In the Left Lane

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

2012-01-31T15:44:00.000-08:00

Thousand Autumns was getting an insane amount of buzz a while back, so I picked it up, not least because I so enjoyed Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.

Here's what I liked in a Nice Crisp September Day sort of way:

Prose. Mitchell knows how to construct a clause, a sentence, a paragraph. So much of it is so gorgeous, even when he's describing something as dull as eighteenth-century trading bureaucracy.
The More Structure Changes the More It Stays the Same. A few reviews I read said that Mitchell jettisoned his earlier works' structural similarities, that here we just get a conventional, single narrative. I'd disagree with those reviewers. Although we don't get a series of narrators or nested stories this time, we do get an English voice relating Dutch merchant interaction with feudal Japan. The collision of culture, language, and people doesn't feel like too far a stretch from the structure of Cloud Atlas. Cloud Atlas is to Canterbury Tales as Thousand Autumns is to Troilus and Criseyde. (That's right: I went there. I also just compared Mitchell to Chaucer, which was totally unexpected.)
Miss Aibagawa. She's the most interesting character with the most (or possibly only) riveting plot line. She incites the most interesting behavior in others, but she's fully realized in her own right. I severely disliked some of the decisions she made, but I respected that they fit her character.

Here's what I found to be a bit too much in a Rainy Cold November Day sort of way:

Narrative shape. The pacing is exhausting, especially in the first third of the book. The level of detail is downright cumbersome at times, and although I fully respect that Mitchell researched the crap out of the whole scenario, it feels like he didn't make many choices when it came to deciding which research would go into the book--all of it! and the kitchen sink!
Jacob de Zoet. Let's get one thing straight: Jacob de Zoet is a tool, and he never stops being a tool. I kind of wish I knew that going into the book. Because of his toolishness, his specific plot rarely gets very exciting, and I was especially frustrated with his conclusion.

So can we find a happy medium sometime in October? Mostly. B

Rainy Weekend

2012-01-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

Taco Shop

2012-01-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

So everything that the Lighthouse did wrong, the Taco Shop did right.

Again, it's a little place with no frills and basic menu--but at the Taco Shop, we didn't get the sense that the staff was doing us a favor by offering us a table. Perhaps more importantly, every bit of food was fresh and tasty.

It wasn't as inexpensive as one might hope, but it felt fairly priced for the quality of food, the fun atmosphere, and the Sausalito location.

Next time we go will have to be an evening excursion so we can sample the margaritas!

Lighthouse Breakfast and Lunch

2012-01-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

Tom says that I have to start blogging about the less-than-positive experiences in addition to the totally-absolutely-positive experiences. I suspect this is because we're both way too tired to go out for more blog fodder after a less-than-stellar meal/event/whatever.

We decided to explore Sausalito restaurants a little bit, starting with breakfast, because breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day. So we went to the #1 place on Tripadvisor: Lighthouse Breakfast and Lunch. It looked like the kind of place we'd love: no frills, basic menu, little place.

Alas, things didn't start well. We waited for more than twenty minutes while a variety of tweedles (that's right, tweedles) occupied tables long after they finished their meals and while other people (of the non-tweedle variety) held tables for other people who hadn't arrived yet. Irritating.

We finally got a table and some coffee, which was okay. Tom ordered a special that included scrambled eggs with onions, spinach, mushrooms, chicken sausage, mango, and habanero peppers. His review: "pretty good."

I, meanwhile, made the mistake of ordering the fruit plate, which I know isn't the type of thing one should order at this place, but I can't eat eggs, and I'd hope that if it's on the menu, it's at least acceptable. Alas, this wasn't even close to acceptable; half the grapes were rotten; the honeydew was overripe and tangy; the watermelon was unripe and tasteless; the pineapple was canned. The cantaloupe was the only passable item on the plate. I'd like to take the blame for this lousy fruit, since it is dumb to order fruit in January...but I had the best fruit ever in early April in freaking Edinburgh. So, no excuses.

To sum up: a twenty-minute wait for a "pretty good" breakfast and an unacceptable breakfast all for the ridiculous cost of twenty dollars = we won't return to the Lighthouse.

I miss Gino.

DMV Vignettes

2012-01-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

New Jersey DMV 1999: driving test
I can barely hear my mother over the sound of torrential rain as I drive to the DMV. It isn't a shower. It isn't a steady rain. It is buckets of water lashing at the car from every direction. Through the stream flowing down the windshield, I see the boy in front of me step out of the passenger side of a microscopic Mazda Miada to take the driver seat from his father. He barely manages to parallel park.

Mr. License Tester Man looks over from under his umbrella to see that I drove a mid-nineties Ford Taurus wagon to the test in that rain. I've already passed the test.

Maryland MVA 2004: changing car registration, driver's license, etc.
I've survived the Prince George's County MVA for several hours before I'm finally paying the bill for the Maryland license, registration, plates, and I don't even know what else.

The tired man behind the desk clearly enunciates, "Two-fourteen, please."

I confidently whip out a ten-dollar bill, thinking, "Wow! That's way cheaper than I thought!"

The tired man looks at the bill in my hand before regarding at me with both pity and disgust: "Two-hundred-fourteen, please."

My response: "Are you serious?" As if the MVA guy was just messing with me.

Being an adult is expensive.

Maryland MVA 2005: new-to-me car registration, though you'd never know it from this conversation.
[Editor's note: two parts of my original name was indeed very Irish, although I don't know why people consistently think "Elizabeth" is Irish.]

"Oh, wow, what an Irish name you have!"

"Yeah."

"That is so nice."

"Thanks."

"This is embarrassing, but could I ask you a favor?"

"Um. Sure."

"Could you show me some of the dancing?"

[totally blank stare]

"Like, Lord of the Dance dancing?"

"Um. I don't know how to do that. That skill didn't come with the name."

Virginia DMV 2007: changing car registration, driver's license, etc.
There's very little required to obtain a Virginia driver's license, but I am nervous about the vision test, because I know I've been having trouble seeing things lately. But vision isn't covered in my health insurance, and I've spent grad school living on a "graduate assistant stipend" that barely covers luxuries like rent and peanut butter.

I feign total confusion when I look in the vision box test thing and can't see anything.

The nicest of nice DMV ladies explains to me that it's a bureaucratic nightmare to get my license back if I fail this test, and she gives me about a dozen guesses at the letters before I get enough of them correct to pass the test.

I make an appointment with an optometrist the next day. He doesn't let me leave his office until he personally makes my glasses. When I get home with my new glasses, I inform Tom that the paint job in our condo is terrible, the picture on our new TV is amazing, and I didn't know how much I missed being able to read street signs.

California DMV 2012: oh, this again.
An exercise in levels of ridiculousness:

1) California gives new residents a mere 10 days--TEN DAYS--to get CA licenses...

2) ...Despite that meager, 10-day window, there are no Saturday or evening hours at the DMV. The best we can do is show up at 7:30 for the 8:00 opening. Bah.

3) There's also no proper queuing system, though a man comes around with a cart straight out of 1953 full of forms.

4) The front desk won't give us a number until we fill out our forms (which we couldn't download online), after which they'll give us a number to sit and wait with said completed forms in hand.

5) No one can actually read: they think Tom is doing a name change. This is partially his parents' fault: they gave him three names that could all be first names or all last names, so Tom has spent his life responding to "Mr. Thomas?" "Mr. Middle Name?" AND "Mr. Last Name?"

6) Further evidence no one can actually read: they try to put all my information through under my original name, even though I specifically point out the whole name change situation and provide every possible form of ID and documentation.

7) There's another woman in California with my exact (current) name with my exact birthday (same day, month, and year). This is ridiculous and a little creepy.

8) We have to take a 36-question, multiple-choice test before they'll give us licenses. It is the most terribly written document I have ever read; the syntax alone gives me heartburn. Tom is just happy that he "beat" me: he answered one question incorrectly; I answered two questions incorrectly.

9) Apparently, you can drive with a dog in the bed of a pickup truck in California, so long as the dog is "properly secured." I'm curious how they define that.

10) They won't give us our official licenses right away--they're sent in the mail from Sacramento. We have to keep our now-hole-punched Virginia licenses as photo ID and the most unofficial-looking scraps of paper as evidence that we have California licenses. What is this, 1999?

I've also misplaced my keys a few times.

2012-01-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

So you know that feeling when you move to a new place, and you don't quite know where anything is? Where is the spot where I throw my purse when I walk in the door? Where did I leave it last time? Crap, I lost my purse...oh, no I didn't. Now, what did I do with the checkbook?

Moving back to the States is like that times infinity, because we don't even drive on the correct side of the road, and I've been in a perpetual state of confusion for a while now. It's exhausting. I suspect we exacerbated this situation, because we arrived calling this "home," because it is indeed within the borders of our home country, but California definitely isn't home. Yet.

People's very kind curiosity continually reminds me that I'm not home:

"Where did you move from?"

"London."

This is the sort of thing people envision when I say, "London."

"Oh. But you don't sound like you're from London."

"Before that we lived in the DC area."

This is the sort of thing people envision when I say, "D.C."

"Oh, so you went there to see family for the holidays?"

"No, we're originally from New Jersey."

And this is not even close to what people envision when
I say, "New Jersey." But this is how Tom and I spent most
of our adolescence.

"[insert Sopranos or Jersey Shore reference here.]"

When I met a friend of mine seven (seven!) years ago, I asked her where she was from, and she had a similarly complex answer: grew up in place A, went to school in place B, and lived in place C for a couple years before arriving here, place D. At the time, I thought it was a little superfluous to share all the information when she knew me for a total of 30 seconds, but now I get it. I can't just say that I'm from New Jersey. It isn't that simple anymore. DC and London shaped the person I currently am in profoundly important ways.

I'm sure eventually I will say the same of San Francisco.

For now, I'm just a little confused.

First Saturday

2012-01-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

After what feels like ages of just taking care of stuff, we decided to take a few hours off from setting up life to explore a few places.

As you might expect, Muir Woods was packed with tourists on this gorgeous Saturday, but all we had to do was take the "Hillside Trail," to escape them.

Please pardon my Saturday morning hair.

As someone raised on Star Wars, I kept a lookout for ewoks. As someone who recently saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Tom kept a lookout for chimps.

From Muir Woods, we made our way to the coast for a lookout point...

...before heading down to Stinson Beach for some lunch at the Sand Dollar (Tom was a fan of the fish tacos; I highly recommend the tofu avocado sandwich).

Post-lunch, we strolled over to the beach, where this sign multiplied Tom's fear of sharks by a factor of 10.

He kept a safe distance from the water the whole time.

Housekeeping

2012-01-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last week someone on Facebook linked to this post, and this little blog went viral for a whole twenty-four hours: 334 unique visitors in the course of one day. Here ends my quest for internet fame.

Also last week: toddlers are to Angry Birds as grandmas are to Bridge.

Kill the pigs!

I don't understand this game at all, but it made my
grandma happy, which is all that really mattered.

Alas, after a whirlwind of family and and friends and miscellaneous NJ errands and much regret over our lack of a DC excursion, we went to Newark to hop on a plane yesterday.

I am so very glad to be starting this life in San Francisco, although the bureaucracy and details of it all may be the end of me. You wouldn't believe the hoops we had to jump through to get a Verizon account going again (our California location, NJ billing address, and VA home address on our official ID set off all sorts of fraud alerts). I'm pretty sure that our health insurance is all screwed up. And how is it possible that we had this much stuff in storage in VA--all I remember of spring 2009 is donating, selling, and tossing so much stuff. Yet Tom continues to hold onto his original undergraduate grade reports for "sentimental reasons."

We also left a few things in my parents' house, things we didn't want going to storage for 2+ years--my jewelry box, our wedding china, etc. So we had a bunch of extra luggage for our flight, packed with breakables cushioned by my cousin's clothes that were supposed to go to Goodwill in NJ, but will now go to Goodwill in CA.

Can't make this stuff up.

As soon as our London shipment arrives, all of our belongings will be in one place for the first time in almost three years, but before that can happen, we have to assemble all the things, crush boxes, toss packing material, figure out what goes where and how and why, stock the kitchen with food, manipulate my way into taking over the larger bedroom closet, get a house line because we have crap cell reception in here, stick a towel rack on the wall in the bathroom, organize everything within an inch of its life, and secretly dispose of about half of Tom's wardrobe that came out of storage. That doesn't even touch on all the things I want to do to actually make this place our home--after spending so much time in a flat where we couldn't even decide what hung on the walls, I'm impatient to make this little condo ours (we plan on living in it for 2 to 3 years, after all).

Oh, and apparently we start work tomorrow? Oy.

So blogging to going to be a little light for a while. A couple times a week? Maybe?

I swear I'll have some real live blog fodder from this
gorgeous place eventually.

Twelve Things: Food in Europe

2011-12-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

Let's be honest, loads of our favorite memories are directly related to food and alcohol. So who am I to skip that list?

Beer in a German beerhall (1)

If you haven't consumed a liter of beer, you haven't really been to Germany.

Whisky and music in a Scottish pub (2)

You don't like whisky? Fine. More for me.

Tapas in Madrid (3)

Tapas are just so much fun: small plates, lots to try, plenty of jamon.

Pasta in Italy (4)

This one is controversial, because our Milanese and Roman friends may start a rumble over which precise region of Italy offers the best pasta. So I shall be diplomatic and simply claim that all of Italy offers superior pasta.

Pizza in Rome (5)

Okay, diplomacy is over. Pizza in Rome = the best.

Wine in a vineyard (6)

Somehow exploring the area and following the process from vine to bottle makes the wine taste better, no matter which region you choose to visit. (Although we heartily endorse the Côtes du Rhône.)

Champagne (7)

And while we're on the subject of wine, we had zero appreciation for champagne until we figured out that France was keeping all the best (and cheap!) stuff for itself.

Brat and gluhwein at German winter market (8)

Holy crap, am I still going on about winter markets? Yes. Yes, I am. Now go find one with a nice brat and proper gluhwein (preferably with amaretto).

Skyr in all its forms in Iceland (9)

When I was at Whole Foods ordering our Thanksgiving turkey, I interrogated multiple employees to see if anyone could procure me skyr. They could not. Maybe Siggi's ships to San Francisco?

Pierogi in Krakow (10)

So, pierogi don't photograph so well, but there's no beating an awesome batch on a cold Krakow day.

Restaurants where you have to earn it (11)

We've discovered a few restaurants where you have to be in the know to get yourself a seat. For example, Cal Pep required a strategically early arrival; Da Francesco required bringing Romans with us for negotiating purposes; Chez Agnes required showering a puppy with loads of attention so Agnes would give us a table and end up showing us her 1948 wedding album.

Greek salad in the Greek Islands (12)

I don't really care for tomatoes; cucumbers are kinda boring; feta is annoyingly crumbly. But throw those things together with some olive oil, onion, and olives on a hot Mediterranean afternoon? And I'm completely sold.

Twelve Things: Memorable European Travel

2011-12-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

Early morning Paris (1)

Tom insisted I drag myself from a nice, cozy bed to appreciate Paris before there were too many people out and about. I objected. I whined. I was generally a pain in the ass. But Tom was right: you can't beat early morning Paris.

Driving the Ring of Kerry (2)

The Ring of Kerry is a superb place to visit: the scenery changed every hundred feet, and we spent more time trying to soak it in and capture the experience with the camera than we spent in the car.

Whale watching in Faxafloi (3)

I had been looking forward to this experience, but I was still completely blown away by how exhilarating whale watching would be. My mom was right: I should have been a marine biologist.

Exploring Stockholm (4)

Stockholm is one of those places that didn't come with a reputation to live up to. Few people we know had been there, and we knew little about the city. So Stockholm was one of the most pleasant surprises of our time in Europe. It is a gorgeous city that makes creative use of the land and the water, and we made astounding discoveries everywhere we went. We left thinking that we could live there (provided I packed a sunlamp).

Auschwitz and Birkenau (5)

This was a hard day. I nearly lost it when I realized the bolt of cloth in front of me was made of hair from Auschwitz victims. But we left agreeing that these places should remain standing: "Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940-1945"

Hiking and riding gondolas in Zermatt (6)

Although we were conflicted about Zermatt, there's no doubt that we will never forget the sweeping vistas we enjoyed there.

Lake Como evening (7)

After the cold mountains of Switzerland, Lake Como was exactly what we needed.

Evening with the locals in Rome (8)

Do you know any Romans? You should try to find some.

Mosques in Istanbul (9)

After seeing four frillion churches and cathedrals in Europe, it was a fun change of pace to visit three mosques in one weekend and appreciate all the similarity and all the difference.

Wandering Santorini (10)

All the Greek Islands we visited were fantastic, and the trip was a perfect balance of relaxing on the beach and exploring ancient artifacts. But there's a reason Santorini is the most popular destination: the scenery is astounding no matter which direction you look, from the towns of Oia and Fira to the black sand beaches to sunset to the crazy caldera shape the island retains.

Berlin wintermarkets (11)

We have concluded there's just no way to replicate our first experience with winter markets in Berlin (Prague's were a touristy disappointment; Dresden's were fun but just weren't the same). We didn't really know what wintermarkets were when we showed up in Berlin, and we found the most fun, convivial atmosphere. Even though we knew absolutely no one, we felt like we were part of it all, celebrating the season like Germans.

Touring Isle of Skye (12)

I've been quite honest about my irrefutable love for Scotland. So I'm cheating and sticking the entire trip on this list. From our home base in the area to the Trotternish Peninsula to touring Talisker and the Cuillin Mountains, it was the perfect trip, and I remember every minute of it despite the volume of whisky I consumed. So clearly, something magical was happening.

Twelve Things: Living London

2011-12-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

You thought I couldn't come up with more lists? Ha! You haven't been reading this blog long, have you?

Yes, I do have more listing to list. This time, I have twelve things that I shall miss about our daily lives in London. Not the museums we manage to see on the weekends or the things we bother to photograph. Just the stuff of daily life.

Ahem.

Regent's Park (1)

Okay, I lied a little bit. We have a lot of photographs of Regent's Park. But it's just so photogenic! We visited for a long walk daily in the summers. Although we made fewer trips through the fall as the days grew darker.

Regent's Park, November 2011

TFL (2)

I have some complaints for TFL (namely, the weekend planned closures), but for the most part, I really appreciate how efficient the tube and bus systems are. I mean, during rush hour, there are trains every minute or two! It so beats my commute in DC, where trains were at *least* six minutes apart, often eight (or seventeen minutes apart during non-peak hours).

I have no idea why I have a picture of a Royal Oak tube sign.

Politeness on public transportation (3)

This is really just peer pressure, but I enjoy that travelers are conditioned to allow people to exit trains before boarding. So they do. So nice. I also can't tell you how many times I've seen people give up seats for people less able to stand or for little kids. And my heart melts just a little bit every time someone helps a little old lady with her suitcase or cart on the stairs.

This picture has nothing to do with politeness anywhere, but isn't my sister gorgeous?

Architecture through the ages (4)

I love that there are 21st-century buildings next to 17th-century buildings next to the remnants of the Roman-built London Wall. The efforts to preserve old buildings--while continuing to build modern structures next door--is one of my favorite things about the London landscape.

Hey, look! Saint Paul's reflected in something shiny and new!

Using British phrases without sounding like a pompous Anglophile (5)

I live in London, so I can say that we have to "queue" (because what sort of "line" are we talking about?) or I have to "pop to the loo" (because "going to the bathroom" is so crass), and no one takes notice. But if I say those things in San Francisco, I fear I'll get punched in the face for pomposity, inserting British vocabulary into my American accent. (Note: if you actually have a [genuine] British accent, you can obviously get away with whatever Britishisms you like where ever you are.)

Baby Meg says, "Bollocks."

Real farmers markets (6)

We had a "farmers market" in Virginia that was a total joke--terrible, overpriced produce that rotted within a day. The "farmers" knew they could fool the city slickers of the metro area if they brought a guy in a cowboy hat with a guitar. Very annoying. So I have very much appreciated our weekly market that actually has excellent produce (and meats and dairy products) at competitive prices.

I'd like summer back, please.

The possibility of blaming the British kitchen appliances or ingredients when I screw up a recipe (7)

It's true. It didn't happen often, but I totally did this. I'm sorry.

Note: I didn't screw this one up.

Not giving a crap when someone spills wine on the couch (8)

When we moved here, we were kind of annoyed by the whole "furnished flat" thing. Our relocation package required that we rent furnished, despite our objection that it would be cheaper to just ship our very few belongings (this got doubly annoying when we were informed of this very fact months after moving here, as if we had anything to do with the policy we ourselves objected to). But there's also a freedom in not owning anything in the flat. Spilled wine? Whatever. It's not my couch.

Apparently, I didn't give a crap about spillage then, either.

NHS (9)

NHS isn't perfect, but I shall miss it, nonetheless. It's nice not to have a monetary value assigned to my health, and I don't have to argue with bureaucrats about why my treatment isn't covered (the two times we used private insurance here, we regretted it and the dozens of emails and phone calls it required to get reimbursed).

And now I shall distract the rebid Republicans in my family with
a picture of double threat cuteness: Baby Beth and Baby Lindsay.

Computer communication (10)

So this is weird, but I *barely* use my cell phone, and I like it that way. I communicate with people almost exclusively via Skype and email. I suspect this pattern developed because (a) originally, I couldn't understand any of my British friends on the phone, so I required them to email me, and (b) I don't like being constantly available, even when running errands, working, or riding the bus. It's unnecessary. If I could, I'd flambé Tom's blackberry, though that's probably a separate matter entirely.

Blackberry in San Pietro:
first sign of the apocalypse.

Job (11)

I shall not speak for Tom, but I already miss my job in London. I had an awesome boss who was nothing but supportive and encouraging, and I worked with fantastic people who communicated well and didn't make ridiculous demands. I also got unlimited use of a copy machine. I couldn't ask for anything more.

I was about this age when I seriously informed my
parents that I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up.
I mean, I already had the overalls, so...

The left lane (12)

I'm programmed to use the left lane. I arrived here, and my lefty self just switched; I can't seem to switch back. This has been a huge challenge when driving back in the States, and hopefully my next job requires a commute on public transportation.

I can't even fathom my next commute right now;
still too busy mourning the loss of my London commute.
No, I meant that seriously.

Thus, I'm comfortable with keeping this blog, In the Left Lane, even when we're in a place where we're supposed to drive on the right...and yup, that means we're holding onto this humble little blog. So although I realize (and understand!) that some readers shall exit this scene once it morphs from European Travel Blog to Adjusting to Life in Northern California, the rest of you stay tuned for our San Francisco adventures!

Twelve Things: Beyond London

2011-12-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

We spent far more weekends than we anticipated wandering the English countryside. These are twelve experiences that came to mind when we were chatting about all that time we spent on a train or in a car.

B&Bs (1)
England does B&Bs really well. There's a whole B&B culture that just doesn't (and probably couldn't) exist in the States. In exchange for spending less money and perhaps dealing with someone else's schedule (few B&Bs have a 24-hour desk, after all, and almost all we visited required us to call with an arrival time), B&Bs most often provide a genuine host/hostess invested in the time you spend in the area. And as you know, we are huge fans of proper English breakfasts that guarantee we won't need lunch.

Tunnels in Dover (2)
We first visited Dover in July of 2009, and we so thoroughly enjoyed it, from the castle to the cliffs to the miscellaneous bits of history that survive there, we required almost all international visitors to go. I even returned with Lindsay last year. But the absolute highlights of Dover were the WWII Tunnels, all so well preserved and available for touring.

Tower in Rye (3)
We loved the road trip we took through Kent and East Sussex in the spring of 2010, which included stops at Penshurst Place, Hever Castle, Battle, Rye, and Sissinghurst Castle Garden. We found something to like about every one of those stops. But the Tower in Rye was the most memorable, probably because it was the least touristy tourist attraction ever (especially compared to all our other touristy destinations), and the man in charge of taking our two-pound entry fee was a hysterical history buff who was really excited to give us a little tour.

Hiking Lake District (4)
In the middle of city trips and road trips that called for many stops and much plotting, the Lake District gave us the perfect opportunity to hit pause. Sure, we did some sightseeing and driving, but we mostly remember the long hike we took that included a workout, a lazy stroll, and excellent picnic, all in a place that is postcard-perfect from any angle.

Eight Bells Cotswolds (5)
Despite our best efforts to avoid the tourists, the Cotswolds are touristy, no way around it. So we were glad that we stayed the night in Chipping Campden. We waved goodbye to all the giant tour buses in the evening and enjoyed our most memorable pub meal in all the UK at the Eight Bells. We so enjoyed it, we returned with Lindsay a few months later.

Avebury (6a)
So I won't tell you to skip to Stonehenge, because, well, it's Stonehenge. But if you're going to Stonehenge, make the 45-minute drive north to Avebury Stone Circle, which is a much more interesting, genuine experience. I mean, look how excited Meg was when we took her there.

Cornwall Tintagel (7)
We arrived at Tintagel in the pouring rain, which rendered every surface treacherously slick...and chased away every single tourist. Except us. So we carefully climbed up and down stone staircases, investigating every corner of the disintegrating castle, before we made our way to Merlin's cave.

Isle of Wight Owl and Monkey Haven (8)
I think this one is so memorable, because it was so unexpected and so fun. We learned way more about owls than we expected.

Aldeburgh Beach (9)
We had perfect August weather the day was ended up in Aldeburgh. We must have spent a half hour just staring at the North Sea, enjoying the beach and the sunshine.

York (10)
It took us two years to make it there, and it's a bit of a travel commitment, but York was among the best day trips ever.

Down House (11)
English Heritage does a fantastic job running Down House, from keeping the property gorgeous to assembling exhibits on Darwin's life and work. We saw Down House at the end of a long day of driving (that included two other gorgeous properties, Chartwell and Leeds Castle), and I couldn't think of a better way to conclude the day.

Warwick Castle at dusk (12)
At the conclusion to a road trip to Manchester to see these lovely people, we stopped by Warwick Castle as it was shutting down for the night. So although we had to make a quick circuit of the property, it was almost empty and kind of perfect.

Twelve Things: London Food and Restaurants

2011-12-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

I continue to indulge my anal retentive need to create lists, specifically lists with twelve things on them.

Thus, I give you (in no particular order) the list of twelve things you should aspire to eat while in London.

English Breakfast (1)

The English Breakfast comes in many forms. The important thing is to find a place that has great respect for the English Breakfast tradition. As has been made clear on this blog, we highly recommend Gino's, just across from the Marylebone train station. But I concede that there are *probably* other places in the city that offer a similar experience.

Afternoon Tea (2)
I don't care if you are a coffee drinker; you shall try a proper afternoon tea. We like the Wolesley for the fancy-schmancy version (at a fraction of the price offered by the Ritz), but you can find quality tea and scones in loads of places. I swear, tea here just tastes better than it does in the States.

Gastropub Fare (3)
We don't really recommend pub grub in London, mostly because pub grub is just pub grub no matter where you are. But finding a fun gastropub is a whole other experience. We are fans of the Anchor and Hope, but arrive early to get a table.

Indian food (4)
I had Indian food a total of one time before moving to London (at a well-reviewed place in DC). At the time, I thought the meal wasn't very good, so Indian food must not be very good, right? Wrong. I've seen the error of my ways, and we've explored Indian cuisine in a few neighborhoods. Honestly, we'd suggest seeking out your local place (we are huge fans of Bombay Spice in Marylebone), rather than traipsing all over London looking for "the best" (of which there are so many). But our other go-to recommendation for guests with theatre tickets is Dishoom, the upscale place for Indian food.

Thai food (5)
Thai is another cuisine available throughout London. Find it. Eat it. Love it.

Saint Christopher's Place (6)
Don't know what you want to eat? Saint Christopher's Place has just about everything. Some of it is a little too chain-y for us, but there are loads of options for eating, drinking, AND shopping. You can't go wrong.

Bumpkin (7)
Look at my restraint--I waited until number 7 to mention Bumpkin! We love taking guests to Bumpkin South Kensington, because it undoes all the terrible stereotypes about British food. The menu always offers the classics (various pies, fish and chips, etc.) alongside more inventive items like the smoked salmon with beetroot, celeriac, and apple cole slaw.

Golden Hind (8)
Speaking of classic British food, this is the place for fish and chips. I can't tell you how many times Tom has optimistically ordered the fish and chips at other restaurants, only to complain it isn't like the Golden Hind. Their menu sticks to what they do best, so variety is not an option here. But then, variety is unnecessary when all you need is a plate of haddock, chips, and mushy peas.

Relais de Venise (9)
Across the street from the Golden Hind, Relais de Venise always has a queue out the door and around the corner--but don't worry, the queue moves fast, because diners can't linger here. This place serves three things: a dressed salad, steak, and frites. Your only options for the evening are which wine you'd like and how well done you want your steak, which arrives in two courses (so it is served at the proper temperature, of course).

Caffé Caldesi (10)
We've brought a bunch of Italian friends here, and they've all given Caldesi their stamp of approval. We recommend sitting in the downstairs cafe (the restaurant upstairs gets pricey), where you can order genuine Italian pasta to your heart's content.

Cork and Bottle (11)

We only just discovered Cork and Bottle in the last few months, but it's the place to go before a curtain. The wine list is superb with lots of bottles under 25 pounds. The food menu isn't extensive, but they have plenty of options. We like sharing the vegetarian platter.

Gordon’s Wine Bar (12)
Gordon's is just so fun on a nice evening after a long day of touring London. Their patio just off busy Villiers Street is peaceful with plenty of space to share a bottle.

P.S. To my knowledge, none of these places know that this blog exists. Just FYI.

Twelve Things: Visiting London

2011-12-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

It’s been 914 days since I stumbled off a planeat Heathrow and found myself riding in a taxi in the left lane. Although we’vemanaged to budget time and money on travelling elsewhere, the vast majority ofour time has been spent in London itself, and frankly, I’m curious when someeducational authority will mail me my London diploma. I mean, I’ve very muchinhabited London as a local, but I’ve been astoundingly good at continuing toexplore London’s attractions (touristy or otherwise), too. Surely I’ve earnedat least a Master’s in London at this point, right? Right?

So I, with my self-awarded Master’s in London, have comeup with the twelve things all visitors must do in London. I’ve limited it totwelve, because (1) I like nice even numbers and am physically incapable of making a list of some crazy number like 14 or 19, and (2) otherwise, I’ll go onforever. Oh, and thiswas going to just be a list, but it turned into a three-day itinerary, an itinerary thatcould be very full if you like taking your time in museums, or it could haveplenty of space if you’d like to add other nearby attractions.

View Twelve Things: Visiting London in a larger map

DAY ONE

Tower of London (1)

Hours: Sun-Mon 10-16:30; Tues-Sat 9-16:30

Cost: 19.80

Oh, look at me being all creative and recommending thenumber one tourist attraction ever. But wait! I have vaguely original things tosay! There are really good reasons the Tower is the number one touristattraction in London: (1) sheer wealth of history; (2) the Crown Jewels areamong the most interesting (and--no pun intended--best displayed)collection of crown jewels in Europe; (3) the White Tower (i.e. THE Tower)offers a highly organized route through history, from the eleventh centurythrough WWII; (4) every turret, wall, and building holds an attraction of somekind; (5) the exterior is fun to explore, too, climbing walls andsuch. So suck it up, fork over the almost-twenty-pounds, and pay attention,because here’s how you see the Tower of London properly: (a) arrive at least 15minutes before opening to buy your tickets or queue up if you’ve procured amembership; (b) when the gates open, go directly to the Crown Jewels—do notpass go, do not collect $200—and enjoy seeing every shiny tiara, trinket, andpunch bowl without any crowds or queues; (c) exit the Crown Jewels and godirectly to the White Tower, which by now will have some people milling around,but it won’t be crowded just yet—take your time here, whether you like thequiet of Saint John’s chapel or the violence of the armory; (d) now go back tothe beginning and take a yeoman warder tour (covered by the cost of admission)or start climbing walls or exploring the miscellaneous turrets; (e) pause tomarvel at the queue for the Crown Jewels that now extends out the door.

Borough Market (2)

Hours: Thurs 11-17; Fri 12-18; Sat 8-17

Cost: Free until you find something tasty

A short walk fromthe Tower and across the Thames (you can stroll across Tower Bridge, if youlike), you’ll find Borough Market, a place that attracts tourists and Londonersalike. Wander about, in and out of the various sections to survey your options.If it’s lunchtime, grab some prepared food (a brat, souvlaki, spanakopita, apasty, or just about anything else you can imagine) and enjoy in the Southwark Cathedral churchyard (pop in here, too, if you want to see the weirdestShakespeare statue ever). If it isn’t lunchtime, assemble a picnic for later:cheese, berries, and bread. If you’re staying with a friend, find somethingsweet for dessert that evening (I’ll have some baklava, thanks). Take your timehere and bring lots of exact change!

Thames Path (3)

Hours: Whenever

Cost: Free

The Thames Path from Borough Market to the London Eyeextends close to two miles, taking you past a variety of possible stops.There’s the hokey Clink (7 pounds) and the uber-touristy Golden Hinde (4pounds). Further on, you’ll see the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe (you canschedule a tour or see a play for 5 pounds in quasi-sixteenth-century style)and the Tate Modern (free—worth a quick stop, even if modern art isn’t yourthing). Just in front of the Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge leads you to Christopher Wren's Saint Paul’s for either a visit (14.50) or a photo-op (free). Back on the southern side ofthe river, you’ll discover the Jubilee Walkway with loads of buskers andperformers, especially near the National Theatre. Finally, you’ll reach thecrowded Jubilee Gardens and the London Eye (which is cool to see, but too expensive—from16 pounds—to ride unless you have perfect weather and very few people in yourlittle pod).

DAY TWO

Parliament Photo Op (4)

Hours: Whenever, but best in the morning

Cost: free

Early in the day,start next to Westminster Bridge across from Parliament. With the sun at yourback, these gorgeous buildings are lit perfectly if you have any sun at allthat day. Marvel at the clock tower and all the commuters on their way to workacross Westminster Bridge.

Westminster Abbey (5)
Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30-16:30; Sat 9:30-14:30
Cost: 16.00
Westminster Abbey is absolutely required. If you haven't been there, then you haven't been to London, end of discussion. Don't be intimidated by the history: the audioguide is fantastic.

Churchill War Rooms (6)

Hours: daily 9:30-18

Cost: 15.95

A little ways up from the Thames, the Churchill War Roomsmake up a stellar museum. You can walk through the secret rooms in which Churchill andhis administration plotted out World War II strategy—everything you see is agenuine artifact, from the doodles on the maps to the rotary phones to everystick of furniture. An abundantly useful audioguide lectures on the story behindeach room: explaining its function, reviewing who worked there, pointing outlittle details you might not otherwise notice. In the middle of all this,you’ll find the Churchill Museum, a huge room of interactive displays thatcovers Churchill’s life with boatloads of artifacts to boot. If you have apassing interest, this place will take you maybe an hour; if you are seriouslyinvested in the WWII period, this place will take all day.

National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery (yes, I'm cheating: 7)

Hours: Sat-Thurs 10-18; Fri 10-21

Cost: free

From the War Rooms, you can skirt Saint James Park orwander up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. Snap a picture with the iconiclions and head for the National Gallery. This huge collection requires just alittle research before you show up—there’s no way to take it all in withoutsuffering from art fatigue. But you can admire the romance of Boticelli, thecourtliness of Holbein, or the mysteries of medieval iconography. Oh, and threeof the four ninja turtles are there (Michelangelo, Raphael, and da Vinci).

Exiting the National Gallery, turn left and wander aroundthe side of the building to find the National Portrait Gallery. This is anotherplace that requires a little research before your arrival. Do you want to checkout some portraits painted before artists mastered dimension and depth? Theyhave that. Want to see images of Henry VIII’s extensive family tree (and theircourtiers, poets, and playwrights)? Head upstairs. Or maybe you’re a fan ofcontemporary photographs of actors, royals, and musicians? Ask at receptionabout the latest prize winners.

Theatre (8)

Hours: most evening shows start at 19 or 19:30

Cost: plenty of shows have tickets starting in thetwenty-pound range

The London theatre scene has everything,from West End musicals to Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams to experimental theatre. Perhaps best of all, this world-class theatre is afraction of the price of the same thing in New York. For example, we decided tosplurge on Wicked tickets last year for 65 pounds per ticket (just under a hundredbucks). The exact same tickets to see Wicked in New York are $140 each. Andthat comparison is just the beginning—so many shows here have seats for twentyor thirty pounds (that’s why all our pictures from our theatre-going adventuresare so high above the stage…).

DAY THREE

Museum of London (9)

Hours: daily 10-18

Cost: free

This is the Day of the Circle Line (sort of). So start atBarbican tube station and stroll over to the Museum of London for an astoundingarray of information starting in pre-Roman London. The path through thecollection takes you on a chronological journey with a fantastic variety ofitems, all directly related to the development of London itself. It’s all sobeautifully inter-disciplinary and fun. When you’re done here, continue aroundthe Circle line to Kings Cross / Saint Pancras.

British Library (10)

Hours: Mon-Sat 9:30-18; Sun 11-19

Cost: free

No comments from the peanut gallery on this one: this isan awesome place to visit. First of all, it looks nothing like any otherlibrary you’ve visited. There are two nice canteens here and several freeexhibitions, including the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the BritishLibrary. Some of the items are permanently on display, like early Beatles manuscripts(at least, I think they are permanent, because they haven’t changed intwo-and-a-half years). Other displays change on a regular basis—for example,when Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland came out last year, there was an entirecase devoted to Lewis Carroll. Anyway, this Gallery isn’t huge, so this is aneasy stop in between two behemoth museums. From the British Library, head backto the tube station at Kings Cross / Saint Pancras and ride the Piccadilly linedown to Holborn, which is near our next stop…

British Museum (11)

Hours: Sat-Thurs 10-17:30; Fri 10-20:30

Cost: free

Let’s get one thing straight: there isn’t much that isBritish in the British Museum (I’d advise against asking a Greek person how heor she feels about the Elgin Marbles). But the collection from ancient Egypt,Greece, and Assyria can keep you busy for hours. If you manage to make itupstairs, you’ll find some very cool Anglo-Saxon artifacts from Sutton Hoo. Andthat’s just the tiniest sliver of possibility in this iconic building.Seriously, you’ll find yourself way more interested in hieroglyphics andVikings than you ever expected. When you’re done with all that history, it’sback to the tube, where you’ll have a bunch of options to work your way over toRegent’s Park.

Time in London’s Green Space (12)

Hours: whenever

Cost: free

After all those museums, it’s time to unwind in London’sgreat outdoors, and one of the greatest things about that is London’s use ofgreen space. There are the Royal Parks and loads of other little greensquares as well. Our favorite option, Regent’s Park, is a short tube ride away.We prefer this one, not only because it’s near our flat, but because it’s justfar enough away from the madding tourist crowd—this is primarily a park for thelocals (Buckingham tourists crowd Green and Saint James; Hyde Park is a destination for fans of Peter Pan, and Kensington Palace). Youcan admire the English penchant for making plants grow in very straight lines,grab a snack at the Honest Sausage, make use of a cycle hire, or just find anempty bench and people watch. It’s also great fun to check out some of thesporting events; my favorite is seeing 5-year-olds play soccer with greaterskill than most American varsity teams.

So what did I skip that you find absolutely essential to a London visit? Did I mention anything that you find skippable?

Merry Christmas--don't leave your cameras unattended, folks.

2011-12-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

Last Night/Morning in London with a little SF and NJ Thrown in AKA How Many Topics Can I Fit in One Post?

2011-12-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Each time I/we move, I begin using up pantry supplies and emptying out the kitchen several weeks beforehand, and I *always* miscalculate, and the kitchen is bare at least 5 days before we're due to leave. And this time, I can't just buy new stuff and offload leftovers in my mom's kitchen.

So our final night in London was spent, not trying to eat all the basmati rice and brussel sprouts out of the cupboard, but making one final trip to Bumpkin.

Mmm, sticky toffee pudding for two.

The following morning, we were up dark and early to make sure all our things were packed up, and we had to go through and make sure that all the things belonging to the flat were exactly where they were two years ago.

Somewhere in the middle of that activity, the sun rose.

From the thirteenth floor of our building.

We survived the inventory review. Although so help me, Inventory Man made me stabby with all the "requires further cleaning prior to commencement." Further cleaning, my ass, Inventory Man. That flat hasn't been cleaner in its whole life--and it was downright filthy when we arrived.

Do you see that light fixture behind us?
Even THAT was cleaned prior to Inventory Man's arrival.

Thankfully, I didn't actually stab anyone (probably because the knives that belong to the flat are too dull to inflict a decent wound), and our airport transfer was right on time.

Sniff.

Twenty-four hours later, we had this chaos on our hands.

Cranium!

But honestly, I can't even process or blog about All Things San Francisco yet. Suffice to say that all is very good and very crazy, and we have to go back to the airport now, because for some crazy reason, our NJ relatives would like to see us for the holidays.


I shall call this a holiday tree. Just to piss the Republicans off. Happy holidays!

Last Sunday in London

2011-12-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

So apparently, on our final day in London we started doing ridiculous things. Like taking pictures in front of tube signs. What was wrong with us?

Whatever it was that was wrong with it, it also made us want to go to Paddington Station to find Paddington Bear.

And the whole tube-sign-picture thing continued at Regent's Park.

We weren't headed to the park, though. Nope, we walked over to Marylebone High Street....where the signage continued.

And we stopped at Coco Momo for a coffee.

Exhibit A.

Fully caffeinated, we went down the high street to say goodbye to Daunt Books.

And we even swung by our favorite restaurant corner in all of London (more on that later).

We braved Oxford Street for about 30 seconds--just long enough to reach the Bond Street tube stop and hop on the Jubilee line down to Westminster.

We wandered up Whitehall, avoiding the crowd at Downing Street.

Here ends out European Lion Extravaganza...

...this is kinda where it all started.

Tom then absconded with the camera, dodging little kids to take a few photos from the base of Lord Nelson's column.

See?

We also did a little self-guided tour of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery.

And by the time we were back outside, the blue sky was nowhere to be seen. But we soldiered on up to the Strand, stopping at Somerset House briefly.

Hey, Royal Courts of Justice!

This griffin marks the border between Westminster and the City. I can't believe the Queen has to ask the Mayor's permission to enter the City.

We took a detour to the Inns of Court to see a church associated with the crusades.

It was almost quite tragic as the door we entered mysteriously locked, so we had to find another way out.

Back out on Fleet Street, we said hello to Elizabeth I.

And waved to Dr. Johnson.

And we finished up our little tour at Saint Paul's, hopping the Central line to get home.

Last Saturday Night in London

2011-12-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

Tom was full of surprises last week: first he requested London Eye tickets, and then he lobbied for theatre tickets, something especially British, perhaps Shakespeare. Alas, I couldn't take full advantage of this request, because all things Shakespeare that I'd like to see are sold out at the moment, and there was no time for queuing for day-of tickets.

So we read some reviews, bought two decent-and-relatively-cheap tickets for Three Days in May, and booked a table at Cork and Bottle.

We splurged on Gigondas wine. It seemed like the right thing to do, given that it will be nearly impossible to find at a reasonable cost when we're living a hour away from Napa and Sonoma.

And then we feasted on the vegetarian platter...

...before making our way through the December crowds to Trafalgar Studios. The production was a solid little play, and Warren Clarke was particularly strong as Winston Churchill.

Finally, it was back into the cold, up Saint Martin's Lane to Longacre...

...and over to Covent Garden--Tom read that they had the best Christmas lights.

In all the chaos of wrapping up work and organizing this move and wrangling the flat managers, I kept forgetting that it's almost Christmas.

Last Saturday in London

2011-12-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

Tom completely boggled my mind last week: he asked if we could make time to go up in the London Eye (I've been once with Meg; he's never been).

And then he looked happy up there!

Who is this man, and what did he do with my husband?

We started off with pleasant sunshine, but the weather turned over the course of our thirty-minute ride.

We didn't really care, though. It's still a very cool vantage point.

Although it was unfortunate that we left our umbrellas in the flat.

Obviously, by the time we rode the tube over to Pimlico and made our way down to the Tate Britain, the sun was out again.

After spending some quality time with J.M.W. Turner, we shared a classic pub lunch...

...before we buzzed up to Saint Pancras, where we fell a little bit in love with this lego tree.

I mean, how awesome is this?

From the station, we strolled over to the British Library for one final goodbye visit.

Yes, I needed a goodbye-to-the-library visit, okay? They had a fun temporary exhibit on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (probably thanks to Guy Ritchie's newest flick) and another on the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (maybe because of the recent 469th anniversary of her birth? I don't know.).

We finished up the afternoon in Regent's Park. Obviously.

I hung out with Chaucer. Again.

2011-12-19T21:00:00.004-08:00

We're now in California, but we have no internet connection and leftover London blog fodder. Lots of it. So you'll have to make do with scheduled posts on London for a few days while we assemble life here in CA and spend some time in NJ.

Friday was a rather dreary London day. I had finished work already, but Tom had to head to the office. So I went down to Westminster to visit Westminster Abbey (something that didn't inspire much enthusiasm for Tom). You see, we visited Westminster Abbey way back on one of our first weekends in London. I thought I'd just bookend my time here with a second trip.

It was raining and cold, and I forgot to take a picture of the Abbey itself. So let's pretend it looked like this that day.

I'm rather proud that I was that crazy first person in the queue, waiting for the doors to open, enthusiastically informing the bag-search man that I was wildly excited to be there (bag-search man tolerated me really well; I feel like we bonded just a little bit; his brother visited San Francisco in the 80s).

Once I was in the door, I took my sweet time, listening to way too much of Jeremy Irons on the audio guide, appreciating how this structure is such an amalgamation of architecture and monuments and tombs from 900+ years of history, from Edward the Confessor (11th century) through to Laurence Olivier who resides in Poets' Corner.

I spent a crazy amount of time in Poets' Corner, mapping out the various "who"s and "where"s and "when"s. I paid particular attention to Chaucer, who is over on the far left at the bottom (under the window), though I did try to divide my attention equitably. I mean, I doubt many people appreciate poor Richard Hakluyt, but I do given that I once gave this book a rather thorough read. I do feel badly that I can't for the life of me remember which David Garrick play I once read, although I recall entirely too much of Spenser's Faerie Queene.

Fun fact learned on this trip: Old Tom Parr, interred in Poets' Corner in 1635, allegedly lived to the age 152.

I love British history. Or in this case, "history."

Travel by Numbers

2011-12-18T21:00:00.003-08:00

As of this posting, we are on our way to Heathrow to board a plane for San Francisco. The plan is to set up our California life a little bit before we spend some holiday time in New Jersey.

To commemorate our departure, I counted up a lot of things (in the way many bloggers do, although I'm most familiar with Beantown Prepster's use of numbers). So here's our travel by numbers.

872: days outside the US

View Larger Map

54: flights flown

23: cars hired

[0: sheep run over]

20: countries visited

View European Travels in a larger map

19: languages attempted [2 languages successfully attempted]

16: international trains appreciated

[1: Hogwarts Express admired]

11: day trips tripped from London

5: ferries sailed

4: return trips to the States

0: number of times we would trade the last two-and-a-halfyears for anything

Please Look After This Bear

2011-12-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

I'm still unclear as to why he wanted to do this, but Tom insisted we visit Hamleys on Regent Street. In December. On a weekend. During a day so busy, they shut down the street for pedestrian shoppers.

*deep breath*

Tom surveys his options...

Success!

What did we buy? A book, of course!

I had Paddington Bear as a kid, and we had learned a little about the Paddington story on a London Walk a couple years ago. We meant to pick up the book since then. So it seemed like a good thing to purchase: an iconic book from an iconic toy store.

No Robert Downey Jr. Here

2011-12-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

We've walked by the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street approximately 5,429 times.

So it felt appropriate to finally pay the museum a visit.

Now, I don't think I've ever read anything by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...

...but I suspect that anyone who has would really appreciate this place.

It feels like all the items were very carefully selected and presented.

And there are loads of little "artifacts" from the novels, some paired with explanations.

I can only assume that this is the Hound of the Baskervilles? Which is the only Sherlock Holmes-ian phrase I know.

I really hope that dog head wasn't real.

On the top floor, there were a bunch of mannequins posed for various scenes from the books and short stories.

That's Professor Moriarty up there.

So all in all, we didn't really "get" most of the displays, because we know almost nothing about the literature. But we did appreciate the experience, nonetheless, so if you're in the Baker Street area, it's definitely worth the 6 quid!

Sentimental Nights Out

2011-12-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

Each year, Norway gives Britain a tree for Trafalgar Square (in thanks for assistance during WWII). So we began the evening at Charing Cross tube station before walking up Saint Martin's Lane.

We met some of the Italians at Cantina Laredo for margaritas and guacamole...

...before we managed to procure a rather awesome table at Dishoom.

Goodbye, Indian food, goodbye. (Tangent: anyone know of any fantastic Indian restaurants in San Francisco?)

After dinner, we decided to walk off all that daal, so we headed down to Piccadilly Circus...

...and up Regent Street.

And I, for some reason, decided that you needed to see what this star thing did:

Ta da!

We hung a left on Oxford Street, still confused by the umbrella motif.

Also confusing: Boots' enthusiasm.

Finally, up through Saint Christopher's Place to head home.

There's no title fit for this rambling.

2011-12-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

Four hours after this post publishes, movers will arrive at our door.

I'm still slightly confused by the fact that we're required to have movers, and we're not supposed to pack anything (for insurance purposes). After umpteen moves for college, grad school, marriage that I did myself (or we did ourselves), I find the need for hired movers odd. But then, no one will let me steer a cargo ship across the Atlantic, so I guess I have to cede control at some point anyway.

Of course, I don't intend to cede control without a fight.

Despite the fact that all our things are ready for someone to wrap in excessive amounts of hopefully-recycled packing paper, and despite that fact that I've stored our to-ship kitchen items in our spare bathtub, I'm not feeling at all prepared.

I mean, we had to separate our kitchen stuff from
the flat's kitchen stuff somehow without rendering
the kitchen unusable for the next few days...

Logistically, I've planned the shit out of this move. There is no higher level of logistical preparedness. But each step of preparedness I/we have taken makes me just a little uneasy, a little hesitant about this whole "leaving London" thing.

I don't want to leave. It's not that I don't want to go to San Francisco--I'm genuinely excited about San Francisco, confident we made the right decision for very pragmatic reasons and excited by all the new possibility of exploring a new place. Nope, I just don't want to leave London. Not at all. Not one little bit. We've spent 2.5 years here, and although we've been pretty good at exploring this place, but we've barely scratched the surface of all that London offers.

It also wasn't easy to make peace with my status as an expat, so to leave London feels like I'm abandoning all that work I did. There were a couple times in the summer of 2009 that some little thing, some little inconvenience that topped off a day full of little inconveniences sent me on a downward emotional spiral; all I wanted to do was go back to our life in Virginia, where I didn't have to deal with all this newness and all these people who just wanted to talk about my funny accent. But this life, the one we had to work to accept and, therefore, appreciate seems all the more valuable for that struggle.

Summer 2009

I was trying to explain this a little bit to a (British) friend the other day. So I went on about how valuable our time here has been, how our transition to life in the UK makes San Francisco all the more foreign. I mentioned something along the lines of "having to leave London is so very disappointing, regardless." He replied, "you sounded very British just then." I don't know if he was talking about the sentiment or the accent, but goddammit, I'm only just starting to sound British, and I have to leave now? Woe.

But never mind all this indulgent whining. I shall make the absolute most of our time this weekend before we jet off to a whole new life.

Again.

I kind of can't wait.

In a highly-conflicted I-don't-want-to-leave-London kind of way.

Reasons This Freaks Me Out a Little Bit

2011-12-14T21:00:00.004-08:00

1) Note that this is the "Princess Catherine Doll." This is NOT the "Prince William and Princess Catherine Dolls." I guess William is just her accessory?

2) Wasn't there a thing about how she can't have the title of "Princess"? She's the Duchess of Cambridge, right?

3) These are REAL PEOPLE. They aren't toys or characters in a movie/book/video game. They shouldn't be made into dolls.

4) Way to encourage little girls to aspire to princesshood. As if the Disney princesses didn't warp girls' expectations and self-worth enough already. Now they can play with a "real" princess.

5) I think I'd have less of an issue if they weren't in their wedding garb. Or at least if there were other clothing options on the shelf. But no, let's teach our kids that the wedding day is really the important part of marriage.

Final Thames Walk

2011-12-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

We actually set the alarm for Saturday morning and arrived at Westminster tube stop by 8:30, and it was delightfully free of people, tourist or otherwise.

Tom actually contemplated going up in the Eye (I was in the Eye once with Meg). I was shocked that he'd even contemplate it, given his slight aversion to heights. It didn't matter, though: it wasn't running yet.

And this right here is why I wanted an early start to the day: Parliament in the morning sunshine.

Glorious sunshine.

Tom insisted he had big plans for launching me to the top of this lion. But he had no plan for getting me back down, so we jettisoned that idea pretty quickly.

Our goal was to walk over to Borough Market, but it became a very slow stroll, what with the camera and gorgeous weather and all.

And how do I just walk by this thing, parked right in front of the Tate Modern?

Apparently, one can live there for a mere £350 per week! And you get a "sea view," too! I'm so confused...

Borough Market is even better when it isn't mobbed. I could actually pause for a picture without getting trampled!

We headed back out to the Thames via Southwark Cathedral, pausing to say hello to the Shakespeare window and Gower.

And over Tower Bridge we went. All I could think about the whole time was the ridiculous scene in Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes in which the characters run from Parliament to the construction of this bridge in, like, 45 seconds. That really irked me. I'm easily irked.

Anyway, we caught a river boat from the Tower of London pier.

We hung out outside, despite the fact that it was really cold (as evidenced by Tom's coat AND hat AND scarf).

I mean, I wasn't about to look at this from a window covered in fingerprints.

Ah, London Bridge. The thing that all of our visitors want to see, despite our warnings that it's the most boring bridge in London...and then they all return to the flat to report that they are disappointed by the most boring bridge in London...and I am totally graceless and say, "told you so."

This is a much cooler bridge. It was destroyed by Deatheaters, you know.

Shortly thereafter, we were back in Westminster, and all the tourists and visitors had arrived in droves, so we headed home to do some packing/organizing/sorting/listing/debating over exactly what stays in the flat/ships to California/goes in the luggage for California/goes in the luggage for New Jersey. Aren't you glad I didn't opt to blog about THAT debacle?

Downey and Law: Please remove yourselves from my tube station. Thanks.

2011-12-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

Taking Stock V

2011-12-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently, some weird bloggy rules I established before I even really had a handle of this whole bloggy thing dictate that I provide a categorized, six-month review post (see previous editions: IV, III, II, and I). I'm holding off on commentary this time, because (1) you know the drill, and (2) I have a few lengthy, wordy posts in the works, and I'm all worded out. You understand.

Under consideration:
Isle of Skye (July 2011)

Brussels (August 2011)

Côtes du Rhône (September 2011)

Paris (September 2011)

Cinque Terre (October 2011)

Madrid (November 2011)

Dresden (December 2011)

Cuisine
Côtes du Rhône
Paris
Madrid

Restaurants
L'Oustalet
Mama Gus
Gambero Rosso

Singular Food Experiences
frites
tapas
brats

Hotels
Dunheanish Guest House in Oban
La Mala in Vernazza
Uncle Steve and Aunt China's guest room in Brussels (book early!)

Museums

Prado
Cluny
Autoworld

Singular Experiences
German Wintermarkets
Driving on Isle of Skye
Early Morning in Paris

Views
Isle of Skye: outside Portree

Côtes du Rhône: from the top of Seguret

Cinque Terre: the harbor in Vernazza

Dresden: Twelve Random Things (and Pictures)

2011-12-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

1) Little traffic light man!

2) aka ampelmännchen!

3) On this particular trip, we found that the ampelmännchen has a friend: the ampelfrau.

4) Strut on, ampelfrau, strut on.

5) Although this might be going too far. I mean, that's just endorsing dangerous bicycle-riding techniques.

6) If only it was a few degrees colder, we'd have some really pretty pictures of snow.

7) But nope. Just umbrellas and slightly fuzzy pictures, because the point-and-shoot struggled a little in the low light, and I refused to take the SLR out in the rain.

8) A brat and gluhwein: lunch of champions.

9) Fun fact of the trip: Coventry is the sister city to Dresden.

10) Other fun fact: Germans are apparently quite crafty.

11) Although I have no idea what this bearded gent is doing.

12) So long, Dresden!

Dresden: Wintermarkets!

2011-12-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

Allegedly, the Striezelmarkt is the oldest wintermarket in Germany.

Not that that's why we were there--we were there for some convivial fun (and because the flight to Dresden was cheap).

We also found time for some songs in German...

...and we spent an inordinate amount of time marveling at the most awesome, double-decker teacup ride ever.

We were somewhat envious of the fantastic tree (we paid our tree forward to new expats last year when we thought we'd leave London in June).

So our wintermarket experience was off to an excellent start.

But then things got even better when Tom procured us a little glühwein.

I mean, it's an integral part of appreciating the local culture.

And appreciating the local culture is really our primary goal on these trips.

The following evening, we considered a number of highly nutritious options for dinner.

We opted for currywurst.

It was really quite fun, chowing down on some wurst, chatting with some fellow market-goers.

There was also some more glühwein.

And then this happened.

You're welcome.

Dresden: A Stroll Through Town

2011-12-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

We had actual sunshine for a brief time on Saturday, so we tried to make the most of it.

Alas, the sun didn't stick around very long; by the time we got to the Parade of Nobles, the umbrellas were back out.

Here, Tom provides handy scale for a piece of Frauenkirche rubble that still occupies the courtyard.

We continued on, juggling umbrellas, cameras, and guidebooks.

But let's be honest, we were really in Dresden for one thing and one thing only...

Dresden: Grünes Gewölbe

2011-12-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

So, according to our sources, we couldn't go to Dresden without visiting the Grünes Gewölbe, aka the Historic Green Vault. It is allegedly one of the finest collections of royal jewels and whatnot in Europe. So we forked over the money for overpriced tickets, dealt with the really anal people at the coat check, and picked up our audioguide.

And that's when the fun started.

You see, whoever designed this audioguide had an astronomically high opinion of the Vault's contents and managed to work in a variety of double entendres that had us laughing the whole time, but I'll just give you the highlights.

The audioguide confidently told us that the "first of multiple climaxes" came at a really early point in the tour. It was just a little ambitious for so early a "climax." And much, much later, the audioguide informed us that we had reached "the absolute climax," which I found a little presumptuous of the audioguide. I guess the room did have a lot of impressive ornamental swords...

So although we saw some fine knick knacks and lots of shiny things...we were a little distracted by all the climaxing we were apparently doing.

Dresden: Frauenkirche

2011-12-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

Dresden's Frauenkirche is one of the defining features of the cityscape.

The church was demolished during the firebombing in 1945, but the reconstruction that began in 1992 reassembled as many pieces as possible. About a third of the structure is original.

2,000 fragments were gathered to recreate a portion of the altar.

It was really a gorgeous space to explore...

...although we could only explore for a few minutes before an event began, and we headed in the direction of the door.

...although we paused at this cross, an artifact that survived the firebombing and remains in the position it was found.

Kinda cool, no?

Dresden: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

2011-12-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

The Zwinger complex in Dresden offers a variety of collections, but we need to be 100% honest here: we are somewhat collectioned out. Somewhere deep down, we continue to love museums (as evidenced by our recent foray to the National Gallery in London), but we've got to dig pretty deep at this point to find any interest.

So we prioritized and opted to see the Old Master's Gallery, otherwise known as the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. It's a collection of under a thousand paintings that includes Vermeer's Girl at a Window Reading a Letter...

...Self portrait of Rembrandt with Saskia...

...and Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (finished by Titian)...

But the collection's major claim to fame is Raphael's Sistine Madonna...the most famous part of which graces posters, knick knacks, and museum tickets.

The wee cherubs, however, were merely afterthoughts; Raphael added them to fill space at the bottom of the painting.

It was kinda cool to see this work, although the room it occupies was insanely crowded, so we backed slowly out of the room to go find some of the Spanish masters upstairs before we headed out the door.

Dresden: Kurfürstenschänke

2011-12-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Dresden pretty late in the day (the evening before we took this photo), so we headed straight for Kurfürstenschänke, a place that promised a genuine German experience.

The plans were an all-German evening were somewhat derailed by the Czech beer...

...and I'm unconvinced that potato soup is solely the invention of the Germans.

But between all the cabbage, potato, mustard, and various meat products...

...we were pretty sure that our main courses were sufficiently German for our purposes.

So, you know, mission accomplished.

Post-Leonardo

2011-12-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

We said goodbye to Leonardo, departed the National Gallery, and decided that a walk along the Thames and around Westminster would be a good thing to do.

So we made our way down Villiers to Embankment and over one of the Golden Jubilee Bridges (which follow the Hungerford Bridge, which is also called the Charing Cross Bridge, and I could go on, but that's enough bridge names for one post).

We buzzed through the winter market--no time for gluhwein.

We were kinda surprised that people were still riding the Eye--I wouldn't think there'd be much to see at night, but clearly I'm wrong since so many people were still queuing.

We continued on our way, pausing to contemplate just how gorgeous some buildings are at night.

We skirted Parliament Square, surprised to see a Christmas tree up already (there's no Christmas tree in Trafalgar yet).

We considered just how awesome Westminster Abbey is (note to self: visit again before you leave London...it'll sort of bookend your time in London).

And then we made it back to Westminster tube station to ride the Jubilee line home.

It was a good night.

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

2011-12-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

We (somewhat belatedly) heard about the Leonardo exhibit at the National Gallery.

When Tom learned it was nigh impossible to get tickets (all advance tickets are sold out; a limited number of day-of tickets are available), he took it as a personal challenge.

So while I cleaned up from Thanksgiving, he went down to the Sainsbury Wing at 9 o'clock to see how long his wait would be. It was 11 o'clock by the time he reached this sign.

We knew he was right on the cusp of people who would *not* get tickets, so I repeatedly encouraged to abandon his cause, but he kept saying he was committed. His commitment ultimately paid off when he returned home at noon with tickets for the last time slot of the day.

Thus, we made our way to Trafalgar Square at five o'clock that evening.

Now, we expected great things from this event, but it still completely overwhelmed us. The exhibit includes all Leonardo's work from his time in Milan (1482-1499) with the lone exception of The Last Supper, but more on that in a minute. In addition to Leonardo's completed (or partially completed) works, the exhibit gathers drawings and drafts of his work as well as work by his contemporaries. Here are three examples of how the collection worked.

So here we have Ambrogio de Predis's Portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza (1493), a traditional portrait in profile that shows off Bianca's dowry (all those jewels) around the time of her engagement.

The same room offered Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine (1489-1490), a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani. The audioguide went on for quite a while about how this portrait was an exercise in conveying love, as evidenced by Cecilia's position, expression, and ermine (which may symbolize her purity or her lover). Ordinarily, I wouldn't be sold by this particular argument, but the fact that we could compare it to the Bianca portrait made it much more convincing. (It was also fun to see drafts of Cecilia's hands nearby.)

Room Four was devoted to Leonardo's two versions of Madonna of the Rocks. The earlier version (1483-1485), which usually occupies a spot in the Louvre, is an exercise in "revelatory naturalism" (I quote the exhibition guide, which is available here).

Several years later, however, Leonardo began a second version (some issue with the commission the first time around), though the dates on this one are fuzzy--again, I quote, "1491/2-9 and 1506-8." This later painting moves away from naturalism and reduces the color palette, "paying greater attention to the crepuscular fall of light and the sculptural relief of the figures." I don't think I would have really paid attention to any of these observations if this exhibit hadn't brought the two paintings into the same room--but it was so interesting to move between the two of them and look at some of the details discussed in the audioguide.

Finally, the last room quite fittingly offered work and drafts related to The Last Supper (here's an image I took of a replica in Milan in 2010).

This room was, by far, the most impressive (at least to us). It offered a copy of The Last Supper made in 1520 by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, one of Leonardo's assistants in Milan. The copy was used during the restoration of the original in the late twentieth century. It was fascinating to sit and compare the bright, crisp copy to my memory of Santa Maria delle Grazie--details like Judas's spilled salt and Christ's feet have since been lost. And I seem to remember that Judas's face is more of a smudge than anything else, but it was much clearer in the copy.

So we were really impressed with the whole event--and we were astounded by the amount of work that clearly went into it. It must have taken forever to get permission to move all these items to one location--let alone the amount of time it must take to actually move them.

The point is: if you've got the spare time and Tom-like fortitude to hang out in a queue for day-of tickets, we highly recommend doing so.

Gino's Picture? Check.

2011-12-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

2011-11-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

Lindsay was all, "You should read this book."

I was all, "Okay."

Here's why Lindsay was right:

Research. If the book is as accurate as Larson claims, he managed to assemble an astounding amount of research, forming a book that feels more like a novel than anything else.
New-to-me History. How is it possible that a serial killer slayed dozens of victims in creative ways in nineteenth-century Chicago, but I've never heard anything about it? H.H. Holmes carried out astoundingly gruesome acts shortly after Jack the Ripper (and left a substantially higher body count), but H.H. Holmes is virtually unknown (comparatively speaking).

Here's why Lindsay was wrong:

Correlation/Causation/Whatever. The book shifts between Holmes (the devil) and the World's Columbian Exposition (the white city). The entire reasoning behind this? The devil couldn't have managed to do what he did without the white city...but they are really two separate stories entirely, so shifting back and forth each chapter was frustrating, especially when the book leaves Holmes at a highly suspenseful moment to wax rhetorical about the financial state of the Exposition.

So Lindsay was mostly right. B-

The Grazing Goat

2011-11-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday roast time!

The Grazing Goat lured us in for its atmosphere alone (and Tom spotted Doom Bar at the bar). Done and done.

I opted for the roast chicken which was really nicely prepared.

Tom, meanwhile, was really happy with his roast beef.

We kinda thought there might be some goat on the menu...but it was probably better this way :)

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

2011-11-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

It's time for some quality winter markets (which we technically visited before Thanksgiving, but whatever).

So down we went, past Oxford Street...

...and found ourselves approaching a veritable festival of lights...though the real festival of lights doesn't start until December 20 this year, so please ignore that weird comparison.

Ahem.

So everything was very winter wonderland-y.

And there were plenty of rides and displays to remind us we were in London.

Although other parts seemed to indicate that we wandered into Halloween.

Or maybe the Pirates of the Caribbean?

Or...Jaws? Hm.

Anyway, all of it was quite fun to visit.

But let's be honest, we were really only there to sample the gluhwein.

What? We have our priorities.

But after a wander and a cup of gluhwein, it was time to say goodbye to the spectacle of it all.

One More Trip to Harrod's

2011-11-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

Tom is getting all sentimental in his old age--he wanted to go to Harrod's for a Christmas ornament, something we'd see and use annually from now until forever to remind us of our time in London.

So off we went to Harrod's.

And we landed ourselves smack in the middle of an overly Christmas-y nightmare, something that happens when hundreds of Santa's elves get drunk on peppermint schnapps and vomit Christmas paraphernalia all over a department store.

But we soldiered on through the Christmas nightmare in search of something that wasn't too Harrod's-y...

...and not too busy...

...and it was disappointing to learn that virtually everything was *not* made by British elves.

But we eventually found some acceptable bears and an acceptable bus that will most likely survive the journey from here to San Francisco.

So, you know, mission accomplished.

Jerusalem

2011-11-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Margaret and Vlasis, we checked out Jerusalem the other night.

Two very important things:

(1) This play is way, way, way too long. It feels self-indulgent, like it is far more impressed with itself than is necessary.

(2) Mark Rylance is indeed the ineffable force of nature that all the critics claim. His performance and the things he does with the language are THE reasons to see this play.

Of course, I also just read that Rylance is an anti-Stratfordian, so he just landed himself on my list of People I Will Never, Ever Take Seriously.

Unfurled

2011-11-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

We were the lucky recipients of all sorts of fantastic host gifts on Thursday--flowers and chocolate and wine, oh my! We also received an item that will (probably) last a little longer than those lovely presents: Matteo Pericoli's London Unfurled.

I had no idea what an accordion book was.

But now I know. And I want to frame the whole thing.

Thanks: given. Head: aching.

2011-11-25T02:34:00.001-08:00

Just about ready to give a lot of thanks...

2011-11-24T07:14:00.001-08:00

Last Trip to India

2011-11-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Tom has spent a good chunk of time in India in the last 2.5 years. He recently made his final trip, and he exchanged a few gifts with friends. This one is my favorite--he wore it for an entire business day, and I believe he's going to attempt to wear it to work in London if he can get away with it.

Something Tom didn't bring home with him: a meal from Bukhara complete with black daal.

Black daal is delicious--it's cooked for three days. Allegedly.

And Tom insists this is the best naan ever. Whatevs. I've had some pretty awesome naan in London.

Bukhara specializes in various kebabs...

...which you're supposed to eat with your hands. Hence, Tom's fancy bib.

Madrid: Twelve Random Things (and Photos)

2011-11-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

1) We had no idea what this was. It was labeled "caqui," which according to my Google sleuthing is a Japanese persimmon.

2) The Mercado de San Miguel is fun!

3) A (somewhat crooked) picture of the royal palace. We didn't go in this time, though.

4) Hey, a bear!

5) Hey, a bear at night!

6) I thought this building was so interesting during the day...

7) ...and drop-dead gorgeous at night.

8) Speaking of architecture at night, Plaza Santa Ana is worth a visit.

9) We didn't actually eat here this time, but the Museum of Ham is quite the spectacle.

10) These bulls are quite the spectacle as well.

11) We discussed ham entirely too much on this trip.

12) I mean, seriously.

Madrid: Mama Gus

2011-11-20T21:00:00.000-08:00

We spent our afternoon in Madrid wandering about, stopping for a drink here, checking out a park there, before finding our way to dinner at Mama Gus.

Mmm...sangria.

We started the meal with the most important part: jamon iberico. This particular jamon iberico accompanied tomato, olive oil, and toasted bread. It all got quite messy (it didn't stay so pretty and neat for long), but worth every olive-oil-soaked crumb.

The menu was quite simple, and I went for the simplest of all: fried eggs over sausage and chips.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered steak and forgot to grab the camera. So we took a picture of the carnage instead.

Oh, and we tried this wine, which is apparenty named after a kids' TV program? Awesome.

Madrid: A little lunch...

2011-11-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

After a lovely morning of art and botany, we sought lunch in a little taverna.

Okay, so it wasn't that little. But the sandwiches were!

Madrid: Guernica

2011-11-17T21:00:00.001-08:00

As if Goya didn't provide us enough commentary on the horrors of violence and war, we visited the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica one more time.

I can't emphasize enough how incredibly moving this piece is when it is 11 feet by 25 feet, and you can see all the nuance and texture of the brushstrokes. And I say that as someone who struggles to really appreciate modern art.

But this piece is all the more fantastic after seeing the many, many drafts Picasso made prior to the final version--the screaming horse alone went through at least a dozen drafts in a variety of poses. I wish they permitted photography, just so I could hold onto some of that process.

Madrid: Botanical Gardens

2011-11-16T21:00:00.001-08:00

After wandering a dimly lit museum for a couple hours, it was nice to escape into the sunshine for a long stroll through the Botanical Gardens (which are literally next door to the Prado).

The experience is well worth the 2.50 entrance fee, even if plants aren't your thing.

The gardens were definitely ready for winter--not too many blossoms or anything--but we found plenty of color anyway.

We were also quite intrigued by all the citrus fruit that appeared available for the picking (calm down, we didn't actually pick anything).

It was really the perfect way to break up a morning full of museums!

Madrid: Prado

2011-11-15T21:00:00.001-08:00

Another reason for our return to Madrid: the Prado.

Among we reasons we so enjoy the Prado: Goya. I have no idea how the Prado got such a huge portion of Goya's work, but visitors can track Goya's artistic and personal development through more than a hundred paintings; his illustrious career began in his late thirties, when he worked as a court painter, one disinterested in flattering his subjects.

In the early nineteenth century, it would appear that Goya sympathized with the French, believing that Napoleon would bring democracy to Spain...but he was quickly disillusioned about Napoleon's plans, as witnessed by The Third of May 1808.

Finally, there are the black paintings, created toward the end of his life (and probably never meant for public display).

After all that, we needed a little levity, so we went to stare at Las Meninas for a little while before we moved on to the next activity...

Madrid: Tapas!

2011-11-14T21:00:00.001-08:00

We had a rather grand debate about how to spend a long weekend in November. But once the subjects of tapas and jamon came up, Tom was done with debate and concluded that Spain was our destination. We opted for a return to Madrid, because it was one of our very first international trips waaaay back in 2009, and we thought Madrid deserved another chance to wow us.

Thus, we began our weekend with a little vino tinto...

...and some shrimp croquettes at Casa del Abuelo.

After that warm-up round, we made our way to Casa Toni.

When given the option of a table or a bar, we always choose the bar. And olives. Always choose the olives.

Here's where our tapas crawl became less a tapas crawl than a tapas feast of patatas bravas...

...calamari...

...champiñones al ajillo...

...all cooked right in front of us while we enjoyed a wee cerveza.

Oh, Spain, you are so delicious.

A Post Totally Out of Character

2011-11-13T21:00:00.001-08:00

Two days after we left Vernazza in October, torrential rain hit the area, which led to terrifying, destructive mudslides. I feel terribly that I was blogging blithely about Vernazza that following week without any clue that the town was coping with such an ordeal. This slideshow documents the events that day really well.

Anyway, we learned about this website just today. Since so many people who visit this blog are travelers, I thought some readers might appreciate that information.

BAM.

2011-11-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hello, my gorgeous readers! Here's the (gist of) the story.

Mere days after this particularly whiny post, we were politely invited to move to San Francisco in December. Given the clearly established pattern of the last few months, I scoffed and ignored this invitation. But THEN that invitation turned into actual details regarding employment and living and a "would you like an exploratory trip in two weeks?" invitation. That's when I started paying attention and moving mountains to reschedule a bunch of work events and priorities at the last minute. And then I packed the luggage, emptied the fridge, and investigated the SF rental market.

Thus, three days after our return from Cinque Terre, we were eating sushi fresh outta the Pacific (Sanraku, people, make a reservation).

The trip wasn't particularly blog-worthy--we spent very little time on recreation, and I spent 99% of my waking hours finding a place to live, because we will do absolutely anything--up to and including selling a kidney--if it means we can avoid the debacle of temporary housing.

We knew finding a place would be tricky, but we didn't know just how tricky. Between the price of everything and the speed with which properties disappear and the fact that San Francisco neighborhoods go from swank to dodgy to swank in one-block increments, we were shell-shocked and exhausted. Seriously, I had no idea that a comparable apartment in San Francisco could cost *more* than our flat in London. But we were also totally suckered into the beauty and outdoorsy allure of the general area, and we found a place to live that fit the budget (deposit made and everything!).

But shortly after our return to the UK, there was this slight kerfuffle that's all very dull and overly complicated (coughcan'ttalkaboutitcough). So suddenly after that trip that was both enlightening and stressful, we were back to square one, not knowing where we'd go, owing a hefty deposit on an apartment, and possibly needing to beg and bribe our tenants into leaving our Virginia condo early so we could move back to the DC area. Or maybe we'd go to Milan. Whatevs.

10 days and 93 phone calls later, San Francisco is back on. For real this time. Probably. I mean, it's on the blog now, so there's really no other option. San Francisco! Done!

I'd like to say I'm breathing a sigh of relief, but that would be a total lie. The move is five weeks away, and anything could happen (up to and including the zombie apocalypse). Besides, even if all goes according to schedule, we have approximately 4 frillion things on the to-do list, which is categorized, alphabetized, and color coded, because by god, I have to have control over something. And to-do lists are my dominion.

Oh, no!

2011-11-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

Before:

After:

Standstill

2011-11-08T21:00:00.001-08:00

I am desperate to tell you where we're going next. I get twitchy just thinking about telling you, beautiful readers. A shot of adrenaline works its way from my chest to my brain, and I start counting the days since I begged you not to ask me for information (FYI: 27 days). I feel like an exceptionally bad blogger, because I left the suspense hanging there for way too long, and you've probably forgotten all about the entire issue or you think I've forgotten about the entire issue. (Or you're my parents, and you just want to know where the hell you have to buy plane tickets for now.)

Then I remember: we still don't know where we're moving. All we can do is try to find the comedy in the ridiculousness of the situation, and I distract myself with the many, many, many things on my to-do list--daily living stuff, work stuff, project stuff, leaving London stuff, friend stuff, helping family stuff, Thanksgiving stuff, travel stuff. There's a lot of stuff in my life.

So I shall continue to take care of stuff and block out the fact that people will arrive in 37 days to pack our few belongings into a cargo container without a destination.

*Twitch*

Apparently, Tom was a fan.

2011-11-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

Goldilocks: Then and Now

2011-11-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

UK 2009: "This whole driving on the left thing is kinda fun."
US 2011: "Am I on the correct side of the road? Should I try merging left? I should probably be on the left. Wait, where the hell am I again?"

UK 2009: "Where are all the closets? British people own clothes and stuff that generally goes in closets, right?"
US 2011: "Look at the closets! The glorious storage space! Beautiful, beautiful closets."

UK 2009: "I can just seat myself? I don't have to wait for someone to direct me to a table? Weird."
US 2011: "Why is this server peeved? This table was empty when I sat down."

UK 2009: "Why is s/he taking 20 minutes to bring the bill?"
US 2011: "Why is s/he hurrying us out the door? I didn't even ask for the bill yet."

UK 2009: "What the hell am I supposed to do with all this change?"
US 2011: "What the hell am I supposed to do with all these bills? Oh, look, the change is so light and cute."

UK 2009: "I didn't understand anything you just said."
US 2011: "Were Americans always this loud?"

UK 2009: "This is day 16 of grey clouds and vague drizzle. I think I need a sun lamp."
US 2011: "What is that giant ball of light in the sky? It hurts my delicate pasty skin."

UK 2009: "This bed is too hard."
US 2011: "This bed is too soft."

UK 2009: "Wow. The Brits love their lines."
US 2011: "Omigod, Americans have no idea how to queue properly."

UK 2009: "Where's the bathroom?"
US 2011: "I'm going to pop to the loo."

UK 2009: "Why is this pint so huge? This beer is too warm."
US 2011: "Why is this pint so small? This beer is too cold."

UK 2009: "Hm. It's six o'clock. Why are all the restaurants empty?"
US 2011: "Wait, they close the restaurant at nine o'clock? I just got hungry!"

UK 2009: "This tea is the best tea in the history of tea. And I thought clotted cream sounded gross, and I know it's blocking blood flow through my left ventricle, but it's totally worth it."
US 2011: "What is this swill? I thought I ordered tea."

To-may-to, To-mah-to

2011-11-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

"I'm looking at our shipment inventory from 2009."

"Mm hm."

"Holy crap."

"What?"

"I counted the exact number and dollar value of the books we shipped."

"And this surprises you?"

"No. But I don't remember being that meticulous."

"You say meticulous, I say insane."

Pisa Pit Stop

2011-11-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

We were in Pisa in January of 2008 for reasons I still don't fully understand. Tom was all, "We *have* to see the leaning tower." And somehow I gave in to that logic.

For those of you who might not be aware, the leaning tower is virtually *all* there is to see in Pisa for the casual tourist, so that particular portion of our trip was a bit of a bust.

So it was interesting to revisit Pisa in the three hours we had between our train's arrival and our airport check-in.

We strolled up to the Field of Miracles from the station, just to make sure the tower was still standing. We can confirm it is.

We soon fled the swarms of tourists, however, in favor of a quiet spot for lunch (if you could see through that tree on the left, you'd see the tower).

We worked on blog-related things and to-do lists (which are quite extensive these days, since we're officially back in Giant International Move Mode). Hence all the wine. Wine helps.

Pizza helps, too.

Neither helping nor hindering were these lovely Finnish chaps who spent most of their time singing.

And on that Finnish note, our Italian travels drew to a close.

Cinque Terre: 12 Random Things (and Pictures)

2011-11-01T22:00:00.005-07:00

1) On the one hand, the Cinque Terre has waaay too many stairs.

2) But on the other hand, the Cinque Terre has a lot of greenery and sunshine.

3) I bottled up countless rays to bring back to London as we head into the long dark of winter.

4) We also brought back some pesto, a somewhat more common import.

5) We, however, did not bring back this dog, which appeared to be Vernazza's mascot--he showed up everywhere we went.

6) The Cinque-Terreans seems to take their stray animals very seriously.

7) Not taken seriously: breakfast.

7) Did I mention the stairs? Yup? Endless.

8) They lead everywhere, including to the ocean.

9) Hey, look! Lemons!

10) Just a word of warning: some of the trails are not only narrow, the one side leads directly to instant death.

11) Thanks to that kind of terrain, there are way more boats than cars, which I find very fun. Probably because I neither own nor care for a boat.

12) Ah, Cinque Terre, you were incredibly touristy, but I love you just a little bit anyway.

Cinque Terre: Gambero Rosso

2011-10-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

For our last meal in the Cinque Terre, we investigated Gambero Rosso, our favorite restaurant of the trip.

Why was it our favorite? For one thing, if you request the house red, a giant jug shows up at the table. No complaints there.

We shared a fantastic little antipasto of olives and cured meats.

And the pasta.

Oh, the pasta.

Enough pictures, lady. Put down the camera already.

Cinque Terre: Monterosso (Again)

2011-10-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

After a cappuccino with a view, we headed to Monterosso again.

This time, we went to Via Venti, a recommended lunch place that we had all to ourselves (it was weird--it was only one block off the major touristy street, but this area was tourist-free).

I don't think I need to tell you what was on our menu.

Having carbo-loaded (again), we hit the trail to Vernazza.

Look at us, all optimistic about our hike.

This trail was both the most demanding and the most rewarding.

It started with sooo many rocky, slippery, uneven steps--I was actually glad to climb them rather than descend them, which would have been really treacherous at the end of a long hike.

But we also got to see so much of this magnificent coastline, so all that stair-climbing was absolutely worth it.

We eventually closed in on Vernazza.

...and closer still.

Back in town, we took care of a few errands before getting ready for another round of sunset and pasta!

Cinque Terre: Via dell'Amore

2011-10-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

On our second full day, we hopped the train (which was up and running again) to Riomaggiore. Here is a very helpful picture of said train. And Tom's elbow.

Riomaggiore is (shockingly enough) a gorgeous little town with plenty of nooks to explore.

We paused to admire this mural by Silvio Benedetto, though we thought it was too bad that it's exposed to the elements and starting to fall apart.

As became tradition on this trip, we climbed to the top of the town.

Just to see what there was to see.

And shortly thereafter, we found our way to the Via dell'Amore, the most pedestrian-friendly stretch in the entire region.

We were lucky to arrive before the serious crowds showed up.

And inside various arcades, we found lots of things like this...

...and apparently a shout-out to Texas.

Toward the end of the "trail," we found the symbol of the Via dell'Amore, a smooching statue surrounded by little locks attached by hundred of couples.

We weren't sure why there were so many plastic bags tied to various things, too. Our suspicion was that they hold or held love notes. We weren't so jaded as to rip one open to find out--but we definitely object to all the litter they create.

Post-Via, we found Manarola.

We avoided the centre of town (packed with people), taking a stroll through the vineyards high above the roofs.

There also may have been a playground. Possibly.

We continued along the vineyard trail until we hit another locked gate. From there, we could see the landslide that blocked our way the day before (you have to enlarge the pic to see it).

Satisfied that we did the best we could with the hike between Manarola and Corniglia, we relaxed with a cappuccino and figured out our next activity.

Cinque Terre: Belforte

2011-10-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

One evening, we visited the much-talked-about Belforte Restaurant, which sits high above Vernazza's harbor.

We tried the local appetizer, which included a lot of anchovies, which I kind of liked in spite of myself (Tom remains more conflicted about this).

And there was pasta. Duh. This particular pasta had prawns and zucchini.

There was also some more fish, which was pretty fantastic.

Tom gives our experience one big, goofy smile.

Cinque Terre: Alternative Plan

2011-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

So we couldn't hike all the way to Riomaggiore (thanks to a landslide), and the train was out, and we didn't trust the ferry to get us all the way there and back (since it was the lone source of transportation that afternoon).

So we took the ferry just one stop to the north: Monterosso.

We first climbed high above town to say hello to Saint Francis and his wolf.

We also briefly looked around the local cemetery (rules about burying people well outside of towns means that cemeteries have exceptional real estate).

There we learned that not only does the Cinque Terre enjoy all this fantastic scenery, they also have February 30. Hm.

But enough talk of cemeteries. We descended back to the harbor.

And hopped the last ferry of the day...

...back to Vernazza...

...where we shared a glass of wine over a fantastic sunset...

...and debated the virtues of boats...

...and enough ellipses already. Sheesh.

Cinque Terre: to and from Corniglia

2011-10-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

So I should probably officially mention that we were in an area known as the Cinque Terre (the five lands): Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. We stayed in Vernazza, and our first morning, we had big plans to hike all the way down to Riomaggiore.

View Larger Map

We got a (relatively) early start. At least, it seemed early for 8:30 given that we had the trail to ourselves for a solid hour.

Once we were past the initial ascent out of town (which was comprised of loads of gravelly, uneven steps), it was really a very nice walk through the woods.

We considered the beach but decided against it. (We saw some people in the water over the course of the weekend, but it was way too cold for us.)

Finally, we spotted little Corniglia, nestled high on the cliffs overlooking the sea.

We investigated Largo Taragio, the town's main square.

There was also a rather photogenic cat occupying the town's fabulous view point.

We continued on to the other side of town to descend hundreds of steps. Really. Hundreds.

We were enjoying this picturesque little path...

...when we came to this rather unceremonious end point. (Apparently, the trail has been out for ages due to a landslide, but we didn't see this information posted anywhere--and a lot of other people missed the memo, too, considering how many people we warned on our way back into Corniglia.)

Here we had a problem, because not only is there no ferry service to Corniglia, the train was out that day due to a strike. Tom attempted to solve this problem by forging a beach path to the next town, Manarola. I helpfully took this picture, because I was convinced we were about to drown, but at least someone might find our camera and see how we spent our final moments.

Thanks to my brilliantly helpful input, Tom eventually gave up, and we headed back up the trail to Corniglia. You know, the one with the hundreds of steps.

By the time we made it back to Vernazza, it was lunchtime.

Or as Tom likes to say: pastatime.

Cinque Terre: Vernazza

2011-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

The weekend was off to a rough start. I have two words for you: Italian trains.

We survived without too much melodrama, though--eventually finding our way to a pretty fantastic little B&B. They even had TV, for crying out loud. Fancy.

Our room also offered this view, which was tough to beat.

Although the roof terrace (available to all guests) tried hard, especially at sunset.

We scooted down to the harbor area, which incidentally, looks like this.

And it wasn't at all difficult to find a carafe of local wine.

Tom here demonstrates how to unwind after negotiating with the Italian train system all day.

Other people prefer to fish. That's cool, too.

We spent some time wandering the area and making reservations for the next couple nights. And then we decided it was high time for some pizza and bruschetta. And more wine. Obviously.

Paddington Street Gardens

2011-10-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

More History Via Lamppost

2011-10-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours actually didn't believe us when we claimed to find a lamppost from the age of George IV (1820-1830). So we went to find it again, and we actually found a few of them on Brunswick Place.

See?

On the same trip, we accidentally found a whole row of lampposts from the reign of William IV (1830-1837).

That batch was on Park Square West.

Just FYI. In case there are other nerds out there intrigued enough to go looking for stuff like this.

Free Art Thanks to the Frieze Art Fair

2011-10-18T21:00:00.002-07:00

Saturday Morning Ritual

2011-10-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

On the one hand, autumn is glorious and crisp and smells like dried leaves, and I'm ecstatic to bust out the boots and scarves.

And on the other hand, the roses stubbornly cling to their blossoms, and I'm in denial that the days are appreciably shorter.

But hey, everything in moderation, including boots, blossoms, and sun.

Although clearly I didn't get much sun this year, let alone sun in moderation.

Maybe next year we'll have more opportunities for sun. You know, if we ever figure out where we're going next.

Messing with Black and White

2011-10-16T21:00:00.001-07:00

Planning Big Decisions

2011-10-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

"Hold on. You get to pick the puppy, name the puppy, and choose the color of the car?"

"Yes."

"What do I get to do?"

"You get to look on lovingly and appreciate all the excellent choices I've made."

"Oh. Good deal for me, then."

Tom got bored waiting for Sir Paul.

2011-10-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson

2011-10-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post contains spoilers for this book if you know nothing about Shakespeare.

Practically everyone I know is in love with Bill Bryson. I am...not. I'm sorry. I've tried three of his other books, and I just don't understand his general popularity. His tone grates on me after two pages. HOWEVER. I'll read damn near any book on Shakespeare, so there you have it.

Here's what I was fond of:

Dose of Complexity. Bryson manages to discuss the complexity of writing about Shakespeare's life and work without going on about it endlessly. For example, where so many anthologies, introductions, biographies, and other secondary sources rattle off a list of plays with accompanying dates, Bryson goes through some excellent examples of how we merely guess at a lot of plays' dates (i.e. bad harvests in the 1590s provide clues for the date of MND; Meres's 1598 Wit's Treasury is the first time a published work mentions four of Shakespeare's plays).
Taking Shakespeare off the Pedestal--without Smashing the Pedestal. Bryson does a brilliant job of cutting out the hyperbolic "genius" talk about Shakespeare. He points to more prolific playwrights. He acknowledges points at which Shakespeare screwed up--linguistically or otherwise. All while crediting him with being an astoundingly unique author.
Chapter Nine: Claimants. Hats off to Bryson's final chapter, which swiftly and definitively takes apart all the bullshit claims that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare's plays: "it needs to be said that nearly all the anti-Shakespeare sentiment--actually all of it, every bit--involved manipulative scholarship or sweeping misstatements of fact." Don't even get me started on the upcoming Anonymous, yet another film that makes my job harder. It's directed by Roland Emmerich whose brilliant historical films include The Patriot (The American Revolution was a one-man revenge plot and took place over the course of several months as evidenced by the kids who are the same ages in 1776 and 1783.) and 10,000 BC (Mammoths built the pyramids. Velociraptors hunted humans. Saber tooth tigers communed with cave men during rainstorms.).

Here's what I wasn't so fond of:

That isn't a typo up there. Here's the final say: I'm utterly perplexed that I've previously abandoned books by this author, but I thoroughly adore his treatment of this subject. A+