A Grand Welcome To The City of Lights

After zipping across the verdant countryside bathed in a warming afternoon sun, Martha and I hopped off the Eurostar train, via the Chunnel, and were greeted by a dear friend. Anne-Sophie Grasmuck had been a French exchange student in 2000 on her first trip to America at the age of 17.

We had had such a good time with her then, as she bonded so closely with Colleen and Alison. But Colleen had lost contact with Anne-Sophie through the years until they rediscovered each other via Facebook a few months ago.

One communication lead to another and Anne-Sophie came to Paris from Luxembourg, where she's working, to greet us. It was sheer delight to reconnect with such an engaging and interesting young woman. Unfortunately, we could only spend a few hours together before she drove home, but she did a quick data dump of Paris, the Latin Quarter, the Metro system, museums and favorite sites before we said our goodbyes on the steps of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Of course, when in Paris, one must shop. Anne-Sophie proudly displayed her latest purchase to wear to work the next day!

Happy newlyweds create space on the crowded Notre Dame square to capture the moment.

Vendors selling new and used items on the banks of the Seine River just before boarding up for the night.

Happy Birthday from France, mon freer, Pierre!

Martha and I wish you all the best on your Special Day!

Sorry for the belated greetings, but Internet connections have been limited.

Windsor and War Horse

A day trip to Windsor Castle provided a quiet day out of the city and a glimpse into the life of the British monarchy through the centuries.

After catching a quick bite, we headed into the castle. Unfortunately, we couldn't shoot pictures from inside the castle, but the structure itself is most imposing, as you'll see.

Imagine being a visitor a few centuries back; after seeing the display of weaponry and this impregnable fortress, you'd have second thoughts about challenging the British monarchy!

This section of the castle is used for the guests. It's a centuries old custom that the ruler invite in the commoners and hear whatever they want to tell the king or queen. Currently, Queen Elizabeth and Prince use Easter month to honor this tradition.

As told to us by one chatty guard, any commoner in the realm can be invited to Windsor Castle for the night to have dinner and talk with the Queen and Prince!

A proud son

St. Paul's Church

A traditional dinner of fish and chips and hunter's chicken, then off to a play in the West End.

After seeing the Tony Awards this year, Martha and I were intrigued with the storyline and especially with the "acting" of the main character, Joey, in the British play "War Horse."Joey is the horse of the title and he is represented by 3 actors manipulating a puppet. It's hard to explain, but so mesmerizing to behold. The horses and a goose just come to life.

It's the personalized tale of what impact the use of horses had on the families in World War I. A very moving story with brilliant acting; you can see a snippet in this link.

And thus ends our days in London!

American Invasion, Part 2

More popping about by Tube and bus.

Pigeons warm up in the sun, while a father and son do their "good morning" dance! Some statue in some park somewhere. It's just amazing that around every corner is some significant building, location, piece of art, etc. It's fun to just appreciate it for art's sake instead of trying to find out what it is and crowding my already overflowing brain.

Trafalgar Square commemorating Lord Nelson's victory over Napoleon at Trafalgar. Subsequently, there are many places in England and The Netherlands recognizing this significant event and the battle at Waterloo. Can't wait to see how the same events get played up in France. And yesterday was the date on which Lord Nelson's navy won at Trafalgar. One tour guide at Windsor said he and his mates were going out for a spot of rum to celebrate it.

The slow procession of the changing of the mounted guards at the other end of The Mall from Buckingham Palace.

Making memories in St. James Park.

A personalized needlepoint kneeler in St. Margaret's Church, adjacent to Westminster Abbey. Something as cushy as this just make's one want to get on bended knee and offer a prayer.

Side entrance to Westminster Abbey. After the tour of the Abbey, I wonder where they'll find space to bury all the future significant people; they're running out of room under those floors.

This lovely little fountain was another peaceful oasis in the cloister area of Westminster Abbey.

Need to get around quickly and for a short distance? Use a "Boris" bike, so nicknamed after London's energetic and blue-collar mayor; a very practical man. Just tap your pre-registered chip-embedded credit card and away you go! Just drop it off at any other bike rack. This rack was totally empty when we returned later that evening.


But the most challenging part of getting around is remembering that they drive on the left side of the road. It's curious how something as basic as this can throw off your subconscious sense of order.

But thankfully the Brits have thought of how disoriented people can be in this hectic city and wrote these helpful reminders. Despite this help, I was very nearly a hood ornament anyway.

To expand my horizons, I visited the British Museum outside our back door. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon something that has intrigued me since I was a lad dreaming of faraway lands:

THE Rosetta Stone!! I'm sorry this photo doesn't do it justice but the beauty of this artifact is impressive.

The Horse of Selene from the front...

...and what the horse sees regularly. How fortunate for these students to have this free museum to study and hone their skills?

As I crossed Abbey Road like a Beatles fan, I'm reminded that Martha and I are on "A Long and Winding Road" ourselves.

Hey, John, I found another one of those free-standing open-air privies for men on the busy shopping district of Oxford Circus! Will wonders never cease?

Sunrise on the Hungersford Bridge

The American Invasion!

Of course, our landing on these shores will be a bit less impressive than the British Invasion of the 60s, but we'll do our best to shake things up in a baby boomer way. But we can't seem to leave the Continent behind.

Before we left Delft, we wanted to see the museum representing the Master of Light, Johannes Vermeer who was a contemporary of Rembrandt.

(Just as an aside, in case you didn't notice, some names or places in this blog are in a different color font. This change represents a link to more information about that topic or location. Have fun discovering these Easter Eggs!)

One of Vermeer's most famous paintings. This is one of his few landscapes, the town of Delft, where he was born and painted most of his works.

And this is another of his famous paintings, The Girl With A Pearl Earring. It was made into a movie and filmed partially in Delft.

Vermeer did an earlier version of this same girl, but decided it was a bit too busy and sent conflicting messages about his support of the Grain Guild over other guilds.

Luckily it's been preserved...

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As an art critic, which version to do you prefer?

We didn't make it to the Delft Ceramic Factory, but we did find out about the various qualities of Delft-ware from this woman who's been hand-painting the factory items for years. Exquisite work!

Now on to England via the Stena Britannica, an overnight ferry that crosses the North Sea. And what a ferry! More like a cruise ship complete with staterooms, lounges, a movie theater, etc. After stowing our kits in our stateroom, we rounded out the evening with some delightful people we had just spent 4 hours with waiting to board the ship at the Hook of Holland port.

Bob and Bridget Raynard are a couple of inspirational school teachers from Canada who had to get out of Europe because their 90-day Schengen Visa expired at midnight. They have been bicycling all over Europe via the back roads and bike paths for 3 months and were going to spend the next couple months in England.

Since we had done some bicycle camping trips earlier in our marriage, it was fun to relive those memories and consider making new ones by bike.

Good luck on the rest of your trip, Bob and Bridget!

Before sunrise, we boarded a commuter train to London. Which led to a wild taxi ride through a traffic jam, with a profanity-spewing cabbie who railed on about the inept London government which tears up and rebuilds things that don't need it. As we lurched to a stop, I paid him his hard-earned £30, jumped from the cab, told him we were walking, to which he mumbled in his thick brogue, "I don't blame ya, bub." Welcome to London!




We finally settled into our little room on the 4th floor of The Morgan Hotel. Across the courtyard, we overlook the offices of The British Museum, above.

To get our bearing, we found The Big Bus Tours and tried to get our bearings. This is the Tower Bridge as seen from Westminster Bridge.

And this is the freezing couple on the Tower Bridge. There is a tremendous amount of construction going on, some just to evolve the infrastructure, but a lot to get the city ready to host the Olympics next summer. People seem to have adapted pretty well, except for some cabbies.

Big Ben!

New and climbing construction. When completed, the tall building called The Shard will be the tallest in London.

The cutest highlight on this tour!

Deftly Delft

Wednesday morning 3 a.m., I wake up and realize we're calmly cruising the North Sea from Hoek van Holland to Harwich, England (London). Luckily, the hard, biting winds didn't turn into rough seas during the crossing or we'd have been having a queasy time, like Sister Patsy did when she made this crossing years ago.

But wait, I get ahead of myself!

It's been a bit since we last posted, so here are a few highlights of the world we discovered and views from a walkabout on our last day in Amsterdam:

A view of our breakfast room at the Rembrandt Hotel. What a pleasant way to start the day!

This photo of missiles in motion was only half the picture; there are 3 more lanes like this on the other side of the tram. And we confirmed with a train conductor, the bicyclist has right of way over every other person or vehicle in the Netherlands. And a little factoid: there are about 750,000 people in Amsterdam but over a 1,000,000 bicycles!

A rainy day walk to the Anne Frank House.

Anne Frank standing tall for her message.

A walk through Anne Frank's house is a transition to mixed emotions of shock, surprise, anger, sadness, outrage, wonder and thankfulness among many others. I can't describe the sadness I felt when I walked through the bookcase hiding her family above. But this website can show you the transition in 3-D, so maybe you can experience a little of it yourself.

Later that same day:


Delft

We checked into Hotel Leeuwenbrug and were surprised to see more modern accommodations than we expected.

Then we found the local award-winning cafe, Stads-Koffyhuis...

...and couldn't leave without sampling their peach custard pie with heavy cream. Ooh la lah!

The Old Church in Delft...

...is not to be confused with the New Church in Delft, which was built only about 100 years after the Old Church in the mid-1300s. Of course the members of the Old Church were quite peeved about this endeavor, but wisely didn't act on their feelings.

View from inside the New Church looking across the square to, what we think is the palace.

Eventually, as The Dutch fought for control from invaders, Willem van Oranje was killed in the Old Church in 1584, and has been called the Father of the Netherlands. He is interred in a massive tomb in the New Church, which has come to be the center of all Royal ceremonies ever since. In fact, all the Royals are buried there.

Willem van Oranje...

...with a dog at his feet. This dog symbolizes the strong loyalty the Dutch feel for Willem and his Oranje family descendants including Queen Beatrix today.

Good night, Delft.