Leaving LA
Monday morning, both of us woke a little dazed. We've been packing for days, and both of us had been attending to the little details we needed to put our jobs to bed. We were packed but there was still more to do.
Kathy had to finish some emails about a book that Back to Basics was publishing, and also had to run over to Kaiser when she found out that one of her prescriptions had run out. I had to run over to OCC to make sure that my grades got posted and my attendance turned in. By 11:30 we had finished the last of the food in the refrigerator, washed the last of the dishes, and double-checked (we hoped) the last of the details.
Our friend Houtik Kazarian pulled into the driveway a little before noon in her VW Beetle convertible, and we were off for LAX. The drive was pleasant--no traffic, good conversation--and we arrived at Air New Zealand just as the check-in line was opened. There were about 20 people in front of us, so that took an hour or so before we got to the front of the line.
They weighed our carry-on bags and told us we were both overweight. The new weight-limit for carrryons is 7 Kilos (about 15 pounds) and ours were about 11 Kilos each. We (Kathy) really didn't want to check our bags though, so we decided to let them take them at the gate if they wanted. (Besides, if everything went smoothly, I wouldn't have anything to worry about!) As we sat at the gate, there were a couple more announcements telling us we should check our bags, but in the end, they let us through without any problems.
While we were sitting waiting in the lounge for our flight to be called, Kathy was reading and doing some last minute phone calls. I sat and worried about our bags being overweight. Neither of us were especially on guard; after all, we were still in America. As soon as we got on board the plane, though, Kathy noticed that her little purse was missing (when she went to put her phone away.) The airline staff sent a message back to the airport, but it never showed up. Thinking back on it, both of us think she got "pick-pocketed" by a friendly "passenger" who was hanging around the lounge, but never actually got on the plane. Fortunately, except for a little cash, a phone card, some lipstick, aspirin and nail-clippers, not a lot was lost. All her credit-cards, passport and drivers-license were already in her money-belt.
Kathy was hoping for an upgrade, but the flight was entirely full, so we spent the flight in the last cabin. The seats actually had enough leg room for my 6'5", though, so it was not agonizing. We got two meals (dinner and breakfast), and the food was pretty good. There was also an in-flight entrainment system that was kind of neat. I watched Casablanca and Gnomio and Juliette. (Actually, I only watched the first few minutes of Gnomio and Juliette; the trailers were more interesting) Neither of us slept much. (Actually, I didn't sleep. Kathy says she didn't sleep, but it looked to me like she did for three or four hours.)Getting off the plane, going through customs and passport control were all painless and took about an hour. By noon we were buying our first "tube" ticket for Kings Cross station. In the guide books I read that there were much quicker ways to get downtown from Heathrow, but I wanted the experience of traveling on the tube. It was really fun and easy (although both of us tended to doze off). We sat across from a family with a little 5-year-old girl who chattered away playing with her toy camera and Tyrannosaurus Rex puppet.
Because we were going to be in London for only a few hours, I wanted just to get a cheap hotel that was close to the train. The Travelodge Kings Cross was 85 Pounds (very cheap for London) with an early Internet rate. Because we got through customs so quickly though, we arrived two hours before the 3 PM check-in. For 10 Pounds we were able to check-in early and head up to our room, where we faced a choice: take a nap or keep going. We both knew that if we laid down for a second, we'd be up in the middle of the night, so we cleaned up and headed out for North London.
The area around the train station is kind of tacky (like train stations everywhere), although the St Pancras train station (where we'll be taking the Eurostar tomorrow) is beautiful. A block down Euston Road, though, the neighborhood gets much nicer. We had two destinations in mind: the British Library and the British Museum. Before we got there, though, another destination intervened: Starbucks.
A cup of coffee was just what I needed to keep going. More importantly, though, we got online and got a Starbucks Wi-fi account set up. Kathy posted on Facebook and sent an email to the family. (If I hadn't stopped her, she also would have started cleaning up her in-box.) After an hour, we were across the street at the British Library. (Here's a picture of me in front of that statue of Issac Newton; somehow, that's not the picture I had of him.)
The British Library is amazing (and free). We saw early Bible manuscripts (Codex Sinaticus and a 3rd Century Gospel of John), one of the original 150 Guttenberg Bibles, illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages, including Chaucer and Beowolf. There was the orignial copy of Shakespeare's Hamlet, several of Marlowe's plays, Jane Austen's writing desk (and several of her letters). There were the original, hand-written lyrics for Help, a Long Day's Night, Michele and several others from the Beatles. Finally, they had several original versions of the Magna Carta. It was really impressive.
The exhibits are actually just a small part of the library. The library offers free Wi-fi, so all the halls were filled with desks and tables and students working on their computers. There are three floors with reading rooms where you can read the books in the collection. (I don't think you can check them out and take them home.) In the center of the library there is a huge 6-story bookcase filled with old books.
Our goal after the Library was to keep going until 5:00, get something to eat, and then, somehow, keep awake until 8:00 PM, hoping to stave off jet-lag. We headed off walking the six blocks to the British Museum, stopping along the way to walk through the parks at Russell Square and Tavishom Square. These are really peaceful little pockets throughout the city. (We haven't seen a lot of homeless people, like you'd see in Lyon's park, for instance).
We finally got to the British Museum (still free, although there are a lot of suggested donation boxes around. I'd expect that government to start charging admission soon.) This is the most amazing museum. I don't know how they prevent the displays from being vandalized, because there is no distance at all between you and the artifacts; some, like the Rosetta Stone, are behind glass, but most are just out in the open. There are signs everywhere saying "Don't touch the artifacts", but really! I wonder if the CCTV everywhere acts as a deterrent.
We walked through the Egyptian and Assyrian exhibits. Saw the Rosetta Stone and the giant winged bulls from the palaces of Ashurbanipal, Sargon and Sennacherib and finished up looking at the Elgin marbles from the facade of the Parthenon in Athens. (These are the artifacts that Greece is so anxious to get back.)
By this time, Kathy was a zombie, and I wan't that steady on my feet either; but, we had made it to our 5:00 PM goal! Now, on to dinner.
On the way back, we looked at several options: MacDonalds-no, Burger-King-no, MacDonalds again-no. Several nice Italian restaurants, but still not what we were looking for. Then, on Euston Street I looked down a side street saw Mable's Pub with a lot of people standing around. Kathy said, "Let's just go for it." We walked over, and had a really nice "pub" dinner. I had fish-and-chips and Kathy had spinach-chicken-sweet-potato-coconut curry. Curry is big over here, I guess. It was really good and pretty inexpensive (25 Pounds for both of us). (I'm sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the food! Next time, I promise.)
After dinner we went walking back to our hotel. Mabel at the pub told us where we could find a pharmacy (so Kathy could pick up some lotion to replace the stuff from here lost purse) and we walked down to a nice village. I was much different than the downtown along Euston Road and seemed a lot more like the every-day London life. A little further along we came to a mall with a supermarket, where we're headed in the morning to upload this blog.
We got back to our hotel by 8:00 PM and were asleep by 8:30. Tomorrow, the Eurostar, Brussels and Bruge.
Dad looks a lot less stressed out than he did last trip!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you mention touching the artifacts, when me and hosanna went to museum I think I was successful in touching the code of hamurabi.