March 16th, 2012 § Comments Off on Are We Still in London? § permalink
Um, London? Wasn’t I telling you about London? I think we’ve been back for a few years now, and I still haven’t finished telling you about London? Way to milk it, no? Or, as it’s London we’re talking about, way to tea it, no?
Okay, Days 3 to 7 in rapid speed:
Monday was our first day sans Adam, who kept having this annoying thing called “work” get in the way of our fun. But the children and I were not to be deterred so off to the London Eye! After that, we met up with cousins at the Museum of Natural History. I have one cousin who lives full time in the London area, complete with British-born kids, and another cousin who is taking a semester abroad in London during his freshman year of college. Freshman cousin is apparently desperate for free meals as he was willing to put up with no end of humiliation from me on four evenings. (What kind of humiliation, you ask? Why, I mocked his reading choices. I critiqued his post-college plans. And, perhaps most horrifying to him, I gave him [da da dum] … the sex talk!)
Tuesday we decided to try for a less crowded view of Changing of the Guard activities. We went to the Inspection at the Wellington Barracks. Perfect! We got there five minutes early, walked right up to the fence, and had an amazing view of the fresh guards being inspected for duty with bonus that the band played lots of songs. From there, the Royal Mews.
After we headed to Kensington Park, which is completely under construction, and after much wandering in circles, we found our way to the Orangery where we had high tea. Well, Pie and I did. Doodles didn’t want it and so he just sat reading his book while Pie and I, pinkies poised, had tea sandwiches, cakes, and scones (and champers for me. It was a vacation, after all). We played at bit in the Princess Diana Memorial Playground and then met Adam for dinner and a West End show that was out of this world: Matilda. All four of us loved it and we haven’t stopped singing the songs since.
Wednesday morning we cleverly decided to go to Westminster Abbey. Where we were cleverly told we couldn’t go in until 11:30 because people were–gasp!–praying! Yes, it appears we Jewish Yanks forgot all about Ash Wednesday. So instead we walked up Whitehall, reading the relevant bits for our Rick Steves’s book and oohing and ahhing over the sites. We did a fabulous kids’ audio tour at the National Gallery. We had a pub lunch, which Doodles and I enjoyed, and Pie just whined about (“They don’t understand what chicken salad is! This isn’t chicken salad! It’s a slab of chicken with mayonnaise!”). We did a bit of shopping after lunch and then early evening we split up: Pie and Adam had dinner at the hotel, and Doodles, Freshman Cousin with a Penchant for Abuse, and I all went on a Harry Potter tour. Walking around London at night with a fabulous tour guide was terrific, even if there aren’t that many Harry Potter sites to see, although Doodles got a huge kick out of Platform 9 3/4.
Thursday morning we first hunted for the spy clues in the kids’ spy pack around the hotel. Then we had Westminster Abbey Take 2, which almost went okay. Pie was slightly whiny, though Doodles loved doing the kids’ tour, and by the time we exited both had pushed buttons and I was standing outside of Parliament yelling, “We are going to go back to the hotel RIGHT THIS INSTANT AND STAY THERE ALL AFTERNOON!” I don’t know why people say Americans are so loud and ugly.
We did get over our spat and decided to make our way to Camden Markets for a wee bit o’shopping. Pie had to buy something for everyone in her class. Doodles refused to buy anything for anyone because he didn’t want the mortal embarrassment of having to give it to them (“Fine! You can buy my teacher some tea, but I’m not giving it to him! You are!”). That evening we met up with Adam at a cocktail party at his office, where Doodles sat in the corner reading Harry Potter 6 and Pie decided to pull her tooth out in the bloodiest of ways she could. Freshman Cousin with a Penchant for Abuse met us for dinner and Adam left his wallet in a taxi. Good dinner, though. (And just after Adam canceled all his cards, the wallet was returned, and Adam was completely dependent on me to pay for the rest of the trip. Ha ha ha ha ha!)
Friday morning, Adam returned to us. He took Friday off of work and we crammed in as much as we possibly could. We went to The Monument (designed by Christopher Wren in memory of the London fire), climbed the 311 steps, only to have the kids freak out and decide they are scared of heights. From there we went to London Tower, lunch, tour of the Globe Theatre, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Harrods. Deep breath. We made it! We met the Freshman Cousin with a Penchant for Abuse and his roombuddy (as Pie called him) for a Chinese dinner, and thus ended our London trip, as in the early hours of the next morning, we headed toward Heathrow where we bought enough chocolate for our friends back home to keep them on a sugar high for a month.
Not enough for you? Here’s our trip in a seven minute video (music from the Clash, of course, and from the musical Matilda).
Whew! Done. And now back to writing the school newsletter; driving to dance, Hebrew School, Cub Scouts, hockey; preparing for the next Girl Scout meeting; planning for the synagogue seder; writing my novel; and, oh yes, planning the next vacation….
“They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
‘Do you think the King knows all about me?’
‘Sure to, dear, but it’s time for tea,’
Says Alice.” –A. A. Milne
Which means it’s time to head to Fortum & Mason for an ice cream tea:
Sated? Then it’s off with their heads at the Tower of London! Or, as the kids learned about the wives of Henry VIII at the Horrible Histories “Barmy Britain” show later that night, “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.”
My father informs me, now that I’m back, that I’ve been derelict in my posting duties. He is right, of course, but having returned from a glorious week in London, I now am sick. The cause of this illness is quite clear. The headache. The stuffy nose. The sneezing.
My tragic deathbed illness? Why it can only be attributed to laundry. Yes, I’ve been forced to do laundry today. (Gasp!) We all know how desperately allergic I am to laundry, but it’s been unavoidable that I put in a load or two, and now my body is rebelling. Perhaps it’s time to invest in an EpiPen?
But like the stoic guards at Buckingham Palace, I shall solider on and tell you about our trip. And what a great trip it was!
The impetus for this trip was Adam’s work. As those who receive our holiday card know, Adam gets to travel to all sorts of great places for work (San Francisco! London! Germany!) while I stay home and make lunches. Not too fun. But in January Adam said, “I have to go to London the week of February 5.” I thought for a moment and asked, “Any chance you could do it the week of February 20?” which is that illustrious New England novelty, February vacation. A few arrangements later, and Adam said, “Done!” So we tagged along on his work trip.
Friday after school was a mad dash for home. We had an hour to get school backpacks transformed into travel backpacks, get last minute things done (stop the mail, clean the dishes, pack toothbrushes), and then get to the airport. The flight to London isn’t long enough for a decent night’s sleep, but the kids got a short nap out of it.
Our hotel, St. Ermin’s, was fabulous. Although we arrived at the hotel at 8 a.m., they still allowed us to check into our room. But we didn’t want the kids passing out too early, so we headed to Portobello Market to check out the scene.
Why, yes, my eight year old is drinking coffee. Thanks for noticing.
How was the scene? Full of whiny, tired children. So I gave in and let them return to the hotel for a nap.
Mean mother that I am, though, I didn’t let them sleep too long. Must keep them on Boston time, after all! So we headed to the British Museum, to traumatize my daughter with skeleton bones and entertain my son with the museum’s scavenger hunt for art objects.
Dem bones, dem bones
Hunting for clues in the exhibits
They roamed, the sketched, they oohed at the Rosetta Stone. And by ooh, I mean they said, “That’s all it is?”
For dinner we headed to a traditional English pub, for fish and chips and bangers and mash, and the most amazing dessert, at least for me. Pie wanted cake, Doodles wanted brownie, Adam had sticky toffee pudding, and I just wanted beer. “I’ll have an ale,” I said.
“You’ve drinking lager,” Adam point out.
“Oh, right. I’ll have a lager.”
But our waiter was having none of that. “You’re in London,” he said. “You should really try the ale. Will you trust me to bring you an ale I think you’ll like?”
Hey, I was game. Sounded like fun. Even more fun when I was presented with this:
Dessert!
Turns out I do like ale.
And on that note, I must arm myself with tissues and advil so that I may brave the laundry room once again. Stay tuned for more of the adventures of Doodles and Pie in London. Cheers!
Ah, the return to civilization. It’s never pretty, is it? That forced detox when the bourbon doesn’t come three times a day (although to be honest, the first drink of the day was generally vodka as we never made it to the brunch that serves a bourbon bloody Mary, and I did love the gin-focused Verde Intuition). The reinstatement of (moderately) healthy eating when you don’t have the Frieze ice cream within walking distance and friends who egg you on to consuming obscene quantities of food. The end of daily pool frolics and free nightly babysitting.
Highlights from the trip? Too many to list them all. The Seaquarium.
Little girl spa day. Big girl spa day. Grown-up dinner. Sushi night.
The rooftop deck of the hotel Adam and I escaped to for the night. Beach.
Pool. Seeing friends I haven’t seen in close to a decade. Gin. Champagne. Vodka. Wine. Bourbon. Duck fat fries. Fried chicken.
The boy had fun getting to use the tools in his Nana’s art studio. I proved I’m old by going to the diviest bar in Miami Beach and getting into an argument with a friend about… semicolons. Adam discovered an app that let him control the bar jukebox from his phone. I don’t think I’ve seen him that excited since he discovered bourbon. We ate at a new restaurant, Yardbird, which Adam had been reluctant to try. He ended up eating there three times in four days (even going alone one of those days, his hankering for chicken and bourbon was so mighty). I learned what a “food baby” is (thanks to Tuna’s “My food baby hurts”; you thought I had forgotten about that, didn’t you Teener?).
It’s 21 degrees out it’s almost dark at 4:20 p.m. We don’t make it easy for ourselves, getting home around 3:30 and having to return to a full day of school/dance/Hebrew school/Cub Scouts at 8:15 the next morning.
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for you: I resolve next year to not come back from our trip to Miami Beach.
December 24th, 2011 § Comments Off on Rough Life § permalink
Vacation dilemma #1: What will the holiday drink be? I’m a firm believer that Whiskey Sours shouldn’t be drunk when it’s above 50 degrees. Mojitos? Possibly. A little out of season, but still acceptable in this 78 degree weather. Lemon-Drop Martinis? Always a safe go-to drink.
Tonight, alone with my husband (can you imagine?) at a bar outside overlooking Biscayne Bay, I found a new love: Verde Intuition. Gin. Lime. Basil. Cucumber. And something yummily sweet. Perfection.
I am wearing Miami Beach shoes on a Boston morning. Cold tosies! We had a mad dash this morning, getting the house clean for our house sitters (the smell of latke oil lasts for months), but we made it out.
Traveling with not-so-little kids is so different than traveling with little kids. For starters, I have a purse. Filled with my wallet, a book for me, my phone. No loose Veggie Booty floating in there. No wipes or changes of clothes. No having to carry their overloaded packs.
Of course there are also the downsides. Driving to Logan, the boy backseat drove. Which you all know is my job. “Dad, it says ‘airport’ over there. You’re in the wrong lane.” The girl chimes in, “Where are you going? The sign says parking is that way!”
Remarkably Adam found his way to not only Logan, but also to parking. We got here ridiculously early as I heard a rumor that a lot of goyim fly today, too.
Speaking of goyim, we’ve already started tracking Santa. For a bunch of Jews, we’re a little obsessed with this. As of this typing, he’s in Papua, New Guinea according to Google Maps.
This morning: Starbucks latte. Tomorrow: Well, still Starbucks as my favorite cafe con leche place will be closed for Christmas. But Monday! Monday will be Cuban coffee day.
September 5th, 2011 § Comments Off on Paris Book List for Kids § permalink
This is my last Paris post. Sorry for those who aren’t Francophiles.
The books for the kids were key. We read tons before we left and while on the trip, and it gave the kids things to look for and focus on. Tons of these books are at the library, lots are available used, and some we simply splurged on. Of course there are many more, but these are the ones we read and used and that, in the next month, I’ll forget, so here they are:
Guidebooks Fodor’s Around Paris with Kids, 4th Edition (Around the City with Kids) : This was the guide book I used the most. A few misses, but mostly great information with helpful suggestions of places to eat near each sight. Paris: While We’re Young: An interesting book in that it puts together a complete itinerary based on history instead of geography for you as well as gives you the history you need to know. As clever as it was, this was the book I used the least. City Walks: Paris, Revised Edition: 50 Adventures on Foot: This is a series of walks printed on individual cards. Very handy to pull out the card for the day and just stick it in my bag as a “just in case.” We followed a couple of them and it was fun. Rick Steves’ Paris 2011: The best guidebook for all-over traveling. Great food suggestions, nice walks, great for picking out the “must-sees.”
I know most of you are sick of hearing about France, so for you guys, just skip this and the next post. But for those of you who have e-mailed me or Facebooked me and said, “I want to get ideas from you for when we go to Paris with our kid(s),” I wanted to get all my thoughts down in one place that I could refer back to. So that is this.
**The first day will be a disaster. Expect it. Prepare for it. It’s a six-hour flight and a six-hour time difference, so when you arrive at 7:30 in the morning, your kids will be exhausted. Check in at our hotel was 2 p.m. We dropped off our luggage, went out for breakfast, and then went to play at the Jardin du Luxemborg. A late afternoon nap got them pretty much on schedule.
**Don’t fear the French. Not the people. The language. My kids could spit out a “Merci†if under duress, but that was the extent of their knowledge. Adam and I had minimal French but not enough for any real conversation. That said, we went to a few things that were in French only and still thoroughly enjoyed them.
—The marionette (which is “puppet†in French, and not necessarily the marionnette dolls we think of with strings) show in the Jardins du Luxemborg are completely in French, but the stories are familiar enough that the kids enjoyed them.
—The Musee de Magie is a museum of magic that has a show that’s all in French. The Double Fond is also a magic show entirely in French. But magic is magic and you don’t have to understand the banter to be wowed by the tricks.
—Lots of places had demonstrations—a gladiator show in Arles, a catapult demonstration in La Boux—that had no English, but again, who needs English when things are being launched in the air or men in strange get-ups are swinging at each other with swords and nets.
**The key to museums for us was a sketchbook and drawing set that we gave each child. They decorated their sketchbooks before we left with Paris pictures to get them in the mood. Then, in each museum, they happily stopped to sketch, which meant one parent could explore the room they were sketching in and the other could even go a bit farther. People took as many pictures of our kids sketching as they did of the art work!
**Set your expectations low. Buy a museum pass so you don’t feel that you just spent 10 Euros on an hour at the Louvre. Also, the museum pass lets you skip the ticket buyers line, which will save a lot of headache. At each museum, we had one or two goals. Anything else we saw we considered at bonus. For instance, at the Louvre, we wanted to see the Mona Lisa and a vase that Doodles had read about in A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by E. L. Konigsburg that Eleanor of Aquitaine had been given by Louis VII on their marriage. (We asked for help finding the vase at the information desk, and once the woman figured out my pronunciation of “Eleanor of Aquitaine,†she was extremely nice in helping us to locate it; I think she was happy that someone was looking for something other than the Mona Lisa). At the Musee D’Orsay, Pie wanted to see the Degas ballerina with the peach ribbon from her book Degas and the Little Dancer.
**Throw out any normal expectations of healthy eating. Some nights, it’s just better to have chocolate sorbet (from Martine Lambert, of course!) for dinner. One child pretty much lived on pasta with butter; the other on steak Hachette, which is a burger—no bun—and fries. Note the French default to rare meat unless you tell them otherwise.
**Buy your ticket to the Eifel Tower before you even leave the USA. You can print out a ticket and boy does it make the day soooo much better! The lines for tickets snake for hours. Our prepurchased ticket had a time to show up, and we waited for about 15 minutes. Once on top of the Eifel Tower, do the Follow Gus activity with your child—it’s a cute way to learn about the Tower.
**Hannah Montana dubbed in French is as annoying as Hannah Montana in English, but at least you can pretend your kids are learning some of the language.
**Keep a stock of Euros for carousels. Carousels are everywhere and they are a fabulous bribe. “If you can walk across that bridge because your parents would like to walk instead of taking a subway, you can ride the carousel over there!”
So, the highlights with the kids:
A Bateau Parisianne cruise on the Seine
Going up the Eifel Tower
Going up the Arc de Triomphe
Watching the Eifel Tower light show (at the top of the hour, after dusk, which in the summer is about 10 p.m.)
The Louvre
The Musee D’Orsay
Shopping the street markets
The Invalides (Army museum where Napoleon’s tomb is)
The Orangerie (Monet’s water lilies)
Musee Rodin
The Musee de Magie
Shopping at Printemps; window shopping at the more expensive Galleries de Lafeyette
Macaroons at Pierre Herme
Climbing the stairs to Sacre Couer
The Centre Pompidou at the Beaubourg
Watching the street performers outside the Centre Pompidou
Things to skip (not many!):
The Paris Story movie—overrated and really pretty boring
Most flea markets in August (many things shut down in Paris in August so the markets were sparse; most of what we wanted to see, though, was open and it was a boon to my wallet that so many cute stores were closed). We went to one market that was a complete dud and one that was lively and fun—so just check!
If you’re really planning a trip, you can find a lot of my hotel/dining reviews on TripAdvisor (of course, as you probably know that’s where Adam works, so that’s where I do my reviewing).
Tomorrow I’ll post my kids’ book list for Paris, but in the meantime, Bon Voyage!
