The Flight and Day 1 - London
I was so exhausted yesterday that my post was rather lacking. Let's try that again...
The Flight.
Our flight from Jackson to Atlanta was most interesting because of the man sitting in front of us. A nearly empty flight it was and he decided to chat with us a bit. He claimed - CLAIMED - to be a professional baseball player for the Kansas City Royals. He wouldn't tell us his name, although he referred to himself in a story as Shane. Said he was/is a catcher. 38 years old, divorced 3 times and starting the paperwork for the 4th. He was a great storyteller. NOW - we have googled the hell out of this person and can find nothing on him. Liar? Probably, but the tales were great. If you can find out who this guy is and if he is truly a catcher for the Royals, let us know.
Atlanta to London was uneventful. The flight was packed. Each seat had its own tv that you can watch movies or play games, totally touchscreen and all that jazz. We watched a movie and then watched TV shows. You could even watch 'True Blood' (Rhonda and Kennon!) but I resisted as I have seen them all so far. As most of you know I can sleep standing up and typically am asleep on a plane before it has taken off. Not the case on this flight. I didn't sleep a wink. Boo. We landed, got a taxi and got to our dorm.
Day 1:
Jim and I got up around 9 and headed to our dorm breakfast. Breakfast is free everyday and we are saving our pence(s?) so that is good. We had eggs and fruit and hash browns and mushy sausages. Brits love mushy food, I guess. All tasty. The best is that the restaurant is on the 6 floor and there is an outdoor seating area. Very nice and pretty in the morning. After breakfast we headed to a market miles away and we did on foot. We are determined to lose 10 lbs. each while here, so no wussy Tube for us if we can hoof it. The market sucked and REEKED of fish so we headed back to the British Library. We passed through a couple of fantastic train stations. I just love the whole train culture. And here you can say things like, 'Want to go to Edinburgh today?' and mean it. Anyway...
The British Library was one of my fave stops when I was last here and it is bigger and better than ever. It was only 6 months old when I was here in '98 so you can imagine. We saw an amazing exhibit on Henry VIII and man, seriously, so glad I didn't marry that guy. What a meany. Beheading people left and right. He was a lousy with issues. After that exhibit we went to an amazing exhibit of oral history: speeches, quotes, etc. We listened to speeches by William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot. Jim listened to the eulogy by Princess Di's brother while I listened to Muhammad Ali calling out Sonny Listen. All of these were amazing and well worth the time. We also saw HAND-WRITTEN lyrics to Beatles music and poetry by Sylvia Plath. Manuscripts by Jane Austen, the Brontes, the first copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Night. My fave though is the first, hand-written copy of 'Alice in the Underground' which obviously became 'Alice in Wonderland.' It was written as a gift for a neighbor of Lewis Carroll's and then became the phenomenon it is. Just loved it. The other VERY cool book they had there was the, darnit - what is the name of it? - well, it is one of the 2 oldest versions of the New Testament in existence. It is written in Greek and it is amazing. Four museums around the world are working to make it available for viewing worldwide, but it is a work in progress.
After the museum we picked up great little sandwiches at Pret a Manger, which is everywhere, like au bon pain in NYC. Very good and expensive. Bought fans for our hotter than hades rooms and are now back to rest for a bit.
Whew. I think that is it for day 1 - And - Michael Jackson is playing in every store we pass and restaurants. OH! And - WE also stumbled upon a park here with a statue of Gandhi (sp?) that when I was here almost 11 years ago, I sat in a journaled and wrote postcards. That made me smile. Felt like I had come full-circle and only on Day 1. It's amazing what traveling does for me. I feel more like myself than ever when on the move, yet admittedly, I am always fondest of home.
The Flight.
Our flight from Jackson to Atlanta was most interesting because of the man sitting in front of us. A nearly empty flight it was and he decided to chat with us a bit. He claimed - CLAIMED - to be a professional baseball player for the Kansas City Royals. He wouldn't tell us his name, although he referred to himself in a story as Shane. Said he was/is a catcher. 38 years old, divorced 3 times and starting the paperwork for the 4th. He was a great storyteller. NOW - we have googled the hell out of this person and can find nothing on him. Liar? Probably, but the tales were great. If you can find out who this guy is and if he is truly a catcher for the Royals, let us know.
Atlanta to London was uneventful. The flight was packed. Each seat had its own tv that you can watch movies or play games, totally touchscreen and all that jazz. We watched a movie and then watched TV shows. You could even watch 'True Blood' (Rhonda and Kennon!) but I resisted as I have seen them all so far. As most of you know I can sleep standing up and typically am asleep on a plane before it has taken off. Not the case on this flight. I didn't sleep a wink. Boo. We landed, got a taxi and got to our dorm.
Day 1:
Jim and I got up around 9 and headed to our dorm breakfast. Breakfast is free everyday and we are saving our pence(s?) so that is good. We had eggs and fruit and hash browns and mushy sausages. Brits love mushy food, I guess. All tasty. The best is that the restaurant is on the 6 floor and there is an outdoor seating area. Very nice and pretty in the morning. After breakfast we headed to a market miles away and we did on foot. We are determined to lose 10 lbs. each while here, so no wussy Tube for us if we can hoof it. The market sucked and REEKED of fish so we headed back to the British Library. We passed through a couple of fantastic train stations. I just love the whole train culture. And here you can say things like, 'Want to go to Edinburgh today?' and mean it. Anyway...
The British Library was one of my fave stops when I was last here and it is bigger and better than ever. It was only 6 months old when I was here in '98 so you can imagine. We saw an amazing exhibit on Henry VIII and man, seriously, so glad I didn't marry that guy. What a meany. Beheading people left and right. He was a lousy with issues. After that exhibit we went to an amazing exhibit of oral history: speeches, quotes, etc. We listened to speeches by William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot. Jim listened to the eulogy by Princess Di's brother while I listened to Muhammad Ali calling out Sonny Listen. All of these were amazing and well worth the time. We also saw HAND-WRITTEN lyrics to Beatles music and poetry by Sylvia Plath. Manuscripts by Jane Austen, the Brontes, the first copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Night. My fave though is the first, hand-written copy of 'Alice in the Underground' which obviously became 'Alice in Wonderland.' It was written as a gift for a neighbor of Lewis Carroll's and then became the phenomenon it is. Just loved it. The other VERY cool book they had there was the, darnit - what is the name of it? - well, it is one of the 2 oldest versions of the New Testament in existence. It is written in Greek and it is amazing. Four museums around the world are working to make it available for viewing worldwide, but it is a work in progress.
After the museum we picked up great little sandwiches at Pret a Manger, which is everywhere, like au bon pain in NYC. Very good and expensive. Bought fans for our hotter than hades rooms and are now back to rest for a bit.
Whew. I think that is it for day 1 - And - Michael Jackson is playing in every store we pass and restaurants. OH! And - WE also stumbled upon a park here with a statue of Gandhi (sp?) that when I was here almost 11 years ago, I sat in a journaled and wrote postcards. That made me smile. Felt like I had come full-circle and only on Day 1. It's amazing what traveling does for me. I feel more like myself than ever when on the move, yet admittedly, I am always fondest of home.
posted by Kelley at
10:54 AM
1 Comments:
Nothing much to say other than I am truly enjoying this post. I look forward to more.
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