD-Rom has 4 ½ hours of information. There is only so much you can absorb. We had to have tea in the gift shop only to renew our energy for walking some more after all of the standing and walking.

Back down the Royal Mile, we started looking for someplace to eat. We got off the beaten track and got lost again. Finally, we decided to just head home and find something locally. We found a Chinese restaurant near the house, so we got ‘take away’ and brought it home to eat. This is another night staying in without the ½ price ticket booth to run to. We are getting more rest here since there is not all of the activity to run around for.

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London, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

London, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Mr. Happy’s partner was at breakfast this morning. He grunted a greeting after I said “Good morning!”, then got up and left the room. John played out his robotic coffee or tea skit. Nothing was said about our checking out that morning or anything else that might be misconstrued as friendly, warm or that would invite us to return. We had slept a little later then usual and finished breakfast at 10:00 am and went back to the room to finish packing what was going with us.

At exactly 11:00 am, the checkout time, I went to the breakfast counter and set our keys on the counter. Without looking up, John said “That will be six pounds eleven for phone calls.” I paid him with a ten pound note and he handed me the change without any more words being spoken. He never once said thanks for staying here, come again, go to hell, nothing, nothing, nothing. We grabbed our bags and left.

I of course had to go to the Internet café one more time to see if all of the accommodations were completed without an issue, while Ron verified our train arrangements. When I returned, we were ready to take the last tube for this time around to the rail station to get our outgoing train. We had thought of leaving our bags at the B & B and check out more of London for one last time, but when John was so blank, we decided to leave on an earlier train.

As we leave London, allow me to make some final observations. It was difficult getting used to the driving on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel where our passenger side is. Fortunately, all crosswalks are marked with ‘Look right’ or ‘Look left’ depending on which side of the street you are on. If you jaywalk, you definitely do so at your own risk. It was quite unnerving the first few times we saw children sitting in our traditional drivers side. What was more so, was seeing dogs hanging their heads out the windows. Lasting impressions!!

From some of the jokes we heard, we did not think the British trains would be that efficient. A few people, Brits, commented that they have the worst on time service in Europe, but I think the Italians hold the record. In the train station, we had to get out BritRail passes validated before boarding the train. We had people everywhere offering to assist us and when we were called to the counter, it was only a matter of minutes for the validations. We took off to the train and found a car we could board. With the BritRail, we had a choice of 1^st Class or Standard and we had chosen the Standard to fit with our new lifestyle of living cheaply. The Europass only comes in 1^st class, so we will move up when we leave Great Britain.

The seats were very comfortable and Ron was able to snatch a foursome with a table. I was tempted to whip out the laptop, but this was a chance to read instead. I have found this pleasant author that writes mystery stories, nothing heavy, just fun. The author is Nancy Atherton and the books are the Aunt Dimity series. The first one, I read on our trip to Egypt and it was fun, so I bought more for this trip. On our flight from Denver to New Jersey, I had read Aunt Dimity’s Death, which sets the scene for the rest of the books. On the train, I was reading Aunt Dimity Digs In. They take place in the English countryside, the Cotswold area, so it makes it more fun. Our friend Daphnee had given me the book Seven Up by Janet Evanovitch. This too was a mystery and it took place in New Jersey. She is an incredible writer too and I am looking forward to reading more of her works. In between, I had read The Girl With the Pearl Earring. The name of the author escapes me, but it was a great book about the Dutch artist Vermeer. It will be a greater pleasure to see his work now that I have read that book. If anyone needs a relaxation book, all of the above are recommended highly. I call them mind candy.

Well, I would love to tell you how wonderful the scenery was as we whisked by on the train, how the villages were idyllic, but it was not like that at all. Most of the scenery was either another train flashing past us in the opposite direction or industrial areas at the side of the tracks. There were no cute little houses with cute little yards and cute little dogs that were making cute little yapping noises as the train went by. The scenery was not worth staying awake for, but I did get a lot of reading done. After five relaxing hours on the train, it was time to get off at our new home for the next week. Running out of time, so I will let you know where we are headed next in the next chapter.

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New City, New Country

New City, New Country

We arrived at Waverley Station, Edinburgh, Scotland, by 6:00 pm. At the advise of the guesthouse owner here, we were going to take a taxi for what would have been a 20 minute walk to the guesthouse. We think we may have thought we had more luggage than we did. We stopped at a bank machine to get cash. After I took out 200 pounds, the machine rudely stated that my banking institution denied a request for further funds. That put me into a panic. Why would that happen? Holy cow, we will have to live on credit for the rest of the year. Something happened to our funds. My mind went into a tailspin. Ron was nonchalant. Then I realized that our bank had a $300 maximum withdrawal per day. With the exchange rate, the 200 pounds had put us close to the $300 limit. That did not stop my mind from doing somersaults that would continue to future tales of doom. There is nothing I could do about it tonight. Stay in the moment. Stay in the moment.

To our surprise, the owner of this B & B was pleasant and cheerful. He brought us into the kitchen and said that the kitchen was always open and we were to help ourselves to whatever was there. Merlin, the manager would be available in the morning and have breakfast spread out. Breakfast was served from 9:00 am to noon. If we wanted something earlier or later, we were welcome to help ourselves. He explained that there was always cakes and wrapped cookies on the counter for the guests and we should make ourselves at comfortable. He then showed us to our room with the shared bath and apologized that the bath on our floor had a plumbing problem and we would need to use the bath on the first floor for a few days. The room is a comfortable size, but that bathroom is certainly going to be missed doing the night. There is a fireplace that is blocked off and decorated with dried flowers, a double bed, two small dressers and polished wood floors. There is no phone and the television only gets four channels. However, we are paying 39 pounds a night versus 79 pounds in London. To add more value, since we paid cash for five nights, we are getting two nights free. That is quite a difference and we can live without a private shower or phone. Martin, the owner, had no problems with me plugging my laptop in and working on the kitchen table. He then gave us a map to the area, suggested some bars and restaurants and left us to our own devises.

The bank notes here are from the Bank of Scotland. Martin told us that the Bank of Scotland received permission to print its own money in 1793 and have done so since. English pounds are also viable forms of cash and the coins are the same throughout Great Britain. The exchange rate is the same, not great.

We decided to explore Edinburgh, at least the neighborhood that we would call home for the next seven days. We went to a pub called Planet Out for a beer. The people were friendly and welcoming. Martin did not know about Internet cafes, so I grilled the bartender, who seemed young enough to care to know. He had his own and did not invite me to use it, so I was stuck continuing my search. We then wandered around until it was time to eat dinner or go back and call it a night. I could have done either, but Ron wanted food. We settled on an Italian restaurant for a quick pasta meal, then walked the short distance to our new adopted home for what I had hoped would be a wonderful nights sleep. Don’t think about the money machine. Ron is out like a light without a second thought. For me, the mantra swimming in my mind is “Don’t worry about the money machine. Just don’t worry about it.”

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A Day of Rest

A Day of Rest

We leave London tomorrow. We have not decided where we are going yet, but yesterday we sent out a number of e-mails checking out accommodations. Ron wanted to go to Westminster Abbey for services at 11:00 am, so that meant we needed to get through our happy meal fast and get on the buses and tubes hoping they are running.

Westminster Abbey is a Church of England (Episcopal) place of worship. Its biggest importance is that it is where the royalty had its coronation. Elizabeth II being the last to process up the aisle to receive her crown and take the vows of monarch to hold the Church of England in the highest regard and accepting no other. A guard stands outside and only lets those in who are coming for the service. We looked pious enough to be allowed through the gates. Actually, I had to hide under Ron’s most pious coattail to get by. The church is lovely inside, but no pictures are allowed. What we would call the church with the altar in front, they called the Nave. Through the Nave and on both sides are choir stands on both sides. The stands or seats are done in rich blue velvet and golden wood that has been beautifully carved. Beyond the choir area there is yet another altar. On either side of the altar are chairs for the congregates. Each of us was given a handout on the order of the service, which included when to stand and when to sit.

The sermon was quite interesting. The priest started out with the story of Snow White. He said that when she was baptized, three fairy godmothers were invited to bestow blessings on her, but the fourth was shunned either accidentally or purposefully. She feeling snubbed placed a curse on Snow White. He went on to make the analogy that we grow up thinking that only good exists, but there is also evil in the world. He said we had to be the godparent to ourselves and not wait for life to be good to us. Of course, he delved into this theme to a greater depth than I have here, but that is the focus.

From the sanctity of the church service, I ran over the Internet café while Ron went to the train station to check schedules. As I was typing away, a porno sight popped up. I immediately closed it and another one popped up elsewhere on the screen. I rapidly closed that one to no avail as another smaller window then appeared with four letter words on it. All of my attempts to close them were fruitless, so I just switched back to Yahoo and kept typing. When Ron arrived, he was sitting next to me and one of the sights jumped to the forefront. He was startled and dumbfounded at the same time. He asked how long that had been happening and I explained since I got there. I did not tell the attendant since she was this young woman and I did not want to be standing there while she viewed the scenes that were plastered on the desktop. When we finished out session, I did close as many as I could and then I did tell her. I did not want someone else to have to deal with this. She came over and of course then they were all gone. No matter how many of the X boxes I clicked on they continued to come from nowhere, but now there was no evidence left to justify my concerns.

One of our sub-hobbies of traveling is collecting Hard Rock Café pins from the restaurants in the cities we visit. London is the mother of all Hard Rock Cafes. This is where it all began, so getting a pin from here was a real coup. From the Internet café we had to take the tube to get close to the Hard Rock. It was raining heavily and again the gusts were beyond normal. The announcer came on the overhead in the tube station declaring an emergency with the tube. It had broken down and would not be arriving for quite awhile. We were strapped for time as Bruce was going to drive over at 6:00 pm to collect us with our luggage to bring to their home for safekeeping. We decided we would have to take a bus and found the correct one, eventually.

The Hard Rock is small. Being the birthplace of a multi-continent business, one would think that it would be huge. It was not disappointing though. We saw memorabilia from the bands we grew up with and of course there was a good amount of Beatle’s things to gawk at. In the dining room, there are screens everywhere with music videos playing. Some were stars and songs we had never heard of, but others were songs we knew and loved from years past. Then one started that we really could have done without. The theme song and video to the Sopranos was the next in queue. Ron had successfully forgotten about the show he loved to watch. This refreshed his memory and his eyes were glued to the screen. His next comment was that he hoped he would be able to find the videos in a video store to keep up with the series and I just silently groaned, hoping this too would pass.

One of the public bathrooms we went into had a sign on the wall “1996/97 Loo of the Year Award”. Somehow we missed the latter year presentations on our television satellite dish system, but the award ceremony must be a real treasure. …And the winner for the most sparkling bowls that are consistently supplied with sufficient paper goes to…. I got to thinking that if they did not win the award since 1997, shouldn’t the sign come down by now? Maybe it is time to rethink bowl cleaner or retire the bowl brush if there is ever going to be a chance of picking up the award again.

The same thing goes for the B & B we are staying in. They have the Pink Paper Award for Outstanding B & B for 1995 and 1996. Did the paper fold after that or did some other more deserving B&B displace them? If the paper folded, they should have yet another sign that says “We may have continued winning, but the paper folded in 1997 and our attitudes soured the same year.” For heaven sakes, if you have not won anything since 1996 and it is now 2001, get over it and take the signs down. Your day of glory has faded and all who stay with you now are certainly not going to vote for you in any positive categories.

We made it back home by 6:00 pm, but we still needed to rearrange our things to leave with Anne and Bruce and then decide what we would need to take with us. More decisions! Bruce came for us at 7:00 and we carted the luggage to their second floor, a chore that reminded us how grateful we were for their generous offer so that we did not have to lug them with us for another few weeks. Bruce was gracious enough to drive us home again. We finally had an early evening in London with me on the computer and Ron reading. It was wonderful to relax. We had covered miles and miles of London on the tubes and buses, but also a huge amount of miles by foot also. We had climbed thousands of steps since not all of the tube stations have escalators and those that do also have steps that need to be climbed. Every sight we went to had steps that needed climbing. Steps were everywhere we went that needed ascending or descending. It was time to put the feet up. I had been doing very well about staying in the moment and not anticipating what was coming next. This is not easy to do. I have always had to make plans and then reassess the plans and make adjustments as things went on. Now, I was just enjoying the moment and not planning the next hour, let alone the next day, week, or month. But we were leaving London tomorrow and we had to make some decisions.

If you want to know where we went, keep reading.

Keep going…

A little farther…

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The Charm Continues

The Charm Continues

It is breakfast time once again. There are two men here from Sweden and we have seen them in the breakfast room before. They were discussing with Mr. Personality what their plans where for checking out. He made a big deal out of their English and snapped, “If you meant blah, blah, blah, you should have said blah, blah, blah.” Then he had the audacity to ask them if they have ever booked hotels in Sweden asking for the nights like they asked him. I was embarrassed for them being demeaned like this. I also wanted to say, but didn’t “Maybe if you spoke Swedish as well as they speak English, there were not have been a miscommunication, you arrogant bastard.” Where does he come off giving hotel reservation English lessons in that nasty tone of voice of his to these people who are paying him to stay there?

I sensed that this was not the right time for Ron to tell him that he broke the cord to open and close the drapes, but I could not intercept in time. Ron, in his usual relaxed manner said, “Oh, by the way, when I went to draw the curtains last night, the cord broke.” When Mr. Exuberance came back with “When you open or close the drapes, you need to pull the sofa away from them or they get stuck and that is bound to happen.” Of course, I had to get in the act and state that each time I opened or closed them, I did just that meaning move the sofa.” Well not to be out done, he shoots back with “Every time I have been in your room, the drapes have been bunched up. We had rings, but people would fling the drapes and break the rings off. We thought the cords would solve the problem, but obviously not.” It really helps the digestive juices to get in a spat with the hands that set out your food in the morning. Almost immediately after his lecture, he said “Coffee or tea for you this morning?” like a programmed robot. He has no finesse or social skills at all toward any of the clients that we have seen including us. I need to point out once again that for the most part, the people of London have been exceptionally friendly, polite, and pleasant to be around. As the saying goes, there is always one rotten apple…

We had called our friends Anne and Bruce who live in the Brixton area a half mile from us, to see if they wanted to join us for a local dinner some night. Anne had to work on a paper for her doctoral studies and Bruce had put his back out at work. They offered to let us leave our luggage that we did not need to take, at their place. This will save us from putting our backs out for a little while longer.

Our venture for the morning was to go to a famous Hindu temple built in London. It was in our London Pass book, but the entry was free, so we decided it might be worth seeing. Of course it took multiple transportation plans to get there, but it was worth it when we did. It is the Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sonotha Hindu Center. Their religious leader is Pramukh Swami Maharaj who was born in 1921 and the sixth swami of the sect of Hindus. The first decided that the Hindu religion has too much materialism in it and this caused the divisions with the caste system. He founded this branch after becoming enlightened and is totally impartial to race, creed, color, social level, or sex. There are now 1,750 temples of this sect throughout the world.

This current Swami is in the Guinness Book of World Records for building 386 temples in 11 countries over a 30-year span. He is also in another edition of the Guinness book for preparing 1,247 different vegetarian dishes for a Hindu holiday feast. To think that when we were vegetarians, every restaurant we went to only had pasta primavera. This temple is the largest Hindu temple outside of India. It is listed in the 70 Wonders of the Modern World.

From the outside the temple itself looks like an intricate ice carving. It is all white marble until you come to the entrance and visitor center, which is done in teak colored wood. When you walk in, you are asked to take your shoes off and there are places to store them. The main hall is the size of two football fields with room left over. The lobby is a blond wood floor, but the walls and ceiling are as intricately carved as the marble on the second level. The entrance hall is two stories and is completely carved wood, but none of this prepares one for what is upstairs.

When you walk up the marble steps, you enter the main temple where total silence is requested. The entire temple is carved out of white marble that was imported from Italy. It is like walking into an ice palace that was extravagantly executed, but has retained the warmth of love and faith. Giant columns elaborately carved with figures from Hindu history separate the main temple. The carvings continue into a huge domed ceiling. In five different alcoves, there are the major deities of the religion. We were fortunate to have made it there in time for them to be exposed. After we were there for about twenty minutes, they closed the doors on the icons. They are only exposed for certain hours of the day for certain amounts of time. There is a giant school across the street for grades K-12 where not only are academics taught, but also Indian culture, Indian crafts, dance, and the Hindu religion. Although we had been to a Hindu temple before, this was an exceptional experience.

Since we knew the British Museum would be closed on Sunday, we decided we had better get there pronto or lose out. We were leaving London on Monday. Of course that meant navigating a few buses and tubes, but we made it. We wanted to see the real Rosetta stone since we had only seen a copy in the Cairo Museum. We did a quick tour of some African art work and then found the main Egyptian section. We only had an hour and a half in a museum that you could spend days in. A taste was better than nothing at all, but it was still disappointing when the closing bells rang.

Having gotten a taste for the theater here like a dog that gets it first taste of table scraps, we were back at the Half Price Ticket office to try our luck. We had heard some good things about a play called Closer to Heaven, so we decided to try to that. The rains had come again and the wind was fierce. I managed to get four people out of line in front of us when I heard them say that wanted to see The Lion King. My advice was to go to the theater since the half price place did not even sell the tickets. That moved us up the line faster. The rain was really coming down.

We decided we had enough time for a quick snack and then we would run off to the Internet café to do our thing. We stopped at a restaurant in the Leicester area, because they advertised fish and chips. Ron had wanted to try them, so this was his chance. We never came across any fish and chips stands or other places where you can get the fish and chips wrapped in newspaper like you see in the movies or like friends have told us about. That must have gone by the wayside. The other food items that we never found were bangers or a toad in the hole, like you see at the renaissance fairs. I thought for sure that bangers were still pub food. From the looks of pub menus, the food is more upper class now. Even the close to a dive that Hobgoblin is, their menu did not include what we would have thought was pub food, but rather spaghetti and meatballs. We just finished snacking in time for getting back to the play.

There were signs in the tube stop stating that the public transportation system would be striking for two days starting a week from Monday. We feel sorry for commuters and tourists alike. With daily rain, the winds getting stronger, it will not be a pleasure to stroll around jolly ole England. There have been a lot of slow downs due to security alerts or suspected problems on some of the lines. It really causes chaos.

The play turned out to be a better title than a play. There was nothing Closer to Heaven about it. The story was weak, the character development was lacking to non-existent depending on the character, however; the singing was good and The Pet Shop Boys wrote a lot of the music. Some songs we actually recognized. The tickets were reasonable…I did not have to slit my wrists over it. Of course it was pouring rain when we left and the tubes were overcrowded since there are a number of theaters in that area. When we arrived in Brixton, we waited for the bus, but it never showed. Walking in the rain, the wind gusting mightily, our umbrellas decided to do flips and turn outward. It was enough to drive us to the pub for some dry space and a cool one. Which reminds me is another minor disappointment. I thought English pub beer was supposed to be served warm, dark and bitter. What is Miller’s Lite doing on the tap? One beer a day, we have tried several different English, Irish, and Scotch beers, but all are served cool to cold. Even the Guiness is served cold or extra cold on tap.

It is getting close to our time to leave London and we were suppose to look at maps tonight and decide where we were going to go next. Too late and too tired to care, we crawled into bed only to be awaked at 3:30 am by a woman’s voice shouting, “Mind my jacket, mind my jacket.” This went on and on without change of plea or change of rhythm for about forty-five minutes. She was across the street and the B & B is well off of the street, but she was still loud enough to wake us up. To wake me would have been easy if she were speaking a normal tone, but to wake Ron, I knew she was loud. And tomorrow is supposed to be our day of rest.

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Ryan’s Insights and Other Tales

Ryan’s Insights and Other Tales

It is breakfast time at Mr. Personality’s B& B. There are six of us at breakfast, a record since we have been here. We are squeezed into a tiny room that looked like a ballroom on the website. The menu has not changed in honor of our breakfast guests. The quantity has not changed either. When the croissants disappear, toast appears. It is cut into festive triangles, so that maybe it will pass as something other than toast.

When we open our B&B, we will have a daily changing variety of edibles to wake up the mouth and mind to be ready for a new day. Those of you reading this will be entitled to a big discount. We are still scouring the world for its location, so stay turned to this newsletter for further updates and discount coupons.

Today is the last day of our Travel Pass. It provided us unlimited rides on the tubes, buses, trains, and the Thameslink for seven days. When you don’t know a city, unlimited transportation is important. You are bound to retrace steps that you made by mistake. It would be hateful to have to pay twice for your mishaps. Out of the eleven different tube lines, we were on ten at least one time, not always on purpose. Of the scores of bus routes, we covered at least twenty-five of them, and then there were the trains and catamarans.

Let’s go off topic for a minute. Have you ever noticed that when you are on an escalator, the handrail and the steps are not in synch? If you hold the handrail, your hand will get to the top or bottom faster than your feet. I have wondered why this is and after careful research that has not been funded by any government monies, I have reached two conclusions. Conclusion one: Going down the escalator, your hand is approaching the bottom first because so many people are on their cell phones in the tube, they don’t realize they are reaching the bottom. When they go flying on their face due to this, their hand has arrived first and is instrumental in breaking the fall. Conclusion two: Going up the escalator, inevitably, someone stops at the very top ahead of you to look around, to talk to a friend, or their brain is trying to tell the legs to move once again. Your hand makes it to the top first in order for you to push that person out of the way so you don’t create a domino reaction behind you and send fifty people flying down the stairs.

Without the London Pass, we are out looking for cheap thrills, so the Victoria and Albert Museum fit the bill. The Victoria and Albert Museum or affectionately called the V&A, is billed as the world’s greatest museum for the decorative arts. They have over 5,000 pieces from the year 3,000 BC to present including the largest collection of Renaissance sculpture outside of Italy. As the guide said they have a smattering of everything, but not an overabundance of anything. For 2.50 pounds, you are allowed to wander, explore, delight in one of the most wonderful museums there are. We took the free tour of the museum and were delighted to have a guide that not only knew the museum from nook to cranny, but she was animated too. One could not help but be excited about the works just from her exuberance. At the time of our visit, they had an exhibit of Chihuly. He happens to be an American from Seattle who is a glass artist. He started his career late in life and made it big. Some of his pieces are extraordinary and others seem too abstract to be sensible, plus they were done in bright yellow and orange, not my favorite color scheme. He is loved here and they are thrilled to be able to show his work. After the tour, Ron and I decided to go separate ways since we had different areas we wanted to explore further. I am interested in sculpture and he wanted to see the photography exhibit from Japan and the Frank Lloyd Wright Gallery.

Part of the tour included the cartoons of Raphael. We learned that cartoons were originally large drawing done in strips that were used as a guide for paintings. In this case the cartoons were used for weaving tapestries for Pope Leo. Raphael had to do everything in reverse. The weaver puts the cartoon on the floor as a guide and weaves looking down at the picture. When she is done, it is the bottom of her weaving that is the tapestry, so the reverse order is now righted.

And for your viewing pleasure, I had photos developed onto disc and then uploaded them into my web album. If you are interested in seeing them, since we went through all that expense getting them on CD-Rom and the time and money it took at the Internet café just to share them with you, you can see them at www.photopoint.com . In the right hand corner where it states ‘Visit someone’s album’, put in drimerj@aol.com . There are a bunch of albums, but these pictures are in the one called “A Year In The Life”. The album starts when before we left with our going away lunches and progresses through a part of London. You are welcome to visit any album while you are there or come back for another visit. Hey, if you are not interested, you shouldn’t have to worry about it. The expense was nothing really. : )

Some of these things I had been to already when I was here in 1983, but this was Ron’s first time in London. For me, I can never spend enough time at any of these museums, but I need to take it in increments, process, assimilate and see some more. It is so different and certainly more rewarding to travel with someone with whom you can share your impressions.

No trip to London would be complete without a trip to Harrods. It is probably the most famous department store in the world. It became more famous at the tragic death of Princess Diana. She and the son of Harrods owner were lovers. The owner is Egyptian and the first floor has a complete Egyptian theme with large Egyptian statue replicas. On the lower level is a memorial tribute to Diana and her fiancé, Dodie. The memorial stirs mixed emotions for me. They have the last glass of champagne that the two of them drank in the hotel prior to returning to London as well as the engagement ring Dodie had given Diana on the night of the accident. There was a plague professing how much they loved each other. I found the glass of champagne to be a bit maudlin. Also, I think it is insulting to a country where this woman was a Princess and dearly loved by the people to have a memorial professing love to someone who is not part of the Royal family.

The one part about Harrods that is most impressive is the Food Court. This has been replicated, but never duplicated. There are four huge rooms of every imaginable type of food that exists from around the world. This is the only store that I know that has personal shoppers for food. These shoppers will also assist in making up personalized gift baskets for any occasion.

All that food viewing stimulated our need for a cup of coffee. Fortunately, there is an outdoor café on one corner overlooking Harrods. We were able to sit outside enjoying the people watching as well as watching the different country flags fly high from Harrods roof. The architecture of the building is impressive to look at also.

We needed to travel on the tube to get to the Internet café. We have only found two that have both a floppy drive and a CD-Rom. Even with the high speed, it took forever uploading pictures. Then needing a veggie fix, we decided to go to the Leicester Square area for a Chinese buffet. It is one of those ‘All you can eat’ buffets for 4.50. The veggies were satisfying and tasty and we finished just in time to fight with the theater crowd for the tubes. We were hoping for an early evening, but we didn’t make it back until after 11:30, so much for the early evening. I had hoped for to write.

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