Whirlwind

Once again I have so much going on that it's hard to find time to blog.. and most of what is on my mind these days would make boring reading anyway. (Well.. boring or incendiary, neither of which is productive. ;-) )

I have a 43-song set list to learn in very short order. My allergies are acting up. I have a ton of housework that needs doing, and phone calls to make and stupid situations to figure out.

Don't know what's going on with some of my friends.. but something is up with one in particular. I vacillate between trying to figure it out and really not giving a crap. Sounds bad, but hey, it's true.

At least I am not so depressed. :-)

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam..

Victoria & Albert Museum was bombed during WWII.. the holes and dents in the building are still there. Very cool..

Speaking of cool.. Monty Python is, very! We saw Spamalot at the Palace Theatre. :-) It was great!
Here I am with a giant lion at Trafalgar square. This was a hard picture to get.. but fun!
Buckingham Palace..

Pictures! Again!

I thought this one was cool, because the bird took off as I was snapping the picture. It's very interesting to me.
Here I am on our first day in London, in the snow.
And of course I had to have a picture in one of the famous phone booths..
Here is L enjoying his breakfast aboard the Thames ferry boat..
And last but not least.. I am standing on the steps on the other side of the stage, trying to pretend that I am standing on Shakespeare's stage,, since they wouldn't allow me to actually get up there!

More Paris Pictures

Here I am at the top of Sacre Coeur
And here we are on the bridge with Notre Dame in the background..
Here I am in a cafe in Paris. This cat just walked up and jumped into my lap, curled up, and started purring. He was really a lot like Monster.. ;-)
The Arc de Triomphe..
L (with the Eiffel Tower..)

London List

Ahhhh, London...

1) Good Food, surprisingly! Particularly at the Barrowboy and Banker pub, and tonight at the Palm Court in Covent Garden.

2) Westminster Abbey. Wow. Just Wow. There are too many amazing things for the tour guide to even mention. We walked right over the top of a tomb from 1111. As in the Year.

3) The Tube makes much more sense than the Paris Metro.. as long as you mind the gap!

4) I've been forced to revise my intense dislike of rose wines. In the States, a rose is white zinfandel, period. Yecch. Here, it's real wine.. and surprisingly good! Who knew?

5) The Tower of London was so cool! We saw the Crown Jewels, and some really nasty torture devices, and the place where Henry VIII's wives were beheaded... and the tour guide was really funny!

6) The only bad thing is that L is now sick as the proverbial dog. He has had a fever today, and has been sleeping it off as much as possible. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow, as we have big plans.. shopping, museums, and a play if all goes well.

This has to go on record as the best honeymoon ever. :-)

The Paris List

A few things:

1) European women are interesting. The stores are full of clothes in blindingly bright colors. ALL of the women on the street are wearing head to toe black. Flat, knee-high riding boots are IN here.. with jeans tucked in.. which I have been LAUGHED AT for doing in the States. So there. ;-)

2) The subjects of most of the Louvre's Denon wing paintings from Italian artists look exactly like my niece, S. She would go over very successfully in Europe.

3) The Pompidou Centre looks like a giant combination erector set and gerbil cage. The glass escalators on the outside of the building look like those tubes that gerbils have to connect one part of the cage to another.. and they're stiflingly hot inside. The museum is also weird.. the modern art is supposed to be weird. The fact that there is ABSOLUTELY NO signage or direction to tell you WHERE THEY ARE HIDING THE GALLERIES right now is highly annoying.

4) And just who gets to decide what is "ART" these days anyway?

5) The Rodin museum was absolutely amazing. The inside portion needed some cleaning and some general upkeep, but it was nonetheless incredible. The garden portion outside was wonderful. We loved it.

6) Champs Elysses. Need I say more? I didn't think so.

7) L and I are bar none, hands down, the WORST navigation team on the face of the earth. Only we two together can manage to miss ALL of the bus stops along the Seine by one street, and walk by the monument we are looking for on all sides without ever seeing it! We spent a whole day thinking that the Louvre was the Opera.

9) But we are having a fantastic time! We saw The Thinker! And Venus de Milo! And the Mona Lisa! And Napoleon's Apartments!

Pictures, next time we have enough juice to upload. :-)
Tomorrow: The Catacombs! Versailles!
Bonne Nuit..