Heath left us in our seats as soon as our plane touched down
in at London Heathrow. His flight to Paris left in one and a half hours, so he
positioned himself at the front of the plane. Raven and I continued through to
customs and collected our bags, leaving his big backpack in Baggage Storage for
the night. We made our way via tube to North London and the home of an old
friend from Wimbledon nanny days, Anthony. Raven and I were both relieved to
finally be in an English speaking country. Upon reflection, it was super
excellent to walk out of an airport without being harassed by anyone to take
their taxi, hotel or guided tour. Blessed anonymity. After settling into the
flat and briefly catching up on each other’s lives (almost 20 years
worth), we went out for dinner at
Pizzagone, a tasty pizzeria a few tube stops nearby. This is an eatery that
Anthony and his brother Stephen frequent often. Stephen met us there for
dinner, but we didn't get to meet his wife. Stephen got along famously with
Raven, as he is one of those adults that is never far from his childlike side.
The pizza, bruschetta and wine was excellent and plentiful, leaving loads for
breakfast the next day.
After a bit of a lie in the next morning, I completed the
three hour round trip to pick up Heath's backpack from left luggage. Upon my
return, Anthony took us to nearby Camden Town for shopping and lunch. I am glad
we did as I needed to buy a jumper (we know them as sweaters). Brrr. The
weather in the UK was sitting around 20 degrees. Chilly for us after India and
Africa. I had my treasured MEC down vest with me, but had gotten rid of all
other cold weather clothes to make room in my pack for the souvenirs and gifts
we had collected along the way. Camden Town is in North London, and is an area
that has locks going through it, so you are never far from the water side. The
area is known for its market area, has funky shops and cafes and a huge market
area that has been decorated with full size iron horses that commemorate the
history of the area, as horses used to pull the barges through the locks along
the towpaths. History is never far away in London, and as we returned to Anthony’s
house, walking along the narrow towpaths of the locks, we could see grooves in
the sides of the overpassing road bridges that were for the historic ropes or
tow lines. Sometimes the bridges were so low the horses would have had to make
a detour over the top. Narrow houseboats appear to be the only craft that use
these locks now.
This was the kind of slow paced sightseeing that I wanted to
fill my remaining travel days with. It was tempting (for all of about 30
seconds) to go with Heath and see more of the continent, but I needed a break.
I was ready to spend time with friends in the UK, and take in perhaps one museum. Raven had wanted to see
Paris, but it would have been a bit of a nightmare facilitating that, and in
the end she was grateful to take things slower in England. Our consolation
prize was tickets to the Lion King musical at the Lyceum theatre.
In the mid 90’s I spent almost two years living and working
in London. On my weekends and holidays I had seen a lot of what London had to
offer, as well as much of the United Kingdom and some European highlights. This
time I had no desire to see anything but the Egyptian exhibit in the British
Museum. I knew it would be incredible after being in Cairo. Our third day in
London, Raven and I took the tube to central London, jumped off and walked
directly into Ancient Egypt.
The wealth of display in the British Museum is
arguably better than what is left in Egypt. I know many items have been
returned to the motherland over the years, and I am not sure how I feel about
the British having the cream of the crop of other country’s wealth and
treasures, but it sure was nice to walk into an incredible museum, free of
charge, without being hassled outside the door to buy crap. We spent about half
an hour there, then walked to the nearby Lyceum Theater to pick up our tickets
and suss out our seats. We had pre purchased pretty good seats, in the isle of
the stalls. Matinees were full of school groups doing end of year events. This
boded well for having short kids sit in front of us, but of course, it turned
out to be two big men. Raven is taller than me, so I hijacked the aisle seat.
(Thanks Rave!)
The show was magical. It was incredible to be transported to
the plains of Africa, where we had just been. It was a top rate musical with fantastic
and often surprising costumes and stage settings.
Stephen belongs to an organization that gives free tickets to
shows and he passed us two tickets to see another musical, West End Men, that
was playing the same night. Anthony had a previous engagement, and Rave didn’t
want to go out again. To be truthful, I
didn’t either, as the show didn’t really pique my interest. But, not wanting to
pass up a free Broadway show, I went to it solo, secretly hoping there might be
a little Chippendale-esque action. The performers were talented singers and
musicians, doing renditions of popular West End songs, but I left after the
first set.
Another day we visited relatives from the Thomas family. We call them the "English People", but their real names are Maurice and Chris Ward. They don't live in London, but took the train in for the day. We watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, then they took us for overpriced tea at Harrods.
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| We brought our own queen. |
Things we appreciated about London: drinking the tap water,
flushing toilets, being anonymous in the crowds and being autonomous. Speaking
English was awesome and getting correct answers to our questions like: “Where
is the tube station…?” . In my opinion
getting the response of “I don’t know” is much better than being given false
directions! I donned my running attire for a neighbourhood jaunt every morning.
It was lovely exploring the parks of the neighbourhood, sharing the pathways
and pavement with the other locals recreating or walking, and not standing out
as a target or a strange western lady. My diminished cardio liked the hills,
especially the one passing Highgate Cemetery. How cool to run by and see
overgrown graves from the 1400’s. Unfortunately it opened at 10 am, so I never
went in. Famous people from the past like Coleridge, and current times like
Malcolm McClaren now ‘live’ ‘lie?’ there.
Our last night in London we had another dinner at the
Pizzagone restaurant.
(Heath will laugh at this because we have different
viewpoints about restaurants. My preference would be to go to a different one
for every meal, and his is to stick with a tried and true one, once found) At
the end of another delicious meal the owner had lined up three lemon drop shots
on the counter to see us off. One for me, Anthony and Raven. I said to him “My
daughter is only 12!” He thought she must have been 16. Raven felt pretty grown
up- she drank a quarter of it, then got a little silly on the bus on the way
home, more intoxicated by the excitement of it than the actual alcohol- “I feel
lighter…am I supposed to feel like this? ………..”
The next morning, leaving most of our luggage in Anthony’s
flat, Raven and I took the tube to Victoria Coach Station to buy tickets to
Loughbrough on Soar. Unfortunately seats had sold out quicker than usual. It
was Friday morning but there was a weekend camping musical festival happening
nearby, which we didn’t know about. We parked our butts in a nearby café with
free wifi to entertain us during the long wait for the 2pm bus.
We could have walked over to nearby Westminster Abby or other
sites, but Raven really preferred to wait in the café, and I didn’t push the
issue.
It was excellent seeing old friends in Loughbrough. Julie and
the kids picked us up. It had been three years since we had seen them in
Canada. Raven and the oldest boy Sam were in the same grade at Crystal View
Elementary. Julie and I had never spent a huge amount of time together, so I
was conscious of not wanting to be an inconvenience to their routine. My
worries were for naught, as their household was relaxed, the family an excellent
host. Sam had given his bedroom up for us, excited to be sleeping in the cool
upstairs loft area. Raven found more in common with seven year old Georgia than
with Sam or younger Dylan. Boys and girls are a little awkward at this age so
they didn’t share more than a few polite words to each other. Julie and I had
running in common. Her and husband Richard are training for the Lululemon Half
Marathon in Vancouver when they come to Canada in the summer. My diminished cardio and pace couldn’t quite keep up with Julie- she worked me- Julie has transformed
herself into a goddess; through healthier gluten free meal plans and exercise.
Raven and I took away a number of excellent recipes to replicate in Canada, all of
them wheat free.
One day Raven got to check out the local stable, as Georgia was thinking of taking up riding. The handlers never let go of the lead rope, which was different from the riding experiences raven has had in Canada.
Another day we went to Alton Towers Theme Park, which specializes in roller coaster rides.
Super cool Disneyland-like fun.
Raven could have stayed with the Fullers for the rest of our time,
but we had booked coach tickets to Leeds to visit my cousin Jenny, followed by on-going tickets to Edinburgh to stay with our best friends, Tanya, John and their son Davis.
Visiting Jenny and her daughter Ruth in Leeds didn’t go
exactly to plan, as they had to make a hasty retreat back to Spain. Jenny
teaches English as a second language and has a house in Spain. She had rented
it out while they were in the UK, (Jenny took a contract at the University of
Leeds), which finished the day we visited. We had planned on visiting her for a
few days, but they had moved out of their flat and were staying with friends,
so she couldn’t host us. I had coach tickets from Leeds to Edinburgh that were
unchangeable because they were an on line cheap seat deal. I found a host
through Couchsurfers and we visited Jenny for a few hours, in a park near the
university. She drove us to our bed for the night after our short, but sweet,
visit. We never got to meet her daughter Ruth.
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| Jenny Raven and Su |
The coach ride the next day took the ‘milk route’ to Scotland,
eventually landing us in central Edinburgh. We weren’t sure if our friends were going to be able to meet us at the coach station.
When Raven and I alighted from the coach, we attempted calling them, with no
answer, so then had to hunt down some free wifi to get the local bus directions
to their house that Tanya had previously messaged us. We were in the main
shopping area, and after a quick stop in a café around the corner, we walked a
few minutes down the hill to the main street, Princes Street. It is a lovely
city- this part feels open, as there are bridges connecting the two sides of
the city, and the buildings are historic and grey. In her last message, Tanya
had mentioned we might see Heath as she thought he might be coming our way. I
thought that was fairly impossible, as his flight had landed in the airport a
few hours before our arrival time, and he would have been at their house by
this time. Tanya had given us a selection of 3 busses to catch, as she lives
fairly centrally just off a main artery in town and a number of busses route
past their student housing. The only thing I was unsure of was which side of
the street we should wait on. I inquired of one bus driver, who directed us to
wait on the bridge, just around the corner. We jumped on the first bus that
came, and while I was fumbling with change to pay our fare, Raven had spotted
Heath at the back of the same bus! Super cool reunion!
It was so nice to alight the bus as a family and walk to
their housing. It looked familiar, as when Tanya John and Davis left Canada
almost 2 years ago we had ‘google – street viewed’ their house.
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| Scottish Haggis was been 'foodie-ified' |
The first night we walked to a nearby pub for a tasty dinner.
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| Pub fish and chips |
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| Arthurs Seat |
We had 6 days with them and it passed too quickly. Tanya and
I immediately got some girl time in by walking over to Arthurs Seat for a hike.
I had visited this area before from Wimbledon nanny days, but had forgotten a lot
of the details. The mini mountain looms over the city. The terrain is open and gentle,
with grass, rocks and broom and gorse bushes a-plenty. Very ‘moor-like’.
Heath will fill you in on the rest of the adventure, as we
took a couple days RV-ing up the North East coast of Scotland, then returning
via Loch Ness. Tanya and I took some time to attempt a small mountain- we got to
the col before the summit before the winds felt like they would fly us off the
path. We retreated to the lee and descended.
