The moment my family found out David and I were moving abroad, they started planning a trip to Europe… and then before we knew it, June 2011 had arrived! And so did our six guests – Dad, Mom, Elizabeth, Carrie (Elizabeth’s friend), Papa, and Grandma!
The weather in London has been pretty amazing (minus a small snowstorm in December that shut down the city for a week) since we moved here last July. I never knew why anyone complained about the rain… until June. When I left to Texas for my work symposium, it started to rain. And until about a week ago, it had not stopped! :(
So unfortunately, my family got to experience the infamous English weather. My sister actually loved it though, because growing up in El Paso, she never sees rain. She kept saying how cool it would be to have the sun out but be raining at the same time! Easy to please…
We knew we needed to make the most of our time in England, so we sucked it up and ventured out every day – come hell or high water.
But back then people didn’t know anything about animal nutrition or healthcare so unfortunately a lot of the animals died in horrible ways. Like the ostrich that choked on a nail (because people believed they ate iron) or the bear that overdosed on honey. Let that be a lesson to you, Winnie the Pooh!
After the Tower we headed to Harrods. It was getting pretty late in the day and the group was still jet lagged, but a sale was starting Saturday so I knew we needed to get to Harrods before the weekend rush of shoppers. Even so, that place is always crowded!
We picked up a few goodies in the food hall, then explored the ridiculous animal kingdom, and made our last stop at the Princess Di memorial at the bottom of the Egyptian escalator.
But after we finally woke up and got out of the house, we still walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace and took some photos. Then we headed to the Apollo theatre to see Wicked. Out of all of the shows David and I have seen over the past year, Wicked is still our favorite. After hearing me rave about it, my family bought tickets.
Everyone bought some goodies and then we tried to get back on the tube to head home. This is where the fam got to experience how crowded London can be. We didn’t make the first train that appeared because people’s limbs were literally hanging out the windows it was so crowded. When the second train stopped, only half of us managed to squeeze into it. Luckily David was in the back of the pack with the girls, so he led them home. Thankfully he was there or I think Mom and Dad would’ve flipped!
You see, my parents recently watched Taken. The entire time they were in Europe, they were paranoid that Elizabeth and Carrie were going to be kidnapped by a bunch of Eastern European gangsters and sold as sex slaves. So even though they’re sixteen (the same age as the girls in the movie, I think) they had to have chaperones everywhere they went.
Because of little quirks like this, I established Sarah’s Rules on day one of the trip:
Rule #1: No shouting or freaking out or yelling (Americans are generally VERY loud in public compared to local Europeans and I did not want to be those people)
Rule #2: No fanny packs (which unfortunately left me carrying almost everything in my big purse, but it was worth it to avoid the fashion faux-pas)
Rule #3: No fast food (this was basically impossible to enforce and whenever I wasn’t looking, the girls somehow managed to sneak in Burger King or McDonalds – SHAME!)
Rule #4: Always try to get an Asian to take your picture (I know, this sounds like a stereotype, but it is soooo true! Asians are technologically-savvy and they travel a ton, so in my experience, they take the best pictures)
Rule #5: NEVER let an elderly person try to take your picture (Sorry to all of our grandparents out there reading this but most older people we’ve given our camera to have snapped photos of their fingers, their feet, even themselves... that is, if they can even figure out how to work the camera in the first place)
This concludes Part I of the Kurzweg’s European Adventure because on Sunday morning, the gang left for Amsterdam, where Dad used to spend a lot of time for work. He wanted to show everyone his old haunts, including the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank House, and the canals. David and I stayed behind to work, plus I had to go to Ireland on Monday.
Stay tuned for Part II – Paris!
The weather in London has been pretty amazing (minus a small snowstorm in December that shut down the city for a week) since we moved here last July. I never knew why anyone complained about the rain… until June. When I left to Texas for my work symposium, it started to rain. And until about a week ago, it had not stopped! :(
So unfortunately, my family got to experience the infamous English weather. My sister actually loved it though, because growing up in El Paso, she never sees rain. She kept saying how cool it would be to have the sun out but be raining at the same time! Easy to please…
We knew we needed to make the most of our time in England, so we sucked it up and ventured out every day – come hell or high water.
I took off a couple of days of work to spend time with my family and show them the ropes in London. They had never been to London before, so after they arrived early Thursday morning, I gave them a quick tour of the house, and then we headed to Westminster Abbey. Everyone really enjoyed touring the church and seeing the site of the Royal Wedding in-person.
We had bought tickets to the London Eye weeks ahead of time to avoid the lines, which was very unnecessary on Thursday since it was raining and no one wanted to go on the Eye. But when we noticed it clearing up a bit, we quickly grabbed lunch of chicken and mushroom pasties, and then headed to the Eye. It was perfect timing!
Dad, Mom, me, and Elizabeth in front of the Eye
After the Eye, the family was pretty jetlagged so we returned home. We relaxed the rest of the evening and then headed out to the Tower of London on Friday morning.
Even though the Tower is my favorite thing to do in London, I hadn’t been since 2004. That is way too long! Surprisingly, it was really crowded on Friday, even with the terrible weather. First thing, we took a free Beefeater tour. This tour was shortened and took place inside the chapel because of the inclement weather, but it was still really interesting and I learned a lot! After the overview of the Tower, we were left to explore on our own.
The girls with a Beefeater
Some of the highlights of the Tower are the Crown Jewels, Armoury, and the Wall Walk.
Dad in front of Traitor's Gate, where prisoners were rowed into the Tower
This summer, there’s also a special exhibit on-site featuring the old menagerie. Since this is a new exhibit, I hadn’t learned about any of this before. I didn’t even know there was a zoo inside the Tower. There were so many strange stories from hundreds of years ago… For instance, one of the animals kept at the Tower was a polar bear. Every day the bear was tied up to a rope and allowed to swim and fish in the Thames. The Tower was also home to a family of monkeys that lived in their own apartment, like people!
Elizabeth and Carrie where they belong!
But back then people didn’t know anything about animal nutrition or healthcare so unfortunately a lot of the animals died in horrible ways. Like the ostrich that choked on a nail (because people believed they ate iron) or the bear that overdosed on honey. Let that be a lesson to you, Winnie the Pooh!
After the Tower we headed to Harrods. It was getting pretty late in the day and the group was still jet lagged, but a sale was starting Saturday so I knew we needed to get to Harrods before the weekend rush of shoppers. Even so, that place is always crowded!
We picked up a few goodies in the food hall, then explored the ridiculous animal kingdom, and made our last stop at the Princess Di memorial at the bottom of the Egyptian escalator.
For the past two days, Elizabeth and Carrie had become obsessed with trying to make the Queen’s guards crack a smile or laugh (impossible, by the way). We had seen a couple of guards at the Tower, but they were roped-off so the girls couldn’t get near them. Plus they wear those really big hats so I’m sure they can’t even see anyway! The girls thought they’d have more luck at Buckingham Palace, but unfortunately we slept in late on Saturday and missed the changing of the guard… which I’m sure didn’t take place anyway because of the rain.
One of the Tower ravens and a guard
But after we finally woke up and got out of the house, we still walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace and took some photos. Then we headed to the Apollo theatre to see Wicked. Out of all of the shows David and I have seen over the past year, Wicked is still our favorite. After hearing me rave about it, my family bought tickets.
After we took some photos of the gang inside a red telephone booth, the clouds let loose! It poured like crazy! I hadn’t experienced anything like that since Texas! We were drenched. Dad even broke his umbrella in the lashing wind and rain. We managed to find an office building with an overhang that we huddled under with some other Londoners for about 10 minutes during the downpour. When it started to let up, we made a dash for it, forgot all about the pub lunch I had scheduled, and ducked inside the nearest coffee shop to dry off and grab some sandwiches.
Papa and Grandma moments before the storm...
Then my poor family had to then sit through three hours of Wicked in soaking wet clothes. The musical was good enough to make them forget all about it, though. And no one caught pneumonia, so that’s good.
The Wicked stage - waiting for the show to start
After the show, Grandma and Papa wanted to go souvenir shopping so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and went to the giant souvenir store down the street.
Where's Waldo in Piccadilly Circus - Where are Elizabeth and Carrie??
Everyone bought some goodies and then we tried to get back on the tube to head home. This is where the fam got to experience how crowded London can be. We didn’t make the first train that appeared because people’s limbs were literally hanging out the windows it was so crowded. When the second train stopped, only half of us managed to squeeze into it. Luckily David was in the back of the pack with the girls, so he led them home. Thankfully he was there or I think Mom and Dad would’ve flipped!
You see, my parents recently watched Taken. The entire time they were in Europe, they were paranoid that Elizabeth and Carrie were going to be kidnapped by a bunch of Eastern European gangsters and sold as sex slaves. So even though they’re sixteen (the same age as the girls in the movie, I think) they had to have chaperones everywhere they went.
Because of little quirks like this, I established Sarah’s Rules on day one of the trip:
Rule #1: No shouting or freaking out or yelling (Americans are generally VERY loud in public compared to local Europeans and I did not want to be those people)
Rule #2: No fanny packs (which unfortunately left me carrying almost everything in my big purse, but it was worth it to avoid the fashion faux-pas)
Rule #3: No fast food (this was basically impossible to enforce and whenever I wasn’t looking, the girls somehow managed to sneak in Burger King or McDonalds – SHAME!)
Rule #4: Always try to get an Asian to take your picture (I know, this sounds like a stereotype, but it is soooo true! Asians are technologically-savvy and they travel a ton, so in my experience, they take the best pictures)
Rule #5: NEVER let an elderly person try to take your picture (Sorry to all of our grandparents out there reading this but most older people we’ve given our camera to have snapped photos of their fingers, their feet, even themselves... that is, if they can even figure out how to work the camera in the first place)
Rule #6: No giant maps (Dad loves bringing out the big maps and standing in crowds of people searching for places. This screams ‘I’m a tourist, come pick my pocket or try to take advantage of me!’ I had my trusty guidebooks with me most times so we avoided this and no one got robbed – yay!)
This concludes Part I of the Kurzweg’s European Adventure because on Sunday morning, the gang left for Amsterdam, where Dad used to spend a lot of time for work. He wanted to show everyone his old haunts, including the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank House, and the canals. David and I stayed behind to work, plus I had to go to Ireland on Monday.
Stay tuned for Part II – Paris!
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