Monday 31 July 2006

It was back to being tourists today as we made our way to Buckingham Palace and the ceremonial changing of the guards. Afterwards we took a Yeoman’s tour of the Tower of London complete with a viewing of The Crown Jewels.

BONUS: Took the kids to BoDean's BBQ for dinner where to my surprise they were televising MLB baseball!!! Who cares if it was the Phillies vs. the Marlins?? Baseball, beer and beef ribs... Heaven I tell ya'... Heaven.

Saturday 29 July 2006

This was a relax and recharge weekend. However, Amy got us tickets for the live stage musical version of Footloose. It was a fun evening and for you children of the 70’s, the preacher (John Lithgow’s role in the movie) was played by David Essex, singer of Rock On.

Wednesday through Friday 26-28 July 2006

Oooo-la-la... Paris… 3 days…. Record high temperatures… Sounds like JUST the plan!

Arrived and checked into our quaint little hotel. You think I’m kidding about quaint?? The kids could touch either wall simultaneously when lying across our bed.

Day 1: With the heat wave in Paris reaching over 95 degrees, what better way to spend our first day than walking from our hotel through the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champ-Elysees, over to the Le Pont Alexandre III (one of the most ornate bridges in Paris), into the Place de la Concorde with its fountains and Egyptian obelisk, through the Arc du Carrousel and into the grounds of the Louvre.

Day 2: A whirlwind day that included an all too brief visit inside the Louvre (one really does need a month), where we saw several works of art including the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.

Lunch was on the first level of The Eiffel Tower where afterwards, Doug and I climbed the stairs to the second level (we just didn’t have it in us to go all the way to the top).
We all then took a Seine boat cruise to the gothic masterpiece that is the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Again our stay was all too short, but Amy vows to go back and attend Mass there.

Later that evening Doug and I chose to climb to the top of The Arc de Triomphe and see The City of Lights in all its glory. While the vantage points were awesome, my pictures don’t do it justice.

Day 3: What better way to end our visit to Paris than with an excursion out to see the palace of Louis XIV in Versailles. The opulence of the Royal Apartments, the grandeur of The Hall of Mirrors and the expanse of the palace gardens was overwhelming. Being able to walk the same halls as Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and all of those King Louies made for a great end to fast paced visit.

Observation: One always hears about the arrogance of the French. We can all say that our experience showed none of it. Well… except for that beggar we witnessed harassing a couple in the sidewalk café, and that French-Japanese tour guide in Versailles.

Our 3 day excursion to Paris was great. Record heat, blisters and a very full agenda didn't deter us from making the experience one to remember. We're taking notes and keeping all of our tour books for those who get the chance to visit us. Our quaint hotel was great and did have welcomed air conditioning - something we miss now and then! The guys turned in early one night and Steph and I went out for a late dinner and walk along the Champ-Elysees, only to experience a sudden thunderstorm during our sidewalk meal and a very wet walk back!

Paris is our first real trip out of the UK and it is so close that it is definitely a place we'll return for future weekends. Think we might wait until it cools off a bit...

Observations from Steph and Doug: It's really hot and we miss the air conditioning, people here wear funny shoes, there are no pickup trucks in London, Where are the gas stations??

Additional observations: The British Open is just The Open, and my favorite French Onion Soup is just plain Onion Soup in Paris! Thought of my dear friend Wanda as everyone stops in the sidewalk bakery for a fresh loaf of French bread on the way home from work each evening - or maybe they get two and eat one on the way!

Tuesday 25 July 2006

Let the battle of the churches begin!! Today we toured Westminster Abbey and the 17th century St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Abbey with its tomb and shrine of St. Edward the Confessor also houses the tombs of several kings and queens, as well as, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Darwin to name a few.

The tour of St. Paul’s culminated with Doug and Ray climbing to the top of the 3rd highest church dome in the world (Amy and Steph decided this would be an opportune time to get in some shopping). 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery followed by 117 steps to the Stone Gallery with an additional 166 spiralling steps to the top of the Golden Gallery totals 280 feet from the floor of the nave. THAT was our workout for the day.

In between tours we had lunch at The Texas Embassy (where else would four Texans eat?) and took the opportunity to walk through and take some pictures in Trafalgar Square.

Monday 24 July 2006

Today the Griswald family European Vacation onslaught begins!! We start with taking the Original London Sightseeing Tours open top double-decker bus tour of the major sights of the city. After visiting Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum we ventured around the block to 221B Baker Street and The Sherlock Holmes Museum. We finish our first busy day with a trip through The London Dungeon which is a cheesy tourist attraction depicting the more gruesome side of London’s past with exhibits dealing with the Plague, Jack the Ripper, and the more family oriented torture chambers.

Sunday 23 July 2006

Doug and Steph arrived yesterday for the start of their two week visit. Last night we took them through Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and Chinatown before finishing up with a walk past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

After attending the High Mass this morning we went to a local pub, The Albert for a traditional Sunday roast.

Friday 21 July 2006

British Open time!! Although it seems that “we” (the American “we”) only refer to it that way as here it’s The Open. Since this year The Open was at Royal Liverpool-Hoylake instead of Scotland I decided, what the heck; it’s only a 3 hour train ride to Liverpool, then another 30 minute ride out to the course.

First thing: not a very “pretty course”, the drought had the fairways and greens looking splotchy, plus walking the course it was DUSTY. –cough, hack- No trees, no water (while the ocean is right there, it’s away from layout), just the pot bunkers and very high rough. Of course, my only experience with a links style course until today was Southwyke.

Arrived around 10:30 AM, and got my tee time/players group program. Started at the 18th hole and started working my way back to see the course. Watched Chris DiMarco hit a shot in the 14th fairway, then made way to between the 14th tee and the par 3-13th green. Since Tiger was a few groups back the crowds were huge right here. I stayed and watched Jose Maria Olazabal, Chad Campbell, Adam Scott and their groups play through until the Messiah himself hit his shot.

Tiger was playing with Nick Faldo so I revelled in the fact the he received the better ovation (me included as I can not STAND Tiger Woods). Woods almost put one in the pot bunker which would have made my day. Watched them play and tee off on 14 (again Faldo received the most cheers), then moved down to the 13th tee and found a place to sit down. From that vantage point I watched David Duval, David Love III, Retief Goosen and Tom Watson hit their tee shots. Tom Watson is adored here and again received the greatest ovation.

Started working my way backwards through the course again and camped out in the only shade on the course between the 4th green and 5th tee. Within the groups that passed through there was angel Cabrera, Ben Curtis, Fat Tim Herron (who smokes constantly in between shots), Sergio Garcia and Freddie Couples.

Moving on, I set up at the 3rd green and 4th tee as Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh passed through in consecutive groups. After them I made my way back to find Phil Mickelson (the last big name player I wanted to see) who also was grouped with Darren Clarke. Found him finishing up on the 2nd hole and was able to stand by the walkway as they headed to the next tee box. I followed him until his three putt bogey on hole seven.

It was his scrambling into the rough right, then again into the rough left par on the fifth that gave me an opportunity for TV time (anyone see me?). I was right behind the rope line as he dealt with his drops to get a line of sight around the temporary scoreboard. Plus, as I made my way through the course on my way home I almost got plunked by a wayward tee shot by Warren Bladon. Had he been someone, I might have been on TV again.

Observation: I found it weird that so many spectators found it necessary to wear golf shoes to WATCH golf.

Wednesday 19 July 2006

Officially the hottest July day in London EVER, and thankfully neither of us were here to “enjoy” it.

While temperatures hit 98 deg. F in South London and the tube temperatures reached 117 deg. F, Amy was in Copenhagen (and has been all week), and I visited our job site on the Firth of Forth north of Edinburgh, Scotland. Perfect timing!!!

Sunday 16 July 2006

Today I took my first bike ride with The Central London Cycling Touring Club which is a group that gets together on weekends taking a train out past the urban sprawl to ride in the English countryside. Today we meet in Pluckley (the most haunted village in England) and rode out to a little miller’s village called Stelling Minnis riding through the hills of Kent. We only did ~45 miles, but the "hills" have my legs aching.

Shame this ride wasn’t next weekend as it would have coincided with the Pluckley Hog Festival. Guess we can’t have everything.

Observation: Sheep smell worse than cows.

Saturday 15 July 2006

After a tough week at work, we decided to take a trip back in time; some might even say a Time Warp as we took in the live stage version of The Rocky Horror Show. Ok.. it wasn’t that much in the way of production, but we had a GREAT crowd and it brought back so many memories of the midnight show at the Tower Theatre. Since we went to the late show on a Saturday night we had more than our share of people dressing up. Fun, fun stuff!!

Saturday 8 July 2006

On a whim we decided to go to the theatre district again tonight, so after a bike ride this morning I went to the half-price ticket office. My initial choice of The Rocky Horror Show wasn’t available, so I purchased tickets for Les Miserables (I think I just showed my cultural preferences).

Amy found it wonderful and very moving, and while the set was visually stimulating, I now can relate to George Costanza as I just… can’t… get …that song out of my head. “Master of the house... Keeper of the inn... “

Friday 7 July 2006

Our sea shipment finally arrived today and we now have furniture! Our small flat feels even smaller now, but it's comfortable and has everything we need.

Tonight we had a great dinner with another Houston couple, Gina and Patrick, who are living in London. They have been here for 18 months. Gina gave me many helpful tips and friendly advice throughout this moving process. We met them at the Texas Embassy Cantina for a Tex-Mex dinner complete with margaritas. It was no Pappasito's, but really was good - especially the Texas company. We exchanged stories and observations of life in London and it was a really great visit.

Monday 3 July 2006

Love is in the air...

...and on the scoreboard as Amy and I left work early and attended Wimbledon!!! We made it inside after waiting in queue for just over 45 minutes.

Since we had general admission Ground Passes, we couldn’t see matches in the main courts, so we decided to go to Court 3 and watch Venus Williams (who is a TALL girl) play her mixed doubles match. However, the match preceding hers was probably the match of the day. We watched Dmitry Tursunov and Jarkko Nieminen fight it out for a five set, four hour long match. Ok... ok... so what if they were only seeded 27 & 22 and we had never heard of them, it’s still world class tennis at the All England Lawn Tennis Club!!

Seems the heat was wearing on the two as Nieminen while swinging his racket in disgust lost it over the barricade and into the crowd behind the court. The Russian had “issues” with the umpire and hit a ball towards his chair, THEN afterwards seemed to try and pull him down while they shook hands.

Afterwards, we watched Venus play a few games of mixed doubles, then walked around the back courts and saw Tracy Austin and Wendy Turnbull playing doubles in the 35+ tournament.

Observation: I think tennis should be more like baseball. If they hit a ball into the stands, we should be able to keep it.

Sunday 2 July 2006

We picked the hottest day of the year so far in London to share a 30 minute train trip, preceded by an extra long detoured bus ride with other sweaty people, out to Hampton Court and the grand 16th century palace of King Henry VIII.

The trip was well worth it as we passed through the Clock Court before touring the Grand Hall and Haunted Gallery (storied to be haunted by Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard), as well as, all the other royal private rooms and galleries that were decorated with original paintings and HUGE tapestries.

As grand as the palace was the surrounding gardens stole the show (like I wouldn’t enjoy the yard stuff best). The Hedge Maze was a little disappointing, but the Privy Garden and the smaller fountain gardens were breathtaking, simply beautiful.




We did have a really nice weekend. Unfortunately, just as the Astros finally win a game, the England team loses in the World Cup and Andy Roddick gets eliminated at Wimbledon.

Saturday 1 July 2006

Wild costumes, rainbow floats, pink Union Jacks and loud dance music was the order of the day as we ventured to Piccadilly Circus just across from the Eros Statue (fittingly the god of love) to take in the Gay Pride parade that culminated EuroPride 2006. Pat Powell would be so proud. After the parade we walked over to Leicester Square where they had a Cabaret Stage set up, which also allowed Amy to make a couple of new friends.

A far cry from the Trooping of the Colour we attended two weeks ago, but still a wild way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Friday 30 June 2006

This evening we spent with Dana-Leigh and her husband David at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. This show is the largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world showing just over one thousand works from both established and unknown artists. We spent some time before hand out on our balcony winding down from the work day and introduced David to my adaptation of the American tradition that is iced tea.

I know… some of you are thinking, “Ray?? Art??” Hey!!! I just recently had Thai food for the first time, so gimme a break. I’m expanding my horizons.

There were some very interesting pieces. Some I liked and, of course, some I just didn’t get. Some of the more geometric abstracts caught my eye, but I spent most of my time in the architectural room. HowEVER… the pieces that I could just not do without were Item 1317 (an untitled work of teacups/saucers stacked on a projector stand for pittance of £4000) and Item 1323 (titled Work No. 12: A Lamp Going On and Off for just £2700).

For those of you interested, both of these are still available. I kid you not.