Barons Come to Visit, Barcelona and Cruise

Our May began with a visit from Tyler's parents.  It was great to see more family.  Almost as soon as they arrived in this crazy city, we were off on a new adventure.  We rented a car and drove out to the Cotswolds to see what the English countryside had to offer.  The bed & breakfast we stayed at had a gorgeous view of the green hills and blossoming trees and the birds were singing all around us.  Poor Joyce was understandably motion sick after being transported around for a straight 24 hours.  Some of the highlights of our overnight excursion included stops at Oxford, Stratford-on-Avon to see the Shakespeare sites, Lower & Upper Slaughter (where we popped our tire- but luckily had a spare! -and enjoyed a great lunch at a lovely little cafe situated at an old mill), and Bath (where we arrived 15 minutes too late to show Clark and Joyce the Roman bath house- so sat in on a meeting inside the incredible Bath Abbey church instead).  We returned to London Monday evening vowing to never rent a car again.  Poor Tyler, our fearless driver, did an amazing job navigating us all around in a stick shift car through the roads and highways- but we all were relieved to get back to the comfort of home and be rid of a vehicle.  I'd say we did alright- with only a flat tire and a traffic violation from driving in the bus lane.  

Before we knew it, Clark and Joyce were on a plane again, headed off to Madrid for a few days. We met them again on Saturday in Barcelona to set sail on a Mediterranean cruise with none other than the infamous Costa cruise line.  We tried to convince ourselves that OUR captain wouldn't crash US into the shore, sink OUR ship and run for the hills.

It was a 5 night, 6 day cruise: *Barcelona, Spain-  *Palma de Mallorca-  *Ajaccio, Corsica-  *Marseille, France *Savona, Italy-  *Barcelona.  I know I am sounding like a broken record by now- but the weather was a bit chilly.  We saw many great and beautiful sites.  Savona, Italy was especially exciting and quite the experience.  Upon a nice woman's recommendation, we ate at the oldest restaurant in town.  There were stone fired ovens and the people there did not speak a drop of English, or so they said.  When they brought out the fish, it was literally the whole fish on a plate, head and all.  The server spent the next 10 minutes performing the show of extracting the meat from the fish.  Since I can't eat something that is looking at me, I had the chicken- which was equally flavorful and great.  The food tasted delicious and we left with some good memories.

Once back in Barcelona, we spent a couple days seeing the city and enjoying the Gaudi sites.  Here are the highlights.  A quick note:  Unfortunately, we absent-mindedly left our backpack and our camera on the train- and lost all our pictures!!  Although the camera and pictures we took are lost for good, we were lucky that Clark and Joyce were there and have shared their pictures with us.  Most of the following pictures are from various websites- but capture the sites we saw.

The music on the train:

 The Casa Mila Apartments (click the link for more info)

Parc Guell  (Click for more info)

Sagrada Familia (Click for more info)  *This was the most AMAZING!!! and memorable man-made structure I have ever seen.  If ever I belonged to a church, I think this might be a fitting site for worship.  Gaudi, the architect, was inspired by nature- honeycomb, trees, flowers, etc. and it was beautiful beyond compare to any other building we have visited.
To see more pics, click here

Montserrat (Click for more info)
Montserrat Monastery (Click for info)

We had a great time in Barcelona.  The weather was good there, the food was amazing, and the sites were exceptionally beautiful!  Spanish style shwarmas will live in my mind forever.  The tapas were memorable too.   Before we knew it, it was time to return back to London- so we said goodbye to Clark and Joyce and headed for home.  We would see them again soon...

Learning From the Masters

My friend/neighbor from Korea taught me and a few of our other friends how to prepare authentic sushi (back in early May).  I was so excited about this.  Tyler and I love to go out for sushi.  I never feel like we order enough rolls- so now we can make our own and eat as much as we like!  Yum!

Hampton Court Palace

A day trip to Hampton Court Palace with some of Tyler's co-workers in late April.  Another cold, rainy & gray day- but the palace and gardens were beautiful! 

(I wish I could take credit for this picture, but I just found it on the Hampton Court Palace website)

We had fun splashing in the puddles and getting through this giant maze of shrubbery!

A trip to Belgium

To celebrate the end of tax season back in mid-April, we decided to take a trip to Bruges, Belgium.  Bruges (yes- the entire little city!) is a World Heritage Site and was a beautiful place to visit.  It is the "Venice of the north" with an impressive canal system running through the heart of the city.  Medieval architecture gives the city a unique feel. 

The weather, as usual, was not kind.  It was quite cold and rainy the entire time.  We tried to make the best of it, despite this (But it was really, really hard to stay optimistic at times).  

Here is our trip in pictures...  

Let me introduce you to the nectar of the Gods!  This was truly the best orange juice we have ever had!  Because we drank this, we will undoubtedly live to be 100+.  It was absolutely amazing!  This became our tradition almost twice a day while we were there.

  

The sun actually came out for a few minutes once while we went on a boat ride in the canal.

The Frites and Belgian chocolates were to die for!  Yum!

One of the days, we took our rental car and drove 2-3 hours to go see the Keukenhof Tulip Park in Holland.  It was a long and rainy drive, but well worth the wait.  The sun even came out soon after we arrived.  The sites and the smells were intoxicating.  Tulips, tulips everywhere!  So many beautiful gardens lining every walkway for acres and acres.  I will never forget the sweet smell of hyacinth.  This was one of those places that just flat out blow your mind.  Unforgettable!

There was the best petting zoo ever at the Keukenhof.  Ady had a great time there as you can see...  I have no idea what that sheep looking thing is- but I must say he was quite photogenic.

On the last day, we took a drive to a nearby coastal town and touched the ocean.  It was especially cold and windy that day- and quite frankly, we were all ready to call our trip done.  We decided to return the car early and see if we could catch an earlier train home.  Even though we knew to expect it, we were still shocked at how much it cost to refill our gas tank.  It was 60 euros, which is the equivalent of 90, or so US Dollars- for a little car.  We came to the conclusion real fast that renting a car is not at all economical.  Trains and flights are definitely the best way to go.  Cars are so stressful, too!  Oh man, we have become weaklings!

If the cold and rain hadn't worn us down yet, when we arrived back at the Brussels train station, we went to see if we could get on an earlier train.  The clerks were persistently adamant that our tickets were unchangeable.  This meant we had to wait at the dingy, dirty and scummy station for 5 hours!  Unbelievable!  We pleaded with them several times, but they didn't care that we had a 3 year old.  We decided to brave the rain and get out to see what Brussels had to offer.  Unfortunately we must have gone out the wrong side of the station into the most ghetto part of the city because it was a terrible sight.  There were several abandoned buildings, homeless people- and disgusting amounts of human waste all around.  We quickly turned around and went back into the train station to peruse the shops.  Right off the bat, I saw someone steal some headphones from one of the stores.  What was this place?!  And would we seriously be able to last 4 more hours here?!  Soon we decided it might be best to just sit and wait in the chairs right next to our ticket gates.  Luckily, the time seemed to pass by quick enough and after a meal we found ourselves on the train headed back to London. Phew!  It was nice to be back.

The Heart of the Great Alone

There was an incredible photography exhibition at the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace capturing the race to be the first expedition to reach the south pole.  This year marks 100 years since the journey of Captain Scott's "ill-fated journey."  It was a beautiful show and an amazing (and haunting) story.  We found it to be really interesting.

You can see the photos here and you can even hear the audio guide narration to each scene.


http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/HOTGA/MicroSectionList.asp?exid=439

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/HOTGA/MicroSectionList.asp?exid=439

West Hampstead

West Hampstead is a charming little area that is only a 10 minute bus ride from our place.  We took a jaunt up there together back one saturday in April and enjoyed some yummy crepes (which we waited in line for an hour for)!  We strolled around at the little market and picked up some fresh veggies and a lemon thyme plant that was just the same as the ones we had for table decorations at our wedding reception way back when (which has since died because I left it without water for too long while on one of our later vacations.  Oops!  I am the WORST plant mother ever!).  I found some steals at the great little charity shop there as well.  We came across a beautiful church there that looked quite old- but then had this crazy vibrant blue door.  It was awesome- so we took some quick pics.

Dancing Queen

Any time there is music playing, Ady cannot stop herself from dancing.  This is proof.  We were in the mall walking along and heard some good beats.  She could not contain herself.

Row, row, row your boat

The day after my parents left London (early April), we traveled across the city to Hammersmith Bridge to see the annual and much anticipated Oxford vs. Cambridge rowing competition.  I will admit that I was a bit skeptical about this.  How exciting could a rowing competition really be?  But actually, it did end up being quite fun- and more action packed than we expected.  There were so many people lining the Thames there that it was near impossible for us to see much.  Though we did get a quick glimpse of the two boats (between the other heads and shoulders of all the people in front of us) as they zoomed by.  Not too long after, and just when we thought the show was over as far as we were concerned, we learned that the race was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt when one of the boats encountered a bump in the road.  There was a swimmer in the river who "just happened to be in the water during the race" and was nearly turned into road kill after being batted around a few times.  The person was alright- and supposedly was trying to throw a wrench in things and interrupt the race.  He succeeded and probably acquired some nice battle wounds in the process.  It made for some good entertainment and squabble.

We decided to take a quick walk around the area after we saw the race pass by.  As we crossed Hammersmith Bridge, there was a man pointing a camera at us and then zoomed in on Ady, who was wearing her Dora helmet and was riding on her scooter.  After a few seconds he stopped and then told us Ady was just on live TV.  Later, someone recognized her and said they had seen her on TV also.  So, I guess that was Ady's first glimpse at stardom.  Next stop Hollywood.

Our First Visitors!

I am doing some major catching up on this blog- so here we rewind to the very end of March and beginning of April when my parents braved the long flight and trekked over to London.  It was great to see family again.  They stayed for about 8 days.  In all my excitement, I must not have been paying much attention on the escalator because I about killed us all when the suitcase I was holding got stuck on the side of the escalator and started forcing me to fall back on my mom behind me.  As hard as I tried, I could not counteract the force pushing me around and down.  It was the most bizarre feeling!  Luckily, a man ran up and grabbed me and lifted me and the suitcase back up before we all fell like dominoes down the sharp metal stairs.  Phew!

While my parents were here, we visited as many iconic  London places as possible including Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower of London, Greenwich, Stonehenge, Bath, Windsor Castle and more.  We had a fun time taking photos of Flat Stanley in all the places we went.  Flat Stanley was mailed to us by our nephew who needed pictures of Stanley in far away places.  Coincidentally, we started noticing many other people in the various locations we stopped at also had Flat Stanleys of their own.  I had no idea there were so many Flat Stanley enthusiasts out there.  Ady was starting to get sick with a bad cold when my parents arrived- so we had to send them on their way for a couple days while she burned through her fever and cough.  I think it is a major part of the London experience, though, and a must for all visitors- to get yourself lost in the city and then find your way back on the tube.  Unfortunately, the weather was complete crap- cold and rainy- the entire time they were here- and it has not stopped since they left!  My parents were probably happy to return back to the quiet, sunny, and mountainous corner of the world from whence they came.  Before they left, they were nice to watch Ady for one evening while Tyler and I caught a West End show- the Broadway of London.  We decided to go see Chicago.  We loved the show- and it was so nice to have a date night together!  Afterwards, instead of taking the tube home, we just walked most the way home.  For the first time, I got a glimpse of the London night life.  I must say that I like London a whole lot better at night!  The mood of the city is so much more relaxed and enjoyable then.  We really need to get out more, huh?!  Any takers on babysitting?

Good Friends

We have made some great friends here.  Ady is the best of friends with a cute little Japanese girl named Ruruko.  They have this undeniable connection.  Everyone who sees them knows instantly that they are bosom buddies.  When Ady first met Ruruko, Ruruko could not speak any english at all- but they still could play and communicate by making each other laugh.  Ruruko has learned to speak english very well in only a few months- and it is hilarious to hear the two of them now.  While out on a walk with nursery class yesterday, the teachers all said that Ady and Ruruko were giggling the whole time and that they sounded like a couple of old ladies out to tea having a great time.  

They are both the same size- and tie for the littlest girls in their class.  Their birthdays are only 8 days apart.  Their personalities are quite similar and complimentary to one another.

Almost everyday we walk home from school together.  After saying goodbye and starting to walk our separate ways, Ady and Ruruko will sometimes turn and run back toward each other with open arms and meet with a very happy hug as if they already desperately missed each other.  Then they will scream "Buh-bye!" in the highest pitched and loudest voice possible to each other as we part- even when we can no longer see each other, and can only faintly hear each other's screams.  It makes my heart melt to see them have such a strong friendship.  They really act more like they are sisters.  Watching them makes it so obvious that good friends have such natural chemistry.  Ady is one lucky girl to find such a great friend when she is so young.

  

Ady's Scooter

The best sixty five pounds we've spent!  Ady loves her scooter- and it makes our lives so much easier by allowing us to go far distances without making Ady over-tired by the time we arrive.  It is one of the most sound and well-designed devices I have ever seen.  It was developed in Germany and EVERY child here has one.  Now I know why!  It glides effortlessly over the bumpy and cobbled sidewalks of London like butter.  To steer, instead of moving the handle bars forward or backward in a circular plane to turn, you lightly lean the handle bars to one side or another in a horizontal linear plane, which tilts the wheels, and turns the scooter.  I'll admit, it blows my mind just a little bit.  Ady has gotten so good at her scooter that she has developed a style all her own- sometimes holding one leg out with a pointed toe while she coolly zooms along.  Lately she likes to go super fast and really gets her one leg working hard and quick to push herself along.  Unfortunately, this has been short-lived because it became acutely clear just how dangerous these contraptions are one day when Ady crashed and another day when she almost got run over by a car backing up that did not see her!!!  So now she must stay right by my side while we are walking to school- only to go free when we are at the park.  We have 3/4 mile walk to school each way, which is quite a distance for a little kid, so this thing has been a lifesaver!  And I think Ady looks so adorable with her huge Dora helmet on her head, which just so happens to color coordinate quite nicely with her scooter.