The Journey Begins!

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.

And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless.

We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip;

a trip takes us.

~John Steinbeck

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I am a homebody by nature, and most definitely an introvert, so I really haven't traveled much in my lifetime.  My first trip on an airplane was in 1969 when I was 8 years old.  I flew to Dallas, Texas to visit my Grandparents, and I remember it as being a fun (although hot and exhausting, since it was in the dead heat of August) adventure, but I was definitely happier to come back home.

This year, my brother-in-law generously gifted me and my sister with a trip to London and Paris for my sister's birthday.  At first, I wasn't sure that I wanted to brave international situations and be away from home for that length of time, but slowly, that wonderful voice in my head and heart told me that it was time for me to expand my horizons and see these beautiful places.

I decided to keep a journal during our trip, because I know that memories (even really good ones) tend to fade with time, and I wanted to be in touch with this experience for the rest of my life.

What a magnificent experience it turned out to be!
We laughed, we cried, we ate remarkable food and saw fantastic things.  My dreams were quite vivid both in London and Paris, and in Paris, especially, I felt as though I had walked upon those streets, prayed in the cathedrals, laughed over tea in the corner cafes and connected with the people long before this time.  I truly felt at home and as though the doorway was now open for me to experience it all again whenever I chose.

Thank you for sharing in my lovely adventure!

Tuesday, October 6th

The day of our trip has arrived!

We depart on schedule from LAX feeling enthusiastic and very blessed to have an empty seat between us for the long flight.  I really had the wrong idea in my head about what a 747 would be like.  I envisioned comfort and luxury, but really, for those of us in coach, it's just a gigantic bus in the sky.

Ha!

Whether it was all the excitement or the cramped seating and non-existent air circulation, I do not get any sleep to speak of on the flight.  We also do not drink enough water, which unfortunately (in combination with long hours of sitting) contributes to swelling of the feet and ankles.  But, hey...what do I know?  This is my biggest trip ever and I am willing to endure some discomfort to get to where we are going.

I am strangely annoyed by the man in the seat directly across the aisle from me who manages to get a solid 8 hours of snoring slumber for reasons that are unknown to me (drugs/alcohol/will power/dumb luck or a combination of all of it).

We fly into the sunrise with happy anticipation, a short nap and a couple of light meals.  What seemed to be helpful was mixing a little of Dr. Singha's Travel Tonic into some water early on in the flight.  The combination of herbs seemed to dispell the foggy sensation of jet lag.  At least initially.

http://www.isabellacatalog.com/prod.cfm/pgc/21300/sbc/21306/inv/11406

Wednesday, October 7th

We arrive at Heathrow ahead of schedule (thanks to a nice tailwind) and take the underground (Tube) to Kensington where we walk a short distance to The Vicarage Hotel.

http://www.londonvicaragehotel.com/welcome

Charming Bed and Breakfast type hotel with our own bathroom!  Flying Monkey makes his first appearance in the shower.

It's late morning, and since neither one of us slept much on the plane, we decide (wisely) to take a short nap before exploring the city.  Our room is comfy and clean, and I drift off into slumber....only to be rudely awakened by construction jackhammering, sawing and pounding right outside the window.  Someone is singing Otis Redding songs while he hammers some metal object into place.  Evidently, it's time to get up.

We walk in the light rain for a bit and then get tea and cookies to bolster our energy.

We walk past some of the local stores and Hyde Park which is lush and green and a nice change from the parched California landscape we just left behind.  Feeling a little fuzzy with the jet lag by now.

A little later, it's time for dinner at Wagamama.  Yummy noodles!

I notice as we walk around that the city seems filled with tall, good-looking, serious men in nice suits (lots of pinstripes) traveling alone.  Carefully-styled hair which seems to hold up even in the drizzle (probably due to plenty of product).  The women are stylish as well, but the men all seem to have a certain look about them.

 

We see exactly 3 "homeless" people the entire time we are in London, and even they have on bow ties and are positioned cleanly and carefully out of the way of foot traffic.

No bums, no trashy streets, orderly and clean underground stations and bathrooms everywhere we went which was amazing for such a big city.

Thursday, October 8th

It seems that most of the Internet cafes are gone now due to wi-fi access at so many places in the city.  Since I did not bring a laptop and have promised to share e-mail updates with family back home, we ask around and discover that the local library has Internet access and lots of computers.

So we begin our day there, and then take the Tube to Westminster Abbey which has a great audio guided tour (narrated by a dryly witty Jeremy Irons) and WAY more to see than I imagined.

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/home

(he must have grown tired of waiting in line)

Next we have lunch in the crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Fields

http://www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/page/cafe/cafe.html

where people are simply dying to get in (crypt humor)!

I have now decided that it's time to locate souvenirs for family members, so we walk for what seems like endless miles to find the elusive London Hard Rock cafe (which no locals seem to know or care about), Beatles t-shirts (even though we are nowhere near Liverpool) and London trinkets.

Eventually, with feet swelling and aching (still not right from the long plane ride and lots of walking in inappropriate shoes) we find ourselves at the infamous Harrod's department store.

(check out this fun Harrod's 360 degree video)

http://www.harrods.com/harrodsstore/experience

the unimpressive entrance belies the ostentatious excess within.

the opulent Egyptian escalator

And then we arrive at the slightly creepy memorial to Princess Diana and Dodie Fayed

http://golondon.about.com/od/recommendedshops/ig/Harrods/Dodi-and-Diana-Memorial-2.htm

In the little pyramid is a dirty wine glass and the engagement ring Dodie purchased for Diana right before they died in a car crash in 1997.  Initially, my morbid mind assumed that the glass was recovered from the crash scene (the glass has brownish splatters on and in it), but as it turns out, it's supposedly Diana's used glass from their last meal together.

There is quite a crowd gathered around this memorial which is positioned at one of the escalator landings, so not much room to gawk and take photos.  A couple of women are quietly weeping. 

I find the whole thing strange.

Friday, October 9th

This morning we had some delicious porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast along with toast and the perfect cup of tea with milk and sugar.  Feeling quite British all of a sudden!

We return to Westminster Abbey to wander leisurely and soak in the vibe.  I love the Poet's Corner and enjoy seeing the statue of Shakespeare and the memorials for so many of my favorite poets of the past (Byron, Shelley, the Bronte sisters, Tennyson, Wordsworth).

We have lunch at a pub

And then on to the British Museum.  Beautiful architecture!

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

We've come to check out the vast collection of Egyptian artifacts including (at last count) over 65 mummies.  It's quite crowded and the mummy room is uncomfortably warm, so we don't linger too long.

We find the Rosetta Stone, but there is a huge crowd gathered around it as though it's about to begin some sort of broadcast, so I sneak a peek and we move on to the Japan display room which has a small but beautiful collection of items.  Our favorite is this statue which is a stunning introduction to the rest of the room:

A Samurai suit of armor

and one of the largest (30 feet tall maybe) Buddha statues I've ever seen.

We have tickets to attend the ceremony of the keys which is the nightly locking of the Tower of London, but due to some stalls and delays on the underground tracks, we miss it by about 10 minutes.   Guess we weren't meant to relive any bad past life memories there!

Saturday, October 10th

Our last day in London!

We walk to Portobello Road in Notting Hill to investigate the gigantic, world-famous Flea Market....

along with 10,000 other people!  It was way too crowded for any real shopping, but I did see some interesting antiques along the way.

http://www.portobelloroad.co.uk/

From what I could see (when I could get close enough to anyone's booth), things were way overpriced.  Great selection of items one really doesn't see much of at an American Flea Market, but simply not worth the asking prices.

We overhear a disdainful French man speaking to his companion:

"Zey lure you in and zen zey take your money!"

Got a good chuckle out of that one.

After a tasty lunch of fish and chips, we take a walk through Kensington Gardens.  This is where Princess Diana once lived.

Flying Monkey made some friends here!

Flying Monkey pays homage to Queen Victoria.

I have noted and appreciated the unique humor and good manners of the Brits.

Even the squirrels were polite.

At the end of the day, we visit a lovely old church (no such thing as a "new church" anywhere in England, I suspect) called Saint Mary Abbott's which is very close to our B&B.  We lit candles and enjoyed the serene atmosphere.

It was a good day!

Off to Paris tomorrow.......

Sunday, October 11th

We get an early start and take the Eurostar Chunnel to Paris which is clean, luxurious and fast!

This is the route the train takes under the English Channel.  I manage to fall asleep for this part of the journey which is good due to my discomfort (read: agitation and claustrophobia) with vehicles being under the water!  The entire trip takes about 2 hours, and it seems to pass quickly.  The French countryside is much like the midwest except for the numerous (very) old churches dotting the landscape.

Paris at last!

And my first view of the Eiffel Tower which is close to our hotel.

I feel like I am reuniting with a very old and dear friend as I acquaint myself with this city.

The Grand Hotel Leveque is beautiful and we have a room on the 4th floor.  The hotel has a one-person glass elevator which is like riding upstairs in a phone booth.

We are located on Rue Cler which is quite charming with cobblestone streets, corner cafes and lots of cheese, wine, produce and fish vendors.

http://www.hotel-leveque.com/en/index.php

We luck into a local antique flea market and I score some wonderful old hardware and a vintage French prayer book.  A helpful man appears out of nowhere and assists me in dealing with the book vendor who has had more than a few glasses of wine and no English whatsoever except an enthusiasic repeating of, "Obama!  Yes?  Obama!"

We had planned on making it to the huge flea market in Saint-Ouen (a metro or bus ride away), but misunderstand their operating hours and miss out on the whole thing.  I am only temporarily disappointed as I realize I could have easly gone berserk at this place and then had to figure out how to ship all of my purchases home.  The Universe was probably looking out for me on this one!

Monday, October 12th

Today we decide to brave the city bus system.  You'd think that the whole thing would be fairly self-explanitory with maps and such, but the language barrier does pose some challenges.  Helpful folks with broken English try their best to get us to the appropriate bus stop, and eventually, after some comical trial and error situations, we do.

We take the bus to Notre Dame (Our Lady) Cathedral.  The good part about the bus (as opposed to the underground system) is how much of the beautiful city we are able to see.

Even though tourist season is officially over, there are long lines of people waiting to pay 9 Euros to climb the 400 steps to the top of the bell tower to have the Quasimodo experience.  We choose to forego that adventure and enter the cathedral (no charge).

Beautiful energy, lovely art and the unexpected pleasure of being able to experience organ practice that day.

Caught some orbs in this photo....

Our Lady of Paris

After spending time here (we lit candles, of course), we find a little cafe and have wonderful crepes for lunch.  After that, we arrive at Shakespeare and Company book shop which was a total treat to experience

http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/index.php

This is a tiny two-story apartment jammed floor to ceiling with books....some for sale, and others to enjoy there in the comfy alcoves and overstuffed armchairs.

By now, it's tea time and we are in fairly close proximity to the Louvre, however the thought of attempting to see "15,000 works of art in 15 minutes" (National Lampoon's European Vacation) is rather daunting at this late stage in the day.  So we choose to have tea and cookies in one of the cafes inside the Louvre and check out the huge gift shop, which was interesting, and I joked that I didn't need to see the real art.....it's all right here for sale!

Outside the Louvre near the glass pyramid

We managed to find the right bus back to the hotel (hurray!) and had a nice dinner (I had a cheeseburger which was tasty, but different.....very rare beef and a generous dollop of what I assume was some sort of odd tasting liquid cheese), then made our way close to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up.  By now, my feet were aching (wrong shoes...live and learn),  so we did not take the elevator up to the top.  Just enjoyed it from the ground floor!

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you,
 it will be enough.


~Meister Eckhart

Tuesday, October 13th

Another wonderful breakfast at Cafe du Marche just down the street from our hotel on Rue Cler. The prices are very reasonable and the croissants are perfectly delicious!

Next, it's off to take the Metro (underground) to Montmartre

http://www.parisdigest.com/promenade/montmartre.htm

which was a bit challenging to navigate initially, but with the help of a friendly English-speaking local, we get the tickets purchased and figure out which line to take.

 

This is probably one of the deepest underground lines in the system.  Unknowingly, we begin to climb the steps up to the street and discover that there are 10 flights to manage.  A group of people ahead of us are huffing and puffing up the climb, and the man in the goup delights in announcing that "It's TEN FLIGHTS, people!"  Ugh.

A woman in that group says this, "Le petit dejeuner es fin!"

("My breakfast is over!")

I concur.

We wander amongst the charming shops, cobblestone streets and then to the incredible Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica at the top of the hill.  Fortunately, for those of us whose feet are not accustomed to all the walking, we are able to take the funiculare to the top.

Sacre Coeur is truly an amazing place.  There were performers (musical and non-offensive mime) on the steps in front of the Basilica which only add to its overall charm.

We spend two wonderful hours inside, sitting in the peaceful energy, lighting candles and enjoying the art and relics.  It was a gift to be able to spend time in such sacred energy and I now consider it one of my favorite places on the planet.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/paris-sacre-coeur

Archangel Michael

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

  ~Saint Teresa of Avila

Wednesday, October 14th

A low-key day, which was welcome. We take the bus (finally getting that figured out) back to the Notre Dame area for some scarf shopping (5 Euros for really nice scarves!) and to visit the cathedral one more time. We eat lunch in the park and enjoy the beautifully cool weather.

An odd thing we noticed.....none of the souvenir shops around Notre Dame carry any sort of religious articles. Nearly every shop had goofy little plastic statues of Quasimodo (didn't even know it was him until I picked up the figurine and saw the little hump on his back) and Esmerelda (looking like a tramp), but nothing pertaining to the spiritual nature of the site. Notre Dame itself has a tiny "gift shop" (more like a small counter that too many people were crowded around and pushing to get into), but nothing like Westminster Abbey or even Sacre Coeur.

We stumble across a small newspaper/magazine shop and spy some metal statues of Archangel Michael in the window. Excited, we enter the shop, only to be greeted by a toothless old woman, guarding her possessions. We try to pick up one of the statues (obviously for sale since they all had price stickers on them), but were scolded in French to put them down. I say my standard line, "Parlez-Vous Anglais?" to which the old woman hisses, "NON!"
Alrighty, then!

No purchases were made at this establishment.

We have our last dinner in Paris at one of our favorite corner cafes and enjoy the most heavenly creme brulee ever. Everything just seems to taste better when you are sitting a block away from the Eiffel Tower!

Like any big city, I know that Paris has its dark side, its dirty corners and shady characters, but the overriding impression I take with me is one of welcoming, sincere people who take pride in their sense of style, are quick to laugh and are willing to assist a traveller with the language challenges.

I was struck by the amount of eye contact that was made and the easy smiles. I felt welcomed and at home the entire time and am grateful for all those Parisiennes who made the effort to speak English with us, point us in the right direction when we were lost and feed us excellent food the entire time!

**Merci beaucoup**

Thursday, October 15th

Our last day in Paris! We begin our re-entry into the American culture by having breakfast at Starbuck's and then returning to the hotel to catch the cab to Charles de Gaulle Airport. We are treated to a white-knuckled, heart-pounding cab ride at the hands of an ancient Chinese driver who apparently had nothing to lose and was free to race like a maniac on meth through wild twists and turns on the freeway. I stopped counting our near-misses with other vehicles and tried to visualize arriving at the airport alive. Which we did.

The flight from Paris to London was lovely and stress-free.....empty seat between us, plenty of leg room, cheerful flight attendants who offer drinks and "savory nibbles". I love the name of this snack and think it might be something exotic, but it turns out to be mixed nuts. We arrive at Heathrow ahead of schedule.....and then the trouble begins.

Long lines at security, strange shuttle rides to some part of another terminal under construction and oddly far away from the rest of the action, an American teenage girl who chattered away to her silent friend ("Like, are we driving to L.A.?""Like, this is way too far, dude.""Like what were we thinking?") as the rest of us envisioned stuffing a sock in her mouth. Tense, sweating people with too much carry-on baggage, and then me being interrogated at the gate because some mysterious code appeared on the computer screen when my boarding pass was scanned that told agents I was a person of suspicion and should be questioned immediately.

I never was told what the problem was, and I did make it across the tarmac and up the steep steps to the awaiting 747, lugging bags stuffed to the brim.

Since I watched too many unrealistic movies in the 1970s, I still have it in my mind that a 747 is going to somehow be the epitome of luxury....like this, perhaps:

****************************************************

But what it turned out to be was more along the lines of this.

This flight was absolutely full to the very last seat. We were seated near an extremely agitated Italian man who was yelling at the flight attendant and juggling his crying baby at the same time (the baby continued to cry for the first three hours of the flight). The air conditioning was not working sufficiently. I downgrade my expectations from scoring a luxurious row of seats all to myself in which I can stretch out and sleep, to mere survival of myself and those around me who might be harmed when I spontaneously combust.

Eleven hours with a headwind, an Irish girl with a bad cold in the seat between us, and the prospect of swollen feet and ankles from the long hours of sitting. The British flight crew is testy, surly and cross with all of us cattle in coach.

We land safely at LAX and practically explode out of the airplane in relief. It was a challenging leg of our journey, but thankfully, with time and perspective, we can now laugh about it all.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to take this wonderful trip. The memories will last a lifetime!

We found on our journey, as well as in the places where we stopped, that they treated us with as much confidence and good-will as if they had known us all their lives.

~Junipero Serra

October Sojourn

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.
~Friedrich Nietzsche